Dr Balmukund Pandey’s book is a major contribution for providing comprehensive understanding of life, works of Bharat Ratan Madan Mohan Malviya
Book Review
Title:- Mahamana: Madan Mohan Malviya (Vyaktitva va Vichar) personality and ideas
Pages: 301
Author:- Professor (Dr) Balmukund Pandey
The book entitled Mahamana: Madan Mohan Malviya (Vekhtiva aur Vichar) personality and ideas by Dr Balmukund Pandey is a major contribution for providing comprehensive understanding of life and works of Bharat Ratan Madan Mohan Malviya. The tone of the book is grasped by the very introduction which contains meatiest discussion on his ancestry and Malviya family’s struggle after it migrated from the region of Malwa and branched out in two directions adopting two professions of business and philanthrophy.The story moves leisurely but pleasant pace.Dr Balmukund pandey has done extensive research and well utilized the sources for reconstructing the history of the times of Madan Mohan Malviya, stressing the nature of transition that took place in main land Indian society due to the efforts of Madan Mohan Malviya (1861- 1946)in the field of education and fight aganist untouchability when it was badly needed.
Dr Balmukund pandey’s path breaking work on Malviya ji clearly demonstrates the abundance of work of Malviya ji that has had gone unnoticed at the hands of scholars until this book landed into market. The book determines the typical aspects that open up modestly in the text on various aspects of social life and the way he built Banaras Hindu University as a great educationist and patriot. It illustrates how Malviyajis work opened up the ways with utmost humility that steadily and in many ways added pressure for freedom and equality.
In each chapter Dr Balmukund pandey is admirably comprehensive. He has not only read seemingly all the relevant published sources but delved into numerous manuscript collections as well. Especially valuable for those working on Malviya ji will be his lucid survey of early life of Malviya ji and his contribution in India’s national life as freedom fighter and a self less service to humanity that forced him to renounce his practice of law.
There is simply no comparable treatment of this early work. Dr Balmukund pandey shows again convincingly that while much of his (Malviya ji) reformative work made an important contribution in the field of journalism and removal of illiteracy most of it discussed that human behaviour was not grounded in economic interest and how he sensitized public that acquiring education was important tool for changing Indian society. Dr Balmukund pandey traces widely through his research as to how despite being a brilliant lawyer of the Allahabad High Court Malviya ji gave up his legal practice in 1911 so that he could serve the nation better. It has been Dr Balmukund pandey ability to raise certain questions that enabled him to surpass earlier writers or scholars on Madan Mohan Malviya.
Dr Balmukund pandey’s view provides a fresh perspective on many important problems that Mahamana tried to solve with a different approach which included spirituality, social awareness, upliftment of socially marginalised and his efforts to protect Ganges under Aviral Ganga Raksha Samjhuata 1916.
The author examines the ideology, objectives and accomplishments of Madan Mohan Malviya as an institution builder and the problems faced by him and the solutions advocated are also addressed in this book. It is a book about ideas and a history of living standards of main land Indian society in 19th century laudably influenced by the new social and economic developments. The major strength of the Dr Balmukund pandey’s book is his exhaustive and detailed research as a historian and his numerous anecdotes that give the reader a comprehensive understanding without interrupting flow of his discussion and does no where inhibit understanding of his major points.
Dr Balmukund pandey’s emphasis on ideas of Malviya ji no where tends to obscure the various different political struggles and their consequences, perhaps the author does it intentionally to disallow these aspects to overshadow the accomplishments of Madan Mohan Malviya ji. This book provides a basis to understand why Gandhi ji respected Malviya ji and even gave him the title of Mahamana and out lines various hypothesis underlying evolution of an institution for an all time concern for public welfare. He links various changes that led to development of ideological beliefs and organizational means for insuring the proper functioning of the institutions and throws up the idea of how Malviya ji was a critical catalyst in the process of transforming India
This is a an important book because it illustrates what can be learned from an individual without any resources and means regarding the role that he played for transforming Indian society without any expectation of return and with no temptation for position, power or any other thing. An interesting specificity of the book is its framework at times but this, however, does not at all detract reader from acknowledging the fact that the author has succeeded in reconstructing a narration of what turns out to be a fascinating and in larger context an exciting, well crafted and informative book that succeeds in whetting one’s appetite for doing something for larger society.
A brief discussion of Dr Balmukund pandey’s central theme, the personality and ideas of Malviya ji, makes his analysis seem far more simplistic and multifaceted than it in fact is. The reader finds it interesting and appreciates the painstaking placement of every aspect in clear n full context. Most of the insights in this book are very powerful in explanation that can stand independent of argument which is a rare thing. It deserves a careful reading by all serious students because many of them may find it a great teaching tool for their lives and a valuable addition to their knowledge.
The author Professor Balmukund pandey blends a fascinating variety of subjects surrounding the life of one man (Mahamana: Madan Mohan Malviya) and demonstrates along the way both substantial written research materials and imaginative use of disparate oral details and the result is a revelatory distillation of wisdom and a vision of mature and knowledgeable scholar.
Professor Rattan Lal Hangloo
Vice –Chancellor
University of Allahabad,
Prayagraj Uttar Pradesh, India-211002
Formerly Vice-Chancellor of Kalyani University West Bengal
And Former Professor of History at Hyderabad Central University
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