Balasaheb Gangadhar Kher

Kher was born on 24 August 1888 in Ratnagiri, Bombay Presidency, into a Maharashtrian Brahmin family. He studied at the New English School in Pune, having moved there at the encouragement of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and took a BA with distinction from Wilson College, Bombay, in 1908, winning the Bhau Daji Lad prize for Sanskrit.

Kher co-founded the law firm Manilal Kher & Co. with Manilal Nanavati on 7 June 1918; it was later renamed Manilal Kher Ambalal & Co. He became secretary of the Bombay Swaraj Party in 1922 and was imprisoned during the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930 and 1932, and again during the Quit India movement from August 1942 until July 1944.

He was premier of Bombay Province from July 1937 to November 1939 and again from March 1946 to August 1947, and served as the first chief minister of Bombay State from 15 August 1947 to 21 April 1952. He was subsequently High Commissioner for India to the United Kingdom from 1952 to 1954. He was instrumental in establishing Poona University, now Savitribai Phule Pune University, where a building is named Kher Bhavan after him.

Kher founded the Kherwadi Social Welfare Association in 1928 after visiting the marshland of Bandra East, where migrant families were living in poor conditions. With Gandhian colleagues he formed a committee to support leather-working khatik families from Rajasthan, beginning with a dispensary and a small school and later adding income-generating activities such as sewing, soap making and khadi. As chief minister he allocated land in Bandra East to the community in 1950-51, and the settlement became known as Kherwadi. The association launched the vocational training movement Yuva Parivartan in 1998, which was formally launched by President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in 2003.

Kher died in Pune on 8 March 1957.

Kher was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1954.[2][3][4]