Table of Contents

Great Personalities and Unsung Heroes ........................................................................................... 2

Great Personalities ................................................................................................................................... 2
Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928) ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) ................................................................................................................................... 4
Bipin Chandra Pal ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

Unsung Heroes ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Vasudev Balwant Phadke (1845-1883) ....................................................................................................................... 7
Sister Nivedita (1867-1911) ....................................................................................................................................... 8
Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar (1869-1912) .................................................................................................................... 9
Sardar Ajit Singh (1881—1947)................................................................................................................................ 10
Rash Behari Bose ..................................................................................................................................................... 10
Satyendranath Bose ................................................................................................................................................ 10
Madan Lal Dhingra .................................................................................................................................................. 11
G.D. Kumar .............................................................................................................................................................. 11
Taraknath Das ......................................................................................................................................................... 11

Author: Vishwajeet Kawar

Protégé of PMF IAS

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 Great Personalities and Unsung Heroes

Great Personalities

Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928)

• Lala Lajpat Rai (Lalaji), popularly known as 'Punjab Kesari', was born on 28 January 1865 in the
Ludhiana District of Punjab.
• Lala Lajpat Rai was an active member of Arya Samaj. In 1897, he founded the Hindu Relief Movement
to help the famine-stricken people and thus prevent them from falling into the clutches of the
missionaries.
• Lala Lajpat Rai was an extremist leader of the Indian National Congress and one of the members of the
Lal Bal Pal trio.
• Lalaji played an important role in the Swadeshi movement that started after the partition of Bengal.
The Government was so frightened that on 9 May 1907, it arrested Lala Lajpat Rai and put him in
Mandalay Fort.

Education
• A great educationist, Lalaji devoted a substantial part of his life, time, and energy to the cause of
education. In 1886, he helped Mahatma Hansraj establish the nationalistic Dayananda Anglo-Vedic
(DAV) School in Lahore.

Indian Home Rule League of America (1917)

• Lala Lajpat Rai went to England in 1914. Later, the government barred him from returning to the country.
• In 1916, when Tilak and Mrs Annie Besant started the Home Rule Movement in India, Lala Lajpat Rai,
in 1917, started the "Indian Home Rule League of America" with its headquarters at Broadway, New
York. He stayed in the United States from 1917 to 1920.

Working Class Movement

• As Lalaji took much interest in the condition of the working class people, he was also elected as the
President of the All India Trade Union Congress.

President of INC (1920)

• Lala Lajpat Rai was elected President of the Indian National Congress in the Calcutta Special Session
of 1920. Under his leadership, Congress supported Gandhi‘s plan for non-cooperation with the
Government.

Servants of the People Society (1921)

• In 1921, Lalaji founded Servants of the People Society. The society had done commendable work in
the field of politics, social welfare, harijan uplift, rural reconstruction, education, etc.

Swaraj Party (1923)

• Lalaji was arrested in 1921. After his release and the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement,
Lajpat Rai joined the Swarajya Party, founded by C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru.

Literary Work
• Lala Lajpat Rai wrote biographical books on Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji, Shrikrishna and Swami
Dayanand.
• Some of his noteworthy literary works include "The Story of My Deportation" (1908), "Arya Samaj"
(1915), "The United States of America: A Hindu's Impression" (1916), "England's Debt to India" (1917),
and "Young India: An Interpretation and a History of the Nationalist Movement from Within".

Unhappy India
• In her book, "Mother India", in 1927, an American writer, Miss Katherine Mayo, unfairly attacked Indian
civilisation and culture. In response, Lala Lajpat Rai authored a book called Unhappy India in 1928.
• In the 1920s, when Indian nationalism was gaining strength, the British and their supporters tried to
justify the British Empire. Katherine Mayo, an American, was one of them. She believed in white
supremacy, and so she felt that the “White Man” had a burden to “civilise” the “savages”. Through her
book, she sought to justify India’s need for subjugation under British rule.
• Through Unhappy India, Lala Lajpat Rai debunked Mayo’s arguments. He argued that most of India’s
socio-economic problems were created by colonial rule. Through this, he sought to appeal to the
Western, particularly American audience, that India was not what Mayo represented her to be. Rai also
appealed to them to support India’s demand for self-rule.

Protest Against Simon Commission

• The Government of India Act of 1919 provided for the appointment of a Statutory Commission at
the end of its ten-year work. As a consequence, the Simon Commission was appointed in 1927.
• Indians vehemently opposed its all-white composition, and in December 1927, the Indian National
Congress passed a resolution for its boycott.
• Lala Lajpat Rai led the procession to demonstrate against the Simon Commission. While leading the
boycott procession at Lahore on 30 October 1928, he received Lathi blows on his chest, which
ultimately brought about his death on 17 November 1928.

[UPSC CSE 2018] He wrote biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji and Shrikrishna,
stayed in America for some time; and was also elected to the Central Assembly. He was:
a) Aurobindo Ghosh
 b) Bipin Chandra Pal
c) Lala Lajpat Rai
d) Motilal Nehru

Answer: Option C

Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950)

• Aurobindo Ghosh, born on 15 August 1872 in Calcutta district, was an Indian nationalist, poet,
philosopher, and yogi. He played an active role in the Indian Freedom Movement till 1910, after
which he became a spiritual reformer.
• When he was seven years old, Aurobindo went to England to study. He ranked 11th in the Indian Civil
Service exam and completed a two-year probation. However, he skipped the final interview as he did
not want to serve the British.
• Aurobindo returned to India in 1893 and worked as a professor at Baroda College from 1893 to
1906. After the Partition of Bengal, he quit his post in 1906 and went to Calcutta, where he soon
became one of the leaders of the Nationalist movement.
• Aurobindo emphasised:
❖ Complete freedom from British rule (Swaraj)
❖ Boycott of foreign goods and institutions and passive resistance
❖ Spiritual nationalism
• In 1906, Aurobindo became the first principal of the Bengal National College.
• In 1907, Aurobindo faced sedition charges for leading against the British and his patriotic writings
against the British. After being acquitted, he presided over the Nationalist Conference of Congress
party in Surat.
• In 1908, Aurobindo was tried in the Alipore conspiracy case. After a year’s imprisonment as an
undertrial prisoner, he was acquitted due to the lack of evidence.

Spiritual Quest
• Aurobindo retired from nationalist politics in 1910 and began his spiritual journey. He moved to
Pondicherry, where he established an Ashram.
• In his spiritual journey, Aurobindo was influenced by Bankim’s Anandamath and a Maharashtrian
yogi, Vishnu Bhaskar Lele.
 The Aurobindo Ashram was founded in Puducherry by Aurobindo Ghosh and Mirra Alfassa (The
Mother) in 1926.

Literary Work
• Aurobindo associated himself with journals and periodicals like the Jugantar, Bande Mataram, and
the Karmayogi, through which he criticised British imperialism and preached a revolutionary concept
of nationalism.
• Some of his important writings are The Life Divine, Savitri, Essay on the Gita, Defense of Indian
Culture, etc.

Renaissance of Hinduism
• In the 19th century, India came under British rule. Christian missionaries and British historians harshly
criticised the Hindu religion.
• The Hindus responded by initiating reforms in their religion and establishing new political
associations to spread their ideas of reform and social development among the people.
• The process of the renaissance of Hinduism started with Raja Rammohun Roy and was further
developed by Arya Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Satyashodhak Samaj (Jotiba Phule), and other
associations.
• Swami Vivekananda founded Ramakrishna Mission, which played a key role in the renaissance and
reformation of Hindu society.
• There was a new interpretation of Vedanta philosophy, and Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo
Ghosh were two major interpreters of Neo-Vedanta philosophy. They believed that Neo-Vedanta
philosophy would increase the cultural strength of Hinduism and pave the way for the growth of
nationalism in modern India. They interpreted Indian nationalism in the context of reformation and
rejuvenation of Hinduism.

Aurobindo on Renaissance of Hinduism

• Sri Aurobindo carried forward the renaissance process of Hinduism, which was left incomplete by
Swami Vivekananda and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.
• Aurobindo carried forward the development of Neo-Vedanta and declared that the true message of
Vedanta was selfless action or Karma Yoga.

Spiritualism and Nationalism

• Aurobindo encouraged the people to fight against exploitative British rule. He explained to the people
the message of the Bhagavad Gita, which teaches us to fight injustice. He also explained the theory
of Karma Yoga, in which one is encouraged to perform duties without being attached to the fruits of
labour.

Criticism of British rule

• Aurobindo criticised British rule in India, disagreeing with the moderates who believed British rule in
India was a divine dispensation. Aurobindo believed that British rule ruined India's economy and
prevented it from developing as an independent nation.
• According to Aurobindo, India was held in subjection for the benefit of the British ruling classes, and the
British claim of good government was false. A good and efficient government, he believed, was no
substitute for self-government and freedom.

Aurobindo's Critique of Moderate Leadership

• Aurobindo was highly critical of the approach of moderate leaders to politics. He wrote a series of
articles in the Indu Prakash titled 'New Lamps for Old' and severely criticised the politics of petitions
and prayers of the moderate leaders.
• Aurobindo argued that the politics of prayers and petitions, which was a viable strategy during Ram
Mohan Roy's period, was no longer effective in later years. He advocated for the adoption of new and
stronger methods.
 Tagore portrayed Aurobindo as the Messiah of Indian Culture and Civilization.
 C R Das hailed Aurobindo as the ‘poet of patriotism, the prophet of nationalism and the lover of
humanity.’

[UPSC CSE 2008] Who among the following gave a systematic critique of the moderate
politics of the Indian National Congress in a series of articles entitled New Lamps for Old?
a) Aurobindo Ghosh
b) R. C. Dutt
c) Syed Ahmed Khan
d) Viraghavachariar

Answer: Option A

Bipin Chandra Pal

• Bipin Chandra Pal was one of the extremist leaders of the Indian National Congress. Bipin Chandra
Pal, along with Lala Lajpat Rai and Tilak, are called "Lal Bal Pal".
• Bipin Chandra was an important leader during the Swadeshi struggle that began after the Partition of
Bengal in 1905. Aurobindo Ghosh and Pal were recognised as the chief exponents of a new national
movement centred on the ideals of Purna Swaraj, Swadeshi, boycotts, and national education.
• Bipin Chandra was imprisoned for six months for his refusal to give evidence against Aurobindo
Ghosh in the Bande Mataram sedition case.

Philosophy
• During his student days in Calcutta, Pal came in contact with Keshub Sen, the great Brahmo leader who
inspired him to join the Brahmo Samaj movement. Later, he turned to Vedanta and eventually became
an advocate of Sri Chaitanya's Vaishnava philosophy.

Journalism
• Bipin Chandra started newspapers such as Paridarshak (1880), New India (1901), Bande Mataram
(1906) (Aurobindo Ghose was editor), Swaraj and Hindu Review (1913).
• Bipin Chandra was Assistant Editor of the Bengal Public Opinion and the Tribune (Lahore).

Book
• In his book, The New Economic Menace of India, Bipin Chandra demanded increased wages and
shorter hours of work for the Indian labourers.

Politics
• In politics, Bipin Chandra was initially influenced by and accepted Surendranath Banerjea as his guru,
but later, he worked in collaboration with Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghosh.
• At the Madras session of the Indian National Congress, held in 1887, Bipin Chandra strongly pleaded
for the repeal of the discriminatory Arms Act.

Unsung Heroes

Vasudev Balwant Phadke (1845-1883)

• Born in 1845 in the Kolaba district in a poor Brahmin family, Phadke was a revolutionary who sought
India's independence from the British Raj.
• In 1862, Phadke was amongst the early graduates of Bombay University. In 1863, he joined the
Military Accounts Department of the Bombay Government and then worked in various government
institutions, such as Grant Medical College and Commissariat Examiner’s Office in Mumbai, before
coming to Pune in 1865.
• Phadke's superiors denied him leave in 1869 to attend his ailing mother, which developed a profound
dislike for the British government. The following events gave impetus to anti-British feelings of the
Phadke:
➢ Deccan riots (1875)
➢ The devastation caused in Western India by the famine of 1876-77: Phadke blamed British rule
for the famine and the subsequent hardship faced by the people.
➢ Removal of Maharaja of Baroda: The British Resident in 18755 accused Maharaja Malharrao
Gaikwad of Baroda of attempting to poison him, leading to the Maharaja's forced abdication.
• The activities of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha influenced him and added patriotism to his heart. Phadke
also attended the lectures by M.G. Ranade, which mainly focused on the economic exploitation of
India by the British. This further strengthened his resolve to fight the exploiters.
• Inspired by Sarvajanik Kaka’s vow to use exclusively Swadeshi goods, Phadke decided to use Khadi and
Swadeshi.
• Phadke founded an institution, the Aikya Vardhini Sabha, to educate the youth and ventilate popular
grievances.
• Phadke was moved by the plight of the farming community and resolved to immediately rise in an
armed revolt against the British and establish Swaraj. Unable to get support from the educated
classes, he gathered a band of people from the Ramoshi caste. Later, people from the Koli, Bhil, and
Dhangar communities were also included.

Rebellion
• In 1879, Phadke launched raids (Dacoity) on government treasuries and rich English businessmen to
obtain funds for revolutionary activities and to feed famine-affected farmer communities.
• To save himself, Phadke had to flee from village to village, sheltered by his sympathisers and well-
wishers, mostly from the lower class of society. Finally, he was captured in a temple in the village of
Dever Nadigi, in the Kaladgi District of Hyderabad, at 3 a.m. on 20 July 1879.
• Phadke was charged with collecting men, arms, and ammunition to wage war against the British
government of India. Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi (Sarvajanik Kaka) defended Phadke's case.
• Phadke was transported to jail at Aden but escaped from the prison by taking the door off from its
hinges on 13 February 1883. He was soon recaptured and then went on a hunger strike, dying on 17
February 1883.

Sister Nivedita (1867-1911)

• Margaret Nobel, later known as Sister Nivedita, was an Irish educationist, social activist, and disciple
of Swami Vivekananda.
• Sister Nivedita met Swami Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta in 1898. Swami
Vivekananda gave her the name Nivedita (meaning "Dedicated to God") when he initiated her into
the vow of Brahmacharya on 25 March 1898.

Educationist
• For Nivedita, education was an empowering tool. In 1898, she opened her experimental school in
the Bagbazar area in the northern part of Kolkata. She went door to door to beg for students from the
neighbourhood.
• Nivedita brought the adult and young widows to the fold of education and skill development. She
introduced handicrafts and vocational training along with conventional learning.

Active Supporter of the Independence Movement

• Nivedita used to take her senior students out to listen to the speeches of great leaders of the freedom
movement to imbibe in them the values of freedom struggle.
• During the Swadeshi Movement, she emerged as one of the prominent figures in the national
struggle. She actively encouraged young students to visit rural areas, promote political awareness
among women and farmers, and instil a sense of patriotism towards the country.

Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar (1869-1912)

• Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar was born on December 17, 1869, in the Deoghar district in
Jharkhand.
• Deuskar considered Bal Gangadhar Tilak as his political guru. He also started the Shivaji festival in
Bengal after Tilak initiated it in Maharashtra.
• Though of Marathi origin, Deuskar was brought up in a Bengali set-up and was a bridge between
Maharashtra and Bengal's renaissance. He wrote in most of the Bengali revolutionary magazines.

Swaraj
• Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar introduced the word "Swaraj" to Bengal during a festival celebrating
Chhatrapati Shivaji in 1902.

Desher Katha
• Deuskar influenced the Swadeshi movement and other national movements through his writings. In
his well-known work, Desher Katha, published in 1904, Deuskar comprehensively showed the impact
of colonialism on the Indian economy. It was later translated into Hindi as 'Desh Ki Baat'.
• Desher Katha gained wide publicity during the anti-partition agitation in Bengal because it was
written for the vernacular readers who could not comprehend either R C Dutta’s work "The Economic
History of India" or Dadabhai Naoroji’s work "Poverty and Un-British Rule in India."
• Desher Kathadrew the attention of officials. The Bengal government banned the book in 1910.

[UPSC CSE 2020] With reference to the book ‘Desher Katha’ written by Sakharam Ganesh
Deuskar during the freedom struggle, consider the following statements:
1. It warned against the Colonial State's hypnotic conquest of the mind.
2. It inspired the performance of swadeshi street plays and folk songs.
3. The use of ‘desh’ by Deuskar was in the specific context of the region of Bengal.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
a) 1 and 2 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: Option A
Sardar Ajit Singh (1881—1947)
• Ajit Singh was a revolutionary thinker and the uncle of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
• Ajit Singh led an agitation by Punjabi farmers against three farm-related acts implemented by the
government in 1906.
• These laws included the Punjab Land Alienation Act 1900, the Punjab Land Colonisation Act 1906,
and the Doab Bari Act. Unfortunately, instead of providing land ownership to farmers, these laws
resulted in them becoming sharecroppers.
• To fight against British rule and promote patriotism, Ajit Singh founded the Bharat Mata Society
(Anjuman-i-Muhibban-i-Watan), a secret society. The active members of this group participated in
the protest against the aforementioned farm-related acts. The protest was successful, and the British
government was forced to repeal these laws in 1907.
• However, Ajit Singh's leadership in the protest (Pagri Sambhal movement) led to his arrest and
deportation to Myanmar's Mandalay jail in 1907.

Rash Behari Bose

• Born on May 25, 1886, in Bengal, Rashbehari Bose played a crucial role in India's fight for freedom. The
Bengal partition in 1905 sparked his revolutionary spirit.
• Working at the Forest Research Institute, Bose learned to make crude bombs. In 1912, he planned a
bomb attack on Lord Hardinge in Delhi. He was also part of the Ghadar party's conspiracy in 1915,
aiming to spark a revolt within the army.
• A skilled master of disguise, Bose fled to Japan in 1915, posing as Rabindranath Tagore's relative. He
became a Japanese citizen and founded the Indian Club of Tokyo. In 1942, he established the Indian
Independence League in Tokyo.
• When Mohan Singh created the Indian National Army (INA) in Singapore, Rashbehari Bose got
excited and left Tokyo for Southeast Asia. In Bangkok, they decided to put the INA under the Indian
Independence League, with Rashbehari Bose as the chairman. When Subhash Bose came to
Singapore, Rashbehari Bose happily handed over control of the Indian Independence League and the
INA to him in July 1943.

Satyendranath Bose
• Satyendranath Bose is best known for a nationalist act that ultimately nullified the legal threat posed
to Aurobindo and others.
• In 1908, in the Alipore Bomb Case, the British wanted to hang Aurobindo for his involvement but
lacked evidence. One of the arrested protestors, Naren Goswami, turned out to be an approver.
• Satyendranath and Kanailal, who had evaded arrest, took matters into their own hands. They
expressed willingness to join Goswami and become approvers themselves to lure Goswami. On August
31, 1908, they met Goswami and, in the ensuing encounter, killed him.
• The law stipulated that a testimony in the Magistrate's Court could only be admitted as proof in the
Sessions Court once the Defence had exercised its right to cross-examine the witness. By assassinating
Goswami, the potentially incriminating evidence provided by him was rendered inadmissible in Court,
and hence, the legal threat posed to Aurobindo and other revolutionaries was nullified.
• The trial for Goswami's killing lasted two days, concluding in the execution of both Bose and Kanailal.

Madan Lal Dhingra

• Madan Lal Dhingra was born in Amritsar in 1883. He went to England in 1906 to study engineering.
• While in London, Madan met Veer Savarkar and was inspired by his revolutionary ideas. He realised
that sacrifices and actions, not words, were needed to gain India’s liberation.
• On 1 July 1909, at the Imperial Institute in London, he assassinated Lieutenant Colonel William
Curzon Wylie, who was considered an anti-Indian officer of the British regime.
• Madan was subsequently arrested, tried, and executed for his involvement in the assassination.

G.D. Kumar
• Guru Dutt Kumar, also known as G.D. Kumar alias Swami Muktanand or Moti Ram, was an Indian
revolutionary associated with the pioneers of the Ghadar movement.
• In 1907, Kumar went to America and came into contact with Tarak Nath Das. With Das, he started
preaching revolutionary ideas among immigrants.
• Kumar came to Vancouver at the end of 1909, where he started publishing a Gurmukhi monthly called
Swadesh Sewak. The British government banned this paper in 1911, and its entry into India was
prohibited.
• In November 1909, G.D. Kumar opened a hostel in Vancouver called the Swadesh Sewak (Servant of
the Motherland).
• In 1910, Kumar and Tarak Nath Das founded the United India House in Seattle, USA.
• In 1913, Kumar became the general secretary of the Hindustan Association of the USA.
• In 1918, Kumar took an active part in the Kartarpur (Jawalapur) riot case and was convicted of 10
years’ imprisonment. After release, he remained active as a Congressman and continued his participation
in the freedom movement.

Taraknath Das
• Taraknath Das, a Bengali Indian revolutionary, was an active member of the Anushilan Samiti.
• On the advice of Jatindranath Mukherjee, Das escaped initially to Japan and then moved to the United
States of America.
• Following the Bellingham riots of September 1907 against South Asian immigrants, Das started the
publication of an anti-British newspaper, ‘Free Hindusthan’ to champion the cause of these
immigrants.
• The newspaper, ‘Free Hindusthan,’ boldly condemned British policies, exposed atrocities committed
by the colonial rulers and called for a unified front against oppression.
• In 1913, Das came in contact with Har Dayal and got associated with the Ghadar Movement and its
anti-colonial activities.