Madan Mohan Malaviya

He passed away in Varanasi on November 12, 1946.

He was born on December 25, 1861, in Allahabad, India, in a Brahmin family to Pandit Brij Nath and his wife Moona Devi as their fifth child among five sons and two daughters.

His ancestors were Sanskrit scholars originally hailing from Malwa, Madhya Pradesh, hence called the ‘Malaviyas’, while their actual surname was Chaturvedi.

His father, a Sanskrit scholar, was an exceptional Kathavachak, who recited the stories from ‘Srimad Bhagavat’. Young Malaviya also aspired to become a Kathavachak like his father.

His elementary education began in Sanskrit at five years of age. He completed his primary education from ‘Dharma Gyanopadesh Pathshala’ of Pandit Hardeva and thereafter studied in a school run by ‘Vidha Vardini Sabha’.

Thereafter he studied at 'Allahabad Zila School’, an English medium school. Here he began to write poems with pseudonym ‘Makarand’, which were later published during 1883-84 in ‘Harischandra Chandrika’ magazine. His articles on contemporary and religious subjects were published in ‘Hindi Pradeepa’.

While attending the second ‘Indian National Congress’ session in Calcutta in December 1886, he expressed his views on representations in Councils and impressed Dadabhai Naoroji, chairman of the session as also Raja Rampal Singh of Kalakankar estate (Pratapgarh District). Singh was in search of an able editor who could turn his Hindi weekly, ‘Hindustan’ into a daily.

Malaviya accepted the offer of Singh and left his school job to join the paper as its editor in July 1887. He served the position for 2 ½ years following which he returned to Allahabad to study Law.

While studying Law, in 1889 he started working as editor of English daily, ‘Indian Opinion’. His other journalistic endeavors included founding of Hindi weekly, ‘Abhyudaya’ in 1907 and serving as its editor, later transforming it to a daily in 1915; founding the English newspaper ‘Leader’ (1909), serving as its Editor (1909-11) and later as President (1911-19); starting Hindi paper ‘Maryada’ (1910); acquiring and thus saving ‘Hindustan Times’ from dying out in 1924 with the aid of M. R. Jayakar, Lala Lajpat Rai and Ghanshyam Das Birla and serving as its Chairman (1924-46); launching Hindi edition of ‘Hindustan Times’ called ‘Hindustan’ in 1936.

After earning his L.L.B., he began to practice in Allahabad District Court in 1891.

In 1893 he started practicing in Allahabad High Court.

On December 24, 2014, he was posthumously bestowed the highest civilian honour of India, the ‘Bharat Ratna’, a day ahead of his 153rd Birth Anniversary.