SANDESH PRABHUDESAI
Soon after the announcement of a new governor being appointed for Goa, my friend Abhishek Ranjan Singh, chairman of the Dr Rammanohar Lohia Foundation, sent me two black-and-white photographs of Pusapati Vijayrama Gajapathi Raju. My eyebrows were raised. The last Maharaja of Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh was seen in a motorcade alongside Dr Rammanohar Lohia in 1958. Seated between them was Kusum Madgavkar — wife of PVG Raju and mother of Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the newly sworn-in
governor of Goa.
Madgavkar? Was she Goan? All my inquiries led nowhere.
Recently, the Laxmidas Borkar Centenary Celebration Committee called on the governor to invite him for the concluding ceremony on August 17. I was part of the delegation and, unable to suppress my journalistic instinct, asked him directly. Humbly and frankly, Ashok Gajapathi Raju told us that he had little knowledge of his mother’s family, as he and his siblings were raised by their father after their parents separated when he was barely 10 years old.
But not only was the mystery eventually solved — a Pandora’s box of revelations opened when the governor proudly presented us with a copy of the biography of his father titled ‘The Last Maharaja of Vizianagaram’. It described his father as a staunch socialist who later joined hands with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
The 175-page English biography, with a Foreword written by the governor himself, not only unveils the family’s connection to Goa but also highlights his father’s comradely association with key socialist leaders — from Dr. Lohia to Jayaprakash Narayan, and from Pandit Nehru to Indira Gandhi. Interestingly, Ashok Gajapathi Raju chose a different ideological path, getting elected on a Janata Party ticket after the Emergency of 1975 and later representing the Telugu Desam Party in the state Assembly and Parliament until his recent shift to
Raj Bhavan, Goa.
Penned in lucid prose and filled with candid reflections, the biography recounts remarkable transitions in Indian democracy — such as how a Maharaja renounced royal privilege to serve the people, slept on the floor, participated in public protests and went to prison several times, and raised his children as humble, grounded individuals.
We witnessed this simplicity firsthand when the man occupying the governor’s chair greeted us with folded hands, dressed in a half-sleeved tshirt and trousers.
The D.D. Kosambi Connection
During the informal discussion after he happily accepted our invitation, the first question came from our colleague in the delegation, former minister Nirmala Sawant:
“Was she Kusum Madgaonkar or Madgavkar?”
Mine was the second, in an attempt to find her roots:
“Any idea who her Kuldevata was?”
Unfortunately, the 74-year-old governor was unaware of such details about his mother’s lineage.
But the book offered some answers, if not all:
“The greatest life-changing moment was when he (PVG Raju) met a fellow student Kusum Madgavkar. She came from a richly intellectual background, a family of doctors and lawyers from the Bombay Presidency. She was a scholar in her own right, being one of the foremost experts in the decipherment of Pali inscriptions. She authored several articles in scholarly journals and also contributed to the Prof D D Kosambi Commemoration Volume, Science and Human Progress, Popular Prakashan, 1974. She was his niece and held D D Kosambi in the highest regard.
A whirlwind romance followed, and the two married in the United States in November 1949.
Kusum Madgavkar had been married previously, but that marriage had been annulled. She was also not of the same caste. Being a Saraswat Brahmin and as a lone Indian female student in America at that era, was quite unusual. None of these things mattered and after completing the course, PVG Raju brought his bride home…..
Maharani Vidyavati Devi did not approve of either of her sons’ matches (the younger brother too had married outside his caste). However, they were able to persuade her to give her blessings… The family as a whole, received her very well and always made her feel at home. The young Rani Saheba however always insisted that the family call her not by the title but by her own name. When PVG Raju’s younger brother called her bhabhi and came to touch her feet as per tradition, she refused to begin a conversation with him until he overcame his apprehensions and called her by name.
Kusum Gajapathi née Madgavkar (1923-2018), was the first wife of PVG Raju and mother of Anand Gajapathi Raju, Ashok Gajapathi Raju (governor of Goa today) and Suneetha Prasad. The couple divorced in 1963. She was elected to the Andhra Pradesh state Assembly from Gajapathinagaram in 1955.” (Ref: ‘The Last Maharaja of Vizianagaram’, Pages 74-77)
Perhaps her feminist values were inspired by her aunt — Nalini Kosambi née Madgavkar, who married Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi in 1931. (Ref: Reclaiming Feminism: The Legacy of Meera Kosambi)
But what exactly was Kusum Madgavkar’s relation to D.D. Kosambi?
The book ‘Nivedan’, a biography of Dharmanand Kosambi,
provides clarity.
Kosambi, who hailed from Sancoale in Goa, was India’s eminent Buddhist scholar and Pali language expert. His daughter-in-law was Maadgavkar, not Madgaonkar. Balwantrao Madgavkar, from an affluent, intellectual family of doctors and lawyers, was a close friend of Dharmanand Kosambi and offered him a bungalow in Borivali when he moved to Bombay.
This friendship led to the arranged marriage of Damodar Kosambi and Nalini Madgavkar in 1931. They had two daughters — Maya and Meera.
PVG Raju’s life is a beacon of inspiration. Renouncing his royal background post-Independence, he plunged into the socialist movement within the Indian National Congress after returning from the United States.
“PVG Raju had spent time in the USA living as an ordinary man, even working as a waiter in a cafeteria and must have experienced at firsthand how the other half lives. He was already a member of the Socialist Party and had interactions with people like Jayprakash Narayan, Mohan Kumarmangalam, Rammanohar Lohia and the like.” (Ref: ‘The Last Maharaja of Vizianagaram’, Page 86)
… In 1948, the Socialist Party of which Dr Rammanohar Lohia was a founder, dissociated itself from the Congress. When PVG Raju returned with his bride in December 1949, he plunged directly into politics and worked with Dr Lohia… The Praja Socialist Party was created after the 1952 general elections with Lohia as the general secretary, and the three parties that created it together received 17.4 million votes in the elections, second only to the 47.6 million votes polled by the Congress.”
“…His friendship with the socialists of the time – JP, Acharya Narendra Deva, Yusuf Meherally, Ashok Mehta, Rammanohar Lohia, J B Kripalani and others deepened. Few know that the Raju couple named their son Ashok born in 1951 (Goa Governor Ashok Gajapthi Raju) after Ashok Mehta.” (Ref: ‘The Last Maharaja of Vizianagaram’, Page 110)
It’s worth recalling that it was Dr. Lohia who ignited Goa’s freedom struggle on June 18, 1946 by defying the Portuguese-imposed ban on public speaking — a civil liberties movement commemorated as Goa Revolution Day. This led to spontaneous mass protests for two long months, culminating in a historic meeting of 150 young freedom fighters at Londa on August 17 and 18 1946, under the guidance of Ashok Mehta. This gathering laid the foundation of the National Congress (Goa), which spearheaded the final phase of the liberation movement, till December 19, 1961
(goanews.com)
