Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade

Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade was a Indian scholar, social reformer and author. He was a founding member of the Indian National Congress and owned several designations as member of the Bombay legislative council, member of the finance committee at the centre, and the judge of Bombay High Court.
He was born in Niphad, a small town in Nasik district. In Kolhapur his father was a minister. at the age of fourteen, he began studies at the Elphinstone College in Mumbai.
Ranade was a founder of the Social Conference movement, which he supported till his death, directing his social reform efforts against child marriage, the shaving of widows' heads, the heavy cost of marriages and other social functions, and the caste restrictions on traveling abroad, and he strenuously advocated widow remarriage and female education. He was one of the founders of the Widow Marriage Association in 1861.An overall sense of national regeneration was what Ranade desired.