K. M. Munshi | |
|---|---|
 Munshi in June 1950 | |
| Union Minister of Food and Agriculture | |
| In office 13 May 1950 – 13 May 1952 | |
| Prime Minister | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Preceded by | Jairamdas Daulatram |
| Succeeded by | Rafi Ahmed Kidwai |
| Governor of Uttar Pradesh | |
| In office 2 June 1952 – 9 June 1957 | |
| Chief Minister | Govind Ballabh Pant Sampurnanand |
| Preceded by | Homi Mody |
| Succeeded by | V. V. Giri |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1887-12-30)30 December 1887 |
| Died | 8 February 1971(1971-02-08) (aged 83) |
| Political party | Swaraj Party,Indian National Congress,Swatantra Party,Jan Sangh |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Jagadish Munshi, Sarla Sheth, Usha Raghupathi, Lata Munshi, Girish Munshi |
| Alma mater | Baroda College[1] |
| Occupation | Freedom fighter, politician, lawyer, writer |
| Known for | Founder ofBharatiya Vidya Bhavan (1938) Home Minister ofBombay State (1937–40) Agent-General of India inHyderabad State (1948) Member of theConstituent Assembly of India Member of Parliament Minister for Agriculture & Food (1952–53) |
| Writing career | |
| Pen name | Ghanshyam Vyas |
| Language | Gujarati, Hindi and English |
| Period | Colonial India |
| Genre | Mythology, Historical Fiction |
| Subjects | Krishna, Indian history |
| Years active | 1915-1970 |
| Notable works | Patan trilogy |
Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi[2] (pronounced[kə.nəi.ya.lalma.ɳek.lalmun.ʃi]; 30 December 1887 – 8 February 1971), popularly known by his pen nameGhanshyam Vyas, was anIndian independence movement activist, politician, writer fromGujarat state. A lawyer by profession, he later turned to author and politician. He is a well-known name inGujarati literature. He foundedBharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational trust, in 1938.[3]
Munshi wrote his works in three languages namely Gujarati, English and Hindi. Before independence of India, Munshi was part ofIndian National Congress and after independence, he joinedSwatantra Party. Munshi held several important posts like member ofConstituent Assembly of India, minister of agriculture and food of India, and governor ofUttar Pradesh. In his later life, he was one of the founding members ofVishva Hindu Parishad.
Munshi was born on 30 December 1887 atBharuch, a town inGujarat State ofBritish India in aBhargav Brahmin family.[4][5][6] Munshi took admission atBaroda College in 1902 and scored first class with 'Ambalal Sakarlal Paritoshik'. In 1907, by scoring maximum marks in theEnglish language, he received 'Elite Prize' along with degree ofBachelor of Arts.[7] Later, he was givenhonoris causa from same university.[8] He received degree ofLLB in Mumbai in 1910 and registered aslawyer in theBombay High Court.[7]
One of his professor at Baroda College was Aurobindo Ghosh (laterSri Aurobindo) who had a profound impression on him. Munshi was also influenced byMaharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda,Mahatma Gandhi,Sardar Patel andBhulabhai Desai.[9]
Due to influence of Sri Aurobindo, Munshi leaned towards a revolutionary group and got himself involved into the process ofbomb-making. But after settling in the Mumbai, he joined theIndian Home Rule movement and became secretary in 1915.[7] In 1917, he became the secretary of the Bombay presidency association.[7] In 1920, he attended the annual congress session atAhmedabad and was influenced by its presidentSurendranath Banerjee.[7]
In 1927, he was elected to theBombay legislative assembly but afterBardoli satyagraha, he resigned under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi.[7] He participated in thecivil disobedience movement in 1930 and was arrested for six months initially. After taking part in the second part of same movement, he was arrested again and spent two years in the jail in 1932.[7] In 1934, he became secretary of Congress parliamentary board.[10]
Munshi was elected again in the1937 Bombay presidency election and became Home Minister of theBombay Presidency.[7] During his tenure of home minister, he suppressed the communal riots in Bombay.[7] Munshi was again arrested after he took part inIndividual satyagraha in 1940.[7]
As the demand forPakistan gathered momentum, he gave up non-violence and supported the idea of a civil war to compel the Muslims to give up their demand. He believed that the future of Hindus and Muslims lay in unity in an "Akhand Hindustan".[11] He left Congress in 1941 due to dissents with Congress, but was invited back in 1946 by Mahatma Gandhi.[9][7]
He was a part of several committees including Drafting Committee, Advisory Committee, Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights.[12][13] Munshi presented his draft on Fundamental Rights to the Drafting and it sought for progressive rights to be made a part of Fundamental Rights.[14]
After theindependence of India, Munshi, Sardar Patel andN. V. Gadgil visited theJunagadh State to stabilise the state with help of the Indian Army. In Junagadh, Patel declared the reconstruction of the historically importantSomnath temple. Patel died before the reconstruction was completed. Munshi became the main driving force behind the renovation of theSomnath temple even afterJawaharlal Nehru's opposition.[15][16][17]
Munshi was appointed diplomatic envoy and trade agent (Agent-General) to the princely state ofHyderabad, where he served until its accession to India in 1948. Munshi was on the ad hoc Flag Committee that selected theFlag of India in August 1947, and on the committee which drafted theConstitution of India under the chairmanship ofB. R. Ambedkar.
Besides being a politician and educator, Munshi was also an environmentalist. He initiated theVan Mahotsav in 1950, when he was Union Minister of Food and Agriculture, to increase area under forest cover. Since then Van Mahotsav a week-long festival of tree plantation is organised every year in the month of July all across the country and lakhs of trees are planted.[18]
Munshi served as theGovernor of Uttar Pradesh from 1952 to 1957.[10] In 1959, Munshi separated from the Nehru-dominated (socialist)Congress Party and started theAkhand Hindustan movement. He believed in a strong opposition, so along withChakravarti Rajagopalachari, he founded the Swatantra Party, which was right-wing in its politics, pro-business, pro-free market economy and private property rights. The party enjoyed considerable success and eventually died out.
In August 1964, he chaired the meeting for the founding of theHindu nationalist organisationVishva Hindu Parishad at Sandipini ashram.[11]
Munshi was thinking of giving an institutional foundations to his ideas and ideals since 1923. On 7 November 1938, he establishedBharatiya Vidya Bhavan with Harshidbhai Divatia and his wifeLilavati Munshi atAndheri,Bombay.[19] Later, he established Mumbadevi Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya to teachSanskrit and ancient Hindu texts according to traditional methods.[20]
Apart from foundingBharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Munshi was instrumental in the establishment ofBhavan's College,Hansraj Morarji Public School,Rajhans Vidyalaya,Rajhans Balvatika and Panchgani Hindu School (1922). He was elected Fellow of theUniversity of Bombay, where he was responsible for giving adequate representation to regional languages. He was also instrumental in starting the department of Chemical Technology.
He served as Chairman of Institute of Agriculture, Anand (1951–71), trustee of the Birla Education Trust (1948–71), executive chairman ofIndian Law Institute (1957–60) and chairman of Sanskrit Vishwa Parishad (1951–1961).[10]
He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting aworld constitution.[21][22] As a result, for the first time in human history, aWorld Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt theConstitution for the Federation of Earth.[23]
Munshi, with pen nameGhanshyam Vyas, was a prolific writer in Gujarati and English, earning a reputation as one of Gujarat's greatest literary figures.[7] Being a writer and a conscientious journalist, Munshi started a Gujarati monthly called Bhargava. He was joint-editor of Young India and in 1954, started the Bhavan's Journal which is published by theBharatiya Vidya Bhavan to this day. Munshi was President of theGujarati Sahitya Parishad and theHindi Sahitya Sammelan [hi].[10][9]
Munshi was also alitterateur with a wide range of interests. He is well known for his historical novels inGujarati, especially histrilogyPatan-ni-Prabhuta (The Glory of Patan),Gujarat-no-Nath (The Lord and Master of Gujarat) andRajadhiraj (The King of Kings). His other works includeJay Somnath (onSomnath temple),Krishnavatara (on LordKrishna),Bhagavan Parasurama (onParshurama), andTapasvini (The Lure of Power) a novel with a fictional parallel drawn from the Freedom Movement of India underMahatma Gandhi. Munshi also wrote several notable works in English.
Munshi has written some fictional historical themes namely;Earlier Aryan settlements in India (What he calls Gaurang's – white skinned),Krishna's endeavors in Mahabharata times,More recently in 10th century India around Gujarat, Malwa and Southern India..
K.M. Munshi's novelPrithivivallabh was made into a movie of the same name twice. The adaptation directed by Manilal Joshi in 1924 was very controversial in its day:the second version was bySohrab Modi in 1943.
In 1948 he wrote a book about Mahatma Gandhi calledGandhi: The Master.
According to the Indian lawyer, historianA. G. Noorani, "pseudo-secularism" was coined by K.M. Munshi.[24]
His works are as following:[25][26]
Novels
Drama
Non-fiction
Source:[25]
In 1900, he married Atilakshmi Pathak, who died in 1924. In 1926, he marriedLilavati Munshi (née Sheth).[4][7]
Munshi was portrayed byK. K. Raina in theShyam Benegal's mini-seriesSamvidhaan.
