KURSENDAS

MULJI (1832–1875)  , Indian journalist and social reformer, was born on the 25th of July 1832, of a family belonging to the Bhatia or trading caste of western India . Being repudiated by his family on account of his views on widow remarriage, he became a vernacular schoolmaster, and started a weekly paper in Gujarati called The Satya Prakash . In this he attacked the immoralities of the Maharajas or hereditary high priests of the Vallabhacharya sect of Vaishnavism to which the Bhatias belong . In a suit for libel brought against him in the High Court at Bombay in 1862, he won a victory on the main issue . After a visit to England on business in connexion with the cotton trade, which was not successful and brought on him excommunication from his caste, he was appointed in 1874 to administer a native state in Kathiawar during the minority of the chief; and there he died in August 1875 . See History of the Sect of Maharajas or Wallabhacharyas of Western India (1865) .