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Ravi Shankar Shukla

(1877 – 1956) – (Madhya Pradesh)

Ravi Shankar Shukla (Aged 79) was born on 2 August 1877 and was a leader of the Indian National Congress as well as an Indian independence movement activist. He served as the Premier of the Central Provinces and Berar from 27 April 1946 to 25 January 1950 and was the first Chief Minister of the reorganized Madhya Pradesh state from 1 November 1956 until his death on 31 December 1956. He was elected from Saraipali, Madhya Pradesh which is now part of the state of Chhattisgarh.

While studying at Hislop College Nagpur, his mind was influenced by the Ganesh Festival, which in those days was not just a religious ritual, but had become a great social movement where patriotism was displayed by singing patriotic songs in the processions going around the town. The credit for popularizing the Ganesh festival with nationalism was due to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

In 1904, he saw barrister Mahatma Gandhi for the first time, who had just arrived from South Africa. There were no microphones in those days and the voice of Gandhiji was not audible. There was some disturbance, and he had to close his speech. Gandhiji said to the audience, “Now you may not listen to me, but a time will come when you will have to listen to me.”

By the year 1917, Pt. Shukla was acknowledged as the leader of his community throughout the Hindi region of Central Provinces and Berar and United Provinces. These ties would later prove to be invaluable to Pt. Shukla in winning support for the Congress.

When the British enacted the Rowlatt Act, it was a challenge to the Indian freedom movement. It was from this point that Mahatma Gandhi started his civil disobedience movement with truth and nonviolence as principles. The Satyagraha movement, as it would be known, created the atmosphere of a great revolution in the country. Pt. Shukla did not abandon his legal practice but would now devote most of his time and resources to the national movement.

He gave up all his stylish clothes made using English yarn and got them all consigned to the fire, symbolic of emergence into a new era, and instead now the Shukla household would have only Khadi hand-woven using cotton. In the year 1921, Pt. Shukla became a member of the All India Congress Committee. He passed away on 31 December 1956. Pandit Shukla dominated the Indian political scene not only during the ten years of his Premier and Chief Ministership but for decades after his passing away.