Yashwantrao Chavan

 

Yashwantrao Chavan

Yashwantrao Chavan was one of the most important and towering political leaders from Maharashtra. He served as the first Chief Minister of modern state of Maharashtra when it was created on 1^st May 1960. Later on he also became the Defence Minister of India in the cabinet of Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

He was born on 12 March 1913. The name of his birthplace is Devrashtre in Khanapur Taluka of Sangli district. He had completed Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and went on to obtain LLB Degree. He had a liking for reading, writing, contacting people and traveling. Some of the books written by Yashwantrao Chavan are- Runanubandh, Bhumika, Videsh Darshan and Krishnakath. These books are written in Marathi language.

Yashwantrao Chavan came from poor family background. His father Balwantrao was an ordinary farmer. He was working as a peon in one of the government offices. His father died of Plague in the year 1918. It was a major negative thing happened to him. Thus, at the age of barely five years Yashwantrao Chavan lost his father.

Since his childhood his mother Vithabai imbibed healthy habits and good principles on his mind. He used to listen to the stories from Hindu Puranas and Epics like Mahabharat and Ramayan. He also had gone in a Vaari in order to take the darshan of Lord Vithoba of Pandharpur.

He used to read newspapers and used to listen to the speeches of great personalities. He knew about the work done by social reformers and freedom fighters like Mahatma Phule, Savitribai Phule, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Mahatma Gandhi, etc.

He got married with Venu More on 2 June 1942. She was from Faltan taluka of Satara district. Yashwantrao Chavan used to practice law at Karad in Satara district.

In the general elections of 1952 the Congress Party got success in Maharashtra thanks to Yashwantrao Chavan. He himself was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Bi-lingual state. At that time Morarji Dessi was the Chief Minister and Yashwantrao Chavan became the Minister of Civil Supplies and Social Welfare Departments.

As mentioned above when the state of Maharashtra was created on 1^st May 1960 Yashwantrao Chavan became the first Chief Minister. He remained the Chief Minister till 19 November 1962. In 1962 when China invaded India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India invited Yashwantrao Chavan to join the Central Government as the Defence Minister.

As the Chief Minister of Maharashtra he promoted the industrial development. He made efforts to promote and strengthen the cooperative sector. He gave due attention towards providing education to the children of masses. During his time a bridge on Thane creek was built. He was a well read person and hence encouraged and helped the development of literature and different types of Arts in the state of Maharashtra. He had proper understanding of the problems of farmers.

Some of the foremost works done during his tenure was the writing of encyclopedia in Marathi language called the ‘Vishwakosh’, implementation of ‘Panchayat Raj Yojana’, establishment of eighteen sugar mills, official language status to Marathi, etc.

Yashwantrao Chavan was a truly cultured Chief Minister who contributed towards building the foundation of progressive Maharashtra.

His contributions have been duly acknowledged by the successive governments of Maharashtra by establishing the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan in Mumbai, naming an Open University in Nashik as Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (in Marathi- Yashwantrao Chavan Mukta Vidyapeeth) and Mumbai-Pune Express Way as Yashwantrao Chavan Mumbai-Pune Express Way (in Marathi – Yashwantrao Chavan Drutagati Marg) among others.

Yashwantrao Chavan died on 25 November 1984 in New Delhi. He has certainly left the everlasting mark on the polity, society, economy and cultural life of Maharashtra in particular and that of India in general.