Ravishankar Shukla

Ravishankar Shukla (2 August 1877, Sagar – 31 December 1956, Delhi) was a leader of the Indian National Congress, Indian independence movement activist, the Premier of the Central Provinces and Berar from 27 April 1946 to 25 January 1950, first chief minister of the reorganised Madhya Pradesh state from 1 November 1956 until his death on 31 December 1956, he was elected from Saraipali, Madhyapradesh now part of Chhattisgarh

Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla was born to Pandit Jagganath Shukla (1854–1924) and Tulsi Devi (1858–1941) on 2 August 1877, at Sagar in the Central Provinces of British India.

Born into a wealthy family, his father and grandfather were rich and scholarly. His father, Pandit Jagganath Shukla, came of a family which had resisted British rulers for three generations and his mother, Tulsi Devi, was industrious and a capable manageress. Young Ravishankar's earliest years were passed in a scholarly atmosphere heavily charged with Indian classics, Shri Ramcharit Manas and Gita. He was admitted to Sunderlal Guru’s Pathshala in Sagar. It was one of the six Pathshalas established by the British in Central Provinces. On every lunar fortnight of Amavasya and Purnima, the students would offer the Guru a Seedha which consisted of wheat, rice and salt, for in those days the teachers were accepting only a token salary from the government. In the year 1885, at the age of 8, Ravishankar completed his primary education. The cousins Pt. Gajadhar Shukla and Pt. Jagganath Shukla moved to Rajnandgaon as partners in CP & Bengal Cotton Mills. They preferred and embraced a strenuous life, they were both gifted with good physique and they enjoyed wrestling bouts in the Akharas. Pandit Jagganath Shukla continued to be a partner in the cotton mills, till after a few years when he moved to Raipur.

Ravishankar continued his schooling at Rajnandgaon and subsequently at Raipur High School. From here some of his schoolmates, Thakur Hanuman Singh, Govindlal Purohit and Rewati Mohan Sen, would remain his lifelong friends. He then shifted to Jabalpur and joined Robertson College (whose premises then were what is today the Model High School in front of the High Court of Jabalpur) and completed the Intermediate in the year 1895 aged 18 years. The same year he shifted to Nagpur and joined Hislop College for the graduation course. In those days Hislop College was affiliated to Calcutta University. At Hislop College Nagpur, his young mind was influenced when he witnessed the Ganesh Festival which in those days was not just a religious ritual but had become a great social movement where patriotism was displayed by singing patriotic songs in the processions going round the town. The songs portrayed Shivaji’s patriotism and asked youngsters to be united for the 'national awakening'. The credit for popularising the Ganesh festival with nationalism was due to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

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