The leader who used education as a tool for social reform; Source: Public Domain

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Pandit Kunji Lal Dubey was born on the 18th of March, 1896 at Amgaon, a village in Madhya Pradesh. He would, like many upwardly mobile Indians of that time, also join the field of Law and moved to Allahabad to graduate in it.

The time was the 1920s, and the Non-Cooperation Movement raged on. There, he met freedom activists like Madan Mohan Malviya and Narasimha Chintaman Kelkar. As he entered into the Freedom movement, he would still find time to serve in official functions. Particularly, he had a knack for educational institutes - and he would serve on many of their councils, including the *Inter-University Board of India, Burman and Ceylon*.

From his base as the professor of Hitkarini Law College in Jabalpur, he would align himself with the activities of the All India Congress Committee, heading up its reception committee when it met in Tripuri in 1939. As the 1940s dawned, he participated in numerous satyagrahas and served his jail time like other members of the organisation.

Becoming the Chief Parliamentary Secretary at the Central Provinces in 1946, he would also contest and win the First Assembly elections of newly Independent Madya Pradesh, and would serve as its speaker from 1956-67.

Also being appointed the chancellor of Nagpur University, he would establish the departments of Hindi and Marathi- translating many texts back and forth between Hindi, Marathi and English to allow his students to learn as they wished to. Rani Durgavati University, newly established in 1956, would also invite him as a vice-chancellor upon its foundation. It seemed like the lawyer had a penchant for fixing education departments.

Being awarded the Padma Bhushan and having many schools, colleges and lecture series named after him, even in his native village of Amgaon, Kunji Lal Dubey serves as an example of dedicated service in his field of work. He passed away in 1970.

Pandit Kunji Lal Dubey, responsible for leading the Rani Durgavati University and the Nagpur University, and introducing large scale reforms in them, was born today in 1896. His contribution would earn him the Padma Bhushan.