Haridas Viharidas Desai

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Haridas Viharidas Desai (1840–1895) was Diwan of Junagadh state from 1883 onwards. He was a pious man and a brilliant administrator who in a decade made the most important reforms in every department of the Junagadh state. He built the 12,000 steps up Mt Girnar for the pilgrims ( he collected funds of 3 lacs from public through lottery, he constructed roads that connected Jungadh to Girnar, temples of Narsinh Mehta and Damodar Kund ( all at his cost ), and construction of the railway line joining the capital of Junagadh to Veraval, the principal port and connecting them both to the railway system of India.

In 1895 he was appointed by Queen Victoria along with Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh to be part of the Royal Opium Commission.^[1] The team consisted of 7 British and 2 Indians. For serving admirably on the royal commission Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey who was the chairman of the commission had proposed to the British government for conferment of Knighthood on Diwan Saheb, which did not take place due to his sudden and untimely death after a brief illness on 17 June 1895 at Nadiad ni haveli. The whole town mourned his death and newspaper articles in India and abroad lamented his death. The Amrit Bazar Patrika (Calcutta), dated 30 June 1895 remarked "In him India has lost one of her best sons". London (Editorial)September 1895 remarked "By the death of Mr Haridas Viharidas, India has suffered a great and lamentable loss. People of India had no more unselfish, simple minded and enlightened champion." Swami Vivekananda wrote in a letter dated 2 March 1896 from New York to Tatya Saheb, nephew of Haridasji "your uncle was a great soul and his whole life was given to do good to his country. He was a strong noble friend and India has lost a good deal in losing him".