New book revives R D Karve's work on sex education, women's rights

R D  Karve: The Champion of Individual Liberty

by Anant Deshmukh

Published by Penguin

282 pages   ₹599

  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. 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, Santatiniyaman.  “He argued that the rise in sexually transmitted diseases stemmed from widespread ignorance about sex and insisted that sex education should begin at the school level,” adds Mr Ketkar.

  In 1926, at the age of 44, Karve had a vasectomy, 16 years after his marriage. The following year, he started Samaaj Swaasthya (Health of the Society), a monthly magazine in Marathi in 1927. The first “bold” magazine in Marathi, it was created to publicise birth control, sexology and the remedies available for sexually transmitted diseases. “To underline the message that truth is always naked, he decided to print pictures of naked women on the cover,” Mr Deshmukh writes. However, many printing presses would refuse to accept such pictures despite being offered money in advance. The magazine also never received adequate advertising nor had enough subscribers. 

  This was no surprise. The ideas that he propagated through the magazine, which survived for 26 years and four months, were too radical for the society of his time. “Suppression of the desire for sex, either voluntary or imposed by societal restrictions, leads to unhappiness, while its fulfilment leads to contentment,” he wrote. Karve also pointed out that ancient literature that deals with sex is limitless. “The desire for sex is very strongly present in valiant men and has often caused the wheels of history to turn,” writes Mr Deshmukh.

  For his ideas, Karve often faced civil and criminal cases, public outrage and intense societal resistance. Three of the cases were heard, and he was convicted twice. In one of the cases, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar came forward to defend him in court.  Having the audacity to challenge age-old customs and social mores, Karve was charged with vulgarity and sacked from his job as professor and prevented from getting any assignment.

  As the editor of Samaaj Swaasthya, Karve also gave a prominent place to literature, music, theatre and cinema. He translated articles from French, and did several book reviews of stories, novels, plays and biographies. Interestingly, Karve criticised Mahatma Gandhi all his life, particularly for his ideas on birth control. He propagated several other liberated ideas that were much advanced for his time, such as the fact that no person can become the property of another, and a marriage system that gives a man rights over a woman is worthy of being discarded. “In the law of the jungle, might is always right, but reform is all about giving equal rights to a powerless person, and from this perspective, a woman must necessarily be given equal rights,” he wrote.

  Karve died almost unsung in 1953 at the age of 71, and Samaaj Swaasthya died along with its progenitor. It was much later between 1970 and 1990 that interest in his public image and social work as well as the importance of his work began gaining recognition. Despite this, once when he was asked what he would do if he were born again, he responded without a moment’s pause that he would work for birth control with redoubled effort.

The reviewer is a New Delhi-based freelance writer