Subhash Chandra Bose

Subhash Chandra Bose was born into an affluent Bengali family on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa. Subhash's public prosecutor father ensured that his son availed the best of education in eminent institutions such as Scottish Church College, Calcutta and Fitzwilliam College at Cambridge University. In 1920, at the insistence of his parents, Bose appeared in the prestigious Indian Civil Service and secured the fourth place.

During this period the civil disobedience movement called by Mahatma Gandhi was sweeping across the country and Bose resigned from the ICS in April 1921 to join his fellow countrymen in the freedom struggle. He joined the youth wing of the Congress Party and soon rose up the party hierarchy by virtue of his eloquence and leadership skills. At an early stage of his life Subhas Bose accepted Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das as his political guru.

Over a span of 20 years, Bose was imprisoned eleven times by the British, the first one being in 1921. In 1924, after a brief period of incarceration, Bose was exiled to Mandalay in Burma. Subhash Bose was imprisoned again in 1930 and deported to Europe. During his stay in Europe from 1933 to 1936, Subhash Bose zealously espoused the cause of Indian freedom while meeting a number of prominent European statesmen. In 1937, Bose married Emilie Schenkl who was his secretary.

Subhash Bose was twice elected president of the Indian National Congress (1938 and 1939) but following his disagreements with Mahatma Gandhi he relinquished his post and formed a progressive group known as the Forward Block. The Second World War broke out in 1939 and Bose launched a campaign of mass civil disobedience to protest against the Viceroy's decision to declare war on India's behalf. Bose was put behind the bars but because of his hunger strike he was later placed under house arrest.

Taking advantage of the laxity of the house guards and aided by his cousin Sishir Bose, Subhash managed to escape and traversing through enemy territories he reached Moscow. Bose tried to garner the help Nazi Germany but due to the indifferent attitude of Hitler and other German leaders he left for Japan and soon assumed the leadership of Indian National Army (INA) founded by Rash Behari Bose.

Bolstered by material assistance from the Japanese forces, the INA attacked the British forces in Manipur and Nagaland in northeastern India and hosted the National Flag in the town in Moirang, in Manipur. But with the defeat of Japan, the invasion by the INA soon petered out and Netaji was forced to retreat to Malaya. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose allegedly died in a plane crash over Taiwan, while flying to Tokyo on August 18, 1945.

Bhagat Singh

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The name Bhagat Singh has become a synonym of revolution. He was one of the great revolutionaries who made supreme sacrifice for the nation. Thousands of young people sacrificed their lives in the altar of India's liberation struggle but the name Bhagat Singh has a special place in the history of our independence. No other young revolutionary of India got much empathy in the minds of the people of India like Bhagat Singh. Still he is an inspiration source for the patriotic people of our motherland. It is important today to study the contributions of Bhagat Singh and his comrades when our country is again falling under the grip of imperialism and its designs.

               Bhagat Singh (September 27, 1907 - March 23, 1931) was an Indian revolutionary, considered to be one of the most famous martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle. For this reason, he is often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh (the word shaheed means "martyr"). Bhagat Singh was born into a Sikh family to Sardar Kishan Singh and Vidyavati in the Khatkar Kalan village near Banga in the Jalandhar district of Punjab. His uncle, Sardar Ajit Singh, as well as his father, were great freedom fighters, so Bhagat Singh grew up in a patriotic atmosphere. Ajit Singh established the Indian Patriots' Association, along with Syed Haidar Raza, to organize the peasants against the Chenab Canal Colony Bill. He also established the secret organization, the Bharat Mata Society. At an early age, Bhagat Singh started dreaming of uprooting the British empire. Never afraid of fighting during his childhood, he thought of "growing guns in the fields," so that he could fight against the British. The Ghadar Movement left a deep imprint on his mind. Kartar Sing Sarabha, hanged at the age of 19, became his hero. The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919 drove him to go to Amritsar, where he kissed the earth sanctified by the martyrs' blood and brought back home a little of the soaked soil. He studied in the D.A.V. School in Lahore. At the age of 16, he used to wonder why so many Indians could not drive away these fistful of invaders. In search of revolutionary groups and ideas, he met Sukhdev and Rajguru. Bhagat Singh, along with the help of Chandrashekhar Azad, formed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA). The aim of this Indian revolutionary movement was now defined as not only to make India independent, but also to create "a socialist India." During the Simon Commission, Sher-e-Punjab Lala Lajpat Rai was wounded and died later. To avenge his death, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru killed Mr. Saunders (one of the deputy officers in connection with the Simon Commission) 

When the British government promulgated the two bills "Trade Union Dispute Bill" and "Public Safety Bill" which Bhagat Singh and his party thought were Black Laws aimed at curbing citizens' freedom and civil liberties, they decided to oppose these bills by throwing a bomb in the Central Assembly Hall (which is now Lok Sabha). However, things changed, and the Britishers arrested Bhagat Singh and his friends on April 8, 1929. He and his friends wanted to be shot dead, since they were termed as prisoners of war. Their request was not fulfilled, and on March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru, and Sukhdev were hanged to death. This man's only mission in life was to see his country free from British rule. He did his best and when he was being led to the gallows, he was satisfied that he had lived up to his principles, irrespective of the consequences. The only thing that made him sad was that he couldn't do more for his country. 


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Encyclopedia of World Biography on Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi (1944-1991) entered Indian politics after the death of his younger brother Sanjay in 1980, serving as adviser to his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and as an elected member of Parliament. He became prime minister shortly after the assassination of his mother in 1984.

Rajiv Gandhi, India's sixth prime minister and general secretary of the Congress (I) party, was born on August 20, 1944, in Bombay, India. He was the grandson of India's first prime minister, Jawarharlal Nehru, and the eldest son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her journalist, parliamentarian husband, Feroze Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi). Brought up surrounded by politics, Rajiv Gandhi stayed out of the political world until the death of his younger brother Sanjay, who had been active politically as his mother's adviser and as a member of Parliament.

Gandhi's early years were spent at the prime minister's residence in New Delhi where his mother served as her father's official hostess. He was educated at Welham Preparatory and Doon schools, both elite Indian institutions. Following graduation from Doon School, Gandhi went to Britain where he attended the Imperial Scientific and Technical College in London and Cambridge University's Trinity College, studying mechanical engineering. His other interests included music (both Indian and Western), photography, ham radios, and flying.

While at Cambridge Gandhi met an Italian student studying English, Sonia Manio. They were married in New Delhi in 1968 and lived with his mother, who by then was prime minister. They had two children, a son, Rahul, and a daughter, Priyanka. Surrounded by political figures, the family nonetheless managed to keep its personal life out of the public eye.

Although he studied mechanical engineering, Gandhi chose to pursue a career as an airline pilot. Upon return to India he got his commercial pilot's license and joined Indian Airlines, the domestic carrier. He remained in this position until he entered politics.

Entrance into Politics

In June 1980 Sanjay Gandhi was killed while learning to fly when the plane he was piloting crashed in New Delhi. He had been instrumental as his mother's adviser in guiding Congress (I) party and governmental affairs from the mid-1970s on. He was also a member of Parliament elected from the Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh state of northern India.

After the death of his brother, his mother urged Gandhi to enter politics. Resigning his position with Indian Airlines, Gandhi served first as an adviser to his mother, and then, like his brother, entered Parliament by winning the seat made vacant by his brother's death. He was elected general secretary of the Congress (I) party and also supervised the completion of arrangements for the Asian Games which India hosted in 1982. Additionally, he remained one of his mother's chief advisers on a range of both domestic and foreign policy matters.

In dealing with party affairs, Gandhi showed little tolerance for those members who were incompetent, corrupt, or sycophantic followers of the Gandhi family. He started to streamline the Congress (I) organization by introducing modern managerial techniques and trying to bring younger, more dynamic people into the decision-making process. With these attempts and his rather gentle, soft-spoken personality, he gained an honorable reputation, although observers often wondered whether he had the political acumen and experience to deal with the knotty problems of state faced by his mother's administration, such as national integration and economic development.

The problem of national integration eventually catapulted Gandhi into the position of prime minister. In the northern state of Punjab demands by the predominant Sikh community had grown for more autonomy for the state, greater retention of the state's resources, and solution of border problems with neighboring states and had combined with what might be termed Sikh ethnic and religious revivalism. A small group of so-called "extremists" held what the government considered to be an untenable position on the issue of autonomy bordering on a call for complete independence. Talks between the government and Sikh leaders faltered, violence erupted, and some extremists were implicated in the murders of Punjab government officials. Those accused and some of their followers sought sanctuary in the Golden Temple, the most holy shrine of the Sikhs, in the city of Amritsar. They were protected essentially by the government's reluctance to violate holy places by sending in the police. The stalemate continued for about three years.

In the meantime, however, violence between various factions of the Sikh community escalated, and those hiding in the temple were accused of directing the murders of other Sikhs who disagreed with their position. Eventually the violence spread to the non-Sikh, primarily the Hindu population of Punjab. As it did, the government decided it had to act. In June 1984 troops were sent into the temple complex. During the armed confrontation most of those in the temple were killed, and hundreds of others throughout the Punjab were arrested. The government's action shocked the Sikh community and threats were made against the lives of the prime minister and other high ranking officials. The threat against Indira Gandhi was carried out on October 31, 1984, when Sikh members of her own bodyguard assassinated her.

Becomes Prime Minister

Rajiv Gandhi was then chosen by his party as prime minister. General elections to Parliament which normally would have been held in January 1985 were held one month early at the end of December 1984. The Congress (I) party won an overwhelming majority, securing 401 out of 508 contested seats. This was better than any previous electoral victory. Gandhi proved himself as a tireless and effective campaigner in the weeks preceding the election and was widely credited, along with an improved economy, with the party's success. His standing within the party was also improved by his denial of electoral districts to party members considered to be corrupt. In March 1985 elections were also held in 11 states for the states' assemblies. Although the Congress (I) party did not win in all 11, it did win in eight, and again Gandhi was credited with the success. He refused to let numbers of corrupt politicians run on the Congress (I) ticket.

Yet observers were skeptical. Gandhi entered politics and became prime minister as a result of his mother's death. Whether or not Gandhi's instincts about public policy could compensate for a lack of experience remained to be seen. He appeared to be off to a promising start in 1985 by initiating new talks with the Sikhs and attempting to streamline and modernize the administration. However, the vexing issues of national integration and economic development were still of paramount concern. With only minor diplomatic successes, Sikh radicalism did not cease during Gandhi's term in office.

Under his 1986-1990 plan Gandhi launched India towards strong economic growth by removing many restrictions on imports and encouraging foreign investment. Beyond this effort, Gandhi was seen as indecisive. Despite the firing of his mother's aides and surrounding himself with a constantly changing array of cabinet members, government corruption continued, including accusations that Gandhi and his party members were receiving kickbacks from a Bofors arms deal.

In the November 1989 elections a former Gandhi loyalist, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, led a coalition to unseat the ruling party hurt by the numerous charges of corruption and incompetence. The Congress (I) party lost its majority and Gandhi was forced to resign as prime minister. Although displaced, Gandhi's opposition to Singh's administration proved tireless. His determination to return to office inspired a campaign in 1991 that political analysts believed would result in an absolute majority for Gandhi and his party. But he would not resume his former position. On May 21, 1991, Gandhi was assassinated by a terrorist bomb while campaigning in Tamil Nadu. Tamil separatists claimed the killing was an act of revenge for Gandhi's intervention in the Sri Lanka civil war of 1987.

Jawaharlal Nehru Biography

Born: November 14, 1889 Died: May 27, 1964 Achievements: Took active part in Non-Cooperation Movement; elected President of the Allahabad Municipal Corporation in 1924, and served for two years as the city's chief executive; Presided over Congress' annual session in Lahore in 1929 and passed a resolution demanding India's independence; elected as Congress President in 1936, 1937, and 1946; became first Prime Minister of independent India; was one of the main architects of Non Aligned Movement.
Jawaharlal Nehru, also known as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, was one of the foremost leaders of Indian freedom struggle. He was the favourite disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and later on went on to become the first Prime Minister of India. Jawahar Lal Nehru is widely regarded as the architect of modern India. He was very fond of children and children used to affectionately call him Chacha Nehru.
Jawahar Lal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889. His father Motilal Nehru was a famous Allahabad based barrister. Jawaharlal Nehru's mother's name was Swaroop Rani. Jawaharlal Nehru was the only son of Motilal Nehru. Motilal Nehru has three daughters apart from Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehrus were Saraswat Brahmin of Kashmiri lineage.
Jawaharlal Nehru received education in some of the finest schools and universities of the world. He did his schooling from Harrow and completed his Law degree from Trinity College, Cambridge. The seven years he spent in England widened his horizons and he acquired a rational and skeptical outlook and sampled Fabian socialism and Irish nationalism, which added to his own patriotic dedication.
Jawaharlal Nehru returned to India in 1912 and started legal practice. He married Kamala Nehru in 1916. Jawahar Lal Nehru joined Home Rule League in 1917. His real initiation into politics came two years later when he came in contact with Mahatma Gandhi in 1919. At that time Mahatma Gandhi had launched a campaign against Rowlatt Act. Nehru was instantly attracted to Gandhi's commitment for active but peaceful, civil disobedience. Gandhi himself saw promise and India's future in the young Jawaharlal Nehru.
Nehru family changed its family according to Mahatma Gandhi's teachings. Jawaharlal and Motilal Nehru abandoned western clothes and tastes for expensive possessions and pastimes. They now wore a Khadi Kurta and Gandhi cap. Jawaharlal Nehru took active part in the Non- Cooperation Movement 1920-1922) and was arrested for the first time during the movement. He was released after few months.
Jawaharlal Nehru was elected President of the Allahabad Municipal Corporation in 1924, and served for two years as the city's chief executive. This proved to be a valuable administrative experience for stood him in good stead later on when he became the prime minister of the country. He used his tenure to expand public education, health care and sanitation. He resigned in 1926 citing lack of cooperation from civil servants and obstruction from British authorities.
From 1926 to 1928, Jawaharlal served as the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee. In 1928-29, the Congress's annual session under President Motilal Nehru was held. During that session Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose backed a call for full political independence, while Motilal Nehru and others wanted dominion status within the British Empire. To resolve the point, Gandhi said that the British would be given two years to grant India dominion status. If they did not, the Congress would launch a national struggle for full, political independence. Nehru and Bose reduced the time of opportunity to one year. The British did not respond.
In December 1929, Congress's annual session was held in Lahore and Jawaharlal Nehru was elected as the President of the Congress Party. During that sessions a resolution demanding India's independence was passed and on January 26, 1930 in Lahore, Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled free India's flag. Gandhiji gave a call for Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930. The movement was a great success and forced British Government to acknowledge the need for major political reforms.
When the British promulgated the Government of India Act 1935, the Congress Party decided to contest elections. Nehru stayed out of the elections, but campaigned vigorously nationwide for the party. The Congress formed governments in almost every province, and won the largest number of seats in the Central Assembly. Nehru was elected to the Congress presidency in 1936, 1937, and 1946, and came to occupy a position in the nationalist movement second only to that of Gandhi. Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested in 1942 during Quit India Movement. Released in 1945, he took a leading part in the negotiations that culminated in the emergence of the dominions of India and Pakistan in August 1947.
In 1947, he becamethe first Prime Minister of independent India. He effectively coped with the formidable challenges of those times: the disorders and mass exodus of minorities across the new border with Pakistan, the integration of 500-odd princely states into the Indian Union, the framing of a new constitution, and the establishment of the political and administrative infrastructure for a parliamentary democracy.
Jawaharlal Nehru played a key role in building modern India. He set up a Planning Commission, encouraged development of science and technology, and launched three successive five-year plans. His policies led to a sizable growth in agricultural and industrial production. Nehru also played a major role in developing independent India's foreign policy. He called for liquidation of colonialism in Asia and Africa and along with Tito and Nasser, was one of the chief architects of the nonaligned movement. He played a constructive, mediatory role in bringing the Korean War to an end and in resolving other international crises, such as those over the Suez Canal and the Congo, offering India's services for conciliation and international policing. He contributed behind the scenes toward the solution of several other explosive issues, such as those of West Berlin, Austria, and Laos.
But Jawahar Lal Nehru couldn't improve India's relations with Pakistan and China. The Kashmir issue proved a stumbling block in reaching an accord with Pakistan, and the border dispute prevented a resolution with China. The Chinese invasion in 1962, which Nehru failed to anticipate, came as a great blow to him and probably hastened his death. Jawaharlal Nehru died of a heart attack on May 27, 1964.

Indira Gandhi

Gandhi was born November 19, 1917, in Allahabad, India, to Jawaharlal and Kamala Nehru. Her life was drastically changed in 1919 when her wealthy and prominent family was visited by Mohandas Gandhi, the pacifist leader of the Indian freedom movement. Recently returned from exile in South Africa, he converted her parents to the cause of Indian independence Constant meetings and the frequent absence of Gandhi's parents deprived her of a normal childhood. Though she was spoiled by her grandfather Motilal, Gandhi later recalled she felt "insecure." She was four years old when her father and grandfather were first jailed for their activities, then the jailings, which also included her mother, became frequent.

Shows independent spirit

Because of the insecurities of her childhood Gandhi hardened herself and resolved not to be hurt, as her mother had been, She grew up as a solemn, precocious child whose games were related to the fight against Britain. For example, at age 11 she organized the Monkey Brigade. Imitating the Monkey army in the epic Indian story Ramayana, While she was in school in Poona in the 1930s She once commented that Gandhi "was always present in my life; he played an enormous role in my development.

SYMBOL FOR WOMEN AND THE THIRD WORLD

India had been ruled by England for over a century prior to its independence in 1947. While the British had built many roads, schools, and hospitals, they had also acted as a superior colonial power. The Indians greatly resented British control. The organized struggle for freedom began early in this century and grew until after World War II, which ended in 1945, when the British finally realized they could no longer hold India. The ascension of a woman, Indira Gandhi, to the highest position in the world's most populous democracy was especially significant for Indian women, who had traditionally been subservient to men. In addition, she was also an inspiration to people in other Third World nations.

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