1.Mahatma Gandhi :
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, byname Mahatma Gandhi (born October 2, 1869, Porbandar, India—diedJanuary 30, 1948, Delhi), Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of
the nationalist movement against the British rule ofIndia. As such, he came
to be considered the father of his country. Gandhi is internationally esteemed
for his doctrine of nonviolent
protest (satyagraha) to achieve
political and social progress.The man whose picture we see every day on
the currency of this country, the Father of the Nation, Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi was an iconic personality. His gave up everything to make India a free
and independent country. Mahatma was a believer in non-violence and a man with
very strong morals and values. His countless contributions to the country
includes his efforts towards easing poverty, expanding women rights, ending
untouchability and above all, bringing Swaraj- Self-rule. Gandhi led movement
and campaigns like Dandi Salt March, Quit India Movement, Non Cooperation
Movement, Satyagraha among many others. If it wasn’t for this old man, India
would have continued to live under colonial rule for atleast a few more years.
2.Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel :
Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel ( 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950)
was an Indian barrister and
statesman, one of the leaders of the Indian National
Congress and one of
the founding fathers of the Republic of India. He was a social leader who
played a leading role in the country's struggle for
independence and
guided its integration into a united, independent nation. In India and elsewhere, he was often addressed
as Sardar,which means Chief in Hindi, Urdu and Persian.
He was
raised in the countryside of Gujarat.[2] Patel was employed in successful practice
as a lawyer. He subsequently organised peasants from Kheda, Borsad,
and Bardoli in Gujarat in non-violent civil
disobedience against
oppressive policies imposed by theBritish Raj; in this role, he became one of
the most influential leaders in Gujarat. He rose to the leadership of the Indian National
Congress, in which capacity he would organise the party for the
elections held in 1934 and 1937, as well as continue to promote theQuit India
Movement.
As the
first Home Minister and Deputy Prime
Minister of India, Patel organised relief for refugees fleeing from Punjab and Delhi and led efforts to restore peace
across the nation. Patel took charge of the task to forge a united India by
integrating into the newly independent nation those British colonial provinces "allocated" to India.
Besides those provinces under direct British rule, approximately 565
self-governing princely states had been released from British suzerainty by
the Indian
Independence Act 1947. Through both frank diplomacy as well an
option to deploy military force, Patel would persuade almost every princely
state to accede to India. Patel's commitment to national integration in the
newly independent country was total and uncompromising, earning him the
sobriquet "Iron Man of India. He is
also affectionately remembered as the "Patron saint of India's civil
servants" for having established the modern all-India
services system.
3.Bhagat Singh :
Bhagat Singh ( 23 March 1931) was an Indian revolutionary socialist who was influential in theIndian independence movement. Born into a Punjabi Sikh family which had earlier been involved in revolutionary activities against theBritish Raj, he studied European revolutionary movements as a teenager and was attracted to anarchist and Marxist ideologies. He worked with several revolutionary organisations and became prominent in the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which changed its name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928.
Seeking revenge for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, Singh assassinated John Saunders, a British police officer. He eluded efforts by the police to capture him. Soon after, he and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs and leaflets inside the Central Legislative Assembly, and offered themselves for arrest. Held in jail on a charge of murder, he gained widespread national support when he undertook a 116-day hunger strike demanding equal rights for European prisoners, and those Indians imprisoned for what he believed were political reasons. During this period, sufficient evidence was brought against him for a conviction in the Saunders case after trial by Special Tribunal, and an appeal to the Privy Council in England. He was convicted and hanged for his participation in the assassination, at the age of 23.
His legacy prompted youth in India to continue fighting for independence and he remains an influence on some young people in modern India, as well as the inspiration for several films. He is commemorated with a range of memorials including a large bronze statue in the Parliament of India.
4.Subhas Chandra :
Subhas
Chandra 23 January 1897 – 18 August
1945), was an Indian nationalist whose defiant
patriotism made him a hero in India, but whose attempt during World War II to
rid India of British rule with the help of Nazi Germanyand Imperial
Japan left a troubled legacy. The honorific Netaji, (Hindustani: "Respected Leader"),
first applied in early 1942 to Bose in Germany by the Indian soldiers of the Indische
Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin,
was later used throughout India.
Earlier, Bose
had been a leader of the younger, radical, wing of the Indian National Congress in the late
1920s and 1930s, rising to become Congress President in 1938 and 1939. However,
he was ousted from Congress leadership positions in 1939 following differences
with Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress high
command. He was subsequently placed under house arrest by the British
before escaping from India in 1940.
Bose arrived
in Germany in April 1941, where the leadership offered unexpected, if sometimes
ambivalent, sympathy for the cause of India's independence, contrasting starkly
with its attitudes towards other colonised peoples and ethnic communities. In
November 1941, with German funds, a Free India Centre was set up in Berlin,
and soon a Free India Radio, on which Bose broadcast nightly. A 3,000-strong Free India
Legion, comprising Indians captured by Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps,
was also formed to aid in a possible future German land invasion of India. By
spring 1942, in light of Japanese victories in southeast Asia and changing
German priorities, a German invasion of India became untenable, and Bose became
keen to move to southeast Asia. Adolf Hitler,
during his only meeting with Bose in late May 1942, suggested the same, and
offered to arrange for a submarine. During this time Bose also became a father;
his wife, or companion, Emilie
Schenkl, whom he had met in 1934, gave birth to a baby girl in
November 1942. Identifying strongly with the Axis powers,
and no longer apologetically, Bose boarded a German submarine in February 1943. In
Madagascar, he was transferred to a Japanese submarine from which he
disembarked in Japanese-heldSumatra in
May 1943.
With Japanese
support, Bose revamped the Indian National Army (INA), then
composed of Indian soldiers of the British Indian army who had been captured in
the Battle of Singapore.[18] To
these, after Bose's arrival, were added enlisting Indian civilians in Malaya
and Singapore. The Japanese had come to support a number of puppet and
provisional governments in the captured regions, such as those in Burma, the Philippines and Manchukuo.
Before long the Provisional Government of Free India, presided
by Bose, was formed in the Japanese-occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Bose had
great drive and charisma—creating popular Indian slogans, such as "Jai Hind,"—and
the INA under Bose was a model of diversity by region, ethnicity, religion, and
even gender. However, Bose was regarded by the Japanese as being militarily
unskilled and his military effort was short lived. In late 1944 and early
1945 the British Indian Army first halted and then
devastatingly reversed the Japanese attack on
India. Almost half the Japanese forces and fully half the
participating INA contingent were killed. The INA was driven down the
Malay Peninsula, and surrendered with the recapture of
Singapore. Bose had earlier chosen not to surrender with his forces
or with the Japanese, but rather to escape to Manchuria with a view to seeking
a future in the Soviet Union which he believed to be turning anti-British. He
died from third degree burns received when his plane crashed in Taiwan. Some
Indians, however, did not believe that the crash had occurred, with many
among them, especially in Bengal, believing that Bose would return to gain
India's independence.
Indian National Congress, the main
instrument of Indian nationalism, praised Bose's patriotism but distanced
itself from his tactics and ideology, especially his collaboration with
Fascism. The British Raj, though never seriously threatened
by the INA, charged 300 INA officers with treason in the INA trials,
but eventually backtracked in the face both of popular sentiment and of its own
end.
5.Bal Gangadhar Tilak :
Bal Gangadhar Tilak (or Lokmanya Tilak, 
pronunciation (help·info); 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920),
born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social
reformer, lawyer and
an independence activist. He was the first leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The
British colonial authorities called him "Father of the Indian
unrest." He was also conferred with the honorary title of
"Lokmanya", which literally means "accepted by the people (as
their leader)".[2]
Tilak was one of the first and strongest advocates of "Swaraj"
(self-rule) and a strong radical in Indian consciousness. He is known for his
quote in Marathi, "स्वराज्य
हा माझा जन्मसिद्ध
हक्क आहे आणि
तो मी मिळवणारच"
("Swarajya is my birthright and I shall have it!") in India. He
formed a close alliance with many Indian National Congress leaders including Bipin
Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Aurobindo
Ghose, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. As a strong advocate of
Swaraj, he was against Gandhi's
policy of Total-ahimsa (non-violence),
satyagraha and advocated the use of force where necessary.
6.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan :
Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan (5
September 1888 – 17 April 1975) was an Indian philosopher and statesman.who
was the first Vice President of India (1952–1962)
and the second President of India from 1962 to 1967.
One of
India's most distinguished twentieth-century scholars of comparative religion
and philosophy,his academic appointments included the King George V Chair of
Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta (1921–1932) and Spalding Professor of
Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford (1936–1952).
His
philosophy was grounded in Advaita
Vedanta, reinterpreting this tradition for a contemporary understanding.[web
2] He defended Hinduism against "uninformed Western
criticism",[3] contributing
to the formation of contemporary Hindu identity. He
has been influential in shaping the understanding of Hinduism, in both India
and the west, and earned a reputation as a bridge-builder between India and the
West.
Radhakrishnan
was awarded several high awards during his life, including a knighthood in
1931, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, in
1954, and honorary membership of the British Royal Order
of Merit in 1963. Radhakrishnan believed that "teachers should be
the best minds in the country". Since 1962, his birthday is celebrated in
India as Teachers' Day on 5 September
7.Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert
Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI,GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS[1] (born Prince
Louis of Battenberg; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) – known
informally as Lord Mountbatten – was a British statesman and naval officer, an
uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second
cousin once removed to Elizabeth
II. During the Second World War,
he was Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command (1943–46). He was the last Viceroy of India (1947)
and the first Governor-General of the independent Dominion of India (1947–48),
from which the modern Republic of
India was to emerge in 1950. From 1954 until 1959 he was First Sea Lord, a
position that had been held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, some forty years
earlier. Thereafter he served as Chief of the Defence Staff until
1965, making him the longest serving professional head of the British Armed
Forces to date. During this period Mountbatten also served asChairman of the NATO Military Committee for
a year.
In 1979, Mountbatten, his grandson Nicholas, and two others
were killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA),
which had placed a bomb in his fishing boat, the Shadow V, at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, in Ireland.
8.Vinayak Damodar Savarkar :
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February
1966) was an Indian pro-independence
activist,politician as well as a poet, writer and playwright. He advocated
dismantling the system of caste in Hindu
culture, and reconversion of the converted Hindus back to Hindu religion.
Savarkar coined the term Hindutva (Hinduness) to create a collective
"Hindu" identity as an "imagined nation". His political
philosophy had the elements of utilitarianism, rationalism and positivism,humanism and universalism, pragmatism and realism. Some later commentators state
that Savarkar's philosophy, despite its stated position of furthering unity,
was divisive in nature as it tried to shape Indian nationalism as uniquely
Hindu, to the exclusion of other religions. Savarkar was also an atheist
and a staunch rationalist who disapproved of orthodox Hindu belief, dismissing cow
worshipas superstitious.
Savarkar's revolutionary activities began while studying in
India and England, where he was associated with the India
House and founded student societies including Abhinav Bharat Society and the Free India Society, as well as publications
espousing the cause of complete Indian independence by revolutionary means Savarkar
published The Indian War of Independence about
the Indian rebellion of 1857 that was
banned by British authorities. He was arrested in 1910 for his connections with
the revolutionary groupIndia House. Following a failed attempt to escape while
being transported from Marseilles, Savarkar was sentenced to two life terms of
imprisonment totaling fifty years and was moved to the Cellular
Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but
released in 1921.
While in jail, Savarkar wrote the work describing Hindutva,
espousing Hindu nationalism. In 1921, under restrictions
after signing a plea for clemency, he was released on the condition that he renounce
revolutionary activities. Traveling widely, Savarkar became a forceful orator and
writer, advocating Hindu political and social unity. Serving as the president
of the Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar endorsed the ideal of
India as a Hindu Rashtra and opposed the Quit India struggle
in 1942, calling it a "Quit India but keep your army" movement. He
became a fierce critic of the Indian National Congress and its
acceptance of India's partition. He was accused in the assassination of Indian leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi but acquitted
by the court.
The airport at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar's capital, has been named Veer Savarkar International Airport. The
commemorativeblue plaque on India House fixed by the Historic
Building and Monuments Commission for England reads "Vinayak
Damodar Savarkar 1883-1966 Indian patriot and philosopher lived here". In
the recent past, the Shiv Sena party has demanded that the Indian
Government posthumously confer upon him India's highest civilian award, the Bharat
Ratna
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