Gopal Hari Deshmukh: A voice against women's oppression

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Famous by the pen-name of ‘Lokahitawadi’, Gopal Hari Deshmukh was a social reformer from western India. Born in 1893 in Pune, Gopal Hari Deshmukh was a rational thinker who worked as a member of the Governor General's Council. 

He advocated widow remarriage and opposed child marriage, caste system and slavery in any form through a Marathi monthly magazine Lokahitawadi of which he was the editor. 

Gopal Hari Deshmukh started the Punarvivah Mandal (Widow Remarriage Institute) at Ahmedabad and helped to launch Marathi newspapers, Induprakash and Jnanprakash, in Bombay and Poona.

A champion of national self-reliance, Gopal Hari Deshmukh made it a point to wear handspun khadi cloth while attending the Delhi Durbar in 1877. 

Gopal Hari Deshmukh died in 1892. 


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