Birth Anniversary Special : Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve
Bharat Ratna , an ardent socio cultural thinker , great reformist , one of the strongest voice for women empowerment, Dhondo Keshav Karve was born on April 18, in the year 1858 at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. He is Famous As the Pioneer of Widows Education in India.
Dhondo began his studies in Murud, a small coastal village in Ratnagiri district, from where he hailed, and it was here that he met his teacher and mentor Vinayak Lakshman Soman. Soman, who was also a nationalist, guided Dhondo in his studies. He graduated from Elphinstone College in Mumbai in 1884. He also worked for some time at the Elphinstone High School in Mumbai, but did not like the atmosphere there.
In 1907, Karve set up the Mahila Vidhyalaya in Pune in order to to spread learning among women. He set up two funds – Brahmacharya and Education – to ensure that the girls did not marry before the age of 20 and that they attended school.
Maharishi Dhondo Keshav Karve always wished to see women as equal partners of men in society. Maharishi Karve worked ceaselessly with a missionary zeal for the upliftment of women. Maharishi Karve used to say , “as far as the question of status and rights of women are concerned, I will never accept defeat, as I do not believe that women have a lesser capacity to learn.”
The social reformer and educator established the widow Marriage Association in 1893. Maharishi Karve founded an educational institution, Hindu Widows Home, in 1896, in Poona to help widows support themselves, in case they were unable to remarry.
After reading a book on the Japanese Women's University in Tokyo, sent to him by his friends, Maharshi Karve established India's first university for women in 1916. Initially, only five students got themselves enrolled. He started the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University in 1916. The first five women graduated in 1921 from this University. The University Headquarters is in Churchgate Campus, Mumbai and the other two campuses of this University are at Juhu, Mumbai and Karve Road, Pune.
Sir Vithaldas Thackersey, who was also a champion of women's education, generously offered Rs. 15 lakh for establishing this university , as a gift, to commemorate the memory of his loving mother, Nathibai. This would become a turning point. This institution shifted to Mumbai in 1936 and by 1951 received statutory recognition and became known as the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University or popularly as the SNDT.
Karve’s autobiography was entitled Atmavritta (1915). He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1955 and on his 100th birthday ( in 1958) he was awarded India’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna. He Died onn 9 November 1962.
