Famous Benegal Personalities of Dakshin Kannada (South Canara Dist) of Karnataka.
Famous " Benegal " Personalities
( Reference: "Kanara Saraswat"Vol 81, No.8.August 2010.)
"Udupi Hotel" is known throughout India and the World, for the filtered coffee for the morning sip, wholesome variety of vegetarian snacks for your morning breakfast, and food items for Lunch and Dinner. The Town of Udupi, in Karnataka, produced the best cooks, managers and administrators in the Hotel Management field. You may know about the Syndicate, Canara and Vijaya Banks, and all of them got their ideas of Banking from Udipi. More than any of these things, you have the famous Krishna Temple surrounded by the ashta mathas. After Krishna Temple at Dwaraka, , Udipi has the second Krishna Temple and lastly, the one at Guruvayur, the third one, all on along the west coast of India. Apart hotel and bank managemnts, Udipi is also famous for their poets, novelists and Jnana Peeth Award winners. Thus, among the famous personalities from Udupi area are ICS officers, IAS officers, Army Officers and very successful people in many fields.
I would like to tell you, about the few who made national and international marks in their achievements. They were from Benegal, an undefinable area within the Udupi city. They were Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins (CSB), speaking Tulu as their mother tongue, but most of the education was undergone in Kannada , Sanskrit and English in the pre independence days .
Some famous personalities from this Benegal surname, who were in the non banking, non hotelling area, are described below:
First,
the history of four brothers of one family,
( serial numbers 1 to 4) ( the 2nd and 3rd getting ICS and
very important postings in the Pre and Post independent India ).
Serial numbers 1 and 4 were
famous in educational field and mass media and journalism. Serial numbers 2 and 4 were Constitution experts and might have worked at the same table during Constituent Assembly sessions.
5th was of a far off Rangoon born Benegal, (not from the family of these four brothers) who was selected by the Japanese and trained( incomplete) at their Imperial Air Force/Army College in Japan, was in INA, then joined IAF and achieved Decorations and promotions etc
The famous medical practitioner and Surgeon Dr. B.Raghavendra Rau was the great disciplined personality to whom were born these four eminent children who brought name and fame to their surname and the country of India. His notable contribution was the founding of a charitable dispensary in Madras on his retirement. He also supported various institutions started by the well known social reformer, Kudmul Rangarao. His wife was the ideal wife and mother. Together, she and Raghavendra, were able to pass on their values to their sons even though they were sent to their maternal uncle s home at a young age for their studies
1. Benegal Sanjiva Rau
His first son Sanjiva Rau studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, England., and earned his M.A. On his return to India, he came under the influence of Dr. Annie Beasant and joined the Theosophical Society. He worked as a teacher for a long time in Benares. B Sanjiva Rao Esq. M.A., was appointed by the Govt of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh,( under the Intermediate education Act 1921) as . Principal, Queen’s Intermediate College, Benares and also as a Board Member (later 1922). His work took him to Allahabad, Jaffna (Sri Lanka) and Madras. Ultimately, he returned to Benares and became the Principal of the Queen's College. He established an educational centre at Rajghat Fort, just outside Benares, on the bank of the river Ganges. The Centre consisted of a boys' school, a girls' school, a women's college, an agricultural school-cum-farm and a hospital for the benefit of villagers nearby. He had married Mrs Padma Rau. Padma Sanjiva Rao s contribution was equally notable in the field of education
B. Sanjiva Rau. Commented pp 17-64 in the book “The future of the Theosophical Society”-; and. commented pp 8-14 in the book “ The mind of J.Krisdhnamurti”
2. Sir Benegal Narsing Rau, CIE, ICS
Benegal Narsing Rau,, (26 February 1887 – 30 November 1953)
Narsing Rau was born on 26 February 1887 in a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family of intellectuals. Rau studied at the Canara High School, Mangalore, topping the list of students of the entire Madras Presidency. He graduated in 1905 with a triple first degree in English, Physics, and Sanskrit, and gained an additional first in Mathematics in 1906. On a scholarship, he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, and took his Tripos in 1909, just missing the Senior Wranglership.
B. N. Rau passed the Indian Civil Service Examination in 1909 and returned to India, posted to Bengal. Doing well on the executive side, in 1909 he moved to the judiciary thereafter, and served as a judge in several districts in East Bengal. In 1925, he was offered a dual position by the Assam government, as Secretary to the provincial council as well as Legal Remembrancer to the government. He served in this position for about eight years. In addition to these duties, he occasionally fulfilled additional functions for the Assam government, such as drafting memoranda for financial support for the Simon Commission's tour of India in 1928–29, and presenting their case before the Joint Select Committee of Parliament in London after the third Round Table Conference in 1933. He also worked with Sir John Kerr to prepare a note on how provincial legislatures in India might be designed to work better.
On his return to India in 1935, Rau worked with the Reforms Office of the Government of India, on drafting the Government of India Act, 1935. At the end of this project, Sir Maurice Gwyer, the first Chief Justice of India's Federal Court, suggested that he gain the necessary five years' experience that would qualify him to serve as a judge on the Federal Court as well.[7] He served thereafter as a judge on the Calcutta High Court, but his tenure was interrupted by two additional projects that he was assigned to by the Government of India – he first presided over a court of inquiry concerning wages and working conditions on railways in India, and thereafter with a commission working on reforms concerning Hindu law.[7] He also was reassigned to chair the Indus Waters Commission, which submitted a report on riparian rights on in 1942.
His distinguished work brought him a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in the 1934 New Year Honours list[9] and a knighthood in 1938. Rau retired from service in 1944, and was then appointed as the Prime Minister of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. He resigned from this position in 1945, following differences with the then-Maharaja of Kashmir, writing in his resignation letter that "...I have been conscious for some time that we do not see eye to eye on certain fundamental matters of external and internal policy. And that leads, as it must lead, to disagreement in many a detail. I have never questioned and I do not now question, the position that in all these matters Your Highness' decision must be final. The Prime Minister must either accept it or resign."
Following his resignation as Chief Minister of Kashmir, Rau was asked to serve in a temporary capacity in the Reforms Office of the Government of India, which he did so. He was also offered, and declined, the position of a permanent judge on the Calcutta High Court, preferring to stay in the Reforms office and work on constitutional and federal issues. He was consequently appointed as a Secretary in the Governor-General's office, working on constitutional reforms, until he became the Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly in 1946.
While the Constituent Assembly was engaged in discussing the draft Constitution, Rau also worked on preparing a brief on the question of whether the United Nations Security Council could intervene in a dispute between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Indian government, and was part of a delegation that represented India at the United Nations General Assembly, concerning this question as well as issued relating to the peaceful uses of atomic energy.
Role in drafting the Constitution of India
B. N. Rau was appointed as the Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly in formulating the Indian Constitution in 1946. He was responsible for the general structure of its democratic framework of the Constitution and prepared its initial draft in February 1948. This draft was debated, revised and finally adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India on 26 November 1949.
As part of his research in drafting the Constitution of India, in 1946, Rau travelled to the US, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, where he had personal consultations with judges, scholars, and authorities on constitutional law. Amongst others, he met Justice Felix Frankfurter of the American Supreme Court, who famously advised him against the inclusion of a clause for 'due process' in the Indian Constitution as it would impose an 'undue burden' on the judiciary.
The Constituent Assembly's resolution setting up the Drafting Committee on August 29, 1947, under the chairmanship of B. R. Ambedkar, declared that it was being set up to "Scrutinise the Draft of the text of the Constitution prepared by the Constitutional Adviser, give into effect the decisions taken already in the Assembly and include all matters ancillary thereto or which have to be provided in such a Constitution, and to submit to the Assembly for consideration the text of the Draft Constitution as revised by the Committee." The draft prepared by the constitutional advisor was submitted in October 1947. Along with this draft, the proposals offered by the various other committees set up by the Constituent Assembly were considered and the first draft by the Drafting Committee was published in February, 1948. The people of India were given eight months to discuss the draft and propose amendments. In the light of the public comments, criticisms and suggestions, the Drafting Committee prepared a second draft, which was published in October 1948. The final draft of the Constitution was introduced by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar on November 4, 1948 (first reading). The second reading was clause by clause consideration and took over an year. After three drafts and three readings, the constitution was declared as passed on November 26, 1949. Dr B. R. Ambedkar in his concluding speech in constituent assembly on November 25, 1949 stated that:
The credit that is given to me does not really belong to me. It belongs partly to Sir B.N. Rau the Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly who prepared a rough draft of the Constitution for the consideration of Drafting Committee.
Role in drafting the Constitution of Burma
Rau also assisted in drafting the early Constitution of Myanmar, or Burma, as it was then known. He met with U Aung San, Burma's Prime Minister, in New Delhi in December 1946, who invited him to assist in drafting Burma's Constitution. Burma's Constitutional Advisor was deputed to New Delhi in April 1947 where they worked together to collect research materials, and prepared a first draft that was taken back to Rangoon for modifications by a Drafting Committee. The Constitution was adopted on 24 September 1947. Rau went to Rangoon (now Yangon) to witness the final draft of the Constitution being passed by the legislature.
Diplomatic career
Rau served India as a representing delegate in the United Nations. From 1949 to 1952 he was India's Permanent Representative to the UN, till he was appointed as a Judge of the International Court in The Hague. He also served as the President of the United Nations Security Council in June 1950.
Tenure in the Court of International Justice
Rau was invited by the Ministry of External Affairs to stand for election to the International Court of Justice towards the end of 1951, and began service towards 1952. He served for about a year, before succumbing to ill health while being treated in Zurich in 1953. In 1988, On the occasion of his birth centenary, the Govt. of India issued a postage stamp in honor of B.N. Rau.
(Later, the Maharaj Kumar Nagendra Singh ICS,( of Dungarpur) was at the same chair in the ICJ, and similarly passed away in Hague, itsef)
3. Sir Benegal Rama Rau CIE, ICS (1 July 1889 – 13 December 1969 )
On joining the ICS and before joining the RBI he held the following posts. Under-Secretary and Deputy Secretary to the Government of Madras (1919–1924) Finance Department (1925–1926) as Secretary to the Indian Taxation Committee Finance Department (1926–1928) as Deputy Secretary Simons Commission (1928–1930) as Financial Adviser Industries Department Joint Secretary Round Table Conference as Secretary Indian Bill (1931–1934) in the Joint Select Committee of Parliament Deputy High Commissioner for India in London (1934–1938) High Commissioner for India in South Africa (1938–1941)
When he returned to India he was appointed Chairman of the Bombay Port Trust (1941–1946). After serving in the post he once again served as a diplomat as the Indian Ambassador to Japan (1947–1948), and as the Ambassador to the United States (1948–1949). His last position was as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He has been the longest-serving R.B.I Governor to date.He resigned just before the expiry of his second extended term, due to differences with Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari.
Married to Dhanvanthi Rama Rau, of Kashmiri Brahmin descent and a leader in the Indian women's rights movement who was the International President of Planned Parenthood. She was aware of the political and social issues of the time. Her commitment to improving the lot of her compatriots led to her founding the Family Planning Association of India. She won recognition for her social welfare services by way of various awards, the most notable being the Padma Bhushan .
4. Benegal Shiva Rao (26 February 1891 – 15 December 1975)B. Shiva Rao was born in Mangalore on 26 February 1891 into a distinguished family. He graduated from the Presidency College, Chennai. He joined labour movement and rose to vice president of INTUC. In 1929 he married Kitty Verstaendig, an Austrian.
He was an eminent journalist, politician, and a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and an elected representative of the South Kanara constituency in the First Lok Sabha (later named Mangalore, currently Dakshina Kannada).
Early in his life, he came under influence of theosophical society and its leader Annie Besant. He was a correspondent of The Hindu and the Manchester Guardian. He is well known for his work Framing of India's Constitution (in six volumes, 1968). As a journalist, he had the opportunity of reporting most of the political events of the time and he seems to have been in the thick of things. He was the intermediary between the Viceroy Linlithgow and Gandhi when the former wanted to know the latter's stand on the proposed 1935 Act. He was also asked by Brigadier Auchinleck to make a report on Waziristan. The turning point in Shiva Rao' s career around 1935 is of significance perhaps for the nation. Gandhi had invited him to assist in the setting up of the All India Village Industries Association
He was an ardent admirer of Gandhi but one of the first to criticize his strategy for national movement. His objectivity and deep analysis endeared him to his readers including Nehru, Gandhi and S. Radhakrishnan. His participation in International labour movement continued after independence as delegate to UN and ILO where he worked with Mrs. Vijaylakshmi Pandit and Babu Jagjeevan Ram. He remained member of Lok Sabha from 1952–57 and Rajya Sabha from 1957–1960, and also a recipient of civilian honour of Padma Bhushan. After that, he retired from public life and concentrated on research. He also edited papers of his brother B. N. Rau as India's Constitution in the Making (1960). He was one of contributors to Cyril Henry Phillips and Mary Doreen Wainwright edited The Partition of India:Policies & Perspectives 1935-47. His last work was India's Freedom Fighters: Some Notable Figures published in 1972 as a tribute to his departed colleagues. His other works are:
- What Labour has Gained from Reform in India (1923)
- The Problem of India (1926), co-written with David Graham Pole
- Select Constitutions of the World (1934)
- Industrial Worker in India (1939)
- India's Freedom Struggle: Some aspects (1968)
- India Goes to the Polls (1968)
- India's Role in UN (1968), co-written with Ǧaʻfar Riḍā'Bilġrāmī
He led the Indian Delegation to
the United Nations
General Assembly
Sessions in 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1950.
His wife Kitty, like the wives of Sanjiva Rao and Rama Rau, was a distinguished person and was involved in various social and educational activities.
On 15 Dec 1975, he died in New Delhi and was survived by his wife.
5.. Ramesh Sakharam Benegal. MVC.AVSM (09 October 1926- ? April 2003)
After joining the Indian Air Force, he saw action in both the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan War. During the 1971 war, as Wing Commander, he was the Commanding Officer of the No. 106 Squadron IAF, an operational reconnaissance squadron operating Electric Canberras. He carried out a large number of missions over enemy territory in both the western sector as well as eastern sector and obtained vital information about enemy installations and troop formations. These missions required flying unarmed and unescorted deep into enemy territory for reconnoissance and aerial photography of heavily defended targets. The information brought obtained from these missions facilitated the planning of Army, Air Force and Naval operations and directly contributed to the success of the war effort. He was also known to have never returned from any of these missions without having fully achieved his objectives. For the bravery and leadership displayed in repeatedly flying deep into enemy territory in an unarmed aircraft, Wing Commander Ramesh Sakharam Benegal was awarded the Ati Vishist Seva Medal and the Mahavir Chakra.
He later rose to the rank of Air Commodore before retiring on 08th October 1977. Passed away in April 2003. His Mrs Meera Benegal has published the book “Burma to Japan with Azad Hind, A War Memoir” by Air Commodore R.S.Benegal. MVC.AVSM. Publishers: Lancers, Pages: 165 (Hardback), Year:2009, Price: Rs 395
Present day Benegals:
Shyam Benegal (14 December 1934- )
Brother: Som Benegal;;wife: Nira Benegal;; Daughter Pia benegal;;
Shyam Sunder Benegal , son of photographer Shridhar B. Benegal, was born on 14 December, 1934 in Trimulgherry, Secunderabad then a British Cantonment, and now a twin city of the state capital, Hyderabad. It was here, at the age of twelve that he made his first film, on a camera given to him by his photographer father Sridhar B. Benegal. He received an M.A. degree in Economics, from Nizam College, Osmania University, Hyderabad. It was here that he formed the Hyderabad Film Society.
Benegal is related to the famous film director and actor Guru Dutt; his paternal grandmother and Guru Dutt's maternal grandmother were sisters, both Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswats from the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.
He started his career working in 1959, as an advertising copywriter, at a Bombay-based advertising agency, Lintas Advertising, where he steadily rose to become a creative head. He taught at the Film and Television Institute of India FTII, Pune.; he was Chairman twice of that FTII. He made his first documentary in Gujarati, Gher Betha Ganga (Ganges at Doorsteps) in 1962. His first feature film though, had to wait for another decade, while he worked on the script. His “Yatra” 1986, Bharat Ek Khoj” 1988 serial was quite famous. ;; came back to cinema with Antarnaad in 1991; made 21 feature fims and hundreds of adverting films;; Was a Jury in Moscow Film festival.;
As an Indian director and screenwriter, his first four feature films Ankur, Nishant, Manthan and Bhumika he was part of a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India. He has expressed dislike of the term, preferring his work to be called New or Alternate cinema.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991. On 8 August 2007, he was awarded the highest award in Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2005. He has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times.
Shyam Benegal is married to Neera Benegal. They have a daughter named Pia (a costume designer).
He is also involved with the Mumbai-based film school Whistling Woods International as chairman of the academic council. He had a brother Som Benegal( died 22 August 2014).( Among the two sons of Som , one is Filmmaker Dev Benegal )
Som Benegal ( 1922 -22 August 2014)
Father: Shridhar B.Benegal;; Brother: Shyam benegal;; Wife: Suman Benegal;; Children: Dev Benegal, Rahul Benegal ;
Som Benegal was a journalist, an author and a poet. He was a well known theater director in the 1950-60’s and News Editor in All India Radio in the 1940’s.
A multi media specialist in the fields of Radio, Television, Exhibitions Design, and journals since 1942 he was passionate about the independence of media and served as the Secretary General of NAMEDIA.
He was known publicly for his witty one line Letters to the Editor published in major Indian newspapers and was known for his writings: “And the Old Lama Said”. He also translated the Upanishads to English. “The Beginning According to the RIG Veda” was translated in 1976. His several written books include Freedom is starting point, A Panarama of Theatre in India, Theatre in India.
Till his retirement in 2011 at age 89, he was director at Tej Press and was writing for national newspapers and magazines. He passed away ay 92, on 22 August 2014. He is survived by his wife of 83(2014) years Suman Benegal, two sons Rahul Benegal and the filmmaker Dev Benegal.
. Dev Benegal
Dev was born on 28 December 1960, in New Delhi to Som Benegal, a theatre director, and his wife Suman.
Dev was an avid film fan ever since he can remember, even though he didn’t watch any Bollywood films because they were banned at his house. He was always encouraged to watch a lot of Hollywood and British films while growing up. In fact, he also has a record of watching Stanley Kubrick’s “2001” 96 times. Dev attended the Modern School, New Delhi where he was the official cartoonist and photographer for his school magazines.
After he left school, he headed straight to Mumbai (Bombay then) to assist his uncle, Mr. Shyam Benegal. After working on two of his feature films – Mandi (1980) and Kalyug (1983), he was involved in the making of the definitive documentary on Satyajit Ray – Satyajit Ray, Filmmaker (1984).
Following his stint as an assistant director, Dev made a few short films which got selected for several international film festivals after which he received a grant to study at NYU for two years.
His films were “English,August” (1994) ,“Split Wide Open” (1999) , “Ravan and Eddie”, “Road” (2009), Dev is also a prolific screenwriter and photographer, the screenplay for his next film “Dead, End “ won the Grand Prize at the NAFF/PIFAN International Festival Korea, 2014
Dev is a perfect balance between art, expression and technology. Dev’s film was the first Indian feature film to adopt digital post production from picture editing on the Avid to sound design and delivery. It was this passion of his for movies and technology that gave birth to his revolutionary production program 24×7 . He is also writing a film on the life of mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan with English writer and actor Stephen Fry which he calls his passion project.
His Twitter: @benegal
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