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Justice Mahadev Govinda Ranade was one of the most distinguished Indians in the closing decade of the last century not only as a member of the highest judiciary in his province of Bombay, but also as a scholar, an author, a patriot and a lover of his kind. He earned a more than comfortable salary from his high office and a good income from his books; yet he lived and dressed quite plainly and might have been mistaken in the street for a man of the lower middle class. He was a nationalist to the backbone and wore his native costume even on the bench.

Once while he was walking home from court, a poor woman accosted him saying, "Brother, a word with you." He stopped at once and enquired how he might serve her. She wanted him to help her with a bundle of fuel by which she stood and see her safely over the crossing. And Ranade, Chief Judge of the highest civil court at Poona, lifted the burden on the woman’s head and led her gently by the hand across the crowded road. There was certainly a clear stamp of his heart on his face which the peasant woman could read and the reading of which had emboldened her to address herself to him among hundreds of passers-by.