Raghunath Dhondo Karve

Who was Raghunath Dhondo Karve?

Raghunath Dhondo Karve was a professor of mathematics and a social reformer from Maharashtra, India. He was a pioneer in initiating family planning and birth control for masses in Mumbai in 1921.

Raghunath was the eldest son of Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve. His mother Radhabai died during childbirth in 1891 when he was nine.

He was born in Murud. He studied at New English School, Pune. He stood first in matriculation examination conducted in 1899. He went to Fergusson College, Pune and obtained Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904.

Karve started his professional career as a professor of mathematics at Wilson College in Mumbai. However, when he started publicly expressing his views about family planning, population control, and women's right to experience sexual/sensual pleasure as much as men, the conservative Christian administrators of the college asked him to resign from the professorship. He then devoted himself to the above causes.

On his own initiative, Karve started the very first birth control clinic in India in 1921, the same year when the first birth control clinic opened in London.