ADDRESS BY SHRI K.R.NARAYANAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE OF PANDIT RAVI SHANKAR SHUKLA AT PARLIAMENT HOUSE.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1995
Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla was one of the stalwarts of our freedom struggle. Influenced by Lokmanya Tilak, Aurobindo Ghosh, Madan Mohan Malviya and Annie Besant, he entered the Indian nationalist movement. Coming under the spell of Mahatma Gandhi he became a soldier of non-violence, offered satyagraha and went to jail several times. He belonged to that glorious generation of great men who led India, through suffering and sacrifice, to its destined goal of freedom and independence.
Educated at college in Nagpur, and at the Universities of Calcutta and Allahabad, Shri Ravi Shankar Shukla made his mark in the legal profession and was acclaimed as an outstanding lawyer. He entered public life through election to the Raipur Municipal Committee and then to the Raipur District Council. It was in response to the call of Mahatma Gandhi that he joined the Satyagraha movement and courted arrest in 1921, 1930, 1932 and 1942, and spent many years in British jails.
Following the policy of the Indian National Congress he also fought the battle for freedom from the Legislature. Indeed, his natural bent of mind was in legislation and administration. In 1930 when he was arrested and tried, he told the Magistrate who asked him about his profession: "I am a law maker, not a law breaker".
As the Minister for Education, as the Prime Minister of Central Provinces, and later as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, he distinguished himself as a law maker and superb administrator. His notable contributions in the field of education, in dealing with and controlling communal disturbances, in the rehabilitation of refugees, and in the promotion of development, mark him out as one of the most efficient administrators of modern India. Gandhiji described him as one of the few administrators produced by the system of higher education in India. Jawaharlal Nehru commended him for the skill with which he handled the situation in his State during the critical days after the partition of the country, and said in a letter, " I am glad that your government is carrying on its work with efficiency and full confidence".
As Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Pandit Shukla provided a people-oriented administration. He laid great emphasis on administrative restructuring and decentralisation. He directed government functionaries to consider themselves as instruments in the service of the people. The senior civil servants working in his government acknowledged that the Chief minister and his colleagues never put pressure on public servants to do any unjust act. It is due to this that his government commanded the respect of the officials and the entire administrative structure.
Pandit Shukla was the real builder of modern Madhya Pradesh. He was devoted to the industrial and agricultural development of the State. He was responsible for starting various industrial projects, among which the Bhilai Steel Plant, was the most spectacular, and a great dream come true.
As a builder of the State one would single out Pandit Shukla's contribution in the field of education as the most significant. He introduced the system of social education and set up many institutions of higher education, including the Saugar University. He initiated the Vidya Mandir scheme which aimed at enabling students to earn while learning. He set up a Committee under Dr. Zakir Hussain to prepare a comprehensive curriculum which comprised spinning, weaving, handicrafts, agriculture, geography, social education, mathematics, music, drawing, painting etc. Mahatma Gandhi, commending the Vidya Mandir scheme said : "I have no doubt that if the scheme is worked with all its implications and becomes popular throughout India, a silent revolution will have taken place....". Prime Minister Nehru wrote to him in 1948, "Let me congratulate you on the success of your social education. I think other provinces might well profit by this."
Pandit Shukla was an ardent advocate of the Hindi language. But he wanted a reasonable solution to the problem of a national language. He stated in the Constituent Assembly that "this question of language should not be looked upon from the position of the North or South". In consonance with his scientific approach to the problem he pleaded "Propagate simple Hindi in Hindi script, but whilst insisting on the script, allow the various writers and speakers of the national language, a certain amount of latitude in the matter of vocabulary." The approach of Pandit Shukla would facilitate easier and wider dissemination of Hindi at the popular level in the country.
Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla was a leader with a national vision, though his main arena of activities was Madhya Pradesh. He was one of the builders of modern India. And he was a democrat who wanted the benefits of freedom to be enjoyed by every Indian. On August 15, 1947 unfurling the tricolour in the State capital he said " The freedom that we have achieved does not belong to any group or parts of community. It belongs to each man, woman and child of this great country, with its rich and glorious national heritage."
I am happy to join in this ceremony of unveiling the statue of Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla in Parliament House, and I pay my tribute to the memory of one of the leading figures of the nationalist movement and of independent India.
Thank you
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