Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was a multifaceted peronality. He was a great patriot, an educationist with a great vision, a social reformer, an ardent journalist, a reluctant but effective lawyer, a successful parliamentarian and an outstanding statesman. He was deeply religious at heart and a Hindu to the core yet at the same time he strongly advocated propagation of science through modern education and Hindu-Muslim Unity. He was a great freedom fighter of his time but he fought for it in constitutional ways and means and not through direct confrontation with British Government. He joined the congress and reached the height of representing it in the highest capacity yet at the same time he opposed its policy when he felt that a policy was detrimental to national interest. He did not believe and never followed blindly everything that was preached by the Congress. Banaras Hindu University is his greatest contribution to India. This was his really monumental achievement for the cause of education of Indian masses which he saw bearing fruit in his life time. The inside pages contain an interesting and elevating story of how a simple boy of a humble ‘Kathawachak’ rose to become the ‘Mahamana’, a title that literally matches the title ‘Mahatma’ of Gandhi.
