Important Personalities of Modern Indian History

Raja Ram Mohan  He was born in Radhanagar District in May 1772. He was a polyglot from a very young age. He
Roy studied Vedas and Upanishads when he went to Varanasi. He also studied Quran and Bible.
(1772- 1833)  From 1809-1814 he worked in the revenue department of the East India Company. From 1814 he
devoted himself completely towards social and religious reforms.
 He is regarded as the ‘Inaugurator of the Modern Age in India’.
 He was the ambassador of the Mughal Emperor Akbar II who gave him the title of ‘Raja’.
 He campaigned for civil liberties to be given to Indians, removal of press restrictions, reforms in
taxation.
 He founded journals – The Brahmanical Magazine (1821), Samvad Kaumudi –the Bengali weekly
(1821) and a Persian weekly Mirat-ul-Akbar.
 Other contributions- he demanded equality of Indians and Europeans in civil services and
separation of executive and judiciary.
 He formed Atmiya Sabha and later Brahmo Samaj in 1828. He campaigned for the rights of
women like widow remarriage and right to property.
 His efforts led to abolition of Sati in 1829 by William Bentick.
 He supported David Hare’s efforts for formation of Hindu College in Calcutta in 1817. In 1824 he
established Vedanta College.
 He is regarded as Father of Modern India and Farther of Indian Renaissance.

Ishwar Chandra  He was born in 1820 in West Bengal.

Vidyasagar  He was given the title of Vidyasagar in 1839 for his mastery over Sanskrit and philosophy.
 He studied grammar, literature and astronomy in Sanskrit.
 At the age of 21 he joined Fort William College as the head of Sanskrit Department.
 He helped Michel Madhusudan Dutt to relocate from France to England and study for the Bar.
Dutt gave him the epithet of Dayasagar.
 As a principal of Sanskrit College from 1851-58 he made education available to everyone
irrespective of caste and gender.
 He established 20 model schools in various districts of West Bengal.
 He is credited with reconstructing the Bengali Alphabets. He simplified Bengali typography into
an alphabet of 12 vowels and 20 consonants eliminating the phonemes.
 He wrote a book ‘Barnaparichaya’ meaning introduction to letters.
 He was the main force behind the passing of Widow Remarriage Act, 1856. He was the one who
organized the first Widow Remarriage.
 He started a weekly newspaper- Som Prakash. First Bangla Newspaper for political discussions.

Balshastri Jambekar  He was asocial reformist in Bombay. He started a Marathi-English fortnightly Darpan in 1832.
 He also started first Marathi monthly Digdarshan. He is considered as father of Marathi
journalism.

EV Ramaswami  He was popularly known as ‘Periyar’ meaning Great Sage.

Naicker  He took part in INC movements for sometime like Non-Cooperation movement, supported the
use of Khadi.
 He started a journal in 1925 called Kudi Arasu and found Self Respect Association in 1926. From
here he began Self-Respect Movement. He was against Hindu orthodoxy and hence supported
Rationalism.
 He became an elected member Justice Party in 1938. The party later resolved to make Tamil Nadu
a separate state loyal to British. In 1939 he organized Dravida Nadu Conference for Dravidasthan.
 In 1944 the Justice part organized the Draviga Kazagham which later turned as DMK and AIADMK.

Swami Vivekanand  He was born in Kolkata in 1863. He was known as Narendra Nath Dutta.
 He is credited to enlighten the world about Hinduism. He was an ardent disciple of Ramkrishna
Paramhansa. He supported national integration of colonial India and he also gave the famous
speech in Chicago in 1893.
 Netaji called him ‘maker of modern India’. In 1893, he took the name ‘Vivekananda’ after
Maharaja Ajit Singh of the Khetri State requested him to do so, changing from ‘Sachidananda‘that
 he used before.
 Ramkrishna Mission was formed in 1897. In 1899 he found Belur Math. He preached Neo-
Vedanta.
 His birth anniversary is celebrated as National Youth Day on 12th January.
 Prabuddha Bharat is a monthly magazine of the Ramkrishna Order.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak  Because of his popularity he is also called as Lokmanya Tilak.
 He founded the Deccan Education Society along with Gopal Ganesh Agarkar. He also opened a
New English School for primary education and Furgusson College for higher education with GG
Agarkar and Vishnu Shashtri Chiplunkar.
 He used Hindu scriptures to make people aware and fight against oppression. In this way he also
focused on self rule.
 He made Ganapati and Shivaji festivals famous in Maharashtra to use them as a tool evoking
Nationalism.
 He was also part of the trio Lal-Bal-Pal with other two being Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra
Pal.
 He had a great role in formation of Home Rule League, he wrote books like Geeta Rahasya and
Arctic Home to Vedas. He died on 1st Aug 1920.

Dayanand  He was a socio-religious reformer and founder of Arya Samaj.

Saraswati  He was the first to give the call of Swaraj and ‘India for Indians’.
 First unit of Arya Samaj was set-up in Bombay in 1875 later it’s headquarter was shifted to
Lahore.
 He believed in monotheism and was against idol worship. He envisioned a casteless and classless
society.
 He considered Vedas as India’s Rock of Ages and gave the slogan of ‘Go Back to the Vedas’.
 He introduced a complete overhaul of the education system. He is considered one of the
visionaries of modern India.
 He opened Dayanand Anglo Vedic Schools in 1886. The first DAV school was established by
Mahatma Hansraj in Lahore. He wrote an important book Satyarth Prakash.

Lala Lajpat Rai  After getting influenced by Arya Samaj he set up DAV School in Lahore.
 He believed the ideas of Hinduism should be combined with Nationalism keeping in mind the
vision of a secular state.
 He fought against untouchability and was associated with Hindu Mahasabha.
 In 1907 he was deported to Mandalay but returned later due to lack of evidence.
 He found Home Rule League of America in 1917 New York. From here he got moral support for
Indian independence.
 He was also member of Labour Party in Britain. He founded the Hindu Relieve Movement in
1897 to prevent famine-stricken people being converted to Christianity by the missionaries.
 He wrote biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi and Shivaji in 1896 and Dayanand Saraswati and Sri
Krishna in 1898.
 He setup National College in Lahore to promote national education. Bhagat Singh studied in this
college.
 He also founded Hisar Arya Samaj, Hisar Congress and Hisar Bar Council.
 He was the editor of Arya Gazette. He co-founded Punjab National bank in 1894 from Lakshmi
Insurance Company.
 He was leading a silent protest in 1928 in Lahore against Simon Commission when he was
brutally lathi-charged by the SP James Scott. He died the few weeks later because of the injuries.

BC Pal  He was born on 7th November 1858 in the Sylhet district of Bangladesh. He studied and later
taught in University of Calcutta.
 He was a supporter of widow-remarriage. He married a widow after the death of his first wife.
 He was also a member of Braham Samaj.
 He was a pioneer of extremist nationalism.
 He was opposed to the views of Mahatma Gandhi and hence in the last 6 years of life he stayed
away from Congress.
 He published- Bengal Public Opinion, The Tribune and New India.
Sayed Ahmed Khan  He was a reformist, educationalist as well as modernizer of Muslim community.
 He started Aligarh Movement to remove enmity between Muslims and the British Government.
 He re-interpreted Islam and supported modern education. He founded Scientific Society in 1863
at Gazipur (UP) to translate scientific text to Urdu.
 He founded Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College in 1857 which later became Aligarh Muslim
University.
 He believed that Hindus and Muslims have different political opinions. This is a way gave rise to
two-nation theory. And hence he is called as the Father of Two-Nation Theory.
 He published Asar-us Sanadeedd a work on monuments in Delhi. He started a journal in 1866
named Indian Institute Gazette.
 He also started a magazine Tahzib-ul-Akhlakh published in 1888 and 1889.

DK Karve (1858-  He was a social reformer born in Maharashtra. He was pioneer in supporting women education.
1962) He was popularly known as Maharshi Karve.
 In his honour Queen’s Road in Bombay is renamed as Maharshi Karve Road.
 He established first university for women in India as SNDT Women’s University inspired from
Japan’s Women University.
 He also established Widow Remarriage Association in 1883 and founded Hindu Widows Home in
1896 (an educational institution).
 In 1958 government issued commemorative stamps to mark his birth centenary. This was the
first time a living person was pictured on a stamp.
 He was also awarded Bharat Ratna in 1958.

Subhash Chandra  Born on 23rd Jan 1897 in Cuttack Orissa. His birth anniversary is celebrated as Parakram Diwas.
Bose  He cleared Indian Civil Services in 1919 but resigned later. He considered Swami Vivekanand as
his spiritual guru and Chittranjan Das as his political mentor. He worked as an editor for Das’s
newspaper- Forward and his own newspaper Swaraj.
 He actively participated in Salt Satyagraha and vehemently opposed the suspension of Civil
Disobedience Movement. He won the Presidential elections in Haripura (1938) and Tripuri
(1939). In Tripuri he defeated Pattabhi Sitaramaiya but had to leave the post and INC due to
ideological differences with Mahatma Gandhi.

Free Indian Legion-

 It was a military unit formed during the Second World War as part of German army. It aimed at
becoming the Liberation Force for British Ruled India. It had Indian prisoners of war and
expatriates in Europe. It was also called as ‘Tiger Legion’ and ‘Azad Hind Fauj’.
 The preparations started when Bose arrived at Germany in 1941 seeking aid.

Indian National Army

 Bose reached Singapore that was controlled by Japanese, in 1943. And from here he issued his
famous ‘Delhi Chalo’ movement and announced the formation of Azad Hind Government and the
Indian National Army on 21st October 1943.
 Before this Mohan Singh along with Japanese Major Iwaichi Fujiwara formed the INA that
consists of prisoners of war of British-Indian army captured by Japanese in Malaya and Singapore.
 Later it also included Indian civilians from South-East Asia. And its strength grew upto 50,000.
 INA reached borders of India through Imphal.
 In 1945 British put the INA men on trial. This led to a widespread agitation among the people as
well as the army and there were countrywide demonstration.

Death
 He is believed to have died in a plane crash in 1945. But many theories believed that he was alive
till later years also.

Sachin Sanyal  He was the co-founder of Hindustan Republican Association created to carry out armed
resistance against the British Empire. He also founded a branch of Anushilan Samiti in Patna.
 He along with Rashbehari Bose attacked Lord Hardinge in the Delhi Conspiracy Case.
 He was also involved in Gadhr Conspiracy and was the mentor of Chandrashekhar Azad and
Bhagat Singh.
  He was sentenced to imprisonment in Andaman and Nicobar where he wrote Bandi Jeevan in
1922. He was again sent in 1925 after the Kakori Conspiracy. He died in the cellular prison on 7th
February 1942.

PC Roy  He was known as the Father of Indian Chemistry. He was India’s first modern researcher. He was
trained at University of Edinburg. He worked in Presidency of Calcutta and then Calcutta
University.
 He discovered the stable compound Mercurous Nitrate in 1895.
 The British government first honoured him with the title of CIE (Companion of the Indian
Empire), and then with the Knighthood in 1919.
 In 1920, he was elected General President of the Indian Science Congress.
 He established Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Works in 1901.
 He was a rationalist and completely against Caste system.
 A postage stamp was issued to commemorate his birth anniversary on 2nd Aug 1961.

Alluri Sitaram Raju  He was born in present day Andhra Pradesh in late 19th century. He was very effective in guerilla
resistance against British.
 He channelized the discontent of hill people of Ganjam district. The British questioned the podu
that is shifting cultivation of the hill people. The Forest Act of 1882 banned the collection of
Minor Forest Produce.
 While the tribals were subjected to exploitation by muttadars, village headmen commissioned by
the colonial government to extract rent, the new laws and systems threatened their way of life
itself.
 Strong anti-government sentiment, shared by the Muttadars who were aggrieved by the
curtailment of their powers by the British, exploded into armed resistance in August 1922.
 Several hundred tribals led by Raju attacked the Chintapalle, Krishnadevipeta and Rajavommangi
police stations in the Godavari agency.
 The Rampa or Manyam Rebellion continued in the form of a guerrilla war until May 1924, when
Raju, the charismatic ‘Manyam Veerudu‘ or Hero of Jungle, was finally captured and executed.
 The Rampa Rebellion coincided with Mahatma Gandhi‘s Non-Cooperation Movement.

Dada Bhai Naoroji  He is known as the Grand Old Man of Indian Nationalism. He was an ‘Unofficial Ambassador of
India’ to England.
 He was elected to Bombay Municipal Cooperation and Town Council during the 1870s.
 Elected to the British Parliament in 1892 [1st Asian], he founded the India Society (1865) and the
East India Association (1866) in London.
 He was elected thrice as the President of the INC. He became the president of the Congress party
in 1886, 1893, and 1906.
 He demanded Swaraj as national demand for the first time at the Calcutta session of Congress in
1906
 After his death, Dadabhai Naoroji was referred to as the ―Father of the Nation’ by Gandhiji and
as ―Father of the Indian National Congress by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru.
 His major contribution to the Indian nationalist movement was his book Poverty and Un British
Rule of the British in India (1901). In this book, he put forward the concept of DRAIN OF WEALTH‘.
 He stated that in any country the tax raised would have been spent for the wellbeing of the
people of that country. But in British India, taxes collected in India were spent for the welfare of
England.
 Naoroji argued that India had exported an average of 13 million pounds worth of goods to Britain
each year from 1835 to 1872 with no corresponding return. The goods were in lieu of payments
for profits to Company shareholders living in Britain, guaranteed interest to investors in railways,
pensions to retired officials and generals, interest for the money borrowed from England to meet
war expenses for the British conquest of territories in India as well as outside India. All these,
going in the name of Home Charges, Naoroji asserted, made up a loss of 30 million pounds a year.

Rabindranath  Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright,
Tagore composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter.
 He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual
 Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh
 and beautiful" poetry of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European and the first lyricist
to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
 agore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and
magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. His songs are known as Rabindra
Sangeet.
 He was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Referred to as "the Bard of Bengal"
 During Constructive Swadeshi period Rabindranath Tagore was one of the central figures who
popularised such ideas through his writings. He outlined the constructive programme of
Atmashakti (self-help).
 Tagore called for economic self- development and insisted that education should be provided in
swadeshi languages.
 He also made the call for utilising melas, or fairs, to spread the message of atmashakti. This
became the creed of the whole of Bengal and swadeshi shops sprang all over the place selling
textiles, handlooms, soaps, earthenware, matches and leather goods
 Rabindranath Tagore wrote India's national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. He also wrote Amar Sonar
Bangla, the national anthem for Bangladesh. The Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his
work.
 He was awarded a knighthood in 1915, but he repudiated it in 1919 as a protest against the
Amritsar (Jallianwalla Bagh) Massacre.
 Viswa Bharti University, which was known as Shantiniketan founded by Rabindranath Tagore.

Major Works →
 Tagore‘s most notable work of poetry is Gitanjali: Song Offerings, for which he received the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 1913.
 Other notable poetry publications include Sonar Tari and Manasi.
 He wrote novels, plays, and short stories in both languages, including the plays Chitra and The
Post Office.
 He is credited with pioneering the short story form in Bengali literature, with some of his best
work collected in The Hungry Stones and Other Stories and The Glimpses of Bengal Life.

Abanindranath  Abanindranath Tagore took birth in a family of Tagores of Jorasanko in Kolkata in 1871.
Tagore  He was a nephew of Rabindranath Tagore.
 In his youth, Abanindranath received training in European and Academic style from European
artists.
 However, during the last decade of the 19th century, he developed distaste for European
naturalism (which represented things closer to the way one sees them - inspired by the principles
of natural science).
 In the last decades of the nineteenth century, a new art movement emerged which received its
primary stimulus from the growing nationalism in India. In Bengal, a new group of nationalist
movement gathered around Abanindranath Tagore.
 He was the creator of the iconic ‘Bharat Mata’ painting. Victoria Memorial Hall is the custodian
of the Rabindra Bharati Society collection, the single-largest collection of works by the artist.
 His Books Rajkahini, Buro Angla, Nalak, and Khirer Putul were landmarks in Bengali language
children's literature and art.

Bengal School of Painting-

 It is also called the Renaissance School or the Revivalist School, as it represented the first
modern movement of Indian art.
 It rediscovered the glories of Indian art and consciously tried to produce what it considered a
truly Indian art inspired by the creations of the past.
 Its leading artist was Abanindranath Tagore and its theoretician was E.B. Havell, the principal of
the Calcutta School of Art.

BR Ambedkar  He was born on 14th April 1891 in Mhow, now called as Ambedkar Nagar. He was also called as
Baba Saheb.
 He was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee and hence is called as Father of Indian
Constitution.
 He was a jurist and economist. Ambedkar was the against caste-based discrimination. He
 advocated for rights of Dalits to get education.
 He established Bahishkrit Hitkarni Sabha to promote education and economic status of Dalits.
 He was part of Bombay Presidency Committee. He also worked with Simon Commission.
 He started a journal Mooknayak, Equality Janta and Bahishkrt Bharat.
 n 1927, he launched active agitation against untouchability. He organised and agitated for the
right of Dalits to enter temples and to draw water from public water resources.
 He condemned Hindu scriptures that he thought propagated caste discrimination. Samaj Samata
Sangh established in September 1927 by Ambedkar for the propagation of social equality.
 He also worked as Minister of Labour in the Viceroy‘s Executive Council. He was a resident of
Bombay Presidency, but was elected to Constituent Assembly from WB.

Pigali Vaikanyya  He was born in a Telugu Brahmin family at Bhatlapenumarru, near Machilipatnam, in what is
now the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
 Designer of India‘s National Flag: Pingali Venkayya, a freedom fighter and the designer of India‘s
National Flag was a follower of Gandhian principles, and it was upon the request of Mahatma
Gandhi that he designed the Indian National Flag with saffron, white and green colours with
chakra in the middle.
 Initially, Venkayya came up with saffron and green colours, but it later evolved with a spinning
wheel at the centre and a third colour-white.
 The flag was officially adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1931.
 Educational institution in Machilipatnam: He was an agriculturist and also an educationist who
set up an educational institution in Machilipatnam. A postage stamp was issued to
commemorate him in 2009
 He wrote a book titled ―National Flag for India, which was published in 1916.

Sri Aurobindo  Aurobindo Ghose was born in Calcutta on 15th August 1872. He was a yogi, seer, philosopher,
poet, and Indian nationalist who propounded a philosophy of divine life on earth through spiritual
evolution. He died on 5th December 1950 in Pondicherry.
 Aurobindo‘s pragmatic strategies to get rid of British rule marked him as ―the Prophet of Indian
Nationalism.
 He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1943 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in
1950.
 From 1902 to 1910 he partook in the struggle to free India from the British.
 The partition of Bengal in 1905 provoked Aurobindo to leave his job in Baroda and plunge into the
nationalist movement. He started the patriotic journal Bande Mataram to propagate radical
methods and revolutionary tactics instead of supplication.
 He was arrested thrice by the British — twice for sedition and once for conspiring to ―wage war.
 He was imprisoned in 1908 (Alipore Bomb case).
 Two years later he fled British India and found refuge in the French colony of Pondichéry
(Puducherry), gave up overt political activities and embraced spiritual pursuits, soon to emerge as
one of the most original thinkers, philosophers and spiritual masters.
 He met Mirra Alfassa in Pondicherry, and their spiritual collaboration led to ―Integral Yoga.
 Several Indians saw the Second World War as an opportune moment to get rid of colonial
occupation; Aurobindo, asked his compatriots to support the Allies and ensure Hitler‘s defeat.

Sardar Ajit Singh  He organised agitation by Punjabi peasants against anti-farmer laws known as the Punjab
Colonisation Act (Amendment) 1906 and administrative orders increasing water rate charges.
 He was an early protester in the Punjab region of India who challenged British rule, and openly
criticized the Indian colonial government.
 In 1907, he was deported to Mandalay Jail in Burma along with Lala Lajpat Rai. Ajit was arrested
for leading an agitation for peasant rights, popularly known as Pagri Sambhal Jatta.
 Form a revolutionary organisation called the Bharat Mata Society in 1907. He later launched the
Bharat Mata Book Agency.
 Later he fled to Iran, rapidly developed as a centre for revolutionary activities by groups led by
Sardar Ajit Singh and Sufi Amba Prasad who had worked there since 1909.
 In Paris, Singh built a network of solidarity with people who were struggling for India‘s liberation
in different parts of Europe.
 He also founded in this period the Indian Revolutionary Association (Bharatiya Krantikari Sangh).
 In 1918, he came in close contact with the Ghadar Party in San Francisco. In 1939, he returned to
Europe and later on helped Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in his mission in Italy.
 In 1946, he came back to India at the invitation of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. After spending some
time in Delhi, he went to Dalhousie & Singh died on 15 August 1947.

Anand Mohan Bose  He was the first Indian wrangler and received a First Class degree. Bose trained to become a
barrister in Britain and was admitted to the Bar in 1874.
 Bose was a member of the Brahmo Samaj and accompanied Keshub Chunder Sen to Britain in
February 1870. Indian Association of Calcutta 1876
o It is also known as the Indian National Association
o It was founded in 1876 by younger nationalists of Bengal led by Surendranath Banerjea
and Ananda Mohan Bose.
o The Indian Association was the most important of pre - Congress associations. It later
merged with the Indian National Congress in 1886.
 Bose joined the INC when it was established in 1885. In 1898, he presided over the 14th Session
in Madras.
 Sadharan Brahmo Samaj
o In 1878, Keshab‘s inexplicable act of getting his thirteen-year-old daughter married to
the minor Hindu Maharaja of Cooch-Behar with all the orthodox Hindu rituals caused
split in Keshab‘s Brahmo Samaj of India.
o After 1878, the disgusted followers of Keshab set up a new organisation, the Sadharan
Brahmo Samaj.
o Started by Ananda Mohan Bose, Shibchandra Deb and Umesh Chandra Datta. He and a
few other Indians founded "India Society" while in England.
 He was also involved with Sisir Kumar Ghosh's "Indian League." He spoke out against the
Vernacular Press Act and the reduction of the Indian Civil Service Examination's overall age limit.
Ananda Mohan was dubbed "Saint Bose" by his friends and admirers. Sister Nivedita referred to
him as "the forerunner of a new Knighthood of Civil Order."
 He presided over a protest meeting against Bengal partition held at Federation Hall in 1905 but
due to his ill health, his address was read by Rabindranath Tagore.

Badruddin Taiyyabji  First Muslim president of the Indian National Congress [after WC Bannerjee and Dadabhai
Naoroji] In 1895, he became the first Muslim judge of the Bombay High Court and third Indian to
hold such a prestigious title.
 Badruddin was also the first Indian to hold the post of Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.
 Taking inspiration from his elder brother, Camruddin, who was the first Indian solicitor admitted
in England and Wales, Badruddin joined Newbury High Park College in London in 1860. He came
back to India in December 1867 and became the first Indian barrister in the High Court of
Bombay.
 In 1885, he formed the Bombay Presidency Association along with Pherozeshah Mehta and
Kashinath Trimbak Telang.
 In 1885, he started working for the Indian National Congress [Mod. Leader]. In fact, Badruddin
and his brother Camruddin were among the core team members of Congress, who have founded
the party.
 He founded the Islam Club and the Islam Gymkhana to promote social interaction of the Muslim
community.
 Badruddin introduced Resolution No. XIII at the 1888 Allahabad Congress to conciliate Muslims.
He had also spoken against the zenana system.
 Badruddin founded the Indian Parliamentary Committee in England along with Naoriji and
Bonnerjee in 1893.

Bankim Chandra  He was one of the greatest novelists and poets of India. He was born on 27th June 1838 in the
Chattopadhya village of Kanthapura in the town of North 24 Parganas, Naihati, present day West Bengal.
 He composed the song Vande Mataram in Sanskrit, which was a source of inspiration to the
people in their freedom struggle o It is believed that he wrote the poem Vande Mataram to
counter the British attempt, and was later published in Bengali script in his novel Anandamath
(1882), set in the backdrop of Sanyasi Rebellion.
 During the Congress Session of 1896, the poem was first sung as a song by Rabindranath Tagore.
 In October 1937, the Congress adopted the first two verses of the song as the National Song of
India.
 In 1857 Chatterjee continued his studies and passed his B.A. Examination in 1859.
 The Lieutenant Governor of Calcutta appointed Bankim Chandra Chatterjee as Deputy Collector
in the same year. He was in Government service for thirty-two years and retired in 1891.
 He died on 8th April, 1894.
 His epic Novel Anandamath - set in the background of the Sanyasi Rebellion (1770- 1820), when
Bengal was facing a famine too - made Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay an influential figure on
the Bengali renaissance. He also founded a monthly literary magazine, Bangadarshan, in 1872,
through which Bankim is credited with influencing the emergence of a Bengali identity and
nationalism.
 The magazine stopped publication in the late 1880s, but was resurrected in 1901 with
Rabindranath Tagore as its editor.
 While it carried Tagore‘s writings - including his first full-length novel Chokher Bali - the new‘
Bangadarshan retained its original philosophy, nurturing the nationalistic spirit. o During the
Partition of Bengal (1905), the magazine played a vital role in giving an outlet to the voices of
protest and dissent. Tagore‘s Amar Sonar Bangla - the national anthem of Bangladesh now - was
first published in Bangadarshan.
 Durgeshnandini (1865) Kapalkundala (1866), Debi Choudhurani, Bishabriksha (The Poison Tree),
Chandrasekhar (1877), Rajmohan‘s wife and Krishnakanter Will.

BK Ghosh  Barindra Kumar Ghosh, the younger brother of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, was an Indian revolutionary
and journalist. Being born in England, he received education in Deoghar and military training
from Baroda.
 He was highly influenced by Aurobindo and thus, joined the revolutionary movement. He was
actively associated with Jatindra Nath Banerjee (a prominent freedom fighter, also known as
Niralamba Swami). In the year 1906, Barindra Kumar published the Bengali weekly Jugantar.
Later, the secret revolutionary arm Jugantar was formed under the guise of a fitness club in
Bengal.
 He, along with Jatindranath Mukherjee (or Bagha Jatin), was instrumental in recruiting young
revolutionaries. Maniktala, Kolkata, emerged as a secret place where the revolutionaries used to
manufacture bombs, and collected arms and ammunition.
 In the intensive police investigation following the murder attempt of Magistrate Douglas
Kingsford (1908 aka Alipore Bomb Case), Barindra and Aurobindo were arrested on 2nd May
1908 along with other freedom fighters.
 In the Alipore Bomb Case, Barindra Ghosh and Ullaskar Dutta (a member of the Jugantar party)
were sentenced to death. With the intervention of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, the sentence
was reduced to life imprisonment.
 In 1909, Barindra Kumar was deported to the Cellular Jail, Andaman. Upon his release from jail,
Barindra began his journalistic career and became associated with Dainik Basumati and the
Statesman.
Bhulabhai Desai  He participated in the Home Rule Movement (1916) and was imprisoned during Civil
Disobedience Movement. He represented INC in the Central Legislative Assembly for nine years.
 He formulated the Desai-Liaqat formula in 1944 for negotiations with the League.
 He advocated from the prisoners sides during the INA trials Indian National Army (INA) officers,
Shahnawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon were put on trial for treason.

C Rajagopalachari  He was a politician and lawyer from Tamil Nadu. He gave up his practice during NCM.
 He held the post of the General-Secretary of the INC in 1921-1922 and was a member of
Congress Working Committee from 1922 to 1924.
 He defended Indian Independence activist, P. Varadarajulu Naidu against charges of sedition in
1917. He hoisted the CDM in Tamil Nadu and was arrested for leading a Salt March from
Trichinopoly to Vedaranniyam on the Tanjore coast.
 He was also involved in the Vaikom Satyagraha movement against untouchability
 He was elected as the Chief Minister of Madras in 1937 Elections.
 He resigned from INC in 1942 for not accepting the Cripp‘s Proposal.
 He prepared the CR Formula (The Way Out) for Congress-League Co-operation.
 He served as the Governor of Bengal (August-November 1947) and was the first and last Indian
 Governor-General of India (1948-50).
 He became the Minister of Home Affairs in the country‘s first Cabinet.
 He resigned from the Indian National Congress and with NG Ranga, founded the Swatantra Party,
which fought against the Congress in 1959 He has written the song Kurai Onrum Illai, which is
sung in Carnatic Music.
 He was awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna' in 1954.

Chandrashekar  He was a famous revolutionary activist, member of the Hindustan Republican Association and
Azad leader of the Hindustan Social Republican Army.
 He gained his title ―Azad during the Non Co-operation Movement when he was arrested and the
court asked his name, he repeatedly answered ―Azad.
 He was involved in Kakori Conspiracy of 1925, Second Lahore Conspiracy, the Delhi Conspiracy,
the killing of Saunders in Lahore and Central Assembly bomb episode. He shot himself while
fighting with the police at Alfred Park in Allahabad.

Rajendra Prasad  Prasad‘s involvement in the country‘s freedom movement started during his student days when
he attended an Indian National Congress session as a volunteer in 1906.
 Formally, he joined the Indian National Congress in the year 1911, when the annual session was
again held in Calcutta.
 During the Lucknow Session of Indian National Congress held in 1916 he met Mahatma Gandhi.
During one of the fact-finding missions at Champaran, Mahatma Gandhi asked him to come with
his volunteers.
 He was so greatly moved by the dedication, courage and conviction of Mahatma Gandhi that as
soon as the motion of Non-Cooperation was passed by Indian National Congress in 1920, he
retired from his lucrative career of lawyer as well as his duties in the university to aid the
movement.
 He wrote articles for the revolutionary publications Searchlight and the Desh and collected funds
for these papers.
 He took an active role in helping people affected by the 1914 floods that struck Bihar and Bengal.
 He was elected as the President of the INC during the Bombay session in October 1934. He again
became the president when Subhash Chandra Bose resigned in 1939.
 He spent almost 3 years in jail after the Quit India Movement.
 After the formation of Interim Government of 12 nominated ministers under the leadership of
Jawaharlal Nehru on 2 September 1946, he was allocated the Food and Agriculture department
He was elected as the President of Constituent Assembly on 11 December 1946.
 On 17 November 1947 he became Congress President for a third time after J. B. Kripalani
submitted his resignation.
 He was re-elected for two consecutive terms in 1952 and 1957, and is the only President of India
to achieve this feat. [longest-serving president till date]
 He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1962.

Dinabandhu Mitra  He was a Bengali writer who highlighted the cause of Indigo planters through his play Neel
Darpan published in 1860.
 The play was translated in English by Madhu Sudan Dutt.
 The Indigo Revolt of 1859 – 60 in Bengal was one of the responses from the Indian farmer to the
oppressive policy of the British.
 Indian tenants were forced to grow indigo by their planters who were mostly Europeans.
 Used to dye the clothes indigo was in high demand in Europe. Peasants were forced to accept
meagre amounts as advance and enter into unfair contracts.
 Once a peasant accepted the contract, he had no option but to grow indigo on his land. The price
paid by the planter was far lower than the market price. Revolt was led by Digambar Biswas and
Bishnu Biswas.

GK Gokhale  Between 1899 and 1902, he was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council followed by work
at the Imperial Legislative Council from 1902 till his death (1915).
 At the Imperial legislature, Gokhale played a key role in framing the Morley-Minto reforms of
1909.
 Role in INC- He was associated with the Moderate Group of INC (joined in 1889). He became
 president of INC in 1905 in Banaras session.This was the time when bitter differences had arisen
between his group of ‘Moderates‘ and the ‘Extremists‘ led by Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar
Tilak among others.
 The two factions split at the Surat session of 1907.
 Related Societies and Other Works
o He established the Servants of India Society in 1905 for the expansion of Indian
education.
o He was also associated with the Sarvajanik sabha journal started by Govind Ranade.
o In 1908, Gokhale founded the Ranade Institute of Economics.
o He started english weekly newspaper, The Hitavada (The people's paper).
 Mentor to Gandhi - As a liberal nationalist, he is regarded by Mahatma Gandhi as his political
guru. Gandhi wrote a book in Gujarati dedicated to the leader titled ‘Dharmatma Gokhale’.

Gopal Hari  Deshmukh was an Indian activist, thinker, social reformer and writer from Maharashtra. His
Deshmukh original surname was Shidhaye.
 Because of 'Vatan' (right of Tax collection) that the family had received, the family was later
called Deshmukh. Deshmukh is regarded as an important figure of the Social Reform Movement
in Maharashtra.
 Deshmukh started his career as a translator for the government then under British Raj. In 1867,
the government appointed him a small cause judge in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
 He worked as a Diwan also in Ratlam state.
 The government had commended him with the honorifics 'Justice of Peace' and 'Raobahadur'
while he was still working. He retired as a sessions judge.
 He held many other important positions, including those of the Assistant Inam Commissioner,
Joint Judge of Nasik High Court, and Member of the Law Council.
 At age 25, Deshmukh started writing articles aimed at social reform in Maharashtra in the weekly
Prabhakar under the pen name Lokhitawadi
 In the first two years, he penned 108 articles on social reform. That group of articles has come to
be known in Marathi literature as Lokhitawadinchi Shatapatre.
 He promoted emancipation (liberation) and education of women, and wrote against arranged
child marriages, dowry system, and polygamy, all of which were prevalent in India in his times.
 Deshmukh founded a public library in Pune under the leadership of the then governor of the
state of Bombay, Henry Brown.
 He took a leadership role in founding Gyan Prakash, Indu Prakash, and Lokhitwadi periodicals in
Maharashtra.
 While Deshmukh was serving as a judge in Ahmedabad, he organized in that city annual speech
conferences on social issues under the sponsorship of Premabhai Institute, and also himself
delivered speeches.
 He established in Ahmedabad a branch of Prarthana Samaj, founded an institute promoting
remarriages of widows, and invigorated Gujarat Vernacular Society.
 He started a weekly Hitechchhu in both Gujarati and English.
 He also started " Gujarati Budhhi-Wardhak Sabha"

Surendranath  Born in Kolkata, West Bengal to a Bengali family, Surendranath Banerji was greatly influenced by
Banerjea the liberal and open-minded thinking of his father. Surendranath Banerji was also fondly known
as Rashtraguru (teacher of the nation).
 Banerji was the founder of the Indian National Association [or Indian Association of Calcutta].
The Indian Association was the first avowed nationalist organization.
 In 1868, Banerji travelled to England to sit for the Indian Civil Service Exam and though he cleared
the exam, he was prohibited from joining the services because of a dispute over his correct age.
 In 1871 he cleared the exam and was posted as an assistant magistrate in the Sylhet District (now
in Bangladesh).
 In 1875 Banerji became a professor of English at the Metropolitan Institute at Ripon College.
 On 26th July 1876, the Indian National Association was founded by Banerji and Anandmohan
Bose. Banerji launched action against the issue of age-limit restrictions for Indian students taking
the Indian Civil Service Exams through this organization. In 1879, Banerji published the
newspaper ‘The Bengalee‘. [bought it from Grish Chandra Ghosh]
 He was arrested in 1883 for certain controversial statements published in the paper. Banerji
 merged the Indian National Association with the Indian National Congress (founded in 1885 in
Bombay), because of their common vision and goals. Banerji was elected as Congress President in
Pune (1895) and in Ahmedabad (1902).
 Banerji was one of the most prominent and vocal leaders against the partition of Bengal in 1905.
He did not accept extremist views or the Non-Cooperation Movement of Mahatma Gandhi.
Banerji was a source of inspiration to other leaders such as Sarojini Naidu and Gopal Krishna
Gokhale.
 Banerji played a major role in the Swadeshi Movement. He supported the Morley-Minto
Reforms (1909) which was criticized by most Indians as being meaningless. Gradually, Banerji‘s
popularity as a moderate Indian politician began to decline.
 The British referred to him as ―Surrender Not Banerji. The British knighted him in 1921 for his
political support.
 Surendranath Banerji published a substantial work titled ―A Nation in Making for which he is
remembered. From 1921-1924, Banerji held the position of Minister for Local Self Government.
 He passed away on 6th August 1925 in Barrackpore, West Bengal.

Debendranath  His father, Dwarkanath Tagore, was a very wealthy Calcutta businessman and philanthropist who
Tagore along with Raja Rammohan Roy.
 He was the father of Rabindranath Tagore, a renowned Bengali poet, artist, writer and essayist.
Tattvabodhini Sabha, which was founded by Debendranath Tagore, started a monthly theological
journal named Tattvabodhini Patrika in Bengali.
 Tattvabodhini Sabha and Tattvabodhini Patrika, both focused on the systematic study of India‘s
past with a rational outlook and propagated the ideas of Raja Rammohan Roy. After some years,
Tattvabodhini Sabha was incorporated into the Bahmo Samaj. He gave a new life and vigour to
the Brahmo Samaj. Moreover, he also gave a definite form and shape to the theist movement.
 Debendranath worked on two fronts i.e. within Hinduism as the Brahmo Samaj was a reformist
movement and outside Hinduism, the Samaj opposed the Christian missionaries for their
attempts at conversion and their criticism of Hinduism.
 In 1844, Debendranath set up a Tatwabodhini Pathshala or Theological School to teach Vedanta
and train young men to teach the Brahmo religion.
 He made Keshab Chandra Sen the acharya, soon after Sen joined the Samaj in 1858. After the
dismissal of Keshab Chandra Sen as acharya in 1865, he and his followers founded the Brahmo
Samaj of India in 1866.
 While Debendranath Tagore‘s Samaj came to be known as the Adi Brahmo Samaj.
 He compiled and published the Brahma Dharma Grantha, which is a theistic manual of religion
and morals.

Henry Vivin Derozio  Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (18 April 1809 – 26 December 1831) was an Indian poet and assistant
headmaster of Hindu College, Kolkata.
 His brilliant lectures presented closely-reasoned arguments based on his wide reading. He
encouraged students to read Thomas Paine‘s Rights of Man and other free-thinking texts.
 Derozio promoted radical ideas through his teaching and by organizing an association for debate
and discussions on literature, philosophy, history and science.
 He inspired his followers and students to question all authority.
 Derozio and his famous followers, known as the Derozians and Young Bengal, were fiery patriots.
They cherished the ideals of the French Revolution (1789 A.D.) and the liberal thinking of Britain.
Derozio died of cholera in 1833.
 The Young Bengal Movement continued even after Derozio‘s sudden death.

Bhagat Singh  He was born on 28th September 1907.

 He was a supporter of Satyagraha and non-violence. As a kid he supported Non-Cooperation
Movement and believed that it would made India achieve freedom. But he was petrified when
the movement was called off after Chauri- Chauri.
 Bhagat Singh was 11 years old when the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre happened.
 He rejected the philosophy on Gandhi and resorted to Marxist ideologies. And later he adopted
violent means to fight British.
 He founded Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha in 1926. It aimed at encouraging peasants and
workers against British rule.
  In 1928 he changed the name of Hindustan Republican Association to Hindustan Socialist
Republican Association.
 On 8th April 1929 he threw a bomb on Central Legislative Assembly along with Batukeshwar Dutt.
 He was arrested and was charged with Saunders murder case along with Rajguru and Sukhdev.
 The trio was ordered to hang on 24th March 1931. But when the news spread people crowded
around the jail to stop the hanging. The officers in the jail decided to hang the bodies that night
itself. The trio was hanged on 23rd March. And the bodies were disposed around the river after
mutilation.
 He published – Why Am I And Atheist: An Autobiographical Discourse. Jail Notebooks and Other
Writings, Ideas of Nations.
Asfaqulla Khan  He was born in Shahjahanpur in 1900. He was involved in Non-Cooperation Movement. He was
greatly disappointed by its withdrawal.
 He was associated with HSRA. He wanted to free the country through violent struggle.
 Through his party he aimed at establishing a Federal Republic of United State of India by an
organized armed rebellion.
 He was tried for Kakori Robbery. And for this Bismil Khan, Rajendra Lahari and Roshan Singh
were given Life sentence.
 He was hanged on 19th December 1927 at Faizabad jail.

Madan Mohan  He was a great educationist, pioneer, an eloquent rhetorician, and a national leader.
Malviya  He took part in numerous activities like the freedom struggle movements, promotion of
industries, the economic and social development of the country, education, religion, social
service, development of Hindi language and many other issues of national importance throughout
his life. He was given the title of ‘Mahamana‘ by Mahatma Gandhi and the second President of
India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan gave him the status of a ‘Karmayogi‘.
 Role in Freedom Struggle: In the freedom struggle, he was midway between the Liberals and the
Nationalists, the Moderates and the Extremists, as the followers of Gokhale and Tilak were
respectively called. In 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Salt Satyagraha and the Civil
Disobedience Movement, he participated in it and courted arrest.
 He was elected as the President of the Congress committee (four times) in 1909, 1918, 1932 and
1933.
 Remembered for his role in ending the Indian Indenture System, especially in the Caribbean. o
Indentured labour was a system of bonded labour that was instituted following the abolition of
slavery in 1833.
 Indentured labour were recruited to work on sugar, cotton and tea plantations, and rail
construction projects in British colonies in West Indies, Africa and South East Asia.
 Apprehensive of the possibility of the British completely damming the flow of Ganga at Bhimgoda
in Haridwar, he set up the Ganga Mahasabha in 1905. He was a social reformer and a successful
legislator, serving as a member of the Imperial Legislative Council for 11 years (1909–20).
Popularized the term ‘Satyamev Jayate‘.
 However, the phrase originally belongs to the Mundaka Upanishad. The term now is the national
motto of India. Devnagri was introduced in the British-Indian courts because of Malviya‘s efforts
with the British government.
 Worked immensely for Hindu-Muslim unity. He is known to have given famous speeches on
communal harmony. He was expelled from the Brahmin community for expressing his views on
caste discrimination and Brahmanical patriarchy. He helped establish the Hindu Mahasabha in
1915.
 He founded the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1916.
 As a journalist, he started a Hindi weekly, Abhyudaya in 1907 and made it a daily in 1915 and also
Hindi monthly, Maryada in 1910. He started an English daily- Leader in 1909.
 Malaviya was the editor of Hindi weekly, the Hindustan and Indian Union.
 He was also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hindustan Times for many years.

Gopal Ganesh  He was an Indian social reformer, educationist, and thinker from Maharashtra
Agarkar  At one time a close associate of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, he was co-founder of multiple educational
institutes such as the New English School, the Deccan Education Society and Fergusson College
along with Tilak, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Mahadev Ballal Namjoshi, V. S. Apte, V. B. Kelkar, M. S.
Gole and N. K. Dharap.
  He was the first editor of the weekly Kesari and founder and editor of a periodical, Sudharak (in
1888). He was the second Principal of Fergusson College and served that post from August-1892
until his death.
 deological differences with Tilak caused him later to leave. They disagreed on the primacy of
POLITICAL REFORM versus SOCIAL REFORM, with Agarkar believing that the need for social
reform was more immediate.
 In Sudharak, in which he campaigned against the injustices of untouchability and the Caste
system. Agarkar abhorred blind adherence to and glorification of tradition and the past.
 He supported widow remarriage.

Sardar Vallabhbhai  Born on 31st October 1875 in Nadiad, Gujarat. First Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of
Patel India.
 He always requested the people of India to live together by uniting (Ek Bharat) in order to create
a foremost India (Shresth Bharat).
 This ideology still reflects in the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative which seeks to make India Self-
Reliant.
 Headed various Committees of the Constituent Assembly of India, namely:
o Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights.
o Committee on Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas.
o Provincial Constitution Committee
 He worked extensively against alcohol consumption, untouchability, caste discrimination and for
women emancipation in Gujarat and outside.
 He integrated the farmer‘s cause in Kheda Satyagraha (1918), Sarabandi (no tax) Campaign of
1922 and Bardoli Satyagraha (1928) with the national freedom movement.
 Women of Bardoli bestowed the title ‘Sardar‘ on Vallabhbhai Patel, which means a Chief or a
Leader‘.
 Remembered as the ‘Patron Saint of India‘s Civil Servants‘as he established the modern all-India
services system.
 As India‘s first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Patel played a key role in the
integration of about 565 princely states into the Indian Union.
 Few princely states like Travancore, Hyderabad, Junagadh, Bhopal and Kashmir were averse to
joining the state of India.
 Known as the Iron Man of India for playing an important role in unification and integration of
Indian princely states into the Indian federation and for convincing princely states to align with
the Indian Union.

Veer Savarkar  Born on 28th May,1883 in Bhagur, a village near Nashik in Maharashtra.
 Founded a secret society called Abhinav Bharat Society.
 Went to the United Kingdom and was involved with organizations such as India House and the
Free India Society.
 He was the president of Hindu Mahasabha from 1937 to 1943.
 Savarkar wrote a book titled ‘The History of the War of Indian Independence‘ in which he wrote
about the guerilla warfare tricks used in 1857 Sepoy Mutiny.
 Arrested in 1909 on charges of plotting an armed revolt against the MorleyMinto reform (Indian
Councils Act 1909).
 Arrested in 1910 for his connections with the revolutionary group India House.
 One of the charges on Savarkar was abetment to murder of Nashik Collector Jackson and the
second was waging a conspiracy under Indian Penal Code 121-A against the King emperor.
 Following the two trials, Savarkar was convicted and sentenced to 50-years imprisonment also
known as Kala Pani and transported in 1911 to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands.
 While serving prison term in Nasik conspiracy case, Savarkar began focusing his energies to
writing and wrote Hindutva: who is a Hindu?, becoming the first person o to coin the term
‘Hindutva‘ and described a Hindu as a patriotic inhabitant of Bharatavarsha (thus going beyond
religious identity). In this sense, his vision of India was that of ‘Hindu Rashtra‘ and ‘Akhand
Bharat‘.
 His critics point out that to Savarkar, Hindu was a cultural and political identity to the exclusion of
Muslims and Christians.
  He also wrote— Transportation for life, Kale Pani and Gandhi Gondhal (Gandhi‘s confusion), a
political critique of Gandhi‘s policies. Denied pen and paper, Savarkar wrote on prison walls with
thorns and pebbles and even memorised thousands of lines of his literary work.
 In 1937, with the grant of provincial autonomy, Savarkar was finally released from jail and the
same year got elected as President of the Hindu Mahasabha (1937-43).
 Death: He died on 26th February 1966 due to fasting on his own wish of death.

MN Roy  Manabendra Nath Roy (born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, better known as M. N. Roy; 21 March
1887 – 25 January 1954) was an Indian revolutionary, radical activist and political theorist, as well
as a noted philosopher in the 20th century.
 Roy was the founder of the Mexican Communist Party and the Communist Party of India
(Tashkent group).
 He was also a delegate to congresses of the Communist International and Russia's aide to China.
 In the aftermath of World War II Roy moved away from orthodox Marxism to espouse the
philosophy of radical humanism, attempting to chart a third course between liberalism and
communism.

VK Chiplunkar  Was a Marathi writer, whose writings have had a decisive influence on modern Marathi prose
style. He was the son of the writer and scholar Krushnashastri Chiplunkar.
 In 1880, he founded (together with Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and Bal Gangadhar Tilak) the
newspapers Kesari and Mahratta
 He was also a co-founder The New English School in Pune.
 In 1874, he started the monthly Nibandhamala (A Garland of Essays) for which he is principally
remembered.
 In 1878, Chiplunkar founded another monthly named Kavyetihas Sangraha. The same year he
established two printing presses, namely Aryabhushan Press and Chitrashala press.

Jamnalal Bajaj  Jamnalal Kaniram Bajaj was an Indian industrialist. He founded the Bajaj Group of companies in
the 1920s, and the group now has 24 companies, including six that are listed on the bourses. He
was also a close and beloved associate of Mahatma Gandhi, who is known to have often declared
that Jamnalal was his fifth son.
 Mahatma Gandhi came to Wardha at the request and invitation of Shri Jamanalal Bajaj and
selected Segaon (later renamed Sevagram) in Wardha, as his land of action for the freedom
movement.
 Wardha thus got its historic prominence as a central place of Indian national movement and the
headquarters of All India Village Industries Association.
 As a result, Sevagram and Wardha were immortalized in the annals of freedom struggle. Before
Gandhiji's arrival, it was blessed with presence of Acharya Vinoba Bhave who set up a branch of
Satyagraha Ashram at Wardha as early as 1920's at the request of Shri Jamanalal Bajaj.
 Mahatma Gandhi led the freedom movement from Sevagram, as its main centre. The freedom
movement gained momentum with the involvement of Shri Jamnalal Bajaj in Wardha.
 This made Wardha the epicenter of many notable historic initiatives and activities, carried out for
the cause of India's freedom. Shri Jamnalal Bajaj wholeheartedly got involved and supported the
movement in a big way.
 He combined in his personality the roles of a constructive worker, social reformer, political leader,
freedom fighter, industrialist and founder of the Bajaj Group.

MC Stetalvad  Was an eminent Indian jurist, who became the first and longest serving Attorney General for India
(1950–1963).
 He also remained the Chairman of the first Law Commission of India (1955–1958), which has
mandated for legal reform in the country by Government of India.
 He became the first Chairman of the Bar Council of India in 1961 He was awarded the Padma
Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour by Government of India in 1957.

BN Rao  He was an Indian civil servant, jurist, diplomat and statesman known for his key role in drafting
the Constitution of India.
 He was the Constitutional Advisor to Constituent Assembly. He was also India's representative
to the United Nations Security Council from 1950 to 1952.
  One of the foremost Indian jurists of his time, Rau helped draft the constitutions of Burma in 1947
and India in 1950. As India's representative on the United Nations Security Council (1950–52), he
was serving as president of the council when it recommended armed assistance to South Korea
(June 1950).
 Later he was a member of the Korean War post Armistice United Nations Command Military
Armistice Commission (UNCMAC).
 A graduate of the Universities of Madras and Cambridge, Rau entered the Indian civil service in
1910. After revising the entire Indian statutory code (1935–37), he was knighted (1938) and made
judge (1939) of the Bengal High Court at Calcutta (Kolkata).
 His writings on Indian law include a noted study on constitutional precedents as well as articles on
human rights in India. He served briefly (1944–45) as Minister of Jammu and Kashmir state.
From February 1952 until his death, he was a judge of the International Court of Justice at The
Hague.
 Before his election to the court, he was regarded as a candidate for secretary-general of the
United Nations.

Alladi  He was an Indian lawyer and member of the Constituent Assembly of India, which was
Krishnaswamy Iyer responsible for framing the Constitution of India. He also served as the advocate general of
Madras State from 1929 to 1944.
 Alladi Ramakrishnan, an Indian physicist and the founder of the Institute of Mathematical
Sciences was his son.
 The main architect of the Indian Constitution, B.R. Ambedkar, who also chaired the constitution's
drafting committee, credited Iyer's contribution.
 He was a part of nine committees including the Drafting and Advisory Committees. In the
Constituent Assembly he defended suspension of certain political rights in circumstances of
national crisis.
 He favoured the role of the Supreme Court in taking important decisions related to the
interpretation of the Constitution of India. He felt that the Supreme Court had to draw the line
between liberty and social control.

Pherozshah Mehta  Sir Pherozeshah Merwanjee Mehta was an Indian politician and lawyer from Bombay.
 He was knighted by the British Government in India for his service to the law. He became the
Municipal commissioner of Bombay Municipality in 1873 and its president four times – 1884,
1885, 1905 and 1911.
 Mehta was one of the founding members and President of the Indian National Congress in 1890
held at Calcutta.
 Mehta went to England from India to study law at Lincoln's Inn in London.
 Here, he met and began association with fellow Indian barristers Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee
and Badruddin Tyabji. In 1868, he became the first Parsi barrister called to the Bar from Lincoln's
Inn.
 The same year, he returned to India, was admitted to the bar, and soon established a practice for
himself in a profession then dominated by British lawyers.
 It was during a legal defence of Arthur Crawford that he pointed out the need for reforms in the
Bombay municipal government.
 Later, he drafted the Bombay Municipal Act of 1872 and is thus considered the 'father of
Bombay Municipality'.
 Eventually, Mehta left his law practice to enter politics.
 Mehta was nominated to the Bombay Legislative Council in 1887 and in 1893 a member of the
Imperial Legislative Council.
 In 1894, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) and was
appointed a Knight Commander (KCIE) in 1904.
 In 1910, he started The Bombay Chronicle, an English-language weekly newspaper, which
became an important nationalist voice of its time, and an important chronicler of the political
upheavals of a volatile pre-independent India.

Romesh Chunder  Sir Romesh Chunder Dutt was born in Calcutta on August 13, 1848. He traveled to England in
Dutt 1868, accompanied by Surendranath Banerjea and Behari Lal Gupta, while still a B.A. student and
qualified for the Indian Civil Service.
  Dutt began an illustrious career in the Indian Civil Service and in Indian politics in the year 1871,
as the Assistant Magistrate of Alipore.
 Towards the end of his career, he was the Division Commissioner of Orissa, the highest position
reached by any Indian ever.
 While serving as the Commissioner of Orissa, he retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1897 at
the relatively young age of 49.
 After his retirement, he was able to devote his time entirely to public activities and writing, which
became a more fruitful portion of his career.
 He also served as the London Correspondent for a Calcutta-based journal The Indian Mirror
 Romesh Chandra Dutt did not engage in radical politics; instead, he used his authority and
position to reap benefits for his country through diplomacy, writing, and constant public opinion
creation.
 In 1898 he returned to England as a lecturer in Indian History at University College, London
where he completed his famous thesis on economic nationalism.
 He returned to India as Dewan of Baroda State, a post he had been offered before he left for
Britain.He was extremely popular in Baroda where the king, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III,
along with his family members call him ‘Babu Dewan‘, as a mark of personal respect.
 In 1907, he became a member of the Royal Commission on Indian Decentralisation.
 He was president of the Indian National Congress in 1899. He was also a member of the Bengal
Legislative Council.
 Some of his famous works are ‘Three Years In Europe' (1872), a history of Bengali literature titled
‗Bengali Literature‘ etc. He also penned four historical novels, 'Banga Bijeta,' 'Madhabi Kankan,'
'Rajput Jiban Sandha,' and 'Maharastra Prabhat,' all of which were published in 1879. 'Samaj'
(1885) and 'Sangsar' (1886) are two social novels he wrote.
 His political publications mainly dealt with the impoverished economic condition of India due to
British rule.

Batukeshwar Dutt  Was an Indian socialist revolutionary and independence fighter in the early 1900s.
 He is best known for having exploded two bombs, along with Bhagat Singh, in the Central
Legislative Assembly in New Delhi on 8 April 1929.
 After they were arrested, tried and imprisoned for life, he and Singh initiated a historic hunger
strike protesting against the abusive treatment of Indian political prisoners, and eventually
secured some rights for them.
 He was also a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.

Jatindranath  Jatindra Mohan Sengupta was born into a distinguished landlord family in Barama, Chittagong in
Sengupta present-day Bangladesh.
 His father was a member of the Bengal Legislative Council. He studied in Calcutta‘s Presidency
College.
 After that, he went to England to study law. While in England, he met and married his English wife
Nellie Sengupta, who was later to play an active role in the Indian freedom movement.
 Sengupta acquired his law degree from Downing College, Cambridge University and returned to
India to establish a successful law practice.
 He took part in the Bengal Provincial Conference in 1911 representing Chittagong. He then
joined the Indian National Congress.
 He was appointed the Chairman of the Bengal Reception Committees of the INC in 1921.
 He was also instrumental in forming a union of the employees of the Burma Oil Company.
 He participated in the non-cooperation movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and at that time, quit
his legal career owing to his political commitments. Sengupta was elected to the Bengal
Legislative Council in 1923.
 He served in various posts like the President of the Swaraj Party, President of the Bengal
Provincial Congress Committee and also the Mayor of Calcutta from 1929 to 1930.
 He was arrested in 1930 at a public meeting in Rangoon for charges of inciting people against the
government. Also for opposing the separation of India and Burma.
 He took part in the Round Table Conference in 1931 and submitted pictures of police atrocities
against the people.
 As a lawyer, he fought the case of several revolutionaries like Surya Sen, Premananda Dutta,
Ananta Singh and Ambika Chakrabarty.
  He was arrested several times because of his political activities. In 1932, he was detained in
Poona and later shifted to Darjeeling and then to Ranchi. His health suffered due to the frequent
arrests and he died in prison at Ranchi on 23 July 1933 aged 48.
 His wife continued her political struggle in India. She died in 1973. He was given the honorific title
‘Deshapriya‘.

MG Ranade  Popularly referred to as Justice Ranade, was an Indian scholar, social reformer, judge and author.
He was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress party and owned several
designations as member of the Bombay legislative council, member of the finance committee at
the centre, and judge of the Bombay High Court, Maharashtra.
 As a well- known public figure, his personality as a calm and patient optimist influenced his
attitude towards dealings with Britain as well as reform in India. During his life he helped to
establish the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Maharashtra Granthottejak Sabha, and edited a Bombay
Anglo-Marathi daily paper, the Induprakash, founded on his ideology of social and religious
reform.
 Poona Sarvajanik Sabha (1867)- Object of serving as a bridge between the government and the
people. body is considered as a precursor to the Indian National Congress which was also formed
in Maharashtra In 1875 the Sabha sent a petition to the House of Commons demanding India's
direct representation in the British Parliament Mahadev Govind Ranade, also ran the Deccan
Education Society.
 Indian Social Conference- met annually from its first session in Madras in 1887 at the same time
and venue as the Indian National Congress. It could be called the social reform cell of the Indian
National Congress, in fact. The conference advocated inter-caste marriages, opposed polygamy
and kulinism.
 It launched the ‘Pledge Movement‘to inspire people to take a pledge against child marriage.
 Link with INC → Indian National Congress did not want to include social reforms in its
deliberations and decided to form a separate body for such a purpose. Congress was founded in
1885 in Bombay, its organizers had a feeling that along with the political topic, a place should be
given to the discussion of social topics also. R. Raghunath Rao and MG Ranade addressed the
congress on the subjects related to social reforms.
 The National Social Conference met annually from 1887 to 1895 as part of the INC Sessions. As an
economist he taught the Indians of his generation the value of modern industrial development.
He remarked that factories could, far more effectively than Schools and Colleges give a new birth
to the activities of a nation. He was given the title of Rao Bahadur.
 Published works
o Rise of the Maratha Power.
o Ranade's Economic Writings (edited by Bipin Chandra) o Essays on Indian Economics
(1899)
o Introduction to the Peishwa's Diaries: A Paper Read Before the Bombay Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society.

Pattabhi  Was an Indian independence activist and political leader in the state of Andhra Pradesh. He ran
Siyarammaiya for the presidency of the Indian National Congress as the candidate closest to Mohandas Gandhi,
against Netaji Subash Chandra Bose in Tripuri Session of 1939.
 He lost owing to Netaji's rising popularity and the belief that Pattabhi favoured the inclusion of
Tamil-majority districts in a future Telugu state in independent India. Serving on the Congress
Working Committee when the Quit India Movement was launched in 1942, Pattabhi was arrested
with the entire committee and incarcerated for three years without outside contact in the fort in
Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.
 During this time he maintained a detailed diary of day-to-day life during imprisonment, which was
published later as Feathers and Stones.
 He is also the author of The History of the Congress published in 1935 with an introductory note
given by the Rajendra Prasad. His other popular publication was Gandhi and Gandhism.

Rash Behari Bose  He was born in Bardhawan, West Bengal. Although he was more interested in revolutionary
activities, he earned a degree in medical science and engineering. Bose learned the tricks of
making crude bombs even before he had passed matriculation.
 His sacrifices and organisational skills formed a big part in India‘s struggle for independence.
  He was one of the key organisers of Ghadar revolution that aimed to attack the British army from
the inside. It helped in activating an uprising in India.
 In 1913, he met Jatin to discuss the possibilities of an all-India armed rising of 1857 type. Then,
they worked in cooperation, in extending the Bengal plan to Punjab and the upper provinces
German Plot‘ or ‘Zimmerman Plan‘. As the plan for revolution did not succeed, he escaped to
Japan in 1915.
 He also played a crucial role in organising the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj).
 He performed a key role in establishing the Indian Independence League.
 He attempted to assassinate Lord Hardinge by throwing a bomb at his parade in Delhi on
December 23, 1912.
 He escaped the arrest but several of his confidants were arrested and hanged for the famous
Lahore Conspiracy Case. Rash Behari Bose escaped from India in 1915 and lived in Japan as an
escapee.
 In 1943, he handed over the charge of Azad Hind Fauj to Subhas Chandra Bose.
 The Japanese government had honoured him with the ‘Order of the Rising Sun‘.

MK Gandhi  Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born at Porbandar in Kathiawar Gujarat on 2‘October 1869.
He was born in a well to do Vaishya family which was closely connected with the Jain sect with
whom ahimsa is a cardinal principle.
 Gandhi went to England in 1881 to study law and returned to India after ten years as a young
barrister and began practicing law in Bombay High Court. However, unable to establish a
successful practice there, he soon shifted to Rajkot and took up the work of petition-writing for
earning his livelihood.
 In 1893, Gandhi sailed to Durban (Natal province) in connection with a legal case of Dada
Abdulla and Co., an Indian firm doing business in South Africa. When he returned to India in 1915
he had a record of fighting against inequalities imposed by the racist government of South Africa
(apartheid).
 Africa Gandhi wanted to return to India. At that time Gokhale was in London and he wanted that
Gandhi should meet him first before he returned to India. Accordingly, Gandhi sailed for England.
 By the time he reached London, First World War had been declared. In a meeting of Indians,
Gandhi expressed the view that Indians residing in England ought to help Britain in war effort and
that England‘s difficulty should not be turned into India‘s opportunity.
 He insisted on rendering all possible help and organised an Ambulance Corps which, in spite of all
difficulties, helped the British in their time of need. The British authorities thanked Gandhi by
honouring him with Kaiser-e-Hind Gold Medal in 1915.
 On 9th January 1915, Gandhi finally returned to India at the age of 46. The moderate leader
Gokhale was Gandhi‘s political guru in India. In 1915, he set up his India ashram originally known
as Satyagraha Ashram which was later shifted to a place on the banks of River Sabarmati and
came to be known as the Sabarmati Ashram (June 1917).
 Gandhi lived here for nearly 12 years with his friends and followers, learning and practicing the
ideas of truth and non-violence.

Govind Vallabh  Resident : Uttarakhand, Almora

Pant  Established an organisation called Prem Sabha (reforms org.) Joined the Congress in December
1921 and soon joined the NCM.
 He was the first Chief Minister of UP (1946 -1954) and prepared the ―Pant Report on agrarian
reforms in UP. He abolished Zamindari System in UP.
 He was elected as the Home Minister in 1955 and is a recipient of ‘Bharat Ratna'.

Indulal Yagnik  He was a social reformer freedom fighter and journalist from Gujarat. He participated in Home
Rule Movement and Kheda Satyagraha.
 He was member of Antyaj Seva Mandal and set up schools for tribal children.
 He presided over the Akhil Hindu Kisan Sabha in 1942.
 He founded the Gujarat Vidyapeeth. He established Maha Gujarat Janta Parishad in in the year
1956. It started Mahagujarat Movement.
 It was based around the demand for the creation of a separate state of Gujarat for Gujarati-
speaking people from the Bombay state in 1956.
 It led to the creation of two states on a linguistic basis- Gujarat and Maharashtra
  Newspapers/Journals - Navjivan Ane Satya (monthly), Nutan Gujarat (daily).

Subramanyam  Was a Tamil writer, poet, journalist, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot.
Bharti He was bestowed the title "Bharathi" for his excellence in poetry.
 He was a pioneer of modern Tamil poetry and is considered one of the greatest Tamil literary
figures of all time.
 He is popularly known by his mononymous title "Bharathi/ Bharathiyaar," and also by the other
title "Mahakavi Bharathi" ("the great poet Bharathi").
 His numerous works included fiery songs kindling patriotism during the Indian Independence
movement.
 He fought for the emancipation of women, against child marriage, vehemently opposed the caste
system, and stood for reforming society and religion. He was also in solidarity with Dalits and
Muslims.

Satyendranath  Satyendranath Tagore was an Indian Bengali civil servant, poet, composer, writer, social reformer
Tagore and linguist from Kolkata, West Bengal.
 He was the first Indian who became an Indian Civil Service officer in 1863.
 He was a member of Bramho Samaj.

JB Kriplani  Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani popularly known as Acharya Kripalani, was an Indian politician,
noted particularly for holding the presidency of the Indian National Congress during the transfer
of power in 1947 and the husband of Sucheta Kripalani.
 Kripalani was an environmentalist, mystic and independence activist who was long a Gandhian
socialist, before joining the economically right wing Swatantra Party later in life.
 Following his education at Fergusson College in Pune, Kriplani worked as a schoolteacher before
joining the freedom movement following Gandhi‘s return from South Africa.
 He was a professor of English and History
 He grew close to Gandhi and at one point, he was one of Gandhi's most ardent disciples.
 He had served as the General Secretary of the INC for almost a decade. He had experience
working in the field of education and was made the president to rebuild the INC.
 Disputes between the party and the Government over procedural matters affected his
relationship with the colleagues in the Government.

Dwijinderlal Ray  Dwijendralal Ray, also known as D. L. Ray, was an Indian poet, playwright, and musician.
 He was known for his Hindu mythological and nationalist historical plays and songs known as
Dwijendrageeti or the Songs of Dwijendralal, which number over 500, create a separate subgenre
of Bengali music.

Mukunda Das  Mukunda Das was a Bengali poet, ballad singer, composer and patriot, who contributed to the
spread of Swadeshi movement in rural Bengal.

Mahadev Desai  Mahadev Haribhai Desa was an Indian independence activist, scholar and writer best
remembered as Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary.
 He has variously been described as "Gandhi's Boswell, a Plato to Gandhi's Socrates, as well as an
Ānanda to Gandhi's Buddha.
AO Hume  Was a British civil servant, political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British
India.
 He was the founder of the Indian National Congress.
 A notable ornithologist, Hume has been called "the Father of Indian Ornithology" and, by those
who found him dogmatic, "the Pope of Indian Ornithology.

Jayaprakash  A freedom fighter from Bihar, he is popularly known as Loknayak. He was a follower of Marxist
Narayan philosophy and advocated for the nationalization of heavy industries and abolition of Zamindari.
He joined INC on Nehru‘s offer and was jailed during CDM.
 He formed the All India Socialist Party in 1934.
 He actively participated in Quit India Movement and was imprisoned
 In 1952- formed the Praja Socialist Party (PSP). He Joined the Bhoodan Movement of Vinoba
Bhave.
  He started a program for social transformation named ‘Sampoorna Kranti' (total revolution) in
1974 against corruption in public life.
 In 1975, he protested against the National Emergency and founded the Janata Party.
 This program targeted the Indira Gandhi Regime as she was found guilty of violating electoral
laws by the Allahabad High Court.

Jatindranath Das  Was an Indian independence activist and revolutionary who worked to make India independent
from the British Raj and was a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Hunger strikes in
1925 he was arrested for his political activities.
 He went on a hunger strike to protest the ill-treatment meted out to the political prisoners.
 On 14 June 1929, he was again arrested for revolutionary activities and was imprisoned in Lahore
Jail to be tried under the supplementary 2nd Lahore Conspiracy Case.
 Jatin died in the jail after 63 days of hunger strike against the discriminatory practices and poor
conditions in jail.
 There was a widespread protest in the country following Das‘s death. Two Indian members of the
Punjab Legislative Assembly resigned and Motilal Nehru moved an adjournment motion in the
Central Legislative Assembly. The motion was passed by 55 votes against 47.
 Jawaharlal Nehru commented on Das, ―Another name has been added to the long and splendid
roll of Indian martyrs.
 Subhas Chandra Bose remarked that Das was the ‘young Dadhichee’ of the country comparing
Das to the ancient Indian sage Dadhichee who gave up his life for a noble cause.

Kalpana Dutt  A woman revolutionary from Bengal, she was influenced by Surya Sen, hence joined the
Chittagong Republican Army in 1930.
 She was sentenced to transportation for life for participating in Chittagong Armoury Raids.
 After her release in 1936, she joined the Communist Party of India & married Puran Chand Joshi,
the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India in 1943.

Maulana Abul  Born in 1888 in Mecca, Saudi-Arabia.

Kalam Azad  Azad was a brilliant debater, as indicated by his name - Abul Kalam which literally means ―Lord
of Dialogues. Contributions (Pre-Independence) He was a proponent of Hindu Muslim unity,
opposed to Partition.
 In 1912, he started a weekly journal in Urdu called Al-Hilal which played an important role in
forging Hindu-Muslim unity after the bad blood created between the two communities in the
aftermath of Morley-Minto reforms (1909) ==> Separate Electorates
 Azad also started another weekly called Al-Balagh with the same mission of propagating Indian
nationalism and revolutionary ideas based on Hindu-Muslim unity.
 In 1916, the government banned this paper too and expelled Maulana from Calcutta and exiled
him to Bihar from where he was released after the First World War 1920.
 Azad supported the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22) started by Gandhiji and entered the
Indian National Congress in 1920. In 1923, he was elected as the prez of INC. At an age of 35, he
became the youngest person to serve as the prez of the INC.
 Maulana Azad was arrested in 1930 for violation of the salt laws as part of Gandhiji‘s Salt
Satyagraha. He was put in Meerut jail for a year and a half.
 He again became the Prez of Congress in 1940 and remained in the post till 1946.
 He headed the Jamiat-ul-Ulema (1924), Nationalist Muslim Conference, Shimla Conference
(1945) and negotiated with Cabinet Mission, 1946 Elected as the member of Constituent
Assembly in 1946 and became Minister of Education and Arts in the Interim Government.

KM Munshi  Indian independence movement activist, politician, writer and educationist

 A lawyer by profession, he later turned to author and politician.
 He founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational trust, in 1938. Before independence of
India, Munshi was part o f Indian National Congress and after independence, he joined Swatantra
Party. Munshi held several important posts like member of Constituent Assembly of India,
minister of agriculture and food of India, and 2nd governor of Uttar Pradesh. In his later life, he
was one of the founding members of Vishva Hindu Parishad.
 He joined Indian Home Rule movement & in In 1917, he became secretary of Bombay presidency
association. 1927, he was elected to the Bombay legislative assembly
  In 1930 Participated in the civil disobedience movement & got arrested
 In 1934, he became secretary of Congress parliamentary board.
 In 1937 Elected again Bombay presidency election and became Home Minister of the Bombay
Presidency In 1940 Munshi was again arrested after he took part in Individual satyagraha
 Books → ‘I Follow the Mahatma', ‘The Creative Art or Life', ‘Akhand Hindustan’, and Pilgrimage
to Freedom’

Lala Hardayal  He completed his bachelor‘s degree from Delhi‘s St. Stephen‘s College and his master‘s from
Punjab University both in Sanskrit.
 In 1905, he was awarded two scholarships to Oxford University. He also pursued his doctoral
degree from London University.
 In London, he met and was influenced by Shyamji Krishna Varma, the lawyer-revolutionary who
founded → Indian Home Rule Society, India House and The Indian Sociologist in London.
 Har Dayal also came under the influence of V D Savarkar and Madame Cama.
 Inspired by the revolutionary ideals, he abandoned his scholarships and the ICS and returned to
India in 1908.
 He said, “No Indian who really loves his country ought to compromise his principle and barter his
rectitude for any favour whatever at the hands of alien oppressive rulers of India.
 He wrote many provocative pieces against the government and so the British government
imposed a ban on his writings. He was advised to go abroad by Lala Lajpat Rai.
 He went to various places such as Paris, Algeria, Martinique and the United States.[Bhai
Parmanand persuaded him to go to the USA] He lived a life of austerity and was developing his
own take on religion and anarchism.
 He was also influenced by the works of Karl Marx. Har Dayal set up Guru Gobind Singh Sahib
Educational Scholarship for Indian students with the help of Tarak Nath Das and others and even
set up a residence for these students in USA, on the lines of India House of Shyamji Krishna
Varma. In the US in 1911, Har Dayal came to be involved with industrial unionism.
 In Oakland, he founded the Bakunin Institute of California and described it as the ‘first monastery
of anarchism‘.
 He was greatly enthused by the assassination attempt [by Basant Kumar Biswas] on Viceroy
Hardinge in India and he addressed the Indian community there and asked them to fight for
independence by force. He founded [along with others] the Gadar Party in 1913.
 He was arrested by the US government for spreading anarchism.
 He later went to Berlin and lived in Sweden for ten years where he was a professor of Indian
philosophy.
 In 1915, Har Dayal and Barkatullah became actively involved in the Berlin Committee and its goal.
 His works include ‘Thoughts in Education‘, ‘Social Conquest of Hindu Race‘, ‘Forty Four Months
in Germany and Turkey‘, ‘Hints for Self Culture‘, ‘Bodhisatva Doctrines‘.

Shashipad Banerjea  He was a social worker and leader of the Brahmo Samaj who is remembered as a champion of
women's rights and education and as one of the earliest workers for labour welfare in India.
 He was the founder of several girls' schools, a widow's home, Temperance Societies, a workers'
organisation and the editor & founder of the journal Bharat Sramajibi.
 Banerjee became involved in the social reform movement in Bengal through the Brahmo Samaj
which he joined in 1861. Banerjee was an advocate of women's rights and education.
 He promoted the establishment of schools to train women teachers, organised several widow
remarriages and established a Widows' Home at Baranagar in 1887.
 He founded girls' schools in 1865 and 1871 and later established an institute for their higher
education.
 Banerjee is credited with founding the first women's journal named 'Antapur' in Bengali which
was headed by his two daughters and run exclusively by a team of women.
 Banerjee was a member of the Temperance movement in India and was a close associate of Mary
Carpenter whom he first met during her visit to India in 1866. On her invitation, Shasipada and
Rajkumari [his wife] paid a return visit to England in 1871.
 The Asiatic of London declared in 1872 that Rajkumari was "the first Hindu lady who has ever
visited England
 During the visit, Shasipada spoke at several meetings of the National Temperance League. At one
such meeting, he accused British rule of introducing the hitherto alien vice of intemperance to
 Hindu society. He also met and was received by a large number of common people and
dignitaries including the Secretary of State for India during this visit.
 In England he became a member of the Good Templars Body and also of the Order of the Day
Star Lodge and attended meetings of the National Indian Association and helped establish its
branches in other British cities.

K Kellapan  Resident → Kerala Kelappan was an Indian politician, independence activist, educationist and
journalist.
 During the Indian independence movement, he was the lead figure of Indian National Congress in
Kerala and was popularly known as Kerala Gandhi.
 After Indian independence, he held various seats in Gandhian organizations. He is the founding
member and president of the Nair Service Society and was also the founder of Kerala Kshetra
Samrakshana Samiti (Temple Protection Movement).
 Fought relentlessly against untouchability and caste-based discrimination.
 Along with K. Kumar, he became the earliest in Kerala to remove the suffix to his name that
implied caste-status
 He was a major influence on the Vaikom Satyagraha movement and later led the Guruvayur
Satyagraha in 1932.

Moh Ali Jinnah  Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was an Indian Muslim activist, prominent member of the All-India Muslim
League, journalist and a poet, a leading figure of the Khilafat Movement and one of the founders
of Jamia Millia Islamia.
 Jauhar was a product of the Aligarh Movement.
 He was elected to become the President of Indian National Congress party in 1923 and it lasted
only for a few months.
 He was also one of the founders and 14th president of the All-India Muslim League.

Madan Lal Dhingra  Dhingra was as an Indian revolutionary, pro-independence activist

 While studying in England, he assassinated William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, a British official.
 Dhingra arrived in London a year after the foundation of Shyamji Krishna Varma's India House in
1905. This organization was a meeting place for Indian revolutionaries located in Highgate.
Dhingra came into contact with noted Indian independence and political activists Savarkar and
Shyamji Krishna Varma, who were impressed by his perseverance and intense patriotism which
turned his focus to the independence movement.
 Savarkar believed in revolution and inspired Dhingra's admiration in the cult of assassination.
 Later He joined and had a membership in, a secretive society, the Abhinav Bharat Mandal
founded by Savarkar and his brother, Ganesh.
 Wyllie was the British resident to Nepal and the Princely state of Rajputana, and later, the
political aide-de-camp [kind of personal Secretary] to the Secretary of State for India, Lord George
Hamilton. On the evening of 1 July 1909, Dhingra, along with a large number of Indians and
Englishmen had gathered to attend the annual 'At Home' function hosted by the Indian National
Association at the Imperial Institute.
 When Curzon Wyllie was leaving the hall, Dhingra fired five shots right at his face, four of which
hit their target.
 Cawas Lalcaca (or Lalkaka), a Parsee doctor who tried to save Curzon Wyllie, died of Dhingra's
sixth and seventh bullets, which he fired because Lalcaca had come between them.
 Dhingra was arrested on the spot. He was arrested immediately by the police. Later Dhingra was
hanged on 17 August 1909 at Pentonville Prison.

Khan Abdul Gaffar  Pashtun leader, ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi.

Khan  Also known as Badshah Khan or Sarhadi (Frontier) Gandhi. Started first Pushto political monthly
Pukhtoon.
 Played active epart in Khilafat movement. He was arrested in 1921 and kept under solitary
confinement with his hands and feet tied. After his release in 1924 he was known as Fakr-e-
Afghan.
 He started a non-violent Kudai Khidmatgar Movement (Red Shirt Movement). It was a social
reform movement and played an active role in Civil Disobidience Movement.
 He was offered presidency of INC in 1931 which he refused calling himself as a Kudai Khidmadgar
 who only wants to serve. He resigned from INC in 1939 due to his differences in the was policy.
 He also opposed the Muslim League’s Demand for partition. And when INC accepted it he said to
the Congress “you have thrown us to the wolves”.

Shyamji  Resident (Born in) → Mandvi, Cutch State (now Kutch, Gujarat)
Krishnavarma  Shyamji was an Indian revolutionary fighter, an Indian patriot, lawyer and journalist who founded
the Indian Home Rule Society, India House and The Indian Sociologist in London.
 He pursued a brief legal career in India and served as the Divan of a number of Indian princely
states in India.
 He had, however, differences with Crown authority, was dismissed following a supposed
conspiracy of British colonial officials at Junagadh and chose to return to England.
 An admirer of Dayanand Saraswati's approach of cultural nationalism, and of Herbert Spencer. In
1905, he founded the India House and The Indian Sociologist, which rapidly developed as an
organised meeting point for radical nationalists among Indian students in Britain.
 Krishna Varma moved to Paris in 1907, avoiding prosecution.
 He got in touch with the nationalist Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a radical reformer and an
exponent of the Vedas, who had founded the Arya Samaj.
 He became his disciple and was soon conducting lectures on Vedic philosophy and religion. o
Varma became the first President of Bombay Arya Samaj. It was upon Dayanand's inspiration, he
set up a base in England at India House.

 Shyamji supported Lokmanya Tilak during the Age of Consent bill controversy of 1890. However,
he rejected the petitioning, praying, protesting, cooperating and collaborating policy of the
Congress Party, which he considered undignified and shameful.
 In 1897, following the harsh measures adopted by the British colonial government during the
plague crisis in Poona, he supported the assassination of the Commissioner of Plague by the
Chapekar brothers but he soon decided to fight inside Britain for Indian independence.
 On 18 February 1905, Shyamji inaugurated a new organisation called The Indian Home Rule
Society. The first meeting, held at his Highgate home.
 He founded India House as a hostel for Indian students which were formally inaugurated on 1 July
1905 BY Henry Hyndman, of the Social Democratic Federation, in the presence of Dadabhai
Naoroji, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madam Cama.
 Shyamji hoped India House would incubate Indian revolutionaries and Bhikaiji Cama, S.R. Rana,
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, and Lala Hardayal were all
associated with it.

V. O. Chidambaram  Resident → Tamil Nadu (Madras Presidency) Was an Indian freedom fighter and former leader of
Pillai the INC.
 He founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in 1906 to compete against the monopoly
of the British India Steam Navigation Company (BISNC). He launched the first indigenous Indian
shipping service between Tuticorin (India) and Colombo (Sri Lanka) with the Swadeshi Steam
Navigation Company (SSNC), competing against British ships.
 Tuticorin Port Trust, one of India's thirteen major ports, is named after him.
 At one time a member of the Indian National Congress, he was later charged with sedition by the
British government and sentenced to life imprisonment, and his barrister license was revoked.
 From 1892 Chidambaram Pillai was influenced by Tilak Maharaj and became his disciple. Along
with Subramanya Siva and Subramanya Bharathi, he became a prominent spokesperson for the
cause in the Madras Presidency.
 Following the partition of Bengal in 1905, Chidambaram entered politics, joining the Indian
National Congress and taking a hardliner stance.
 In response to the British India Steam Navigation Company's trade monopoly, Chidambaram
started an Indian-owned shipping company.
 He registered the Swadeshi Shipping Company in October 1906. Any Asian could become a
shareholder.
 On 23 February 1908 Chidambaram Pillai gave a speech at Thoothukudi, encouraging the
workers at Coral Mill (now part of Madura Coats) to protest against their low wages and harsh
working conditions.
 Workers of the Coral Mill went on strike lead by Subramanya Siva and Chidambaram himself.
 Their demands included incremental earnings, weekly holidays and other leave facilities.
 Later management accepted their demands.

Ram Prasad Bismil  Was an Indian poet, writer, revolutionary and an Indian freedom fighter who participated in the
Mainpuri Conspiracy of 1918, and the Kakori Conspiracy of 1925, and fought against British Raj.
 He also had a good command over Urdu and the Hindi languages and was an accomplished poet,
composing in these languages using the pen names Ram, Agyat and Bismil, the latter through
which he became famously known by.
 He was also a multilingual translator and his Hindi poem "Manipuri ki Pratigya (1918)" became
very famous.
 Bismil was hanged on 19 December 1927 by the British for his revolutionary activities. [Kakori
train robbery] He was associated with Arya Samaj where he got inspiration from Satyarth
Prakash, a book written by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He also had a confidential connection
with Lala Har Dayal through his guru Swami Somdev, a preacher of Arya Samaj.
 Bismil was one of the founding members of the revolutionary organization Hindustan Republican
Association. Bhagat Singh praised him as a great poet-writer of Urdu and Hindi, who had also
translated the books Catherine from English and Bolshevikon Ki Kartoot from Bengali.
 He immortalised the poem Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna, Man Ki Lahar and Swadeshi Rang as a war cry
during the British Raj period in India Ghulami Mita Do was his famous poem that denotes he was
not willing to negotiate or beg for his country‘s freedom, if the British did not accede, he was
willing to take it by force.
 The autobiography of Ram Prasad Bismil was published under the cover title of Kakori ke shaheed
by Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi in 1928.

Bhagwati Charan  Indian revolutionary, associated with Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. He was an
Vohra ideologue, organiser, orator and a campaigner. Vohra left college to join the non-cooperation
movement in 1921, and after the movement was called off, joined National College, Lahore
where he got a BA degree.
 It was there that he was initiated into the revolutionary movement. He along with Bhagat Singh
and Sukhdev started a study circle on the model of the Russian Socialist Revolution.
 In 1926, when the Naujawan Bharat Sabha revolutionary organization was formed by his friend,
he was appointed the propaganda secretary of the organization.
 On 6 April 1928, Vohra and Bhagat Singh prepared the manifesto of Naujwan Bharat Sabha and
urged the young Indians to have the triple motto "service, suffering, sacrifice", as their sole guide
to achieve the goal of independence.
 In September 1928, many young revolutionaries met at Ferozshah Kotla ground in Delhi and
reorganized the Hindustan Republican Association into the Hindustan Socialist Republican
Association (HSRA) under the leadership Chandrashekhar Azad.
 Vohra was appointed Propaganda Secretary and prepared the HSRA manifesto that was widely
distributed at the time of the Lahore Session of the Congress.
 In 1929 he rented room No. 69, Kashmir Building, Lahore and used it as a bomb factory.
 He planned and executed the 23 December 1929 bomb blast under the train of Viceroy Lord Irwin
on the Delhi-Agra railway line.
 The viceroy escaped unhurt and Mahatma Gandhi thanked God for the narrow escape,
condemning the revolutionary act through his article The Cult of Bomb.
 In response to Gandhi's article, Vohra, in consultation with Azad, wrote an article entitled
 The Philosophy of Bomb. It appealed to youths to come forward and join them.

NM Joshi  The social activist and leader of the Indian Trade Union, Narayan Malhar Joshi was born at
Goregaon in the Kolaba district (in today‘s Raigad Zilla) Maharashtra in 1879.
 Narayan Malhar Joshi was an Indian trade union leader and a follower of Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
Narayan Malhar Joshi founded the Social Service League in Bombay in 1911 with an Aim to secure
for the masses better and reasonable conditions of life and work.
 Joshi got involved in labor issues and initiated the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in the
year 1920 along with the Lala Lajpat Rai.
 Malhar Joshi was the general secretary of AITUC from the year 1925 to 1929 and from the year
1940 to 1948. He was president of Bombay Textile Labor Union.
 Among other titles, he is considered one of the pioneers in Modern Indian Social Work. On 20th
 September 1922, N M Joshi established an organization called the Sahakari Manoranjan Mandal.
In the year 1931, he left AITUC and established the All India Trade Union Federation.
 He was the key member behind various enactments for labor welfares like-
o Successive amendments of the Factory Act of 1881
o Workmen's Compensation Act (1924)
o Indian Trade Union Act (1926)
o Payment of Wages Act (1938)