Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi


Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi is the founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and a freedom movement activist. He wrote a number of Gujarati novels, dramas, and non-fiction works, as well as a few English works. He began his career as a lawyer before becoming an author and politician. Ghanshyam Vyas was his pen name. His PATAN TRILOGY, which includes Patan-ni-Prabhuta (The Greatness of Patan), Gujarat-no-Nath (The Ruler of Gujarat), and Rajadhiraj, is his most famous work (The Emperor).
 
EARLY LIFE
• He was born on December 30, 1887, in Bharuch, Gujarat, British India.
• Munshi enrolled at Baroda College in 1902 and graduated with honours in 'Ambalal SakarlalParitoshik.'
• In 1907, he was awarded the 'Elite prize' for receiving the highest grade in English as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree.
• He received his LLB degree in Mumbai in 1910 and was admitted to the Bombay High Court as a lawyer.
• Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo) was one of his professors at Baroda College, and he left an indelible impression on him. Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, and Bhulabhai Desai all influenced Munshi.
 
Kanaiyalal Maneklal MunshiINDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE
• Due to Aurobindo's influence, Munshi gravitated towards revolutionary groups and became involved in the bomb-making process. In 1915, he became secretary of the Indian Home Rule movement.
• He was elected secretary of the Bombay presidency association in 1917.
• In 1920, he attended the annual Congress session in Ahmedabad and was influenced by Surendranath Banerjee, the president of the Congress.
• He was elected to the Bombay legislative assembly in 1927, but after the Bardolisatyagraha, he resigned under Mahatma Gandhi's influence.
• In 1930, he took part in the civil disobedience movement and spent two years in prison.
• In 1934, he was appointed secretary of the parliamentary board of the United States Congress.
• In the 1937 Bombay presidency election, Munshi was re-elected and became the Bombay Presidency's Home Minister. He suppressed communal riots in Bombay while serving as home minister.
• In 1940, Munshi was arrested again after participating in an individual satyagraha.
• During Pakistan's demands, he abandoned nonviolence and supported the idea of a civil war.
• Due to dissents with Congress, he left in 1941, but Mahatma Gandhi invited him back in 1946.
 
CONTRIBUTION TO CONSTITUTION MAKING:
Munshi was elected to the Constituent Assembly on the Congress Party's ticket from Bombay. He was a member of 16 committees and sub-committees, including the Drafting Committee, and was one of the most active members of the Assembly. He made several appearances in debates about fundamental rights, citizenship, and minority rights.
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AFTER INDEPENDENCE
• Following India's independence, Munshi, Sardar Patel, and N. V. Gadgil went to Junagadh to help stabilise the state with the help of the Indian Army. Patel announced the reconstruction of the historically significant Somnath temple in Junagadh. Patel passed away before the reconstruction could be finished. Munshi became the driving force behind the Somnath temple's renovation.
• Munshi was appointed diplomatic envoy and trade agent (Agent-General) to the princely state of Hyderabad, where he served until 1948, when it became part of India.
• Munshi was a member of the ad hoc Flag Committee that chose India's flag in August 1947, as well as the committee that drafted the Indian Constitution under the chairmanship of B. R. Ambedkar.
• Munshi was an environmentalist as well. When he was Union Minister of Food and Agriculture in 1950, he started the Van Mahotsav to increase the area under forest cover. Since then, every year in the month of July, Van Mahotsav, a week-long festival of tree planting, has been held all over the country, with lakhs of trees being planted.
• From 1953 to 1953, he was the Minister of Agriculture and Food.
• From 1953 to 1957, Munshi was the Governor of Uttar Pradesh.
• In 1959, Munshi broke away from the (socialist) Congress Party, which was dominated by Nehru, and founded the Akhand Hindustan movement. He believed in strong opposition, so he co-founded the Swatantra Party with Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, which was right-wing in politics, pro-business, pro-free market economy, and pro-private property rights.
• He presided over the founding meeting of the Hindu nationalist organization Vishva Hindu Parishadat Sandipini ashram in August 1964.
• Munshi died in Bombay on February 8, 1971, at the age of 83.
• In his honour, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has established the Kulapati Munshi Award, which is given to a citizen who has rendered excellent and outstanding service to society in any field.
 
WRITING CAREER
• Munshi founded the Gujarati monthly Bhargava.
• He was a co-editor of Young India and founded the Bhavan's Journal in 1954, which is still published by the BharatiyaVidyaBhavan today.
• Munshi served as the President of the Gujarati SahityaParishad and the Hindi SahityaSammelan, respectively.
• Munshi's fiction is primarily based on fictional historical themes, such as
o Aryan settlements in India in the past ( Gaurang – white skinned).
o Krishna's deeds during the Mahabharata period.
o More recently, Gujarat, Malwa, and Southern India in the 10th century.
• K.M. Munshi's novel Prithivivallabh was adapted twice into films with the same title. The 1924 adaptation, directed by Manilal Joshi, was divisive at the time, with Mahatma Gandhi criticising it for its excessive sex and violence. Sohrab Modi created the second version in 1943.
 
Kanaiyalal Maneklal MunshiFAMOUS NOVELS AND BOOKS
•    GUAJRATI
1.    PatanniPrabhuta
2.    GujaratnoNath
3.    Rajadhiraj
4.    Prithivivallabh (1921)
5.    Lopamudra
6.    Jay Somanth
7.    Krishnavatara (1970) (last novel,  incomplete)
8.    Sishu aura Sakhi
9.    DRAMA -Brahmacharyashram
10.    NON FICTION- AadheRaste
 
•    ENGLISH
1.    Imperial Gujaras
2.    Bhagavad Gita and Modern Life
3.    Creative Art of Life
4.    To Badrinath
5.    President under Indian Constitution
6.    Warnings of History: Trends in Modern India
7.    Somanatha the Eternal Shrine

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