A freedom fighter who built a university with sheer conviction, an educationist who believed knowledge was the spine of a nation — Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami paused on Thursday, 12 November 2026 to honour Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya on his death anniversary, calling his contributions to education, nation-building, and social uplift 'unforgettable.'

Dhami posted in Hindi, offering kotishah naman — 'salutations a crore-fold' — to Malaviya, whom he described as a great freedom fighter, educationist, social reformer, and 'pioneer of India's cultural renaissance.' The tribute reflects a wider reverence for a figure whose legacy stretches from the courtrooms of colonial India to the ghats of Varanasi.

The Man Who Gave India Banaras Hindu University

Born in 1861, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya remains one of the most consequential institution-builders in modern Indian history. He founded Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1916 — an undertaking that required years of fundraising across the subcontinent, petitioning maharajas and commoners alike, to assemble the resources for what would become one of Asia's largest residential universities.

Malaviya wore many hats with equal distinction: a four-time president of the Indian National Congress, a barrister who argued tirelessly for political rights, a journalist, and a Sanskrit scholar who anchored his reformist vision in India's classical traditions. He believed education and cultural pride were inseparable — that a nation conscious of its heritage could not be permanently subjugated.

Bharat Ratna and Enduring Reverence

The central government posthumously awarded Malaviya the Bharat Ratna in 2015, India's highest civilian honour — formal recognition of a life that had already been enshrined in public memory for decades. The award placed him alongside the country's most celebrated figures and gave contemporary political leaders a renewed occasion to invoke his legacy.

For the BJP, Malaviya occupies a particular place in the ideological constellation: an icon who fused nationalism, education, and Hindu cultural revival in ways that resonate with the party's emphasis on civilisational pride and institution-building. Death-anniversary tributes to pre-independence figures of this profile are a consistent feature of BJP leaders' public communications.

CM Dhami's tribute, brief but pointed, keeps that tradition alive — and reminds Uttarakhand's constituency that the values Malaviya championed: learning, service, and cultural rootedness, remain live reference points in the state's political discourse. The founder of BHU never built a university in the hills, but his idea that education is nation-building echoes wherever schools and colleges are still the loudest argument for the future.