INDIAS FREEDOM MOVEMENT - BOSE AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY

INDIAS FREEDOM MOVEMENT - BOSE AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY



INDIAS FREEDOM MOVEMENT - BOSE AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY

Subash Chandra Bose was the Supreme commander and Chief of the Free India Forces , the I.N.A. (Indian National Army). Commander Bose and his INA forces conducted military campaign against British Imperialism for the SOLE PUPOSE - liberation of occupied India. During World war two, His forces received training and support primarily from the Axis nations Germany, Russia, and Japan and some from Italy.
Commander Bose and the INA found comradeship with the regular German forces, under the command of Field Marshall General Rommel (DESERT FOX- North Afric/ C.O, Western European defence command), HOWEVER BOSE AND HIS SOLDIERS disliked Hitlers policy against the Jews of Europe and the war against peacefull America. The Indian National Army troops needed the Germans for the liberation of India, and help in training and arms. Majority of the Indian National Army disliked Hitler's ambitions of world dominance and treatment of the Jews. It should be noted that Commander Bose was the only Axis ally that openly opposed Hitler in the treatment of Jews, and the Invasion of Russia which eventually caused a rift that resulted in the withdrawal of command and operations from Hitler to the Japanese Command and eastern sector. Bose found more common Asian brotherhood with the Japanese in culture and religion. The INA did not want to fight the Americans, only the British and their allies that occupied India.

The Indian National Army was an all volunteer force of persons of Indian Origin, worldwide, consisting of all faiths and gender represtated from all states of India. The INA also had allies from Irish Republicans, and Jewish entities from Haganna and Irgun who supported the Indian Agenda in Intelligence gathering.

Commander Bose and the INA were a key factors in the eventual British Decision to leave India.

Mahtma Ghandi and Commander Bose were allies in the freedom struggle with A COMMON OBJECTIVE - INDPENDECE FROM BRITISH RULE. Ghandi believed in the lesser of two evils and supported the British in World War two, while Bose believed in allying temporarily with the Germans and axis nations in the armed struggle against the British Occupiers.
Commander Bose and his free India forces fought the British in the tropics primarily Burma.
The unfortunate dilemma of the Indian National Army was fighting against their fellow Indian Brothers serving under the British flag. This was highly disheartening for both sides of Indian soldiers fighting against their own for the common objective. The Indian National Army forced the British Command to negotiate with the moderates faction in forcing an early withdrawal out of India. The moderates fought for the British during world war two inreturn for the British Promise of leaving India. Bose on the other hand felt the British had lied and mislead the Indians enough with false promises and oppression that direct action was needed to force the British in a negotiated withdrawal and or a forced withdrawal from occupied India.

The Indian National Army and Commander Bose were key factors in the liberation and freedom of India from the British. Unfortunately Commander Bose and his Patriots are not fully given the recognition they fully deserve.
Commander Bose and the INA , like Mangal Pandy , Baghat Singh and their cohorts were the true patriots in the Century long war of Independence from the British Empire. Subahs Chandra Bose and the Men and Women Soldiers of the Indian National Army were true Patriots and national heroes that need more recognition and remembrance in full civilian and military honors. Please honor these forgotten heros.
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INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT : BHAGAT SINGH PART 1

INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT : BHAGAT SINGH PART 1

Parag Shah of Global Mavericks in his video magazines presents clips of RANG DE BASANTI a production/distribution UTV starring Aamir Khan and many British stage artists. These movie clips depict the Indian Freedom Struggle against British Imperialism through the endevours of one of many India's heros "Bhagat Singh" and his band of freedom fighters. UTV had done an excellent job and won the film awards and the International festival in Kalau Lampur Malaysia and had nominations in canes. It was my privalage to witness the awards and meeting people connected with this vast endevour in Mumbai.

All persons who undertook this wonderful political movie on Indian history has done a wonderful job.

Hats off for the entire team involved with this wonderful motion picture.
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INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT : STORY OF BHAGHAT SINGH - PART 2

INDIAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT : STORY OF BHAGHAT SINGH - PART 2

INDIAN HISTORY PART 2

Parag Shah of Global Mavericks in his video magazines presents clips of RANG DE BASANTI a production/distribution UTV starring Aamir Khan and many British stage artists. These movie clips depict the Indian Freedom Struggle against British Imperialism through the endevours of one of many India's heros "Bhagat Singh" and his band of freedom fighters. UTV had done an excellent job and won the film awards and the International festival in Kalau Lampur Malaysia and had nominations in canes. It was my privalage to witness the awards and meeting people connected with this vast endevour in Mumbai.

All persons who undertook this wonderful political movie on Indian history has done a wonderful job.

Hats off for the entire team involved with this wonderful motion picture.

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Indian Struggle for freedom (Original Video) Top Viewed

Quit India Movement and Partition

INC, fearful of getting involved with the world war, launched the Quit India Movement in 1942. Gandhi reasoned with the British that "... a few thousand British cannot control or govern millions of Indians". A Government favorable to Indian freedom won the post-war election in England and India was liberated. INC had played a very vital role in the Indian national movement.

Throughout the freedom struggle, Indians had to battle the religious divide and hatred among Hindus and Muslims. The British used this inherent divide among Indians to suppress the Indian freedom movement and eventually divided the nation into a Muslim Pakistan and a secular India.

India - Incredible India - One land everyone desire to see

India's Freedom Struggle - UMR India Association - Diwali

The Rise of Mahatma Gandhi

Woman Weaves Handspun Cotton Under Gandhi's Bust. People from all walks of life followed Gandhi's ideals

Mohandas Gandhi's taking helm of INC was a turning point in its history due to his enormous following, his spiritual powers and his non-violent means of fighting. Gandhi introduced the concept of Satyagraha (roughly translated as rightful demand : see Gandhi's comments on Satyagraha) which appealed to the common Indians who were largely pious and religious.

Gandhi adhered to a strictly non-violent protest. Every time a disturbing incident broke out, he suspended his actions, fasted and prayed for peace. and every time he was successful.

Dr. Annie Besant

Dr. Annie Besant
Dr. Annie Besant is one of those foreigners who inspired the love of the country among Indians. She declared in 1918 in her paper "New India": "I love the Indian people as I love none other, and... my heart and my mind... have long been laid on the alter of the Motherland."Annie Besant, born of Irish parents in London on October 1, 1847, made India her home from November, 1893. Dr. Besant, said Mahatma Gandhi, awakened India from her deep slumber. Before she came to India, Dr. Besant passed through several phases of life-housewife, propagator of atheism, trade unionist, feminist leader and Fabian Socialist. By 1889, "there was scarcely any modern reform (in England) for which she had not worked, written spoken and suffered."Dr. Besant started the Home Rule League in India for obtaining the freedom of the country and reviving the country's glorious cultural heritage. She started a paper called "New India." She attended the 1914 session of the Indian National Congress and presided over it in 1917. She could not see eye to eye with Gandhiji in regard to the latter's satyagraha movement.
An orator and writer with poetic temperament, Dr. Besant was a veritable tornado of power and passion. By her eloquence, firmness of convictions and utter sincerity she attracted some of the best minds of the country for the national cause. She was largely responsible for the upbringing of the world renowned philosopher K. Krishnamurti.
Dr. Besant died in 1933.

Annie Wood was born in 1847 in London into a middle-class family of Irish origin. Annie was always proud of being Irish and supported the cause of Irish self-rule throughout her adult life.
Her father died when she was young and left the family almost penniless. Annie’s mother was forced to support the family by running a boarding house for boys at Harrow. She raised the money for a private tutor for Annie in this way.

Annie was educated privately by a female tutor as an Evangelical Christian. She was given a strong sense of duty to society and an equally strong sense of what independent women could achieve.

As a young woman, Annie was also able to travel widely in Europe. There she acquired a taste for Catholic colour and ceremony that never left her.

She was married in 1867 in Hastings, Sussex, to 26-year-old clergyman Frank Besant, younger brother of Walter Besant. He was an Evangelical Anglican clergyman who seemed to share many of her concerns.

Soon Frank became vicar of Sibsey in Lincolnshire. Annie moved to Sibsey with him, and within a few years they had two children: Digby and Mabel.

The marriage was, however, a disaster. The first conflict came over money and Annie’s independence. Annie wrote short stories, books for children and articles. Frank took all the money she made: married women did not have the right to own property. Politics further divided the couple. Annie began to support farm workers who were fighting to unionise and to win better conditions. Frank was a Tory and sided with the landlords and farmers. The tension came to a head when Frank struck Annie. She left him and returned to London.

Annie began to question her own faith. She turned to leading churchmen for advice. She even went to see Dr Pusey, leader of the Catholic wing of the Church of England. He simply told her she had read too many books. Annie returned to Frank to make one last effort to repair the marriage. It proved useless. She finally left for London. Divorce was unthinkable for Frank, and was not really within the reach of even middle-class people. Annie was to remain Mrs Besant for the rest of her life. At first, she was able to keep contact with both children and to have Mabel live with her. She got a small allowance from Frank.

Her husband was given sole custody of their two children.


She fought for the causes she thought were right, starting with freedom of thought, women's rights, secularism (she was a leading member of the National Secular Society alongside Charles Bradlaugh), birth control, Fabian socialism and workers' rights.
Once free of Frank Besant and exposed to new currents of thought, Annie began to question not only her long-held religious beliefs but also the whole of conventional thinking. She began to write attacks on the Churches and the way they controlled people’s lives. In particular she attacked the status of the Church of England as a state-sponsored faith.

Soon she was earning a small weekly wage by writing a column for the National Reformer, the newspaper of the National Secular Society. The Society stood for a secular state: an end to the special status of Christianity. The Society allowed her to act as one of its public speakers. Public lectures were very popular entertainment in Victorian times. Annie was a brilliant speaker, and was soon in great demand. Using the railway, she criss-crossed the country, speaking on all of the most important issues of the day, always demanding improvement, reform and freedom.

For many years Annie was a friend of the Society’s leader, Charles Bradlaugh. It seems that they were never lovers, but their friendship was very close indeed. Bradlaugh, a former seaman, had long been separated from his wife. Annie lived with Bradlaugh and his daughters, and they worked together on many issues.

Bradlaugh was an atheist and a republican. He was working to get himself elected as MP for Northampton to gain a better platform for his ideas.

Besant and Bradlaugh became household names in 1877 when they published a book by the American birth-control campaigner Charles Knowlton. It claimed that working-class families could never be happy until they were able to decide how many children they wanted. It suggested ways to limit the size of their families. The Knowlton book caused great offence to the Churches, but Annie and Bradlaugh proclaimed in the National Reformer: "We intend to publish nothing we do not think we can morally defend. All that we publish we shall defend."

The couple were arrested and put on trial for publishing the Knowlton book. They were found guilty, but released pending appeal. As well as great opposition, Annie and Bradlaugh also received a great deal of support in the Liberal press. Arguments raged back and forth in the letters and comment columns as well as in the courtroom. For a time, it looked as though they would be sent to prison. The case was thrown out finally only on a technical point: the charges had not been properly drawn up.

The scandal lost Annie her children. Frank was able to persuade the court that she was unfit to look after them, and they were handed over to him permanently.

Bradlaugh’s political prospects were not damaged by the Knowlton scandal. He got himself into Parliament at last in 1881. Because of his atheism, he refused to swear the oath of loyalty. Although many Christians were shocked by Bradlaugh, others (like the Liberal leader Gladstone) spoke up for freedom of belief. It took more than six years before the whole issue was sorted out (in Bradlaugh’s favour) after a series of by-elections and court appearances.

Meanwhile Besant built close contacts with the Irish Home Rulers and gave them support in her newspaper columns. These were crucial years, in which the Irish nationalists were forming an alliance with Liberals and Radicals. Annie met the leaders of the movement. In particular, she got to know Michael Davitt, who wanted to mobilise the Irish peasantry through a Land War: a direct struggle against the landowners. She spoke and wrote in favour of Davitt and his Land League many times over the coming decades.

However, Bradlaugh's parliamentary work gradually alienated Annie. Women had no part in parliamentary politics. Annie was searching for a real political outlet: politics where her skills as a speaker writer and organiser could do some real good.



For Annie, politics, friendship and love were always closely intertwined. Her decision in favour of Socialism came about through a close relationship with George Bernard Shaw, a struggling young Irish author living in London, and a leading light of the Fabian Society. Annie was impressed by his work and grew very close to him too in the early 1880s. It was Annie who made the first move, by inviting Shaw to live with her. This he refused, but it was Shaw who sponsored Annie to join the Fabian Society. In its early days, the Society was a gathering of people exploring spiritual, rather than political, alternatives to the capitalist system.
Annie now began to write for the Fabians. This new commitment - and her relationship with G.B.S. - deepened the split between Annie and Bradlaugh, who was an individualist and opposed to Socialism of any sort. While he would defend free speech at any cost, he was very cautious about encouraging working-class militancy.

Unemployment was a central issue of the time, and in 1887 some of the London unemployed started to hold protests in Trafalgar Square. Annie agreed to appear as a speaker at a meeting on 13 November. The police tried to stop the assembly. Fighting broke out, and troops were called. Many were hurt, one man died, and hundreds were arrested. Annie offered herself for arrest, but the police refused to take the bait.

The events created a great sensation, and the newspapers dubbed it ‘Bloody Sunday’. Annie was widely blamed - or credited - for it. She threw herself into organising legal aid for the jailed workers and support for their families. Bradlaugh finally broke with her because he felt she should have asked his advice before going ahead with the meeting.

Socialists saw the trade unions as the first real signs of working people’s ability to organise and fight for themselves. Until now, trade unions had been for skilled workers - men with a craft that might take years to acquire and which gave them at least a little security. The Socialists wanted to bring both unskilled men and women into unions to fight for better pay and conditions.

Her most notable victory in this period was perhaps her involvement in the London matchgirls strike of 1888. Annie was drawn into this first really important battle of the ‘New Unionism’ by Herbert Burrows, a young socialist with whom she was for a time in love. He had made contact with workers at Bryant and May’s match factory in Bow, London, who were mainly young women. They were very poorly paid. They were also prey to horrendous industrial illnesses, like the bone-rotting Phossy jaw, which were caused by the chemicals used in match manufacture. Some of the match workers asked for help from Burrows and Annie in setting up a union.

Annie met the women and set up a committee, which led the women into a strike for better pay and conditions. The action won enormous public support. Annie led demonstrations by ‘match-girls’. They were cheered in the streets, and prominent churchmen wrote in their support. In just over a week they forced the firm to improve pay and conditions. Annie then helped them to set up a proper union and a social centre.

At the time, the matchstick industry was an immensely powerful lobby, since electric light was not yet widely available, and matches were essential for lighting candles, oil lamps, gas lights and so on. (Only a few years earlier in 1872, lobbyists from the match industry had persuaded the British government to change its planned tax policy.) Besant's campaign was the first time anyone had successfully challenged the match manufacturers on a major issue, and was seen as a landmark victory of the early years of British Socialism.

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Dr. Allamah Iqbal

Dr. Allamah Iqbal
After `Ghalib' had left the world and signed his name on the chair of poetry, few believed that there would ever be another poet of his level again. When the sun went down for Urdu poetry for a while, it rose in a small city, many miles away from Delhi, the center for Urdu poetry then. Sir Doctor Muhammad Allamah Iqbal, son of a Kashmiri merchant Sheikh Natthu and Begum Imam Bibi, was born on February 22, 1873 in Sialkot. Iqbal started a revolution, with which ushered a new era in Urdu poetry. We count Iqbal for inheriting the throne after `Ghalib'. A small fire was lit in the age of darkness and will keep shining as long as the world will last.


The facts of Iqbal's life can be briefly stated. He finished his early education in Sialkot and migrated to Lahore in 1895 for higher studies. In Sialkot he was lucky to have as his teacher Shamsul-Ulema Mir Hasan, a great Oriental scholar. This great man did not take long to recognize the perspicacity of his young pupil's intellect, and encouraged him in every possible way. At Lahore, Iqbal came under the influence of Sir Thomas Arnold. Sir Thomas Arnold's company introduced him to all that is best and most noble in Western thought, and at the same time initiated him into the modern methods of criticism. Iqbal graduated from the Government College, Lahore , in 1897, with English Literature, Philosophy and Arabic. In 1899, Iqbal took his M.A. degree in Philosophy. As advised by Sir Thomas Arnold, Iqbal went to Europe for higher studies in 1905 and got his Doctorate in Philosophy from Munich University in 1908 . Iqbal also qualified for the Bar in this interim. The Governor of Punjab, impressed by Iqbal's poem on the death of Queen Victoria, conferred knighthood upon him in 1922.

In Europe, Iqbal began to see the larger horizon of things and to move in spacious realms. He stayed there for three years, and these years played a great part in the development of his thought. It was not a period of deeds but one of preparation. His outlook on life underwent two important changes about this time: he got a n utter dislike for narrow and selfish nationalism which was the root cause of most political troubles in Europe, and his admiration for a life of action and struggle became more pronounced.

One simply cannot set a definition on Iqbal, as he was able to convert everything in poetry. There is no subject he hasn't debated upon in his poetry: Politics, life, love, religion, philosophy, literature, West, East, countries, legends, history, etc. The list is longer as one goes deeper and deeper in Iqbal's poetry - not least discovering that Iqbal beheld the true meaning of poetry, whereas his ambitions and abilities to move the masses were yet still indiscussable subjects. There was never any doubt why he got the title: "Shayer-e-Mashrik" - the Poet of the East.

To the Indian nationalist he appears a fervent nationalist who wrote, `Of all the countries in the world, the best is our Hindustan' (sarey jahan se achcha Hindustan hamara), exhorted Hindus and Muslims to come together, build new shrines where they could worship together and who regarded every speck of dust of his country as divine. Iqbal exhorted the peasantry to rise against its oppressors, uproot the mansions of the rich and set fire to crops which did not provide sustenance for them.



It could be said that Iqbal sang in many voices: he was a nationalist as well as an internationalist, a Marxist revolutionary as well as a supporter of traditional Muslim values and a pan-Islamist. Whatever he wrote was born of passion and executed with the skill of a master craftsman. Few poets of the world have been able to cram so much erudition and philosophy in verse; and fewer still use words both as colors on an artist's palette to paint pictures as well as deploy them as notes of a lute to create music. He was fired by a creative zeal which could only be explained as divinely inspired. Three years in Europe (1905-1908) brought about a complete reversal in his beliefs. The world became real; life had a purpose to serve; latent in every man was a superman who could be roused to his full height by ceaseless striving to create a better world. This post-European phase has been designed as Iqbal's philosophy of khudi. As used by Iqbal what comes closest to khudi is assertive will-power imbued with moral values. This is apparent from these oft-quoted lines:
Endow your will with such power
That at every turn of fate it so be
That God Himself asks of His slave
'What is it that pleases thee?'

What exactly did Iqbal want human beings to strive for? Obviously towards some kind of perfection. But he does not care to spell it out in any detail. It would appear that for man ceaseless striving was not to be for material gains in this world or with an eye on rewards in life hereafter. Thus to Iqbal a man who inherits wealth without having striven for it is worse than a beggar, while a poor man who works for the good of humanity is truly rich. Iqbal writes:

In man's crusade of life these weapons has he:
Conviction that his cause is just;
Resolution to strive till eternity;
Compassion that embraces all humanity.

However, Iqbal did not accept the Hindu belief in predestination and assured man that he could be the master of his fate and make the world what he wanted it to be:
'Tis how we act that makes our lives; We can make it heaven, we can make it hell. In the clay of which we are made Neither light nor darkness (of evil) dwells.

Iqbal would have had little patience with the current obsession with meditation (transcendental or otherwise) to induce peace of mind, because he believed that anything worthwhile only came out of a ceaselessly agitated mind:

May God bring a storm in your life;
The sea of your life is placid, its waves devoid of tumult.

In the introduction to his Persian work, Asrar-i-khudi ('Secrets of the Self'), Iqbal writes: 'Personality is a state of tension and can continue only if the state is maintained.' What was true of the individual Iqbal believed to be equally true of races and communities. According to him the real sign of vitality in races is that their fortunes change everyday:

In every age this alone marks a vibrant race
That every morn and eve its fortunes change.

So far as Iqbal was concerned, from now onwards there was complete accord in his thought, the goal was clear and the future lines for his work were well-defined. The task that Iqbal had set himself was gigantic and lesser people would have quailed at the immensity of the mission which involved shaking millions of people out of moral inertia that had been paralyzing their spirits for centuries. He flung a challenge to the forces of reaction, inertia, and stupor in unmistakable terms, and never faltered in his mission.

Think of thy country, O thoughtless! Trouble is brewing,
In heavens there are designs for thy ruin.
See that which is happening and that which is to happen,
What is there in the stories of olden times?
If you fail to understand this, you will be exterminated, O people of India!
Even your story will not be preserved in the annals of the world!

It is ironic how beautifully these words apply to every Indian today and tomorrow. There is no doubt that Iqbal fought for freedom with his words: a freedom that started with self-realization and finished with ceaseless striving.

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Jawaharlal Nehru

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Independent India, was loved by the people both as a man and a leader. He stands foremost among the builders of modern India, giving it a direction towards socialism in a secular, democratic setting. Writer and historian, Nehru through his books influenced the thinking of generations of Indians and made them thirsty for a free, democratic, socialist, secular India with science and technology as its driving force. He was largely responsible with initiating planned economic development

Pandit Nehru led his peoples to freedom, democracy, unity, at the same time securing for the country a high place in the comity of nations. He was one of the founders of the Non-aligned Movement, which was conceived as one of the means of promoting world peace. He believed in dynamic neutrality in a tension torn world.
Though he wielded a power greater than that of any dictator, he never gave up democratic principles nor did he abandon his humanistic outlook, whatever be the provocation. He was a tireless fighter for right and justice, not only in India but throughout the world. Not only did he build up the foreign policy of India from the scratch, but devoted himself to the building up of one world through international peace. He tried to bring some semblance of the rule of law in international affairs. An apostle of world peace, his words were heard with great respect in the chancelleries of the world and in the United Nations. He lived in and for great causes. He left his mark on the history of the world.
Nehru wrote his famous books "An Autobiography", "The Discovery of India" and "Glimpses of World History" in English while in prison. His writings bore the stamp of an intellectual with a sensitive mind and a poetic temperament. It is said of him that he could "feel" his thoughts when he wrote. He had a rare mastery of the English language and a fine sense of rhythm

Born on November 14, 1889, Nehru was educated at Harrow and Cambridge. Starting his practice as a lawyer, he was inevitably drawn into politics. Imprisoned for a total of over 13 years, he was President of the Congress in 1929, 1936, 1937 and 1947. He became the Vice President of the Interim Government on September 2, 1946 and later the Prime Minister of Independent India on August 15, 1947. He passed away on May 27, 1964 while in harness.
Nehru loved children; therefore his birthday is observed as Children’s Day. For children, he was Chacha (uncle) Nehru

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Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji helped lay the foundation of India's contemporary freedom struggle. At a time when the East India Company had systematically dismantled the nationalistic co- operation between the princely states of India, rose to prominence Dadabhai Naoroji, a peerless patriot who defined the modern Indian freedom struggle
Dadabhai was born on September 4th, 1825 to a poor Parsi family in Bombay. His father, Naoroji Palanji Dordi, died when Dadabhai was only 4 years old. Dadabhai was brought up by his illiterate mother Maneckbai who gave Dadabhai the best English education possible.
As a student, Dadabhai had a knack for mental mathematics and went on to distinguish himself in Mathematics and English at the Elphinstone Institution (now College) in Bombay. So impressed were his peers that one professor called him the "promise of India." Another offered to pay half the expenses for Dadabhai to study abroad. His Parsi elders refused to pay the other half of the expenses out of fear that Dadabhai would convert to Christianity and marry an Englishwoman.

On completion of his education, Dadabhai was appointed the Head Native Assistant Master at the Elphinstone Institution and went on to become the first Indian Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.

Dadabhai entered the political fray in 1852. The East India Company acquired a 20 year lease to "manage" India from the British Government in 1833. The Company applied for renewal of the lease in 1853. Dadabhai strongly opposed the renewal of the lease and organized large meetings and sent petitions to the British Government in England to deny the Company a renewal. Even though the British Government did renew the Company's lease, his petitions dispelled a lot ignorance regarding India.

Dadabhai felt that the British misrule of India was because of ignorance of the way of life and needs on the Indian people. To remedy this he felt that he must educate the Indian masses of their rights. Dadabhai began free literacy classes for girls in Marathi and Gujarati. He set up the Dnyan Prasarak Mandali (Society for Promotion of Knowledge) for the education of adult menfolk. Topics of general awareness were discussed before large gatherings. Then he believed that the British bureaucracy in India must be made aware of the problems of India. He wrote several petitions to Governors and Viceroys regarding India's problems. Finally he felt that the British people and the British Parliament must be made aware of India's plight. He yearned to go to England to put forward India's case there. Dadabhai got this opportunity when the rich Cama family invited him to join in a business venture in England. Dadabhai did not think twice, he set sail for England on June 27th, 1855.

Dadabhai wanted to win friends and sympathizers for India. He joined several learned societies, delivered many speeches and wrote articles on the plight of India. He founded the East Indian Association on December 1st, 1866. The association was comprised of high ranking officers from India and people who had access to Members of the British Parliament. Dadabhai had become the unofficial ambassador of India.

Dadabhai was elected to the British Parliament in 1892 from Central Finsbury as the Liberal party candidate. This made it possible for Dadabhai to work for India from within! He got a resolution passed for holding preliminary examinations for the I.C.S. in India and England simultaneously and also got the Wiley Commission, the royal commission on India expenditure, to acknowledge the need for even distribution of administrative and military expenditure between India and England.

Dadabhai's efforts were rewarded in 1866 when the Secretary of State for India agreed to appoint 9 Indians out of 60 to the Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.) by nomination.
Dadabhai's fund-raising for his various projects brought him in contact with many wealthy people and rulers. One of them, Mulharrao Gaekwar, the Maharaja of Baroda was always in trouble with the British because of his misrule of his territory. Ironically, the Government had appointed an inquiry into his misdeeds. The Maharaja asked for Dadabhai's help and persuaded Dadabhai to become his Prime Minister in 1874. Within a year the whole administration was reformed and efficiency was brought to the system. His task complete, Dadabhai resigned from his position in 1875.

As the years passed, Dadabhai grew more and more disillusioned with the "fair-minded" British. After spending years collecting statistics, Dadabhai propounded the drain theory: "The inevitable consequence of foreign domination is the drain of wealth of the subject nation to the country of the rulers." Dadabhai proved that the average annual income of an Indian was barely Rs. 20. Examining the import and export figures for 37 years, he proved that India's exports exceeded its imports by Rs. 50 crores (approximately $135 million) annually.

Dadabhai was key to the establishment of the Indian National Congress (I.N.C.) founded by A.O. Hume. More importantly he averted a split in the Congress between the extremists like B.G. Tilak, B.C. Pal, and A. Ghosh and the moderates. The extremists advocated the boycott of British goods and asked for swaraj (self-government). The moderates wanted to use constitutional methods to gain autonomy-not freedom. Both factions wanted an unbiased leader to chair the annual session of Congress at Calcutta in 1906. Both factions looked to Dadabhai. Dadabhai calmed both sides realizing that a fissure in the Congress would be a major setback in the freedom struggle. In his presidential speech, Dadabhai declared that the goal of the I.N.C. for India is swaraj and the means to achieve this goal would be constitutional.

The "Grand Old Man of India," as Dadabhai was fondly known, can be viewed as the architect that laid the foundation of the Indian freedom struggle. He sacrificed his career and his family for India. He resigned his professorship to go to England to increase awareness of India in Britain. His only son and his mother died while he was in England. Dadabhai's methods for justice for India were always non-violent and constitutional.

Dadabhai died at the age of 92 on June 30th, 1917. 2 months later, the Minto Morley reforms were passed in the British Parliament granting much of what Dadabhai had been fighting for.

The Quit India Movement

The Quit India Movement (Bharat Chhodo Andolan or the August Movement) was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table.[1] Almost the entire Congress leadership, and not merely at the national level, was put into confinement less than twenty-four hours after Gandhi's speech, and the greater number of the Congress leaders were to spend the rest of the war in jail.


Under the leadership of Gandhi the Quit India Movement was launched. The purpose of this was to set up series of non-violent ways hopefully leading up to the long awaited Independence. From this quote by Gandhi "We shall either free India or die in the attempt; We shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery" the saying Do or Die soon became popular among the Indian people. This was a simple way of stating the way the importance to regain independence.

This Movement got off to a rocky start because before Congress could pass the movement the government declared it illegal and arrested all of the major leader. As a result of this a series of revolts broke out in what was known as "British Quit India." The middle class was especially active during the first few phases. But they were soon weakened by the harsh repression. The last phase in the movement was a difficult one characterized by terrorist activity against communication, police and army installations.

A man named Chandrashekhar Azad put together a campaign called Azad Hind Fauj which stood for Indian Nations Army-INA. His only slogan during the whole campaign was simply "Give me blood and I'll give you freedom."

Many people of India joined in the INA to support the Indian soldiers. But sadly enough after the the Japanese defeated them in 1945 they INA's power and strength slowly declined from there. This was significiant because India as a whole supported the INA with all there strength because they were the people standing up and protecting them. And one time when there was a military tribunal held against several INA officers and they were found guilty to severe punishment, the people of India became enraged. As a result of this the Government cancelled their punishment.

The Government was strongly against the movement and their goal was to make sure it didn't get out of hand. They did everything from arrested people to physically beating others. The supports of the movement were often shot at and sometimes every bombes from the sky. This was definitly one of the most brutal events to happen in India. The British people definitly came out on top and the remaining two and a half years remained unchanged politically wise until the day their independence was granted to them.

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Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-66)
Now mostly forgotten, Lal Bahadur Shastri was a man of vision and of supreme patriotism. A generous man, he gave away all of his wealth and became advocate of land reform through land donations (Bhudaan). A devout Gandhian, he advocated social reform as a means to achieve self-reliance.

Lal Bahadur Shatri went on to become the second Prime-minister of India after the death of Jawaralal Nehru. He died under mysterious circumstances on a peace mission to Soviet Union. He was a popular leader of the Indian National Congress and gave the country the slogan "Jai Jawan- Jai Kisan" (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer)

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Bipin Chandra Pal

Bipin Chandra Pal

Described as "one of the mightiest prophets of nationalism," Bipin Chandra Pal was associated with India's political history during its phase of the struggle for freedom with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai. The trio was termed the "extremists" as they stood for the ideal of Swaraj or complete political freedom to be achieved through courage, self-help and self-sacrifice
Teacher, journalist, writer and librarian, Bipin Chandra Pal started as a supporter of Brahmo Samaj, turned to Vedanta and ended up as an upholder of the Vaishnava philosophy of Sri Chaitanya. He was ardent social reformer-he married a widow of a higher caste twice in his life and gave his powerful support to the Age of Consent Bill of 1891. He wrote a series of studies on the makers of modern India such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Rabindranath Tagore, Ashutosh Mukerjee and Annie Besant. He preached a "composite patriotism" that implied a universal outlook.

"Paridarsak" (1886-Bengali weekly), "New India: (1902-English weekly) and "Bande Mataram" (1906-Bengali daily) are some of the journals started by him.
Born on November 7, 1858, in a village in Sylhet (now Banglagdesh), of well-to-do parents, Pal had to cut short his education at the Intermediate stage. He came under the influence of eminent Bengali leaders of his time such as Keshab Chandra Sen and Pandit Sivanath Sastri. He was imprisoned for six months on the grounds of his refusal to give evidence against Sri Aurobindo in the Bande Mataram sedition case. He visited England (three times) and America.

Pal opposed Gandhiji's non-cooperation Movement of 1920. The first Congress session he attended was in 1886 as a delegate from Sylhet.

Pal virtually retired from politics from 1920 though he expressed his views on national questions till his death on May 20, 1932.

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Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920)

Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920)

"Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it!" were the fiery words of Tilak which roused a sleeping nation to action, making Indian people aware of their political plight under a foreign rule. Tilak did not question the British Sovereignty nor his demands rebellious or revolutionary. All he was asking was favorable conditions in India, to enable people to learn to govern themselves. May be all over the world, the separatist forces should follow his vision and define freedom as ability to govern one's land. But the handful rulers who ruled India's millions thought otherwise. They thought that Tilak was whipping a rebellion and he was imprisoned twice; two years for the first and six during the second. They said, he had committed treason.


Lokamanya
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
(1856-1920)

Born in Ratnagiri, a small coastal town in 1856 in a middle class family, Tilak had to fend himself for college education. At an early age he was convinced that the educational system the British provided for the Indians was not at all adequate. After graduation and a law degree, he helped found a school which laid emphasis on nationalism. He started a news paper 'Kesari' which tried to teach Indians of their glorious past and reminded them to be self reliant (Swadeshi).

The British used all the native raw materials to run their factories in England and sold the finished products to India, keeping the India an ever dependant country. In the process, all the self-employing industries of India like spinning, weaving, glass making, sugar ,dyeing, paper making were destroyed. People became destitute for no fault of theirs to help an empire become richer and stronger.

Tilak tried to breathe life into the moribund nation through four mantras. (1). Boycott of foreign goods (2) National Education (3) Self Government (4) Swadeshi or self reliance. He realized that mere protest against British rule was not going to help and insisted on native production and reliance. "We have no arms, but there is no necessity. But our strong political weapon is boycott (of foreign goods) Organize your powers and then go to work so that they cannot refuse you what you demand" - he told the masses.

It is strange that the British read treason in these words. He founded Deccan Education Society to give better education as per the country's needs. He wrote scathing articles over inhuman punishment meted out to the nationalist youth who protested the division of Bengal (VangaBhanga). Indian newspapers were not to criticize the British policy in those days and two articles titled "Has the Government lost its head ?" and "To Rule is not to wreak vengeance" appearing in Kesari landed him in jail, after a namesake trial. For the first time in British history, intellectuals in England (including the great orientalist, Max Muller) were able to convince the Government that the trial was unfair. But the second time (1908) was no different. Tilak advocated his own case and when the judgment of six years of black-waters (kalapani) imprisonment was pronounced, he gave the famous statement :
" All I wish to say is that in spite of the verdict of the jury, I maintain my innocence. There are higher powers that rule the destiny of men and nations. It may be the will of Providence that the cause I represent may prosper by suffering than by remaining free"

Tilak was immensely popular through writing and through social work. His idea of national festivals took shape in Shivaji Utsav and Ganesh Utsav which were instrumental in bringing people together culturally - irrespective of their caste and creed. His trial and punishment led to national upheaval. But the British were careful enough to arrange everything in secret and the judgment was delivered at midnight and Tilak was taken under military vigil to be deported to Burma (present Myanmar, which was also under British control)

At 52, a diabetic and ailing Tilak wrote his famous commentary on Bhagavad-Gita, the sacred book of Hindus. He stressed that Gita taught action (karma), nothing but action. Religion or spiritual message were secondary and the need of the hour was to arise and fight. This was Lord Krishna's message to Arjuna. Tilak's wife, his companion of 45 years died at Pune and the news reached him in Madalay prison Burma only after a week. He had sacrificed his personal life, his profession, name and fame for the sake of the country.

By the time Tilak completed his six year prison term, he was the unquestioned leader of the Indians - the uncrowned king. He was known as the Tilak Maharaj.

It is strange co-incidence that the last Burmese king Theba had to spend his last days in solitary confinement in Ratnagiri and this 'uncrowned king' from Ratnagiri had to spend prison days in Burma!

There was unprecedented jubilation in India after Tilak was free and was back in India. Civil resistance, the concept of Swaraj, and nationalism had taken deep roots. Tilak's suffering did not go in vain. A band of leaders, full of zeal for nationalism and self-sacrifice had come up in India. National schools were coming up in all corners of India. He paved the way for Khadi (hand woven cloth), picketing against foreign goods and alcoholism. His death in 1920 brought Mahatma Gandhi on the scene and Gandhiji gave a concrete shape to Tilak's ideas of Swadeshi.

The court which convicted Tilak bears a plaque that says, " The actions of Tilak has been justified as the right of every individual to fight for his country. Those two convictions have gone into oblivion -- oblivion reserved by history for all unworthy deeds".
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Tantya Tope (1814 - 1859)(pronounced Toh-pey)

Tantya Tope (1814 - 1859)(pronounced Toh-pey), also known as Ram Chandra Pandurang, was an Indian leader in the Indian rebellion of 1857.
Born in at village Yeola in Maharashtra, he was the son of Pandurang Rao Tope, an important noble at the court of the Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao II. His father shifted his family with the ill-fated Peshwa to Bithur where his son became the most intimate friend of the Peshwa's adopted son, Nana Dhondu Pant (known as Nana Sahib) and Maharaja Madhav Singhji.

In 1851, when Lord Dalhousie deprived Nana Sahib of his father's pension, Tantya Tope also became a sworn enemy of the British. In May 1857, when the political storm was gaining momentum, he won over the Indian troops of the East India Company, stationed at Kanpur (Cawnpore), established Nana Sahib's authority and became the Commander-in-Chief of his forces.

After the reoccupation of Kanpur and separation from Nana Sahib, Tantya Tope shifted his headquarters to Kalpi to join hands with the Rani Lakshmi Bai and led a revolt in Bundelkhand. He was routed at Betwa, Koonch, and Kalpi, but reached Gwalior and declared Nana Sahib as Peshwa with the support of the Gwalior contingent. Before he could consolidate his position he was defeated by Hugh Henry Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn in a memorable battle in which Rani Lakshmi Bai was killed leading her forces against the British assault on Gwailor.

After losing Gwalior to the British, he launched a successful guerrilla campaign in the Sagar and Narmada regions and in Khandesh and Rajasthan. The British forces failed to subdue him for over a year. He was, however, betrayed into the hands of the British by his trusted friend Man Singh, Chief of Narwar, while asleep in his camp in the Paron forest. He was captured and taken to Shivpuri where he was tried by a military court and executed at the gallows on April 18, 1859. There is a statue of Tantya Tope at the site of his execution near present collectorate in Shivpuri town in Madhya Pradesh.
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Mohandas Gandhi: Biography

In South Africa

Educated in India and in London, he was admitted to the English bar in 1889 and practiced law unsuccessfully in India for two years. In 1893 he went to South Africa, where he was later joined by his wife and children. There he became a successful lawyer and leader of the Indian community and involved himself in the fight to end discrimination against the country's Indian minority. In South Africa he read widely, drawing inspiration from such sources as the Bhagavad-Gita, John Ruskin, Leo Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, and his personal philosophy underwent significant changes. He abandoned (c.1905) Western ways and thereafter lived abstemiously (including celibacy); this became symbolized in his eschewal of material possessions and his dress of loincloth and shawl. While in South Africa he organized (1907) his first satyagraha [holding to the truth], a campaign of civil disobedience expressed in nonviolent resistance to what he regarded as unjust laws. So successful were his activities that he secured (1914) an agreement from the South African government that promised the alleviation of anti-Indian discrimination.

Return to India

He returned (1915) to India with a stature equal to that of the nationalist leaders Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Gandhi actively supported the British in World War I in the hope of hastening India's freedom, but he also led agrarian and labor reform demonstrations that embarrassed the British. The Amritsar massacre of 1919 stirred Indian nationalist consciousness, and Gandhi organized several satyagraha campaigns. He discontinued them when, against his wishes, violent disorder ensued.

His program included a free, united India; the revival of cottage industries, especially of spinning and the production of handwoven cloth (khaddar); and the abolition of untouchability (see caste). These ideas were widely and vigorously espoused, although they also met considerable opposition from some Indians. The title Mahatma [great soul] reflected personal prestige so high that he could unify the diverse elements of the organization of the nationalist movement, the Indian National Congress, which he dominated from the early 1920s.

In 1930, in protest against the government's salt tax, he led the famous 200-mi (320-km) march to extract salt from the sea. For this he was imprisoned but was released in 1931 to attend the London Round Table Conference on India as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. When the Congress refused to embrace his program in its entirety, Gandhi withdrew (1934), but his influence was such that Jawaharlal Nehru, his protégé, was named leader of the organization.

Indian Independence

In 1942, after rejection of his offer to cooperate with Great Britain in World War II if the British would grant immediate independence to India, Gandhi called for satyagraha and launched the Quit India movement. He was then interned until 1944. Gandhi was a major figure in the postwar conferences with the viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, and Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah that led to India's independence and the carving out of a separate Muslim state (Pakistan), although Gandhi vigorously opposed the partition.

When violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims, Gandhi resorted to fasts and tours of disturbed areas to check it. On Jan. 30, 1948, while holding a prayer and pacification meeting at New Delhi, he was fatally shot by a Hindu fanatic who was angered by Gandhi's solicitude for the Muslims. After his death his methods of nonviolent civil disobedience were adopted by protagonists of civil rights in the United States and by many protest movements throughout the world.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (tr. 1927, repr. 1966); his collected works (50 vol., 1958–72); selected writings, ed. by R. Duncan (1972); R. N. Iyer, ed., The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi (3 vol., 1986–87) and The Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi (1991) ; biographies by D. G. Tendulkar (8 vol., 1951–54), B. R. Nanda (1958, repr. 1989), L. Fisher (1959), G. Ashe (1969), and S. Wolpert (2001); studies by J. V. Bondurant (rev. ed. 1965), E. Erikson (1969), and J. M. Brown (1972).

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Shaheed Bhagatsingh

At the age of 23, if anyone was smiling just before he was being hanged to death, it was Shaheed Bhagat Singh. He was born September 27, 1907 in the village Banga of Layalpur to Mata Vidyavati and Sardar Kishan Singh. 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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Chandrashekhar Azad

Chandra Shekhar was born on 23 July 1906 to Pandit Sita Ram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. He received his early schooling in Bhavra. For higher studies he went to the Sanskrit Pathashala at Varanasi.

Young Chandra Shekhar was fascinated by and drawn to the great national upsurge of the non-violent, non-cooperation movement of 1920-21 under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. When arrested and produced before the magistrate, he gave his name as 'Azad', his father's name as 'Swatantra' and his residence as 'prison'. The provoked magistrate sentenced him to fifteen lashes of flogging. The title of Azad stuck thereafter.

After withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement, Azad was attracted towards revolutionary activities. He joined the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) and was involved in the Kakori Conspiracy (1926), the attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train (1926), the Assembly bomb incident, the Delhi Conspiracy, the shooting of Saunders at Lahore (1928) and the Second Lahore conspiracy.

Azad was on the wanted list of the police. On 27February 1931, in the Alfred Park, Allahabad, when an associate betrayed him, well-armed police circled Azad. For quite sometime he held them at bay, single-handedly with a small pistol and few cartridges. Left with only one bullet, he fired it at his own temple and lived up to his resolve that he would never be arrested and dragged to gallows to be hanged. He used to fondly recite a Hindustani couplet, his only poetic composition:

'Dushman ki goliyon ka hum samna karenge,

Azad hee rahein hain, azad hee rahenge'

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Chandrashekhar Azad (1906 -1931)

Chandrashekhar Azad (1906 -1931)

Betrayed by an informer on 27 February 1931 Azad was encircled by British troops in the Alfred park, Allahabad.

He kept on fighting till the last bullet.Finding no other alternative, except surrender,Chandrashekar Azad shot himself

Chandrashekar Azad's dead body kept on public display by the British to serve as a warning message for other revolutionaries.

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Shahid-e-Azam Bhagat Singh

Shahid-e-Azam Bhagat Singh
(1907-1931)
"Why I am An Atheist"

Bhagat Singh points out in his article "Why I am an Atheist" that it is not easy to live the life of a reasoning person. It is easy to take consolation or relief from blind faith. But it is our duty to try ceaselessly to live the life of reason. And that is why Bhagat Singh asserts at the end of the essay that by proclaiming himself an athiest and a realist (materialist) he was "trying to stand like a man with an erect head to the last; even on the gallows".


Bhagat Singh was not the first of the many young Indians who sacrificed their lives at the altar of Indian freedom; others too kissed the noose and embraced the gallows with a defiant cry of Inkalab Zindabad! on their lips. We revere the memory of each one of these martyrs. Bhagat Singh should primarily be studied as a political figure. It should be noted that as early as the beginning of 1928, when he was just entering his twenties, he and his comrade, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, very correctly visualised the future course of political development in India-some sort of Round Table Conference; a compromise between the British and the Congress leaders; a gradual merging of a section of Indian capital with British capital, the congress leadership becoming the spokesmen for this section of capitalists; They also asserted that some of the then champions of the freedom strugglewould, in due course, become the champions of Indo- British 'cooperation' and betray the cause of national freedom. After that, they said, task of leading and carrying forward the freedom struggle would fall to the workers and peasants, to the common people, led by the proletariat and a party based on the messes and relying on the teaching of Marx. All these points amply emerge from the letters and documents written by Bhagat Singh and especially from the Manifesto of the Naujwan Bhagat Sabha which was drafted mainly by him and Bhagwati Charan.

It is in this that Bhagat Singh differed from the earlier revolutionary martyrs; it is in this that he rose higher than many of the political leaders of his time and in this lay his greatness. It is true that Bhagat Singh was not a Marxist in the full sense of the term. But it is also true that he had come very near Marxism towards the end of his days. In one of his letters to Sukh Dev, he wrote: " You and I may not live but our people will survive. The cause of Marxism and Communism is sure to win." Bhagat Singh was link between the Revolutionaries of the past and the communist movement of today. This is the perspective of this short study
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FOOT PRINTS OF THE LIFE

In January Subhash Chandra was prisoned for one year, and again in 1931. From January 1932 to March 1933 he was in detention without trial. He became ill and went to Vienna. In 1934 he wrote 'The Indian Struggle'. He arrived Mumbai in April 1936, from Vienna, and was arrested further.

Despite of all opposition from the Rightists, Subhash Chandra was elected Congress President in 1938, and re-elected in 1939 by defeating Gandhi's own nominee. When in his Presidential address at Haripura in 1938 he had drawn the outline for developing an Independent India of the future through a completely socio-economic planning, then in his address at Tripura Session in 1939 made the historic proposal that the Congress should give an ultimatum to the British Government demanding independence within six months and should simultaneously prepare for the final battle for freedom. But his proposal was bitterly opposed by the Rightists who were inclined to take the path of collaboration with the ruling power. He was curbed with all his powers, was imposed by so many terms and conditions that his positional authority became collapsed. It was the period when confrontation between Subhash Chandra and Gandhi rose to the highest level, and in consequence, Subhash Chandra resigned from Congress Presidentship on 29 April 1939. But he continued his own course of action. In retaliation, Bengal Provincial Congress Committee headed by him was suspended by the Congress High-command, and he was expelled from the party. But his approach, his arguments, and mass support towards his stand remained unabated.

Subhash Chandra announced the Formation of Forward Bloc at a public meeting in Calcutta on 3 May 1939. And then it became imminent to constitute Forward Bloc with a definite process, and on 22 June 1939 First All India Session of Forward Bloc held in Mumbai.

The prime contradiction between two powers, Subhash and Gandhites, between Leftists and the Rightists, at that time, was basically a contradiction between compromise and anti-compromise, between constitutionalism and revolutionary means. And thus, Subhash Chandra Bose, his image, became the symbol of revolutionary leftism in India. In March 1940 there was held a Congress Session at Ramgarh of Bihar. Subhash Chandra, on the same date and venue convened a parallel anti-compromise conference, which challenged Congress leadership about their sincerity towards the people of the country and their integrity for achieving unconditional independence, The conference completely washed away the Congress Session. Subhash Chandra, through this Anti-compromise Conference, practically, tied the workers and peasants of the country with one single equation and made a platform to combat the right-wing and reactionery forces. To consolidate the countrywide movement through a party discipline the First All India Conference of All India Forward Bloc was held in Nagpur, from 18 to 22 June, 1940, under his Presidentship. Here Forward Bloc was declared as a Socialist party.

Quite a Memorable Year for Indian Community

It has been quite an exhilerating ride for the Indian community in Cleveland. In October, a magnificent statue of Mahatma Gandhi was dedicated at the India Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park. Considering the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, it is interesting that the statue is located off Martin Luther King Boulevard.

The 10-ft bronze statue, by world famous sculptor Gautam Pal of Kolkatta (formerly known as Calcutta) is the first Gandhi statue in Ohio. Mr. Ronen Sen, India's ambassador to the U.S., Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr, pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Cleveland City Council Majority Leader Sabra Pierce Scott unveiled the statue, capping an emotional day for the Indian community.

The dedication was held as part of One World Day, the annual celebration of Cleveland's ethnic diversity. The India garden hosted the event to highlight the significance of adding Mahatma Gandhi, the icon of peace to the landscape of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, whose motto is: "Peace Through Mutual Understanding".

Earlier in the day, soil from India was added to a crypt at the American Legion garden that contains soil from the other countries represented in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. This was the first time the ceremony, symbolic of the unity of cultures, had been performed in almost 50 years. Soil from the Gandhi Museum in Madurai, and the Gandhi Ashram in Sabarmati, India had been brought to Cleveland for the ceremony, which was conducted by Ambassador Ronen Sen.

In December, Indian born entreprenuer Monte Ahuja, Chairman and CEO of Transtar Industries and his wife, Usha Ahuja announced a $30 million gift to University Hospitals of Cleveland, the largest single gift in the hospital's 140-year history. In recognition of the gift, the soon to be built 200 bed hospital in Beachwood will be named the Ahuja Medical Center. The Ahujas are major supporters of the Indian community-- Mr. Ahuja is a past president of the Federation of India Community Associations, better known as FICA, and Mrs. Ahuja served as the Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Later in December, Dr. Mohan Reddy, Professor of Technology Management at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management, was appointed as the Dean of the school. He had been serving as the interim dean since August. Dr. Reddy, a graduate of the University of Mysore, India joined CWRU in 1985, and has been the recipient of multiple teaching excellence awards. He also serves as a director of several local companies.

Highlighting the contributions of the large number of Indian physicians in the Cleveland area, Dr. Arun Singh, director of Ophthalmic Oncology at the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic was appointed as the editor of the British Journal of Ophthalmology, an international peer-reviewed publication for clinical and laboratory investigations. Dr. Singh received his medical degree from Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, India.

The pride of the community was evident at the annual celebration of India's Republic Day, which attracted a large number of attendees on a cold, snowy night in January. Former Congressman Louis Stokes, who was the featured speaker, spoke of the progress that India has made in recent years and the buzz that it has created. To those in attendance, the momentum of the past few months was unmistakable....

Mahatma Gandhi on list of 100 greatest South Africans

Mahatma Gandhi on list of 100 greatest South Africans
Mahatma Gandhi is up against a pioneering surgeon, a golfer, a cleric and President Thabo Mbeki on a shortlist of nine people to find the second greatest South African of all time.

Former president Nelson Mandela was voted the top man by an overwhelming margin when the list of the greatest 100 South Africans was announced by the South African Broadcasting Corporation's SABC3 channel on Sunday.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the lawyer who was destined to become the Mahatma, was the only nominee in the top 100 who was not born in South Africa.

The role that Gandhi played in the freedom struggle in South Africa was highlighted by his selection as a finalist in the top ten. He also got more votes than other great South African leaders and contemporaries of Mandela like Walter Sisulu and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Chief Albert Luthuli.

The other contenders are: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of Nelson Mandela; former state president FW de Klerk; golfing legend Gary Player; former Archbishop Desmond Tutu and deceased nominees Chris Barnard, who performed the world's first heart transplant, Xolani Nkosi Johnson, a young lad who won millions of hearts with his public appearances speaking about fighting HIV/AIDS before succumbing to it and former prime minister Jan Smuts.