A Reformer Ahead of His Time

A controversial figure in his time in Maharashtra, Raghunath Dhondo Karve championed the importance of sex education, sexual autonomy, birth control, and the science of lovemaking.

- NEHA KIRPAL

He also stood firmly for individual rights, bodily autonomy, and freedom from regressive societal norms. Originally written in Marathi by Anant Deshmukh and translated by Nadeem Khan, a new meticulously researched biography on Karve brings to light an important figure from Indian history about whom many people may not know.

Born to Dhondo Keshav Karve, a social reformer who advocated women's rights and widow remarriage, Professor R.D. Karve's study of the science of lovemaking began in 1911 during his days at Fergusson College. "He was witness to the illicit relationships between his contemporary young men and women, married and unmarried, the "gift" of venereal diseases about which they could not talk to anyone and for which nobody knew remedies and their consequent mental and physical agonies," writes Mr Deshmukh.

In the foreword, author, journalist, and former Rajya Sabha member Kumar Ketkar describes Karve as "a maverick, a rebel and a social revolutionary born ahead of his time." In 1921, he published Santaji Nigamananda, a book on birth control—even before it became a subject of discussion in Europe. Two years later, he published another book,