Eminent Personalities Of Modern India
Sachin Sanyal
A prominent revolutionary, he first shot into the limelight while he, along with Rash Bihari Bose threw a bomb on Lord Hardinge in Delhi. He later organized a meeting of all revolutionaries at Kanpur in October 1924 and founded the Hindustan Republican Association to overthrow colonial rule through a mass revolution and establish the Federal Republic of the United States of India. He wrote the book Bandi Ziban, a textbook for all revolutionaries.
Rash Bihari Bose
He was a firebrand revolutionary who threw a bomb on Lord Hardinge and then escaped to Japan where he founded the Indian Independence League in 1924. He later formed the Indian National Army (I.N.A) with the help of Mohan Singh and assisted Subhas Chandra Bose in the invasion of India. But when the I.N.A. was defeated, he took Japanese citizenship and died there.
Mandanlal Dhingra
A young revolutionary who came on a fellowship to India House at London, he shot dead Col. William Curzon Wyllie, the political A.D.C. to the India Office in London and was sentenced to death.
Madam Bhilkaji Cama
The first female revolutionary, inspired by Dadabhai Nauroji, assisted Indian revolutionaries by supplying bomb material and literature. She edited the Vande Mataram newspaper in Paris and unfurled her version of the flag of free India at the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart in Germany in 1907.
Lala Hardayal
A revolutionary from Punjab, he was educated in England and founded the Ghadr movement in the U.S.A. which aimed at overthrowing the British through an armed revolt. He was arrested but escaped and tried to enlist the support of Germany for the struggle. He was the chief ideologue of the Ghadr movement and imparted an egalitarian and secular outlook to it. He spent his later years in the U.S.A. advocating India’s cause for freedom.
Sohan Singh Bakhna
One of the founders of the Hindi Association and the Ghadr movement, he launched a campaign in the U.S.A. to mobilize people for a rebellion against the British rule in India. He later became a prominent communist peasant leader in Punjab and led the peasant agitation in Punjab during the 30s and 40s.
Mohd. Barkatullah
A Bengali revolutionary, he joined the Ghadr movement in the U.S.A. He toured European countries propagating the cause of India’s freedom. He tried to enlist the support of the Amir of Afghanistan, along with Obeidullah Sindhi and Mahendra Pratap but it failed. He participated in the International Anti-Imperialism Conference in Brussels in 1927 where he died in exile.
Indulal Yagnik
A prominent leader during the Home Rule Movement, he set up a paper called Young India. He later joined Gandhi in Champaran Satyagraha. He then went on to become a left-wing peasant leader of the All India Kisan Sabha and brought out the Kisan Manifesto which influenced the Congress Manifesto for the 1937 elections. He remained in Congress when the Sabha split in 1943 over the question of support to Allies during World War II.
M.M. Malavya
A moderate nationalist leader, he was nominated to the Imperial Legislative Council but joined the Home Rule Movement in 1916. He helped form the U.P. Kisan Sabha but was a believer in Constitutional agitation. He founded the Hindu Maha Sabha (H.M.S) in 1915 and the Benares Hindu University in 1916. He opposed the Lucknow Pact and cooperated with the Government in the Council to protect Hindus interests and argued for Hindu solidarity. He represented the H.M.S. in the Round Table Conferences (R.T.Cs) in London but retired from politics in 1937.
Rajendra Prasad
A lawyer from Bihar, he was the first President of the Indian Republic and was the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly. He assisted Gandhi in the Champaran Satyagraha and went on to become a prominent Congress leader by participating in all the movements led by Gandhi. He also became the chairman of the Patna Municipality. A strong supporter of secularism, he emphasized its inclusion in the Constitution of India.
Mahadev Desai
A follower of Gandhi since the Champaran Satyagraha, he was his private secretary, edited Gandhi’s paper Navjivan and translated Gandhi’s autobiography. He accompanied Gandhi all over India and abroad and was imprisoned during the Quit India Movement at the Aga Khan Palace in Poona where he died in 1942.
J.B. Kriplani
One of the ardent followers of Gandhi since the Champaran Satyagraha and an exponent of Gandhian philosophy, he remained an active Congress worker and was involved in the negotiations for the transfer of power, being the President of the Congress in 1947.
Vittalbhai Patel
A successful lawyer from Gujarat, he assisted Gandhi in the Kheda Satyagraha in 1918. He joined the Swaraj Party and was elected as the President of the Central Legislative Assembly and as the President of Bombay Municipal Corporation.
Saifuddin Kitchlew
A prominent Muslim barrister from Punjab, he gave up his legal practice to join the Rowlatt Satyagraha. He was given the keys to the Golden Temple as a measure of communal harmony during the Non-Cooperation Movement. He argued for the nationalists in various conspiracy cases and was the founder President of the All India Peace Council and vice president of the World Peace Council. He was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in 1954.