Makund Ramrao Jayakar

Makund Ramrao Jayakar was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Poona. He was a famous lawyer, scholar, and politician.

Jayakar was born on 13 November 1873 in a Marathi Pathare Prabhu family. Jayakar studied LL.B. in Bombay in 1902. He became a barrister in 1905 in London. In 1905, he was enrolled as an advocate of the Bombay High Court.

Career

During 1923-25, Makund Ramrao Jayakar was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council and a leader of the Swaraj Party. He also became a member of the Central Legislative Assembly.

He became Judge of the Federal Court of India in 1937 at Delhi. He joined the Constituent Assembly of India in December 1946.

Makund Ramrao Jayakar was also the chairman of the Indian Road Development Committee formed in 1927 to report some recommendations in highway development. 

He was a member of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha. In 1928, he took part in the All Parties Conference. He was pivotal in denying the demands of the Muslim League put forward by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Political Career

Makund Ramrao Jayakar was elected to the Constituent Assembly on a Congress ticket from Bombay. However, after a brief work in the Assembly, he gave up his seat which Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar then occupied.

In 1930, Jayakar and Tej Bahadur Sapru were involved in discussions between Congress and the Government when Motilal Nehru and other Congress members were imprisoned. These negotiations are said to have led to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931 how Congress members were released from prison in return for the discontinuation of non-cooperation; the salt tax was removed and Congress members would be represented at the next Round Table Conference. 

Jayakar was a member of the Judicial Privy Council in London and attended the Round Table Conference in London in 1931. 

Jayakar was known for his educationist and philanthropist work. He received an honorary DCL from Oxford University in 1938, upon the recommendation of E. J. Thompson. He was Vice-Chancellor of Poona University from 1948 upon its foundation, until his retirement in 1955.

He died on 10 March 1959 at Bombay at the age of 86. Solicitor Rajan Jayakar and Mohan Jayakar are his grandsons.

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