: गोपाळ हरी देशमुख) (1823–1892) was a social reformer from Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Career

Deshmukh started his career as a translator for the government then under British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

. In 1867, the government appointed him a small cause judge in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

, Gujarat. He retired as a sessions judge.

Social work in Maharashtra

At age 25, Deshmukh started writing articles aimed at social reform in Maharashtra in the weekly Prabhakar (प्रभाकर) under the pen name Lokhitwadi (लोकहितवादी). In the first two years, he penned 108 articles on social reform. That group of articles has come to be known in Marathi literature as Lokhitwadinchi Shatapatre (लोकहितवादींची शतपत्रे).

He promoted emancipation (liberation) and education of women, and wrote against arranged child marriage

Child marriage

Child marriage and child betrothal customs occur in various times and places, whereby children are given in matrimony - before marriageable age as defined by the commentator and often before puberty. Today such customs are fairly widespread in parts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America: in...

s, dowry

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

 system, and polygamy

Polygamy

Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...

, all of which were prevalent in India in his times.

He promoted nationalistic spirit in Maharashtra.

He wrote against the evils of caste system which was strongly prevalent in India in his times, condemned harmful Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 religious orthodoxy, and attacked the monopoly in religious matters and rituals which Brahmin

Brahmin

Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

 priests had through a long tradition. (Noteworthily, Deshmukh belonged to the Brahmin class.) He enunciated certain 15 principles for bringing about religious reform in Hindu society.

Deshmukh founded a public library in Pune

Pune

Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...

 under the leadership of the then governor of the state of Bombay Henry Brown.

He took a leadership role in founding Dnyan Prakash (ज्ञानप्रकाश), Indu Prakash (इंदुप्रकाश), and 'Lokhitwadi (लोकहितवादी) periodicals in Maharashtra.

Social work in Gujarat

While Deshmukh was serving as a judge in Ahmedabad, he organized in that city annual speech conferences on social issues under the sponsorship of Premabhai Institute, and also himself delivered speeches. He established in Ahmedabad a branch of Prarthana Samaj

Prarthana Samaj

Prarthana Samaj, or "Prayer Society" in Sanskrit, was a movement for religious and social reform in Maharashtra based on earlier reform movements and traditions of Maharashtra formed in 1849 by Ram Balkrishna Jaykar and others in Mumbai. It was secret in order to avoid the wrath of the powerful...

, founded an institute promoting remarriages of widows, and invigorated Gujarat Vernacular Society. He started a weekly Hitechchhu (‘हितेच्छु) in both Gujarati

Gujarati language

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

and English.

Books

Deshmukh wrote 35 books on diverse topics, including religious, social, economic, political, historic, and literary matters. He further translated into Marathi some worthy English works.