Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi was an Indian journalist, a leader of the Indian National Congress and an independence movement activist. He is mostly known as the founder-editor of the Hindi language newspaper, Pratap. His real interest, however, was in journalism and public life and he came early under the influence of the nationalist upsurge, which was taking place in the country. He became an agent of the well-known revolutionary Hindi and Urdu journals - Karamyogi and Swarajya and also began to contribute to them. He adopted the pen-name 'Vidyarthi' - the seeker of knowledge. He attracted the notice of Pt. Mahabir Prasad Dwiwedi, the doyen of Hindi journalism who offered him the job of a sub-editor in his famous literary monthly, "The Saraswati", in 1911. Ganesh Shankar, however, was more interested in current affairs and politics and therefore joined the Hindi weekly "Abhyudaya" a political journal of the time. He thus served his apprenticeship under two of the greatest figures in Hindi literature and journalism of the time.