page_title: Manilal Dwivedi
section_title: Reception
hierarchical_section_title: Manilal Dwivedi / Reception
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque at the birth place of Manilal Dwivedi, a Gujarati writer, poet and philosopher
context_page_description: Manilal Nabhubhai Dwivedi was a Gujarati-language writer, philosopher, and social thinker from British India, commonly referred to as Manilal in literary circles. He was an influential figure in 19th-century Gujarati literature, and was one of several Gujarati writers and educators involved in the debate over social reforms, focusing on issues such as the status of women, child marriage, and the question of whether widows could remarry. He held Eastern civilisation in high esteem, and resisted the influence of Western civilisation, leading him to conflicts with social reformers who held less conservative views. He considered himself a "reformer along religious lines".
  Manilal's writings belong to the Pandit Yuga, or "Scholar Era" – an time in which Gujarati writers explored the traditional literature, culture and religion to redefine contemporary Indian identity when it was challenged by the Western culture brought by the colonial rule.
context_section_description: Manilal, along with his fellow Gujarati writer Govardhanram Tripathi, significantly contributed to Gujarati literature. The period of their activity (1885–1905) is recognised as the Mani-Govardhan Era rather than by a general terms such as Sakshar Yuga or Pandit Yuga. Anandshankar Dhruv publicly described Manilal as a Brahmanishtha (one who always keeps his mind fixed on the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate reality). Thaker wrote a biographical play, Uncho Parvat Undi Khin (1993; 'Lofty Mountain, Cavernous Valley'), based on Manilal's life.
  Manilal occupies a distinctive place in Gujarati literature. Throughout his life, he struggled at both a personal and public level to live up to the practical principles he elicited from his reading of the Advaita Vedanta tradition. His vision combined an ardent advocacy of Aryan philosophy with a Hindu worldview. He endeavoured to publicise his opinions to counteract what he saw as the blind enthusiasm of his fellow Indians for Western culture. Manilal thought that the non-dualistic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, despite its complexity, contained important values which could inspire people to lead practical lives while remaining faithful to its ideals.
  Mahatma Gandhi, during his first stint in gaol in South Africa in January 1908, read widely in the literature of Western writers such as Tolstoy, Thoreau and Emerson to enlarge his vision and, among the masters of Indian philosophy, he turned to Manilal's book on Raja Yoga and his commentary on Bhagavad Gita.
caption: Plaque at Manilal's birth place
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