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PMC’s rich legacy of sending leaders to state, national levels vanishing CAMIL PARKHE |  Saturday, 11 February 2017 AT 06:52 PM IST       CAMIL PARKHE ,  PMC leaders ,  national level ,  missing Since its inception in 1857, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has sent many of its members at State and national levels to lead in various sectors including politics, social works and even in the film industry. One of the oldest civic bodies in the country, the PMC has provided state and national level political leaders, philosophers, social reformers, litterateurs, playwrights and also acclaimed civil engineers. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule - after whom the vegetable market in the city is named - was a member of the PMC. In fact, as a member of the civic body, Phule had opposed the proposal for construction of a central market in the city and demanded that the same funds should be used for providing education to poor children. The market, i...

Has Maharashtra’s social reform movement failed to end casteism? CAMIL PARKHE |  Tuesday, 27 September 2016 AT 02:07 PM IST       goo.gl/WEzfbe Camil Parkhe ,  Maharashtra ,  social reform ,  Ratnagiri ,  Veer Savarkar ,  casteism When Veer Savarkar was interned at Ratnagiri from 1924 to 1937, being banned from undertaking any political activities, he utilised this period for ushering in social reforms within the Hindu community. One of his major initiatives during this period was building Patit Pavan temple at Ratnagiri with a view to open doors of temples to people even belonging to the then untouchable castes. Savarkar was against the barriers of castes which had divided the Hindu community, banning physical contact with the Shudras, attending meals or entering into matrimonial ties within different castes of the Hindu community. A few decades later, ‘Prabodhankar’ Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, father of Shiv Sena fou...