Social Conference held in Bombay - From the Times archives - (no publication)

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(This article was published in The Times of India, Mum-
bai, November 27, 1996.)

The second Provincial Social Conference was held on
Saturday morning at the Framjee Cowasjee Institute when
there was a good attendance of Hindu reformers. Amongst
those present were: Hon Mr Justice Chandavarkar, sir
Bhalchandra Krishna, Hon Mr G. K. Gokhale, Mr Padhye, Mr
Madhavji Virjee, Mr Tribhowandas Mangaldas Nathoobhoy, Mr
Vishnu Krishna Bhatvadekar, Messrs Narotam Morarjee
Goculdas, Kalabhai Lalubhai, H.S. Dikshit, N.T. Vaid and
others.

The Hon Mr Justice Chandavarkar, who was received with
cheers in opening the proceedings, said: "Ladies and
gentlemen, we meet here today under the abadow of a great
calamity that has robbed the country of a figure which
for well nigh quarter of a century exercised a potent
influence in all our liberal movements and it cannot but
be that the proceedings of this meeting should be tinged
by that reflection. In religion, in social progress,in
economic advancement, the late Mr Justice Ranade was like
an angel hand beckoning us all to light. He was an
emancipating spirit which slowly, it is true, and
cautiously, it is true, but non the less steadily and
preservingly sought opportunities to release the
intellectual and moral energies of the Hindu race from
the cramping thraldom cast on it, like a spell, by ages
of stagnant. As we all know, he had an abiding faith in
the capacity of our race to adjust itself to its modern
environment. He was fond of thinking and speaking of it
as a chosen people which. Providence has preserved
through many vicissitudes of time and circumstances for
some higher end than to drag a useless existence amidst
the world's peoples. He loved his people, and loved them
too well to be afraid of their occasional frown. In his
own life he showed us the process by which, and by which
alone, the Hindu community can rise to greatness. It is
by stern self-discipline, carried on and persisted in
from day to day and from hour to hour, that we can hope
to keep at bay the torpid influences, which the climate
and social history of India have created around us.

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