Gopal Hari Deshmukh was a social reformer from Maharashtra, India. He was born on 18 February 1823 in Pune. His original surname was Shidhaye. Because of ‘Vatan’ that he had received he was later called as Deshmukh. Deshmukh started his career as a translator for the government then under British Raj. In 1867, the government appointed him a small cause judge in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He worked as a Diwan also in Ratlam state. The government had honoured him while he was working only, as a ‘Justice of Peace’ and ‘Rao Bahadur’. He retired as a Sessions judge.
At age 25, Deshmukh started writing articles aimed at social reform in Maharashtra in the weekly Prabhakar under the pen name Lokhitawadi. In the first two years, he penned 108 articles on social reform. That group of articles has come to be known in Marathi literature as Lokhitawadinchi Shatapatre.
He promoted emancipation (liberation) and education of women, and wrote against arranged child marriages, dowry system, and polygamy, all of which were prevalent in India in his times.
He wrote against the evils of the caste system which were strongly prevalent in India in his times, condemned harmful Hindu religious orthodoxy, and attacked the monopoly in religious matters and rituals which Brahmin priests had through a long tradition. Noteworthily, Deshmukh belonged to the Brahmin class. He enunciated certain 15 principles for bringing about religious reform in Hindu society.
Deshmukh founded a public library in Pune under the leadership of the then governor of the state of Bombay, Henry Brown. While Deshmukh was serving as a judge in Ahmedabad, he organized in that city annual speech conferences on social issues under the sponsorship of Premabhai Institute, and also delivered speeches. He established in Ahmedabad a branch of Prarthana Samaj, founded an institute promoting remarriages of widows.
Deshmukh wrote 35 books on diverse topics, including religious, social, economic, political, historic, and literary matters. He died on 9 October 1892.
Vocabulary
Annual—happening yearly
Established—set up
