IMPORTANT DAYS, BOOKS & AUTHORS
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has paid tributes to the great Gopal Krishna Gokhale on his birth anniversary.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale is one of the well-known ‘moderate’ political leaders during India's fight for independence from the British. He was born on May 9, 1866, in a Brahmin family, in Kotluk village in present-day Maharashtra.
He is a mentor and guide of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a social reformer, whose goals were to promote non-violence and reform within the existing government institutions.
He founded the Servants of India Society on June 12, 1905. The Society organized many campaigns to promote education, sanitation, health care, fight the social evils of untouchability, discrimination, alcoholism, poverty, oppression of women and protection of women from domestic abuse.
He is one of the first generations of Indians to receive a university education. He was one of the first Indians to complete graduation.
He became one of the most influential people in the Indian National Congress (INC) where he became a member in 1889 and campaigned for Indian self-rule and for social reforms. In the 1895 Poona session of the INC, he was the secretary of the "Reception Committee".
He was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council (1899), Imperial Council of the Governor-General of India (1901), as a non-officiating member representing Bombay Province (1903).