Study Notes

DADABHAI NAOROJI (1825 – 1917)

• First to demand ‘Swaraj’ from the INC Platform (Calcutta session, 1906).
• Wrote a book ‘Poverty &Un  British Rule in India’ (in 1901) in which he brought out the connection between the draining of wealth from India by the British and rampant poverty in India.
• Also known as ‘Indian Gladstone’ and ‘Grand Old Man of India’.
• Selected to ‘House of Commons’ on Liberal Party ticket (First Indian to do so).
• GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE (1886 – 1915)
• Gandhiji considered him as his political guru.
• He served as the President of the INC at its Banaras session in 1905.
• Laid the foundation of Servants of Indian Society in 1905. (Objective was to train people who would work as national missionaries).

BAL GANGADHAR TILAK (1857 – 1920)

• Collaborated with Agarkar, and set up institutions to give cheap education to people.
• First nationalist leader who tried to establish a close contact with the masses.
• Started Akharas, Lathi clubs and anti – cow killing societies to build his rapport.
• Founded two newspapers – The Maharatta (in English) and Kesari (in Marathi).
• First congress leader who went to prison several times. He joined the INC in 1891.
• Formed the Bal, Pal, Lai group of extremists and caused a split in the Surat Congress in 1907.
• Founded the Home Rule League in 1916, and helped in ushering in the Lucknow Pact and the Reforms Act at the Amritsar Congress in 1919.
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• Valentine Shirol described him as the ‘Father of Indian Unrest’.
• In the Nagpur session of 1920, the INC demanded Swaraj (after Tilak’s slogan only).
• An erudite scholar. His books are ‘The Arctic Home of Vedas’ & ‘Gita Rahasya’.

B. R. AMBEDKAR (1891 – 1956)

1. He was a jurist, a statesman, a social reformer and a leader of the depressed classes.
2. He was born in Mahar caste in Mahu (M.P) in 1891. He went for higher studies to England and America. He was the first graduate of Mahar caste.
3. He participated in all the three Round Table Conferences. He signed Poona Pact with Gandhiji in 1932.
4. From 1942 to 1946, he was in the Executive Council of the Governor General. He organized the Indian Labour Party, Scheduled Caste Federation and People’s Education Society.
5. He was the chairman of the Drafting Committee of our Constitution.
6. He also piloted the Hindu Code through the Indian Legislature.
7. From 1947 to 1951, he was a law minister in Nehru’s cabinet.
8. Towards the end of his life he embraced Buddhism.

MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD (1890 – 1958)

• He was bora in Mecca in 1890. For higher education he went to the Al Azhar University at Cairo.
• He joined the INC during the Swadeshi movement.
• He began two weeklies, Al Hilaland Al – Balagh.
• He was made the President of the Khilafat Committee in 1920. He became the President of the Congress session of 1923 at Delhi.
• He led the Congress delegation during the Shimla Conference in 1945. He also led the delegation during the Cabinet Mission Plan.
• He was elected the member of the Constituent Assembly in 1946. He was the Education Minister in the Interim Government and also Independent India’s first Education Minister.
• He was also instrumental in the foundation of U.G.C. and IIT – Kharagpur.
• His book India Wins Freedom evoked much controversy.

KHAN ABDUL GHAFFAR KHAN (1890 – 1988)

• Popularly known as Frontier Gandhi, Badshah Khan or Sarhadi Gandhi.
• Founded an organization KhudaiKhidmatgars(red shirt movement). It was an organization of non – violent revolutionaries which was also known as ‘Red Shirts’.
• He also published a newspaper, Pakhtoon.
• Ghaffar Khan vehemently opposed partition.
• He was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1987 by the Government of India.

SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE (1897 – 1945)

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• Popularly known as Netaji, was born on Jan 23, 1897 at Cuttack.
• He passed the Indian Civil Services Examination in 1920, but left it on the Gandhiji’s call of Non – Cooperation Movement.
• He founded the Independence for India League with Jawahar Lai Nehru.
• In 1938, he was elected the President of the INC ai its Ilaripura session and in 1939, he was elected President of its Tripuri session. But he had to resign from Tripuri due to differences with Gandhiji.
• He founded the Forward Block in 1939.
• In 1941, he escaped to Berlin and met Hitler. In 1943, he took charge of Indian National Army in Singapore and set up the Indian Provisional Government there. He gave the war cry of ‘DilliChalo’.
• He addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the Father of the Nation; He gave the slogan of ‘Jai Hind’. He wrote his autobiography ‘The Indian Struggle’.
• He supposedly died in a plane crash on Aug 18, 1945.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU (1889 – 1964)

• He was the first Prime Minister of Independent India and is known as the architect of Modern India.
• He was born in Allahabad on Nov 14, 1889.
• In 1928, he became the General Secretary of the INC and in 1929 its President. At the Lahore session, under his President ship was passed the Independence resolution.
• He was the Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 1964.
• He was the author of the Doctrine of Panchsheel, and believed in the policy of non – alignment.
• He was an author of international fame.
• His works include The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, A Bunch of Old Letters, The Unity of India, and Independence and After, India and the World, etc. His autobiography, entitled Autobiography, is one of his most famous works