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 King
Shahu was an invaluable gem in the history of Kolhapur. Such great
people are born once in a thousand years and spread their light
on us and our future generations. King Shahu was related to all
progressive activities which contribute to the good of society right
from business, castism to women’s education. The peak years
of his contribution for welfare to society were from 1894 to 1922.
His main contribution was to education for which he took the initiative
from revolutionary improver(?) Mahatma Jyotirao Phule. This movement
had been active since 50 years. He gave importance to primary education
since this is the base to an individual’s progress. His good
intentions for closing Paishabi Rajaram College was criticized and
misunderstood even by the great Lokmanya Tilak. People from all
strata of society did not put their children in school. Therefore,
the question of higher education did not arise. That’s why
only children from rich families patronized the above college and
did not work towards educating the lower class. He had foresight
and also fought the above against Mr. Macaulay with the support
of Mahatma Jyotirao Phule. He wanted even the lowest strata of people
to have access to education and to remove bureaucracy.
If England is the mother of English language, Kolhapur is the
mother of hostels and he was responsible for this great concept.
Working for it’s success was of pride to him and was his primary
goal right unto his death. Food and other amenities were provided
to students to create an environment to grow. Though he did not
support castism, he kept Harijans and Brahmins separate so that
they were comfortable in their environment and did not leave education
because they were not comfortable in that environment. To meet this
aim, he shifted money from religious institutions to education which
was misunderstood by many. His aim was to remove illiteracy and
bureaucracy. He also gave attention to all other spheres from singing
to wrestling to ladies education. He sent Smt. Kelavkar for medical
studies and groomed his daughter –in-law Indumati to become
a teacher. He treated education as the third eye.
He was a great man with a great foresight, a person to
be admired and looked upon as an example of great success and hard
work.
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