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Ganesh Vasudeo Mavalankar, alias Dadasaheb
Mavalankar, was born on 27 November 1888 and
died on 27 February 1956, with a life-span of
67 years. He belonged to the well-known Mavalankar-Sardesai
family of Karhada Brahmins of the Koushika Gotra,
from Mavalangay in the Ratanagiri district of
the seaside Konkan region of Maharashtra.
Several sections of the family were Khots
(village headmen) in Ratnagiri district, in
the Peshwa period. Sections of the family migrated
to Baroda, Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat
along with the ruling Maratha family of the
Gaekawads of Baroda. The noted historian G.
S. Sardesai, who belonged to the same family,
has published the history of all its branches
in three volumes in Marathi.
G. V. Mavalankar was born in Baroda in his maternal
grandfather’s house. His father, Vasudeo,
was a Munsiff (a Judicial Officer) in Ratnagiri
district. Up to the 5th Standard in English
Ganesh Vasudeo was educated in Ratnagiri district.
He then migrated to Baroda where he passed his
Matriculation (1904). His mother Gopikabai influenced
his character in this formative period. In 1908,
he passed B. A. with Science from the Gujarat
College, Ahmedabad, and secured the Dakshina
Fellowship. In the First LL.B. Bombay University
and next year passed the Final LL. B.
Owing to his zeal to serve the public, he proposed
that he would join the Servants of India Society.
However, guided by the advice of his relatives
he took up the legal profession, but immediately
engaged himself in public work side by side.
He joined and took a keen interest and an active
part in the work of the well-established Gujarat
Association, which had been working for all-sided
progress of the society.
He practised at Ahmedabad. He first came under
the influence of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and
then of Mahatma Gandhi. He took a prominent
part in all Gandhiji’s campaigns in the
freedom struggle, from the Kaira District Agricultrists’
Satyagraha up to the Individual Civil Disobedience
in 1940 and the ‘Quit India’ movement
in 1942. He was imprisoned several times during
the period.
He gave up legal practice in 1922-23 in the
non-cooperation movement, resumed in thereafter
and gave it up for a year in 1927 for relief
work for the sufferers in the Gujarat floods.
From 1930 he gradually lessened his legal work
and left practice altogether in 1937.
In 1921 he was Secretary of the Ahmedabad Session
of the Indian National Congress and surprised
everybody by producing the complete Balance
Sheet and Accounts within twenty-four hours
from the end of the Session. In 1920-22 he was
Secretary of the Gujarat Congress Committee
and also the General Secretary of the All India
Congress Committee.
He worked whole-heartedly since then to promote
Gandhiji’s constructive programme of Khaddar,
National Education and removal of untouchability.
He acted as Professor of Law in the Gujarat
Vidyapeeth in 1920-22, and successfully achieved
the entry of
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Harijans in the Pandharpur temple in Maharashtra
by organising a Satyagraha compaign for it.
He wore Khaddar clothes and followed Gandhian simplicity
in life thereafter. He was a member of the Ahmedabad
Municipality since 1919 and was unanimously elected
its President in 1930 and again in 1935. He was
a member and the Speaker of the Bombay Legislative
Assembly from 1937 to 1945. Next year he was elected
President of the Central Legislative Assembly.
In 1947, after independence, he was unanimously,
elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He was again
elected Speaker in 1952 and ably guided its proceedings.
Pandit Nehru called him ‘Father of the Lok
Sabha.’
In 1916 he helped to make the Bombay Provincial
Conference at Ahmedabad successful. In 1920 he
carried out the non-cooperation movement in Ahmedabad
Municipality and in 1928 made a great success
of the student’s strike in Ahmedabad as a
part of the boycott of the Simon Commission. He
was the Founder Chairman of the National Rifle
Association (1948). After independence he worked
for the collection of funds for the Gujarat University.
Throughout his career he was a member of the Gujarat
and the All-India Congress Committees.
After independence he led the delegations to the
Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in 1948
and 1952. He also led the delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary
Union Conference in 1950. He was a member of the
Constituent Assembly. In 1944 he collected the
Kasturba Memorial Fund and in 1948 the Gandhi
Memorial Fund. He was Chairman of the trustees
of both the funds.
He had reformed social views, but followed normal
rituals like thread and marriage ceremonies of
his sons. Morally and spiritually he was deeply
influenced by the ‘Bhagwatgita’. He
maintained a broad national, outlook, free from
parochialism.
His first wife Kashibai or Manoramabai died
in 1920. Thereafter he married Sushilabai, his
second wife. He had one daughter Kamala and
four sons, Balkrishna, Vishnu, Purshottam and
Narahari. All of them are well-educated. Purushottam
is Director of the Harold Laski Institute of
Political Science at Ahmedabad.
He wrote and spoke in Marathi, Gujarati and
English and published books in all the three
languages. The notable amongst them are: ‘Kahee
Phulay’ (Some flowers) in Marathi (1948),
and ‘Manavatana Zarane’ (Reminiscences)
in Gujarati in 1952 and 1954. His English book
‘My life at the Bar’ was published
in 1955. After his death a collection of his
writings and speeches was published in 1957
in Hindi.
He was connected with almost all educational,
social and political activities in Ahemdabad
and Gujarat. He was an active supporter of the
All Maharashtra Conference and was a trustee
of Satkaryottejak Sabha of Dhulia and the temple
of Samartha RamdasGanesh Vasudeo Mavalankar,
alias Dadasaheb Mavalankar at Jamb. He was thus
a cultural and social link between Gujarat and
Maharashtra.
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