CentralGyan Current Affairs GK for UPSC, PSC, Banking, SSC Exams
We have collected a list of important persons involved
in Indian Freedom Struggle. The list is not complete we will try to compile in
another article, very soon.
Mohan
Das Karamchad Gandhi (1869 – 1948):
- Popularly known as ‘Father of Nation’ was born at Porbandar (Kathiarwar) on October 2, 1869. He was the son of Karamchand and Putlibai Gandhi. He married Kasturba in 1883.
- went to England in 1888 to study law and returned to India in 1891 but failed as a practicing lawyer both at Rajkot and in Bombay.
- In 1893, he proceeded to Natal, South Africa, as the lawyer of a firm of Porbandar Muslims.
- He was revolted at the racial discrimination by the whites in South Africa. He started a newspaper called ‘Indian Opinion’. He formed Phoenix Farm near Durban in 1904.
- Returned to India on Jan 9, 1915.
- In 1916, he founded the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad.
•
Champaran Satyagraha (1917): European planters forced the
cultivators to cultivate indigo on 3 /20th of their holdings (called Tinkathia
System). But when indigo became unremunarative, the European planters imposed
higher taxes to compensate their losses in the International market.
•
Gandhiji, with the help of Rajendra Prasad and others, encouraged the peasants
to offer Satyagraha. Gandhiji was arrested and then made a member of the
Enquiry Committee of Jun 1917. The Champaran Agrarian Act finally abolished the
TinKathia system and compensated the peasants for the raised dues imposed on
them.
•
Ahmedabad Mill Strike (Mar, 1918) : The dispute was between the
mill – owners and the workers over the ‘Plague Bonus’ which the mill – owners
wanted to withdraw once the epidemic was over. The workers troubled by inflation
wanted adequate compensation.
•
Gandhiji initially persuaded the mill – owners and workers to agree to negotiation
by a tribunal but the mill owners withdrew after commitment. Here Gandhiji
first used the weapon of ‘Hunger Strike’. After this, the mill owners were
pressurized into accepting the tribunal award of 55 percent increase.
•
Kheda Satyagraha (1918) : The peasants were in extreme
distress due to the failure of crops and the government ignored their appeals
for die remission of land revenue. The peasants of Kheda were already hard pressed
because of plague, high prices and drought.
•
Appeals and petition having failed, Gandhiji advised the withholding of revenue
and asked the peasants to fight unto death. After the Government directed that
the revenue should be recovered only from those peasants who could pay, the
movement was withdrawn.
Dadabhai
Naoroji (1825 – 1917) :
- Known as ‘Indian Gladstone’ and ‘Grand Old Man of India’.
- First demanded ‘Swaraj’ from the INC Platform (Calcutta session, 1906).
- Wrote a book ‘Poverty and 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.
- He was member of parliament (MP) of ‘House of Commons’ from Liberal Party ticket (First Asian to be a British MP).
- Was mentor to Bal gangadhar tilak, Gopal Krishna gokhle and Gandhi ji.
Gopal
Krishna Gokhale (1866 – 1915) :
- Gandhiji considered him as his political guru.
- In 1985-86, Gopal Krishna Gokhale met a great scholar and a social reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade. Ranade was a great leader, judge, scholar and above all social reformer. He regarded Mahadev Govinda Ranade as his "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 (1856 – 1920 :
- British called him “Father of the Indian Unrest”
- He 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 empathy.
- 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, Lal 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.
- In the Nagpur session of 1920, the INC demanded Swaraj (after Tilak’s slogan only).
- He wrote books ‘The Arctic Home of Vedas’ & ‘Gita Rahasya’.
B.
R. Ambedkar (1891 – 1956):
- He was a jurist, a statesman, a social reformer and a leader of the depressed classes.
- 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.
- He participated in all the three Round Table Conferences. He signed Poona Pact with Gandhiji in 1932.
- 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.
- He was the chairman of the Drafting Committee of our Constitution.
- He also piloted the Hindu Code through the Indian Legislature.
- From 1947 to 1951, he was a law minister in Nehru’s cabinet.
- At the later stage of his life he adopted Buddhism.
Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad (1890 – 1958):
- He was born 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.
- 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 Khudai Khidmatgars. It was an organization of non- violent revolutionaries which was also known as ‘Red Shirts’.
- He also published a newspaper, Pakhtoon.
- Ghaffar Khan strongly opposed partition.
- He was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1987 by the Government of India.
Subhash
Chandra Bose (1897 – 1945) :
- 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 at its Haripura 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 ‘Dilli Chalo’.
- 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 (1947 to 1964) 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 author of the Doctrine of Panchsheel, and believed in the policy of non-alignment.
- His works include The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, A Bunch of Old Letters, The Unity of India, Independence and After, India and the World, etc. His autobiography, entitled Autobiography, is one of his most famous works.
