Pandit Raghunath Vinayak Dhulekar (6 January 1891 – 1980) was a prominent Indian freedom fighter, notable pleader & a social leader from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh who took an active part in the Indian National Movement and Salt March[1] and held many responsible positions in Indian politics including Member of the Parliament of India and Constituent Assembly in 1952.
In December 1946, he produced an amendment bill before parliament to work and speak in parliament in Hindi and then translated in English language for all parliamentary members.
On 10 December 1946 he delivered his first major speech in Hindustani. In his speech he said that people who do not know Hindustani have no right to stay in India. People who are present in this House to fashion out a constitution for India and do not know Hindustani are not worthy to be members of this Assembly. They better leave.
He was declared out of order but returned to the seat after a request from Jawaharlal Nehru.
Career
Pandit Raghunath Dhulekar was a practicing pleader prominent in civil and revenue matters at the District court, Jhansi and later in the Divisional Court, Jhansi. Babu Narayan Das Shrivastava, notable pleader and a social leader of Bundelkhand region was his associate during his early days at District Court, Jhansi.
From 1920 to 1925, he published the Hindi newspapers Swaraja Prapti and Free India. As a result of his involvement with the India freedom movement, Dhulekar was arrested by British forces in 1925.
From 1937 to 1944, he was imprisoned for continuing to participate with the freedom movement. In 1946, he presented a bill to establish Hindi as India's national language.[6] The bill was passed and ruled that Hindi would become the nation's official language in 1965. However, Hindi was never made the national language as a result of the Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu.
