Builders Of Modern India- Ganesh Vasudeo Mavalankar (An Old and Rare Book)

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Except in a few cases, such authoritative biographies have not been available. Besides, it has not been possible to publish them in a chronological order as the work of writing these volumes are entrusted to a cross-section of people. This Division aims to bring out biographies of all the eminent national personalities within a short period. Widest possible coverage of the great men and women of India under this series is the objective.

WHEN GANESH V ASUDEO Mavalankar was born on November 27, 1888 in Baroda there must have been many knowing smiles in heaven. Neither the dai who assisted at the delivery, nor the child's parents, nor its immediate family, let alone the good people of Baroda could have known that the new arrival was destined to be the first Speaker of the Parliament in free India. Heaven must have known.

Ganesh was born in the home of his maternal grandfather Shri Raghunath alias Bhausaheb Khandekar who was in the police service of the Gaekwads of Baroda. It was then, as it is even now, customary for the daughter of the house to have her first delivery at her parents' home. Thus it was that though his paternal home was in Ahmadabad, Ganesh was born in Baroda. He was, however, not to live there for long. For his father, Vasudeorao was in the Government of Bombay's judicial service and as a sub-judge was liable to be frequently transferred. Ganesh, in the circumstances was to grow up in his early childhood in such distant places as Mahad, Deorukh and Rajapur. With each transfer Vasudeorao took his family with him. Travel was by no means easy. The motor car was still a distant dream. Vasudeorao had to make do with bullock carts.

Travel, if slow, was like life itself, leisurely. It was only after Vasudeorao's untimely death at the age of 39 that Ganesh was returned to the ancestral place in Ahmadabad.

For a Mahashtrian family to have its ancestry in Gujarat was not very common. As the family surname so accurately testifies, Ganesh's ancestors were originally from a village in Konkan called Mavalange, situated on a hillock in the Ratnagiri district of Bombay Presidency. They were thus called Mavalankars, following the practice of adding the suffix 'kar' meaning 'belonging to' to the place of origin. Mavalange-kar became Mavalankar.

The Mavalankars were revenue collectors for the Peshwas with their capital in Pune. As long as the Peshwa-shahi continued, the status and power of the Mavalankars was assured. It was with the collapse of the Maratha Empire and the rise of British power that Mavalange's revenue collectors began to feel the pinch of poverty. There was chaos in the land. The British first had to consolidate their power and establish their supremacy. That was more easily said than done.

We go back to around 1740 to 1750. It was the reign of Balaji Rao or Nana Sahib, as he was called, the third great Peshwa of the Maratha State during Shahu's life time. Nana Sahib succeeded Baji Rao I on 25 June 1740. His regime of 21 years was packed with momentous events. It was to see the end of an epoch-the Mughal empire of India. Balaji's reign also saw the zenith of the expansion of the Maratha State in India.

But Balaji committed one cardinal error. He destroyed the naval power of Tulaji Angria with the help of the British, not realizing the political danger coming from the sea-powers of the West like the Portuguese, the French and the British.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages