Ravi Shankar Shukla

Ravi Shankar Shukla was the first Chief Minister of present-day Madhya Pradesh. He had already led the region’s government for a decade, under three different titles, by the time the modern state was formed.

Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla. Photo: Photo Division, Government of India. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Modern History · ModHist0225

Ravi Shankar Shukla

First Chief Minister of Present-Day Madhya Pradesh

1906–07

Qualifies in law, and begins practice in Rajnandgaon, then Raipur.

1930

Arrested during the Civil Disobedience Movement, and imprisoned.

27 Apr 1946

Becomes Premier of the Central Provinces and Berar.

1 Nov 1956

Becomes first CM of the newly reorganised, present-day Madhya Pradesh.

A decade of leadership, then two months

Shukla had continuously led the region’s government since 1946 — but died just two months after becoming CM of the newly reorganised, larger Madhya Pradesh.

📑 Contents

1A Decade in Power, Under Three Titles
2The Vidya Mandir Scheme and a Political Family
3Test Yourself
4Eleven Years, Three Titles

A Decade in Power, Under Three TitlesNeed to Know

Ravi Shankar Shukla was born on 2 August 1877, in Saugor (present-day Sagar), in the Central Provinces.
He studied at Robertson College, Jabalpur, then Hislop College, Nagpur, before qualifying in law in 1906–07.
He began legal practice in Rajnandgaon, and became a successful pleader in Raipur.
He first met Mahatma Gandhi in 1904, at a Congress session in Bombay.
He took part in the Non-Cooperation Movement, then was arrested during the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930. He was imprisoned first at Jubbulpore, then Seoni Jail, and released in March 1931, following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact.
He became Premier of the Central Provinces and Berar on 27 April 1946.
When the province was renamed Madhya Pradesh, on 26 January 1950, his title changed to Chief Minister.
Under the States Reorganisation Act, a larger, present-day Madhya Pradesh was formed on 1 November 1956. It merged in Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, and Bhopal State. Shukla became its first Chief Minister.
He died in office on 31 December 1956, in New Delhi — just two months after the new state’s formation.

The Vidya Mandir Scheme and a Political FamilyGood to Know

He was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, from December 1946 to January 1950.
In 1935, he started a weekly Hindi magazine, “Mahakoshal,” from Nagpur.
As Education Minister from 1937, and then Premier from July 1938, he launched the Vidya Mandir Scheme. It brought basic elementary education to small villages at low cost.
He appointed a committee under Zakir Hussain, later President of India, to design the scheme’s curriculum.
That curriculum followed Gandhian “basic education” principles. It combined spinning, weaving, and agriculture with mother-tongue lessons, mathematics, and general science.
His sons Shyama Charan Shukla and Vidya Charan Shukla both went on to become prominent Madhya Pradesh politicians in their own right. Shyama Charan later served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh himself.

Test Yourself

Eleven Years, Three TitlesGreat to Know

He attended his first Indian National Congress session in 1897, at Amravati, at the age of 20.
He served as Chief Minister of the new, larger Madhya Pradesh for only about two months. But he had continuously led the region’s government since 1946. That’s nearly 11 years in total. He held three different official titles along the way: Premier, then Chief Minister of the old province, then Chief Minister of the new one.
The Vidya Mandir Scheme drew criticism too. Some in the Muslim community read it as tilting basic education toward a specific cultural framing. That was part of a wider debate over Gandhian education policy in the late 1930s.

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