AKASH.R

VIIIth B

C.K.S English School

HASSAN

Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) was born into a Hindu Modh family in Porbandar, Gujarat, India in 1869. He was the son of KaramchandGandhi, the diwan (Chief Minister) of Porbandar, and Putlibai, Karamchand’s fourth wife (his previous three wives had died in childbirth), a Hindu of the PranamiVaishnava 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

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: HarilalGandhi, 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.

Date of Birth : Jan 23, 1897 Date of Death : Aug 18, 1945 Place of Birth : OrissaSubhash 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

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 ShastriJawaharlal 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.

Date of Birth : Sep 27, 1907 Date of Death : Mar 23, 1931 Place of Birth : JalandharBhagat 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’

Date of Birth : Dec 3, 1884 Date of Death : Feb 28, 1963 Place of Birth : Zeradei, Bihar Tenure Order : 1st President Took Office : Jan 26, 1950 Left Office : May 13, 1962 Successor : Dr.S RadhakrishnanDr. Rajendra Prasad was the first President of India. Rajendra

Prasad was a great freedom-fighter, and the architect of the

Indian Constitution, having served as President of the

Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution of the

Republic from 1948 to 1950. He had also served as a Cabinet

Minister briefly in the first Government of Independent India. He

was a crucial leader of the Indian Independence Movement.

Prasad was born in Jiradei, in the Siwan district of Bihar. His

father, Mahadev Sahay, was a Persian and Sanskrit language

scholar; his mother, Kamleshwari Devi, was a devout lady who

would tell stories from the Ramayana to her son. At the age of

5, the young Rajendra

Date of Birth : Oct 2, 1904 Date of Death : Jan 11, 1966 Place of Birth : Uttar PradeshLal Bahadur Shastri was the second Prime Minister of independent

India and a significant figure in the struggle for independence.

Shashtriji was born in Mughalsarai, in Uttar Pradesh. To take part

in the non-cooperation movement of Mahatma Gandhi in 1921, he

began studying at the nationalist, Kashi Vidyapeeth in Kashi, and

upon completion, he was given the title Shastri, or Scholar, Doctor

at Kashi Vidyapeeth in 1926. He spent almost nine years in jail in

total, mostly after the start of the Satyagraha movement in 1940, he

was imprisoned until 1946. Following India’s independence, he was

Home Minister under Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant of Uttar

Pradesh. In 1951, he was appointed General Secretary of the Lok

Sabha before re-gaining a ministerial post as Railways Minister. He

resigned as Minister following a rail disaster near Ariyalur, Tamil

Nadu. He returned to the Cabinet following the General Elections,

first as Minister for Transport, in 1961,

Date of Birth : Jul 23, 1906 Date of Death : Feb 27, 1931 Place of Birth : IndiaChandrasekhar Azad was a great Indian freedom fighter and

revolutionary thinker. Revered for his audacious deeds and fierce

patriotism, he was the mentor of Bhagat Singh, the famous Indian

martyr. Chandrasekhar Azad is considered one of the greatest Indian

freedom fighter along with Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Ram

Prasad Bismil, and Ashfaqulla Khan. Chandrasekhar Azad’s parents

were Pandit Sita Ram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. He received his early

schooling in Bhavra District Jhabua (Madhya Pradesh). For higher

studies he went to the Sanskrit Pathashala at Varanasi. Young Azad

was one of the young generation of Indians when Mahatma Gandhi

launched the Non-Cooperation Movement. But many were disillusioned

with the suspension of the struggle in 1922 owing to the Chauri Chaura

massacre of 22 policemen. Although Gandhi was appalled by the brutal

violence, Azad did not feel that violence was unacceptable in the

struggle, especially in view of the Amritsar Massacre of 1919, where

Army units killed hundreds of unarmed civilians and wounded thousands

in Amritsar

Date of Birth : Oct 31, 1875 Date of Death : Dec 15, 1950 Place of Birth : GujaratVallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel was born at his maternal uncle’s house in

Nadiad, Gujarat. His actual date of birth was never officially recorded –

Patel entered October 31st as his date of birth on his matriculation

examination papers. He was the fourth son of Jhaverbhai and Ladba

Patel, and lived in the village of Karamsad, in the Kheda district.

Somabhai, Narsibhai and Vithalbhai Patel (also a future political leader)

were his elder brothers. He had a younger brother, Kashibhai, and a

sister, Dahiba. Patel helped his father in the fields, and bimonthly kept a

day-long fast, abstaining from food and water – a cultural observance

that enabled him to develop physical tougheness. He entered school

late – parental attention was focused on the eldest brothers, thus

leading to a degree of neglect of Patel’s education. Patel travelled to

attend schools in Nadiad, Petlad and Borsad, living self-sufficiently with

other boys. He took his matriculation at the late age of 22; at this point,

he was generally regarded by his elder relatives as an unambitious man

destined for a commonplace job

BAL GANGADHAR TILAK

Date of Birth : Jul 23, 1856 Date of Death : 1920 Place of Birth : MaharashtraBal Gangadhar Tilak, was an Indian nationalist, social reformer and freedom fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. Tilak sparked the fire for complete independence in Indian consciousness, and is considered the father of Hindu nationalism as well. Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it! This famous quote of his is very popular and well-remembered in India even today.Reverently addressed as Lokmanya (meaning “Beloved of the

people” or “Revered by the world”), Tilak was a scholar of Indian

history, Sanskrit, Hinduism, mathematics and astronomy. He was

born on July 23, 1856, in a village near Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, into a

middle class Chitpavan Brahmin family. Tilak was an avid student

with a special aptitude for mathematics. He was among India’s first

generation of youth to receive a modern, college education. After

graduation, Tilak began teaching mathematics in a private school in

BAL GANGADHAR TILAK

Date of Birth : May 9, 1866 Date of Death : 1915 Place of Birth : MaharashtraGopal Krishna Gokhale was born on May 9, 1866, in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, and he became one of the most learned men in India, a leader of social and political reformists and one of the earliest, founding leaders of the Indian Independence Movement. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and the Servants of India Society. The latter was committed to only social reform, but the Congress Party in Gokhale’s time was the main vehicle for Indian political representation. Gokhale was a great, early Indian champion for public education. Being one of the first generations of Indians to receive college education, Gokhale was respected widely in the nascent Indian intellecutal community and acoss India, whose people looked up to him as the least elitist of educated Indians. Coming from a background of poverty, Gokhale was a real man of the people, a hero to young Indians discovering the new age and the prospects of the coming

B.R AMBEDKAR

Dr. Ambedkar was the main architect of the Indian Constitution. He was born in a very poor low caste family of Madhya Pradesh. In U.S.A., he did his M.A. in 1915 and Ph.D. in 1916. From 1918 to 1920, he worked as a Professor of Law. Dr. Ambedkar set up his legal practice at the Mumbai High Court. Ambedkar was the main inspiration behind the inclusion of special provision in the Constitution of India for the development of Schedule Caste people. Dr. Ambedkar was the Law Minister of India from 1947 to 1951. He took part in the Satyagraha of untouchables at Nasik in 1930 for opening the Hindu temples to them. Dr. Ambedkar was emancipator of the 'untouchables' and crusader for social justice. This liberator of the down trodden was affectionately called "Babasaheb". He was posthumously awarded 'Bharat Ratna' in

B.R AMBEDKAR

Rabindranath Tagore was a rare and great personality. He was a scholar, freedom fighter, writer and painter and above all a humble man. His contributions to Indian Literature was immense. He won the noble prize in 1913 for his collection of well known poems 'Gitanjali'. Tagore was born on May 7, 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sharada Devi at Jorasanko in West Bengal. He did his schooling in the prestigious St. Xavier School. He has written thousands of Poems and lyrics and about 35 plays about 12 novels, numerous short stories and a mass of prose literature. He was called as 'Vishwa Kavi'. Besides the famous ' Gitanjali' his other well known poetic works include ' Sonar Tari', 'Puravi', ' The cycle of the spring', ' The evening songs' etc. The names of his well known novels are: 'Gora', ' The wreck', ' Raja Rani', ' GhareBaire', ' Raj Rishi' etc. ' Chitra' is his famous play in verse. ' Kabuli Wallah' and ' Kshudita Pashan' are his famous stories. In 1901, he founded the Vishwabharati University- earlier known as Shantiniketan at Bolepur in West Bengal. This was founded with the aim of evolving a world culture, a synthesis of eastern and western values. Our National Anthem 'Jana Gana Mana ......' was written by him.

Bipin Chandra Pal was born on November 7, 1858 in Sylhet, (now in Bangladesh), in a wealthy Hindu Kayastha family. His father was Ramchandra Pal. He was a teacher, journalist, orator, writer and librarian who started the journal BandeHe was one of the trilogy of the three Extremist patriots of the Indian National Congress who had fought and gave his life during Indian independence movement in the first half of the twentieth century. The other two were Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Together they were known as Lal-Bal-Pal. They had advocated extremist means to get their message across to the British, like boycotting British manufactured goods, burning Western clothes made in the mills of Manchester and strikes and lock outs of British owned businesses and industrial concerns.

INDIRA GANDHI

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was Prime Minister of India

from January 19, 1966 to March 24, 1977, and again

from January 14, 1980 until her assassination on

October 31, 1984. Born to India's first Prime Minister,

Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi was one of India's most

notable and controversial political leaders. The Nehru

family can trace their ancestry to the Brahmins of

Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi. Indira's grandfather

Motilal Nehru was a wealthy barrister of Allahabad in

Uttar Pradesh. Nehru was one of the most prominent

members of the Indian National Congress in pre-Gandhi

times and would go on to author the Nehru Report, the

people's choice for a future Indian system of government

as opposed to the British system.

INDIRA GANDHI

Annie Besant (1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a

prominent British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist,

writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self-rule.

At age 20 she married Frank Besant, but separated from him over

religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for

the National Secular Society (NSS) and writer and a close friend

of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing

a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The

scandal made them famous, and Bradlaugh was elected M.P. for

Northampton in 1880.

She became involved with union actions including the Bloody

Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888.

She was a leading speaker for the Fabian Society and

the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). She was elected

to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll

even though few women were qualified to vote at that time.

Lakshmibai was born probably on 19 November 1828[1][3][4][5][6] in the holy

town of Varanasi into a Kshatriya Maratha family.[7] She was named

Manikarnika and was nicknamed Manu.[8] Her father was Moropant Tambe

and her mother Bhagirathi Sapre (Bhagirathi Bai). Her parents came

from Maharashtra. Her mother died when she was four. Her father worked for

a court Peshwa of Bithoor district who brought Manikarnika up like his own

daughter[clarification needed] .[9] The Peshwa called her "Chhabili", which means

"playful". She was educated at home and was more independent in her

childhood than others of her age; her studies included archery,

horsemanship, and self-defence.[citation needed][10]

Manikarnika was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, Raja Gangadhar Rao, in

1842,[4] and was afterwards called Lakshmibai (or Laxmibai).[11] She gave

birth to a boy, later named Damodar Rao, in 1851, who died when four

months old. The Maharaja adopted a child called Anand Rao, the son of

Gangadhar Rao's cousin, who was renamed Damodar Rao, on the day

before the Maharaja died. The adoption was in the presence of the British

political officer who was given a letter from the Maharaja instructing that the

child be treated with respect and that the government of Jhansi should be

given to his widow for her lifetime

Rani Chennamma sent a letter to the governor at Bombay to plead the

cause of Kittur, but Elphinstone turned her down, and war broke out.[2]The

British tried to confiscate the treasure and jewels of Kittur, valued around

fifteen Lakhs of rupees.[3] They attacked with a force of 200 men and four

guns, mainly from the third troop of Madras Native Horse Artillery.[4] In the

first round of war, during October 1824, British forces lost heavily and St

John Thackeray, collector and political agent,[5] was killed by Kittur

forces.[2] Amatur Balappa, a lieutenant of Chennamma, was mainly

responsible for his killing and losses to British forces.[6] Two British officers,

Sir Walter Elliot and Mr. Stevenson[5] were also taken as hostages.[2] Rani

Chennamma released them with an understanding with Chaplin that the war

would be terminated but Chaplin continued the war with more

forces.[2] During the second assault, Subcollector of Sholapur, Mr. Munro,

nephew of Thomas Munro was killed.[5] Rani Chennamma fought fiercely

with the aid of her lieutenant, Sangolli Rayanna, but was ultimately captured

and imprisoned at Bailhongal Fort, where she died on 21 February

1829.[2] Chennamma was also helped by her lieutenant Gurusiddappa in the

war against British.[7]

Vijaya Lakshmi Nehru Pandit (Kashmiri: विजयलक्ष्मी नेहरू पंडित) (18 August 1900 – 1 December 1990) was an

Indian diplomat andpolitician, the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru,[1] the

aunt of Indira Gandhi and the grand-aunt of Rajiv Gandhi, each of

whom served asPrime Minister of India.

In 1921 she married Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, a successful

Maharashtrian barrister from Kathiawad and classical scholar who

translatedKalhana's epic history Rajatarangini into English

from Sanskrit. He was arrested for his support of Indian

independence and died in Lucknow prison jail on 14 January

1944.

Her daughter Nayantara Sahgal, who later settled in her mother's

house in Dehradun, is a well-known novelist.

Gita Sahgal, the writer and journalist on issues of feminism,

fundamentalism, and racism, director of prize-winning

documentary films, and human rights activist,is her

granddaughter. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. [2]

The former soldier Timmanna Nayaka rose to the rank

of Governor of Chitradurga as a reward for his excellence in

military achievements, from the Vijayanagara ruler. His son Obana

is known by the name Madakari Nayaka. Madakari Nayaka's

son Kasturi Rangappa succeeded him, consolidated the kingdom,

and rule peacefully . As he had no heirs to succeed him, his

adopted son — the apparent heir — was enthroned, but was killed

a few months later by the Dalavayis. Chikkanna Nayaka, the

brother of Madakari Nayaka II sat on the throne in 1676, and his

other brother succeeded him with the title Madakari Nayaka III.

The unwillingness of Dalawayis to accept Madakari Nayaka III's

rule gave an opportunity to a distant relative, Bharamappa

Nayaka, to ascend the throne in 1689. The quick succession of

rulers led to the people of Chitradurga not experiencing the

benefits of longer ruling periods. Hiri Madakari Nayaka (1721–

1748), Kasturi Rangappa Nayaka II and Madakari Nayaka IV

Sarojini Naidu, born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay (Bengali: সর োজিনী চরটোপোধ্যোয়) also

known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India,[1] was a child

prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. Naidu served as the first

governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949;[2] the first

woman to become the governor of an Indian state.[3] She was the second woman

to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first

Indian woman to do so.[4][5] Sarojini naidu was born in Hyderabad to Aghore Nath

Chattopadhyay and Barada Sundari Debi on 13 February 1879. Her father, with

a doctorate of Science from Edinburgh University, settled in Hyderabad, where

he found and administered the Hyderabad College, which later became

the Nizam's College in Hyderabad. Her mother was a poetess and used to write

poetry in Bengali. She was the eldest among the eight siblings. Her

brother Virendranath Chattopadhyaya was a revolutionary and her other

brother, Harindranathwas a poet, a dramatist, and an actor.[6]

Naidu passed her matriculation examination from the University of Madras, but

she took four years' break from her studies. In 1895, the "Nizam scholarship

Trust" founded by the 6th Nizam – Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, gave her the chance to

study in England first atKing's College London and later at Girton College,

Cambridge.