1.Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Date of Birth : Oct 2, 1869 Date of
Death : Jan 30, 1948 Place of Birth : Gujarat
Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi) was born into a Hindu Modh family in Porbandar, Gujarat, India in 1869.
He was the son of Karamchand Gandhi, the diwan (Chief Minister) of Porbandar,
and Putlibai, Karamchand’s fourth wife (his previous three wives had died in
childbirth), a Hindu of the Pranami Vaishnava order. Growing up with a devout
mother and surrounded by the Jain influences of Gujarat, Gandhi learned from an
early age the tenets of non-injury to living beings, vegetarianism, fasting for
self-purification, and mutual tolerance between members of various creeds and
sects. He was born into the vaishya, or business, caste.
In May 1883, at the age of 13,
Gandhi was married through his parents’ arrangement to Kasturba Makhanji (also
spelled “Kasturbai” or known as “Ba”), who was the same age as he. They had
four sons: Harilal Gandhi, born in 1888; Manilal Gandhi, born in 1892; Ramdas
Gandhi, born in 1897; and Devdas Gandhi, born in 1900. Gandhi was a mediocre
student in his youth at Porbandar and later Rajkot. He barely passed the
matriculation exam for the University of Bombay in 1887, where he joined
Samaldas College. He was also unhappy at the college, because his family wanted
him to become a barrister. He leapt at the opportunity to study in England,
which he viewed as “a land of philosophers and poets, the very centre of
civilization.” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a major political and spiritual
leader of India, and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer and
perfector of Satyagraha – the resistance of tyranny through mass civil
disobedience strongly founded upon ahimsa (total non-violence) – which led
India to independence, and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom
across the world.Gandhi is commonly known and addressed in India and across the
world as Mahatma Gandhi and as Bapu. Though his elders objected, Gandhi could
not be prevented from leaving; and it is said that his mother, a devout woman,
made him promise that he would keep away from wine, women, and meat during his
stay abroad. Gandhi left behind his son Harilal, then a few months old. In London,
Gandhi encountered theosophists, vegetarians, and others who were disenchanted
not only with industrialism, but with the legacy of Enlightenment thought. They
themselves represented the fringe elements of English society. Gandhi was
powerfully attracted to them, as he was to the texts of the major religious
traditions; and ironically it is in London that he was introduced to the
Bhagavad Gita. Here, too, Gandhi showed determination and single-minded pursuit
of his purpose, and accomplished his objective of finishing his degree from the
Inner Temple.
2.
Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhash Chandra Bose
Date of Birth : Jan 23, 1897 Date of
Death : Aug 18, 1945 Place of Birth : Orissa
Subhash Chandra Bose (January 23,
1897 – August 18, 1945?), also known as Netaji, was one of the most prominent
leaders of the Indian Independence Movement against the British Raj. Subhas
Chandra Bose was born to an affluent family in Cuttack, Orissa. His father,
Janakinath Bose, was a public prosecutor who believed in orthodox nationalism,
and later became a member of the Bengal Legislative Council. His mother was
Prabhavati Bose, a remarkable example of Indian womanhood. Bose was educated at
Cambridge University. In 1920, Bose took the Indian Civil Service entrance
examination and was placed second. However, he resigned from the prestigious
Indian Civil Service in April 1921 despite his high ranking in the merit list,
and went on to become an active member of India’s independence movement. He
joined the Indian National Congress, and was particularly active in its youth
wing. Subhas Chandra Bose felt that young militant groups could be molded into
a military arm of the freedom movement and used to further the cause. Gandhiji
opposed this ideology because it directly conflicted with his policy of ahimsa
(non-violence). The British Government in India perceived Subhas as a potential
source of danger and had him arrested without any charge on October 25, 1924.
He was sent to Alipore Jail, Calcutta and in January 25, 1925 transferred to Mandalay,
Burma. He was released from Mandalay in May, 1927 due to his ill health. Upon
return to Calcutta, Subhas was elected President of the Bengal Congress
Committee on October 27, 1927.
Subhas was one of the few
politicians who sought and worked towards Hindu-Muslim unity on the basis of
respect of each community’s rights. Subhas, being a man of ideals, believed in
independence from the social evil of religious discord. In January 1930 Subhas
was arrested while leading a procession condemning imprisonment of
revolutionaries. He was offered bail on condition that he signs a bond to
refrain from all political activities, which he refused. As a result he was
sentenced to a year’s imprisonment. On his release from jail, Subhas was sworn
in as Mayor of the Calcutta Corporation. In 1931 the split between Gandhiji and
Subhas crystallized. Although the two never saw eye to eye on their view of
freedom and the movement itself, Subhas felt that Gandhiji had done a great
disservice to the movement by agreeing to take part in the Second Round Table
Conference. Subhas viewed freedom as an absolute necessity, unlike the freedom
which Gandhiji was “negotiating” with the British. Subhas was arrested again
while returning from Bombay to Calcutta, and imprisoned in several jails
outside West Bengal in fear of an uprising. His health once again deteriorated
and the medical facilities diagnosed him with tuberculosis. It was recommended
that he be sent to Switzerland for treatment. Realizing that his avenues abroad
were greater with the restrictions of the British, Subhas set sail for Europe
on February 23, 1933
3.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Date of Birth : Nov 14, 1889 Date of
Death : May 27, 1964 Place of Birth : Uttar Pradesh Political party : Indian
National Congress Took Office : Aug 15, 1947 Left Office : May 27, 1964
Successor : Lal Bahadur Shastri
Jawaharlal Nehru also called Pandit
Nehru, was an important leader of the Indian Independence Movement and the
Indian National Congress, and became the first Prime Minister of India when
India won its independence on August 15, 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru was born on
November 14, 1889, to Swaroop Rani, the wife of Motilal Nehru, a wealthy
Allahabad based barrister and political leader himself. He was Nehru’s only son
amongst three younger daughters. The Nehru family is of Kashmiri lineage and of
the Saraswat Brahmin caste. Educated in the finest Indian schools of the time,
Nehru returned from education in England at Harrow, Trinity College, Cambridge
and the Inner Temple to practice law before following his father into politics.
By his parents’ arrangement, Nehru married Kamala Nehru, then seventeen in
1916. At the time of his wedding on 8 February 1916, Jawaharlal was twenty-six,
a British-educated barrister. Kamala came from a well-known business family of
Kashmiris in Delhi. His father Motilal Nehru was already a prominent figure in
the Indian National Congress and had served as its president. Nehru did not
share Motilal’s moderate-liberal line.He began to draw closer to the rising
leadership of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a former barrister who had won
battles for equality and political rights for Indians in South Africa, and had
emerged a national hero with the successful struggles in Champaran, Bihar and
Kheda in Gujarat. Nehru was instantly attracted to Gandhi’s commitment for
active but peaceful, civil disobedience. Gandhi himself saw promise and India’s
future in the young Jawaharl Nehru. The Nehru family transformed their
lifestyle according to Gandhi’s teachings. Jawaharlal and Motilal Nehru
abandoned western clothes and tastes for expensive possessions and pastimes,
and adopted Hindi, or Hindustani as their common language of use. Young
Jawaharlal now wore a khadi kurta and a Gandhi cap, all white – the new uniform
of the Indian nationalist. Nehru was first arrested by the British during the
Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-1922), but released after a few months. After
Gandhi suspended civil resistance in 1922 as a result of the killing of
policemen in Chauri Chaura, thousands of Congressmen were disillusioned.When
Gandhi opposed participation in the newly created legislative councils, many
followed leaders like Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru to form the Swaraj
Party, which advocated entry but only to sabotage government from within, as a
tool to extracting concessions from the British to ensure stability. But Nehru
did not join his father and stayed with Gandhi and the Congress. Jawaharlal was
elected President of the Allahabad Municipal Corporation in 1924, and served
for two years as the city’s chief executive. Upon his release from prison in
1924, Gandhi succeeded in re-uniting the Congress Party and increasing
discipline of Congressmen by expanding activities for social reform and the
alleviation of India’s poor. From 1926 to 1928, Jawaharlal served as the
General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee, an important step in his
rise to Congress national leadership. With the Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, led
by the rising nationalist leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Congress was
back in the business of revolution. In 1928-29, the Congress’s annual session
under President Motilal Nehru considered the next step. Nehru and Subhas
Chandra Bose backed a call for full political independence, while Motilal Nehru
and others wanted dominion status within the British Empire.
4.
Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh
Date of Birth : Sep 27, 1907 Date of
Death : Mar 23, 1931 Place of Birth : Jalandhar
Bhagat Singh (September 27, 1907 –
March 23, 1931) was an Indian revolutionary, considered to be one of the most
famous martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle. For this reason, he is often
referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh (the word shaheed means “martyr”). Bhagat
Singh was born into a Sikh family to Sardar Kishan Singh and Vidyavati in the
Khatkar Kalan village near Banga in the Jalandhar district of Punjab. His
uncle, Sardar Ajit Singh, as well as his father, were great freedom fighters,
so Bhagat Singh grew up in a patriotic atmosphere. Ajit Singh established the
Indian Patriots’ Association, along with Syed Haidar Raza, to organize the
peasants against the Chenab Canal Colony Bill. He also established the secret
organization, the Bharat Mata Society. At an early age, Bhagat Singh started
dreaming of uprooting the British empire. Never afraid of fighting during his
childhood, he thought of “growing guns in the fields,” so that he could fight
against the British. The Ghadar Movement left a deep imprint on his mind.
Kartar Sing Sarabha, hanged at the age of 19, became his hero. The massacre at
Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919 drove him to go to Amritsar, where he kissed
the earth sanctified by the martyrs’ blood and brought back home a little of
the soaked soil. He studied in the D.A.V. School in Lahore. At the age of 16,
he used to wonder why so many Indians could not drive away these fistful of
invaders. In search of revolutionary groups and ideas, he met Sukhdev and
Rajguru. Bhagat Singh, along with the help of Chandrashekhar Azad, formed the
Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA). The aim of this Indian
revolutionary movement was now defined as not only to make India independent,
but also to create “a socialist India.” During the Simon Commission, Sher-e-Punjab
Lala Lajpat Rai was wounded and died later. To avenge his death, Bhagat Singh
and Rajguru killed Mr. Saunders (one of the deputy officers in connection with
the Simon Commission).
When the British government promulgated the two bills
“Trade Union Dispute Bill” and “Public Safety Bill” which Bhagat Singh and his
party thought were Black Laws aimed at curbing citizens’ freedom and civil
liberties, they decided to oppose these bills by throwing a bomb in the Central
Assembly Hall (which is now Lok Sabha). However, things changed, and the
Britishers arrested Bhagat Singh and his friends on April 8, 1929. He and his
friends wanted to be shot dead, since they were termed as prisoners of war.
Their request was not fulfilled, and on March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh, Shivram
Rajguru, and Sukhdev were hanged to death. This man’s only mission in life was
to see his country free from British rule. He did his best and when he was
being led to the gallows, he was satisfied that he had lived up to his
principles, irrespective of the consequences. The only thing that made him sad
was that he couldn’t do more for his country.
