4. Questions on the Biography of

Mahatma Gandhi - Jawaharlal Nehru - Subash Chandra Bose - Helen Keller - Kalpana Chawala -Dr.Salim Ali - Rani of Jhansi - Nelson Mandela – Abraham Lincoln

Mahatma Gandhi

Biography

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India.

Born: October 2, 1869, Porbandar

Died: January 30, 1948, New Delhi

Spouse: Kasturba Gandhi (m. 1883–1944)

Children: Harilal Gandhi, Ramdas Gandhi, Devdas Gandhi, Manilal Gandhi

Education: Alfred High School (1877), University College London,Samaldas Arts College

Awards: Time's Person of the Year

Mahatma Gandhi was the primary leader of India‘s independence movement and also the architect of a form of non-violent civil disobedience that would influence the world.

Synopsis

     Born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, Mahatma Gandhi studied law and advocated for the civil rights of Indians, both at home under British rule and in South Africa. Gandhi became a leader of India‘s independence movement, organizing boycotts against British institutions in peaceful forms of civil disobedience. He was killed by a fanatic in 1948.

Early Life

     Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, Kathiawar, India, which was then part of the British Empire. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, served as a chief minister in Porbandar and other states in western India. His mother, Putlibai, was a deeply religious woman who fasted regularly. Gandhi grew up worshiping the Hindu god Vishnu and following Jainism, a morally rigorous ancient Indian religion that espoused non-violence, fasting, meditation and vegetarianism. 

     Young Gandhi was a shy, unremarkable student who was so timid that he slept with the lights on even as a teenager. At the age of 13, he wed Kasturba Makanji, a merchant‘s daughter, in an arranged marriage. In the ensuing years, the teenager rebelled by smoking, eating meat and stealing change from household servants. 

     In 1885, Gandhi endured the passing of his father and shortly after that the death of his young baby. Although Gandhi was interested in becoming a doctor, his father had hoped he would also become a government minister, so his family steered him to enter the legal profession. Shortly after the birth of the first of four surviving sons, 18-year-old Gandhi sailed for London, England, in 1888 to study law. The young Indian struggled with the transition to Western culture, and during his three-year stay in London, he became more committed to a meatless diet, joining the executive committee of the London Vegetarian Society, and started to read a variety of sacred texts to learn more about world religions. 

     Upon returning to India in 1891, Gandhi learned that his mother had died just weeks earlier. Then, he struggled to gain his footing as a lawyer. In his first courtroom case, a nervous Gandhi blanked when the time came to cross-examine a witness. He immediately fled the courtroom after reimbursing his client for his legal fees. After struggling to find work in India, Gandhi obtained a one-year contract to perform legal services in South Africa. Shortly after the birth of another son, he sailed for Durban in the South African state of Natal in April 1893. 

Spiritual and Political Leader 

     When Gandhi arrived in South Africa, he was quickly appalled by the discrimination and racial segregation faced by Indian immigrants at the hands of white British and Boer authorities. Upon his first appearance in a Durban courtroom, Gandhi was asked to remove his turban. He refused and left the court instead. The Natal Advertiser mocked him in print as ―an unwelcome visitor. 

     A seminal moment in Gandhi‘s life occurred days later on June 7, 1893, during a train trip to Pretoria when a white man objected to his presence in the first-class railway compartment, although he had a ticket. Refusing to move to the back of the train, Gandhi was forcibly removed and thrown off the train at a station in Pietermaritzburg. His act of civil disobedience awoke in him a determination to devote himself to fighting the ―deep disease of color prejudice.‖ He vowed that night to ―try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process.‖ From that night forward, the small, unassuming man would grow into a giant force for civil rights. 

     Gandhi formed the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 to fight discrimination. At the end of his year-long contract, he prepared to return to India until he learned at his farewell party of a bill before the Natal Legislative Assembly that would deprive Indians of the right to vote. Fellow immigrants convinced Gandhi to stay and lead the fight against the legislation. Although Gandhi could not prevent the law‘s passage, he drew international attention to the injustice. 

     After a brief trip to India in late 1896 and early 1897, Gandhi returned to South Africa with his wife and two children. Kasturba would give birth to two more sons in South Africa, one in 1897 and one in 1900. Gandhi ran a thriving legal practice, and at the outbreak of the Boer War, he raised an all-Indian ambulance corps of 1,100 volunteers to support the British cause, arguing that if Indians expected to have full rights of citizenship in the British Empire, they also needed to shoulder their responsibilities as well. 

     Gandhi continued to study world religions during his years in South Africa. ―The religious spirit within me became a living force,‖ he wrote of his time there. He immersed himself in sacred Hindu spiritual texts and adopted a life of simplicity, austerity and celibacy that was free of material goods. 

     In 1906, Gandhi organized his first mass civil-disobedience campaign, which he called ―Satyagraha (―truth and firmness‖), in reaction to the Transvaal government‘s new restrictions on the rights of Indians, including the refusal to recognize Hindu marriages. After years of protests, the government imprisoned hundreds of Indians in 1913, including Gandhi. Under pressure, the South African government accepted a compromise negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts that included recognition of Hindu marriages and the abolition of a poll tax for Indians. When Gandhi sailed from South Africa in 1914 to return home, Smuts wrote, ―The saint has left our shores, I sincerely hope forever.

Fight for Indian Liberation

     After spending several months in London at the outbreak of World War I, Gandhi returned in 1915 to India, which was still under the firm control of the British, and founded an ashram in Ahmedabad open to all castes. Wearing a simple loincloth and shawl, Gandhi lived an austere life devoted to prayer, fasting and meditation. He became known as ―Mahatma, which means ―great soul. 

     In 1919, however, Gandhi had a political reawakening when the newly enacted Rowlatt Act authorized British authorities to imprison those suspected of sedition without trial. In response, Gandhi called for a Satyagraha campaign of peaceful protests and strikes. Violence broke out instead, which culminated on April 13, 1919, in the Massacre of Amritsar when troops led by British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly 400 people. No longer able to pledge allegiance to the British government, Gandhi returned the medals he earned for his military service in South Africa and opposed Britain‘s mandatory military draft of Indians to serve in World War I. 

     Gandhi became a leading figure in the Indian home-rule movement. Calling for mass boycotts, he urged government officials to stop working for the Crown, students to stop attending government schools, soldiers to leave their posts and citizens to stop paying taxes and purchasing British goods. Rather than buy British manufactured clothes, he began to use a portable spinning wheel to produce his own cloth, and the spinning wheel soon became a symbol of Indian independence and self-reliance. Gandhi assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress and advocated a policy of non-violence and non-cooperation to achieve home rule. 

     After British authorities arrested Gandhi in 1922, he pleaded guilty to three counts of sedition. Although sentenced to a six-year imprisonment, Gandhi was released in February 1924 after appendicitis surgery. He discovered upon his release that relations between India‘s Hindus and Muslims had devolved during his time in jail, and when violence between the two religious groups flared again, Gandhi began a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924 to urge unity. 

The Salt March 

     After remaining away from active politics during much of the latter 1920s, Gandhi returned in 1930 to protest Britain‘s Salt Acts, which not only prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt—a staple of the Indian diet—but imposed a heavy tax that hit the country‘s poorest particularly hard. Gandhi planned a new Satyagraha campaign that entailed a 390-kilometer/240-mile march to the Arabian Sea, where he would collect salt in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly. 

     My ambition is no less than to convert the British people through non-violence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India, he wrote days before the march to the British viceroy, Lord Irwin. Wearing a homespun white shawl and sandals and carrying a walking stick, Gandhi set out from his religious retreat in Sabarmati on March 12, 1930, with a few dozen followers. The ranks of the marchers swelled by the time he arrived 24 days later in the coastal town of Dandi, where he broke the law by making salt from evaporated seawater. 

     The Salt March sparked similar protests, and mass civil disobedience swept across India. Approximately 60,000 Indians were jailed for breaking the Salt Acts, including Gandhi, who was imprisoned in May 1930. Still, the protests against the Salt Acts elevated Gandhi into a transcendent figure around the world, and he was named Time magazine‘s ―Man of the Year‖ for 1930. 

The Road to Independence 

     Gandhi was released from prison in January 1931, and two months later he made an agreement with Lord Irwin to end the Salt Satyagraha in exchange for concessions that included the release of thousands of political prisoners. The agreement, however, largely kept the Salt Acts intact, but it did give those who lived on the coasts the right to harvest salt from the sea. Hoping that the agreement would be a stepping-stone to home rule, Gandhi attended the London Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform in August 1931 as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference, however, proved fruitless. 

     Gandhi returned to India to find himself imprisoned once again in January 1932 during a crackdown by India‘s new viceroy, Lord Willingdon. Later that year, an incarcerated Gandhi embarked on a six-day fast to protest the British decision to segregate the ―untouchables,‖ those on the lowest rung of India‘s caste system, by allotting them separate electorates. The public outcry forced the British to amend the proposal. 

     After his eventual release, Gandhi left the Indian National Congress in 1934, and leadership passed to his protégé Jawaharlal Nehru. He again stepped away from politics to focus on education, poverty and the problems afflicting India‘s rural areas. 

      As Great Britain found itself engulfed in World War II in 1942, though, Gandhi launched the ―Quit India‖ movement that called for the immediate British withdrawal from the country. In August 1942, the British arrested Gandhi, his wife and other leaders of the Indian National Congress and detained them in the Aga Khan Palace in present-day Pune. 

     "I have not become the King‘s First Minister in order to preside at the liquidation of the British Empire", Prime Minister Winston Churchill told Parliament in support of the crackdown. With his health failing, Gandhi was released after a 19-month detainment, but not before his 74-year-old wife died in his arms in February 1944. 

     After the Labour Party defeated Churchill‘s Conservatives in the British general election of 1945, it began negotiations for Indian independence with the Indian National Congress and Mohammad Ali Jinnah‘s Muslim League. Gandhi played an active role in the negotiations, but he could not prevail in his hope for a unified India. Instead, the final plan called for the partition of the subcontinent along religious lines into two independent states—predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan. 

     Violence between Hindus and Muslims flared even before independence took effect on August 15, 1947. Afterwards, the killings multiplied. Gandhi toured riot-torn areas in an appeal for peace and fasted in an attempt to end the bloodshed. Some Hindus, however, increasingly viewed Gandhi as a traitor for expressing sympathy toward Muslims.

Assassination

In the late afternoon of January 30, 1948, the 78-year-old Gandhi, still weakened from repeated hunger strikes, clung to his two grandnieces as they led him from his living quarters in New Delhi‘s Birla House to a prayer meeting. Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse, upset at Gandhi‘s tolerance of Muslims, knelt before the Mahatma before pulling out a semiautomatic pistol and shooting him three times at point-blank range. The violent act took the life of a pacifist who spent his life preaching non-violence. Godse and a coconspirator were executed by hanging in November 1949, while additional conspirators were sentenced to life in prison.

Death and Legacy

Even after his death, Gandhi‘s commitment to non-violence and his belief in simple living—making his own clothes, eating a vegetarian diet and using fasts for selfpurification as well as a means of protest—have been a beacon of hope for oppressed and marginalized people throughout the world. Satyagraha remains one of the most potent philosophies in freedom struggles throughout the world today, and Gandhi‘s actions inspired future human rights movements around the globe, including those of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States and Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Biography

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence.

Born: November 14, 1889, Allahabad

Died: May 27, 1964, New Delhi

Spouse: Kamala Nehru (m. 1916–1936)

Children: Indira Gandhi

Awards: Bharat Ratna

Education: Trinity College, Cambridge (1907–1910), Harrow School, City Law School Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi‘s father, was a leader of India‘s nationalist movement and became India‘s first prime minister after its independence.

Synopsis

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, in Allahabad, India. In 1919, he joined the Indian National Congress and joined Indian Nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi‘s independence movement. In 1947, Pakistan was created as a new, independent country for Muslims. The British withdrew and Nehru became independent India‘s first prime minister. He died on May 27, 1964, in New Delhi, India.

Pre-Political Life

Jawaharlal Nehru was born in Allahabad, India in 1889. His father was a renowned lawyer and one of Mahatma Gandhi's notable lieutenants. A series of English governesses and tutors educated Nehru at home until he was 16. He continued his education in England, first at the Harrow School and then at Trinity College, Cambridge,

where he earned an honors degree in natural science. He later studied law at the Inner Temple in London before returning home to India in 1912 and practicing law for several years. Four years later, Nehru married Kamala Kaul; their only child, Indira Priyadarshini, was born in 1917. Like her father, Indira would later serve as prime minister of India under her married name: Indira Gandhi. A family of high achievers, one of Nehru's sisters, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, later became the first woman president of the UN General Assembly.

Entering Politics

     In 1919, while traveling on a train, Nehru overheard British Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer gloating over the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The massacre, also known as the Massacre of Amritsar, was an incident in which 379 people were killed and at least 1,200 wounded when the British military stationed there continuously fired for ten

minutes on a crowd of unarmed Indians. Upon hearing Dyer‘s words, Nehru vowed to fight the British. The incident changed the course of his life. 

     This period in Indian history was marked by a wave of nationalist activity and governmental repression. Nehru joined the Indian National Congress, one of India's two major political parties. Nehru was deeply influenced by the party's leader, Mahatma Gandhi. It was Gandhi's insistence on action to bring about change and greater autonomy from the British that sparked Nehru's interest the most. 

     The British didn't give in easily to Indian demands for freedom, and in late 1921, the Congress Party's central leaders and workers were banned from operating in some provinces. Nehru went to prison for the first time as the ban took effect; over the next 24 years he was to serve a total of nine sentences, adding up to more than nine years in jail. Always leaning to the left politically, Nehru studied Marxism while imprisoned. Though he found himself interested in the philosophy but repelled by some of its methods, from then on the backdrop of Nehru's economic thinking was Marxist, adjusted as necessary to Indian conditions.

Marching Toward Indian Independence

     In 1928, after years of struggle on behalf of Indian emancipation, Jawaharlal Nehru was named president of the Indian National Congress. (In fact, hoping that Nehru would attract India's youth to the party, Mahatma Gandhi had engineered Nehru's rise.) The next year, Nehru led the historic session at Lahore that proclaimed complete independence as India's political goal. November 1930 saw the start of the Round Table Conferences, which convened in London and hosted British and Indian officials working toward a plan of eventual independence.

     After his father's death in 1931, Nehru became more embedded in the workings of the Congress Party and became closer to Gandhi, attending the signing of the Gandhi- Irwin pact. Signed in March 1931 by Gandhi and the British viceroy Lord Irwin, the pact declared a truce between the British and India's independence movement. The British agreed to free all political prisoners and Gandhi agreed to end the civil disobedience movement he had been coordinating for years.

     Unfortunately, the pact did not instantly usher in a peaceful climate in British controlled India, and both Nehru and Gandhi were jailed in early 1932 on charges of attempting to mount another civil disobedience movement. Neither man attended the third Round Table Conference. (Gandhi was jailed soon after his return as the sole Indian representative attending the second Round Table Conference.) The third and final conference did, however, result in the Government of India Act of 1935, giving the Indian provinces a system of autonomous government in which elections would be held to name provincial leaders. By the time the 1935 act was signed into law, Indians began to see Nehru as natural heir to Gandhi, who didn‘t designate Nehru as his political successor until the early 1940s. Gandhi said in January 1941, "[Jawaharlal Nehru and I] had differences from the time we became co-workers and yet I have said for some years and say so now that ... Jawaharlal will be my successor."

World War II

     At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, British viceroy Lord Linlithgow committed India to the war effort without consulting the now-autonomous provincial ministries. In response, the Congress Party withdrew its representatives from the provinces and Gandhi staged a limited civil disobedience movement in which he and Nehru were jailed yet again.Nehru spent a little over a year in jail and was released with other Congress prisoners three days before Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. When Japanese troops soon moved near the borders of India in the spring of 1942, the British government decided to enlist India to combat this new threat, but Gandhi, who still essentially had the reins of the movement, would accept nothing less than independence and called on the British to leave India. Nehru reluctantly joined Gandhi in his hardline stance and the pair were again arrested and jailed, this time for nearly three years.

     By 1947, within two years of Nehru's release, simmering animosity had reached a fever pitch between the Congress Party and the Muslim League, who had always wanted more power in a free India. The last British viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, was charged with finalizing the British roadmap for withdrawal with a plan for a unified India. Despite his reservations, Nehru acquiesced to Mountbatten and the Muslim League's plan to divide India, and in August 1947, Pakistan was created—the new country Muslim and India predominantly Hindu. The British withdrew and Nehru became independent India‘s first prime minister.

The First Prime Minister of Independent India

Domestic Policy

     The importance of Jawaharlal Nehru in the context of Indian history can be distilled to the following points: he imparted modern values and thought, stressed secularism, insisted upon the basic unity of India, and, in the face of ethnic and religious diversity, carried India into the modern age of scientific innovation and technological progress. He also prompted social concern for the marginalized and poor and respect for democratic values.

     Nehru was especially proud to reform the antiquated Hindu civil code. Finally Hindu widows could enjoy equality with men in matters of inheritance and property. Nehru also changed Hindu law to criminalize caste discrimination. Nehru's administration established many Indian institutions of higher learning, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Indian Institutes of Technology, and the National Institutes of Technology, and guaranteed in his five-year plans free and compulsory primary education to all of India's children.

National Security and International Policy

     The Kashmir region—which was claimed by both India and Pakistan—was a perennial problem throughout Nehru's leadership, and his cautious efforts to settle the dispute ultimately failed, resulting in Pakistan making an unsuccessful attempt to seize Kashmir by force in 1948. The region has remained in dispute into the 21st century. 

     Internationally, starting in the late 1940s, both the United States and the U.S.S.R. began seeking out India as an ally in the Cold War, but Nehru led efforts toward a "nonalignment policy," by which India and other nations wouldn‘t feel the need to tie themselves to either dueling country to thrive. To this end, Nehru co-founded the Non- Aligned Movement of nations professing neutrality. 

     Recognizing the People's Republic of China soon after its founding, and as a strong supporter of the United Nations, Nehru argued for China‘s inclusion in the UN and sought to establish warm and friendly relations with the neighboring country. His pacifist and inclusive policies with respect to China came undone when border disputes led to the Sino-Indian war in 1962, which ended when China declared a ceasefire on November 20, 1962 and announced its withdrawal from the disputed area in the Himalayas.

Legacy

     Nehru's four pillars of domestic policies were democracy, socialism, unity, and secularism, and he largely succeeded in maintaining a strong foundation of all four during his tenure as president. While serving his country, he enjoyed iconic status and was widely admired internationally for his idealism and statesmanship. His birthday, November 14, is celebrated in India as Baal Divas ("Children's Day") in recognition of his lifelong passion and work on behalf of children and young people. 

     Nehru's only child, Indira, served as India's prime minister from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984, when she was assassinated. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, was prime minister from 1984 to 1989, when he was also assassinated.

Subhas Chandra Bose

Biography

Subhas Chandra Bose, widely known throughout India as Netaji, was an Indian nationalist and prominent figure of the Indian independence movement, whose attempt during World War II to rid India of British

Born: January 23, 1897, Cuttack

Died: August 18, 1945, Taipei, Taiwan

Spouse: Emilie Schenkl (m. 1937–1945)

Children: Anita Bose Pfaff

Education: Scottish Church College (1918),

Contributions

     Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was a freedom fighter of India. He was the founder of the Indian National Army. During pre-independence period Netaji had visited London to discuss the future of India, with the members of the Labor party. His sudden disappearance from Taiwan, led to surfacing of various theories, concerning the possibilities of his survival.

Life

     Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was born on 23 January, 1897 in Cuttack (Orissa) to Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati Devi. Subhash was the ninth child among eight brothers and six sisters. His father, Janakinath Bose, was an affluent and successful lawyer in Cuttack and received the title of "Rai Bahadur". He, later became a member of the Bengal Legislative Council.

      Subhash Chandra Bose was a very intelligent and sincere student but never had much interest in sports. He passed his B.A. in Philosophy from the Presidency College in Calcutta. He was strongly influenced by Swami Vivekananda's teachings and was known for his patriotic zeal as a student. He also adored Vivekananda as his spiritual Guru.

British Professor Thrashed

     After reading so many incidents about the exploitation of the fellow Indians by the British, Subhash decided to take revenge. In 1916, Subhash reportedly beat and thrashed one of his British teachers E F Otten. The professor made a racist remark against the Indian students. As a result, Bose was expelled from the Presidency College and banished from Calcutta University. The incident brought Subhash in the list of rebel-Indians. In December 1921, Bose was arrested and imprisoned for organizing a boycott of the celebrations to mark the Prince of Wales's visit to India.

Indian Civil Service

     His father wanted Netaji to become a civil servant and therefore, sent him to England to appear for the Indian Civil Service Examination. Bose was placed fourth with highest marks in English. But his urge for participating in the freedom movement was intense that in April 1921, Bose resigned from the coveted Indian Civil Service and came back to India. Soon, he left home to become an active member of India's independence movement. He, later joined the Indian National Congress, and also elected as the  president of the party.

Subhash with Congress

     Initially, Subhash Chandra Bose worked under the leadership of Chittaranjan Das, an active member of Congress in Calcutta. It was Chittaranjan Das, who along with Motilal Nehru, left Congress and founded the Swaraj Party in 1922. Subhash would

regard Chittaranjan Das as his political guru.

     While Chittaranjan Das was busy in developing the national strategy, Subhash Chandra Bose played a major role in enlightening the students, youths and labors of Calcutta. He was eagerly waiting to see India, as an independent, federal and republic nation.

Dispute in the Congress

     People began to recognize Bose by his name and associated him with the freedom movement. Bose had emerged as a popular youth leader. He was admired for his great skills in organization development.

      In 1928, during the Guwahati Session of the Congress, a difference in the opinion between the old and new members surfaced. The young leaders, as against the traditional leadership, wanted a "complete self-rule and without any compromise". The senior leaders were in favor of the "dominion status for India within the British rule".

     The differences were between moderate Gandhi and aggressive Subhash Chandra Bose was swelling. The state was so intense that Subhash Chandra Bose had to defeat Pattabhi Sitaramayya, a presidential candidate, nominated by Gandhiji himself. Bose had won the election but without any second thought he resigned from the party. He, then formed the Forward Bloc in 1939.

Formation of INA

      During the Second World War in September, 1939, Subhash Chandra Bose decided to initiate a mass movement. He started uniting people from all over the country. There was a tremendous response to his call and the British promptly imprisoned him. In jail, he refused to accept food for around two weeks. When his health condition deteriorated, fearing violent reactions across the country, the authority put him under house-arrest. 

     During his house-arrest, in January, 1941, Subhash made a planned escape. He first went to Gomoh in Bihar and from there he went on to Peshawar (now, Pakistan). He finally reached Germany and met Hitler. Bose had been living together with his wife Emilie Schenkl in Berlin. In 1943, Bose left for south-east Asia and raised the army. The group was later named by Bose, as the Indian National Army (INA).

Visit to England

     During his sojourn to England, he met with the leaders of British Labor Party and political thinkers including Clement Attlee, Arthur Greenwood, Harold Laski, G.D.H. Cole, and Sir Stafford Cripps. Bose also discuss with them about the future of India. It must also be noted that it was during the regime of the Labor Party (1945-1951), with Attlee as the Prime Minister, that India gained independence.

Disappearance

     Although it was believed that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash, his body was never recovered. There have so many theories been put forward regarding his abrupt desertion. The government of India set up a number of committees to investigate the case and come out with truth.

     In May 1956, the Shah Nawaz Committee visited Japan to look into the situation of Bose's assumed death. Citing their lack of political relations with Taiwan, the Centre, did not seek for the assistance from their government. The reports of Justice Mukherjee Commission, tabled in Parliament on 17 May, 2006 said, "Bose did not die in the plane crash and the ashes at Renkoji temple are not his". However, the findings were rejected by the government of India.

   

Helen Keller

Biography

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Born: June 27, 1880, Tuscumbia, Alabama, United States

Died: June 1, 1968, Easton, Connecticut, United States

Awards: Presidential Medal of Freedom

Movies: The Miracle Worker, Helen Keller in Her Story

Education: Radcliffe College (1900–1904),

      American educator Helen Keller overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century's leading humanitarians, as well as co-founder of the

ACLU.

Synopsis

      Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1882, she fell ill and was struck blind, deaf and mute. Beginning in 1887, Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, helped her make tremendous progress with her ability to communicate, and Keller went on to college, graduating in 1904. In 1920, Keller helped found the ACLU. During her lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments.

Early Life

      Helen Keller was the first of two daughters born to Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller. She also had two older stepbrothers. Keller's father had proudly served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The family was not particularly wealthy and earned income from their cotton plantation. Later, Arthur became the editor of a weekly local newspaper, the North Alabamian. Keller was born with her senses of sight and hearing, and started speaking when she was just 6 months old. She started walking at the age of 1.

Loss of Sight and Hearing

      In 1882, however, Keller contracted an illness—called "brain fever" by the family doctor—that produced a high body temperature. The true nature of the illness remains a mystery today, though some experts believe it might have been scarlet fever or meningitis. Within a few days after the fever broke, Keller's mother noticed that her daughter didn't show any reaction when the dinner bell was rung, or when a hand was waved in front of her face. Keller had lost both her sight and hearing. She was just 19 months old.

     As Keller grew into childhood, she developed a limited method of communication with her companion, Martha Washington, the young daughter of the family cook. The two had created a type of sign language, and by the time Keller was 7, they had invented more than 60 signs to communicate with each other. But Keller had become very wild and unruly during this time. She would kick and scream when angry, and giggle uncontrollably when happy. She tormented Martha and inflicted raging tantrums on her parents. Many family relatives felt she should be institutionalized.

Educator Anne Sullivan

     Looking for answers and inspiration, in 1886, Keller's mother came across a travelogue by Charles Dickens, American Notes. She read of the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, and soon dispatched Keller and her father to Baltimore, Maryland to see specialist Dr. J. Julian Chisolm. After examining Keller, Chisolm recommended that she see Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell met with Keller and her parents, and suggested that they travel to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. There, the family met with the school's director, Michael Anaganos. He suggested Helen work with one of the institute's most recent graduates, Anne Sullivan. And so began a 49-year relationship between teacher and pupil.

     On March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller's home in Alabama and immediately went to work. She began by teaching six year-old Helen finger spelling, starting with the word "doll," to help Keller understand the gift of a doll she had brought along. Other words would follow. At first, Keller was curious, then defiant, refusing to cooperate with Sullivan's instruction. When Keller did cooperate, Sullivan could tell that she wasn't making the connection between the objects and the letters spelled out in her hand. Sullivan kept working at it, forcing Helen to go through the regimen.

     As Keller's frustration grew, the tantrums increased. Finally, Sullivan demanded that she and Keller be isolated from the rest of the family for a time, so that Keller could concentrate only on Sullivan's instruction. They moved to a cottage on the plantation.

     In a dramatic struggle, Sullivan taught Keller the word "water"; she helped her make the connection between the object and the letters by taking Keller out to the water pump, and placing Keller's hand under the spout. While Sullivan moved the lever to flush cool water over Keller's hand, she spelled out the word w-a-t-e-r on Helen's other hand. Keller understood and repeated the word in Sullivan's hand. She then pounded the ground, demanding to know its "letter name." Sullivan followed her, spelling out the word into her hand. Keller moved to other objects with Sullivan in tow. By nightfall, she had learned 30 words.

A Formal Education

     In 1890, Keller began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn to speak so that others could understand her. From 1894 to 1896, she attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. There, she worked on improving her communication skills and studied regular academic subjects.

     Around this time, Keller became determined to attend college. In 1896, she attended the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, a preparatory school for women. As her story became known to the general public, Keller began to meet famous and influential people. One of them was the writer Mark Twain, who was very impressed with her. They became friends. Twain introduced her to his friend Henry H. Rogers, a Standard Oil executive. Rogers was so impressed with Keller's talent, drive and determination that he agreed to pay for her to attend Radcliffe College. There, she was accompanied by Sullivan, who sat by her side to interpret lectures and texts.

     By this time, Keller had mastered several methods of communication, including touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling. With the help of Sullivan and Sullivan's future husband, John Macy, Keller wrote her first book, The Story of My Life. It covered her transformation from childhood to 21-year-old college student. Keller graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe in 1904, at the age of 24.

      In 1905, Sullivan married John Macy, an instructor at Harvard University, a social critic and a prominent socialist. After the marriage, Sullivan continued to be Keller's guide and mentor. When Keller went to live with the Macys, they both initially gave Keller their undivided attention. Gradually, however, Anne and John became distant to each other, as Anne's devotion to Keller continued unabated. After several years, they separated, though were never divorced.

Social Activism

     After college, Keller set out to learn more about the world and how she could help improve the lives of others. News of her story spread beyond Massachusetts and New England. She became a well-known celebrity and lecturer by sharing her experiences with audiences, and working on behalf of others living with disabilities. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Keller tackled social and political issues, including women's suffrage, pacifism and birth control. She testified before Congress, strongly advocating to improve the welfare of blind people.

     In 1915, along with renowned city planner George Kessler, she co-founded Helen Keller International to combat the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition. In 1920, she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. When the American Federation for the Blind was established in 1921, Keller had an effective national outlet for her efforts. She became a member in 1924, and participated in many campaigns to raise awareness, money and support for the blind. She also joined other organizations dedicated to helping those less fortunate, including the Permanent Blind War Relief Fund (later called the American Braille Press).

     Soon after she graduated from college, Keller became a member of the Socialist Party, most likely due in part to her friendship with John Macy. Between 1909 and 1921, she wrote several articles about socialism and supported Eugene Debs, a Socialist Party presidential candidate. Her series of essays on socialism, entitled "Out of the Dark," described her views on socialism and world affairs.

     It was during this time that Keller first experienced public prejudice about her disabilities. For most of her life, the press had been overwhelmingly supportive of her, praising her courage and intelligence. But after she expressed her socialist views, some criticized her by calling attention to her disabilities. One newspaper, the Brooklyn Eagle, wrote that her "mistakes sprung out of the manifest limitations of her development."

Work and Influence

     In 1936, Keller's beloved teacher and devoted companion, Anne Sullivan, died. She had experienced health problems for several years and, in 1932, lost her eyesight completely. A young woman named Polly Thompson, who had begun working as a secretary for Keller and Sullivan in 1914, became Keller's constant companion upon Sullivan's death.

     In 1946, Keller was appointed counselor of international relations for the American Foundation of Overseas Blind. Between 1946 and 1957, she traveled to 35 countries on five continents. In 1955, at age 75, Keller embarked on the longest and most grueling trip of her life: a 40,000-mile, five-month trek across Asia. Through her many speeches and appearances, she brought inspiration and encouragement to millions of people.

     Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life, was used as the basis for 1957 television drama The Miracle Worker. In 1959, the story was developed into a Broadway play of the same title, starring Patty Duke as Keller and Anne Bancroft as Sullivan. The two actresses also performed those roles in the 1962 award-winning film version of the play.

Death and Legacy

     Keller suffered a series of strokes in 1961, and spent the remaining years of her life at her home in Connecticut. During her lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments, including the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal in 1936, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and election to the Women's Hall of Fame in 1965. She also received honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University and Harvard University and from the universities of Glasgow, Scotland; Berlin, Germany; Delhi, India; and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Additionally, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland.

     Keller died in her sleep on June 1, 1968, just a few weeks before her 88th birthday. During her remarkable life, Keller stood as a powerful example of how determination, hard work, and imagination can allow an individual to triumph over adversity. By overcoming difficult conditions with a great deal of persistence, she grew into a respected and world-renowned activist who labored for the betterment of others.

Kalpana Chawla

Biography

     Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-American astronaut and first Indian woman in space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator.

Born: March 17, 1962, Karnal

Died: February 1, 2003, Texas, United States

Spouse: Jean-Pierre Harrison (m. 1983–2003)

Awards: Congressional Space Medal of Honor, NASA Space Flight Medal, NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Education:

     University of Colorado Boulder (1988), more Kalpana Chawla was India's first women aeronautical engineer to travel into space. She has been a role model to several women in terms of achievement and contributions to the field of aeronautics. Growing up in a male dominant society, Kalpana never let her dreams of flying be affected in any way. In fact she was the first woman to study aeronautical engineering in her batch. Some of her memorials are: the Kalpana Chawla Award given by the Karnataka Government, a dormitory named after her in the University of Texas at Arlington from where she did her Masters and a planetarium in Haryana. This sheds light on her meritorious and outstanding achievements.

      Even though her death was sudden and unfortunate, she left a mark in the nation and will be remembered forever. Read the following sections to know more about this dynamic personality, her career and life.

Early Life

     Kalpana Chawla was born on the 1st of July, 1961 in a small town in Karnal located in the state of Haryana. Her parents, Banarasi Lal Chawla and Sanjyothi had two other daughters named Sunita and Deepa and a son named Sanjay.

      Kalpana was the youngest in her family and hence, she was the most pampered too. She got educated at the Tagore Public School and later enrolled into Punjab Engineering College to complete her Aeronautical Engineering Degree in 1982. In the same year, she moved to the US. She got married to Jean-Pierre Harrison in 1983. He was her flying instructor and an aviation author. In 1984, she completed her M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas in Arlington. In 1988, she obtained a Ph.D. in the same subject from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Career

     Kalpana Chawla was a certified flight instructor who rated aircrafts and gilders. She also held a commercial pilot license for single and multi-engine airplanes, hydroplanes and gliders. Kalpana was a licensed Technician class Amateur Radio person certified by the Federal Communication commission. Owing to her multiple degrees in Aerospace, she got a job in NASA as the Vice President of the Overset Methods, Inc. in 1993. She was extensively involved in computational fluid dynamics research on Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing. It was not until 1995 that she became a part of the NASA 'Astronaut Corps'. Three years later, she was selected for her first mission i.e. to travel around the Earth in a space shuttle. This operation consisted of six other members.

     Kalpana was responsible for organizing the Spartan Satellite but she was unsuccessful in her role due to its malfunction. It was found that due to technical errors, the satellite defied control of ground staff and flight crew members. Following this, she was vindicated. On the other hand, Kalpana Chawla created history for being the first Indian woman to travel in a space shuttle. She had the privilege of journeying as far as 10.4million km. This approximately adds up to 252 times around the Earth's orbit that comprised of 372 hours in space. After the Spartan Satellite incident, she was given a technical position. Her excellent work was recognized and awarded. In 2000, she was again assigned on her second flight mission as a part of Flight STS-107. Kalpana's responsibility included microgravity experiments. Along with her team members, she undertook a detailed research on advanced technology development, astronaut health & safety, the study of Earth and space science. During the course of this mission, there were several mishaps and cracks were detected in the shuttle engine flow liners. This delayed the project until 2003.

Death

     It was on February 1st 2003 that the space shuttle, STS-107, collapsed over the Texas region when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. This unfortunate event ended the lives of seven crew members including Kalpana.

Achievements and Accolades

     Despite living in America, Kalpana Chawla was considered the pride of India. She was the first Indian woman to travel in a space shuttle for 372 hours and complete 252 rotations around the Earth's atmosphere. Her achievements have been an inspiration to many others in India and abroad. There are many science institutions named after her. During her lifetime, Kalpana Chawla was awarded with three awards namely the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, NASA Space Flight Medal and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

Timeline

1961: She was born on 1st July in Karnal.

1982: She moved to the United States to complete her education.

1983: Married a flying instructor and aviation author, Jean-Pierre Harrison.

1984: got an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas in Arlington.

1988: She received a Ph.D. in the same field and began to work for NASA.

1993: Joined Overset Methods Inc. as Vice President and Research Scientist.

1995: She joined the NASA 'Astronaut Corps.

1996: Kalpana was the mission specialist for prime robotic arm operator on STS-87.

1997: Her first mission on Flight STS-87 took place.

2000: Assigned on her second mission as part of Flight STS-107.

2003: Chawla got a second chance for the mission on Flight STS-107. On February 1st, she died when the space shuttle broke down.

Salim Ali

Biography

     Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Sometimes referred to as the "birdman of India", Salim Ali was among the first Indians to conduct systematic bird surveys across

Born: November 12, 1896, Mumbai

Died: June 20, 1987, Mumbai

Awards: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan

Education: St. Xavier's College-Autonomous, Mumbai, Queen Mary School, Mumbai

Career: Ornithologist, Naturalist

Nationality: Indian

     Almost every one of us is interested in watching colorful and distinct birds crossing us. But very few are passionate about studying them in detail. One such man who took extreme interest and excitement in studying birds closely and categorizing them was Dr. Salim Ali.

     One of the greatest biologists of all times, Salim Ali meticulously observed and documented the birds of the sub-continent for around 80 years, thereby making immense contribution to the field of ornithology. It was his phenomenal and path-breaking work in the related field that he was bestowed with the nickname of "birdman of India". Besides, he was fondly known as the "grand old man of Indian ornithology" as well. Such was his extraordinary work in the distribution and ecology of over 1000 bird species inhabiting South Asia that he created history and made significant contributions in conserving the fauna, which in an integral part of a mosaic of landscapes.

Early Life

     Salim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, or Salim Ali as he is better known as, was born as the ninth and youngest child in a Sulaimani Bohra Muslim family. He was born in Mumbai to Moizuddin and Zeenat-un-nissa. Losing his father at the age of one and mother at three, Salim Ali and other kids were brought up by his maternal uncle, Amiruddin Tyabji, and childless aunt, Hamida Begum. He was also surrounded by another maternal uncle, Abbas Tyabji, a prominent Indian freedom fighter. He attended primary school at Zanana Bible Medical Mission Girls High School at Girgaum and was later admitted to St. Xavier's College at Mumbai.

     However, due to his frequent chronic headaches, he was forced to drop out of

school every now and then since he was 13 years old. He was sent to Sind to stay with his

uncle with hopes of the dry air making an improvement in his health. Thus, on returning,

he just managed to clear his matriculation examination from Bombay University in 1913.

Since childhood, Salim Ali gained an interest in observing birds closely and had a hobby

of shooting birds with his toy air gun. With the help of W.S. Millard, secretary of

Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the bird was identified as Yellow-throated

Sparrow, which further increased his seriousness towards ornithology.

Life in Burma and Germany

     After spending a difficult first year in Xavier's College, Mumbai, Salim Ali dropped out of college and went to Tavoy, Burma to care of his family's Wolfram mining and timber business. The forests surrounding the area helped him further develop his naturalist and hunting skills. He developed good relations with J.C. Hopwood and Berthold Ribbentrop who worked with the Forest Service. On returning to India in 1917, he decided to complete his studies. Hence, he studied commercial law and accountancy from Davar's College of Commerce. He used to attend morning classes at Davar's College and go to St. Xavier's College to attend zoology classes to complete his course in zoology. Apart from his interest in birds, Salim Ali was also fascinated by motorcycles and hence, owned his first motorcycle, 3.5 HP NSU while he was in Tavoy. He later went on to possess Sunbeam, Harley-Davidson (three models), Douglas, Scott, New Hudson, and Zenith, amongst other models. He went further to get his Sunbeam shipped to Europe on being invited to the 1950 Ornithological Congress at Uppsala, Sweden. While touring France, he even injured himself in a minor accident and cobbled several times in Germany. He was rumored to have ridden on his bike all the way from India, when he finally reached Uppsala. Coming back to his interest in ornithology, he was rejected a position at the Zoological Survey of India due to lack of a formal university degree. With this, he began studying further when he was hired as a guide lecturer in the newly opened natural history section at Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai in 1926 with a salary of Rs. 350 per month.

     Being fed up with the monotony of the job, he decided to go on a break and went to Germany in 1928 on a study leave. He worked under Professor Erwin Stresemann at Zoological Museum of Berlin University. He was also required to examine the specimens collected by J.K. Stanford, a BNHS member. Stanford was supposed to communicate with Claud Ticehurst at the British Museum who did not like the idea of involving an Indian in his work. Hence, he kept distance with Stresemann. Salim Ali then moved to Berlin and associated with popular German ornithologists, such as Bernhard Rensch, Oskar Heinroth, and Ernst Mayr. Apart from his usual ornithology experience, he also gained knowledge in ringing at the Heligoland observatory.

Contribution to Ornithology

     After studying ornithology in Germany, Salim Ali returned to India in 1930 and started looking for a job. However, to his surprise, the position of a guide lecturer had been dropped off from universities due to lack of duns. Left with no option, Salim Ali, along with wife Tehmina, moved to Kihim, a coastal village near Mumbai. This place gave him another opportunity to observe and study birds very closely, including their mating system. He then spent a few months in Kotagiri on being invited by K.M. Anantan, a retied army officer who served in Mesopotamia during World War I. He also met Mrs. Kinloch and her son-in-law R.C. Morris, who lived in the Biligirirangan Hills. Gradually, on traveling places, Salim Ali got an opportunity to conduct systematic bird surveys in the princely states of Hyderabad, Cochin, Travancore, Gwalior, Indore, and Bhopal.

     He was financially supported by Hugh Whistler who had previously conducted surveys in various parts of India. Although Whistler initially resented Salim Ali for finding faults and inaccuracies in the early literature, he later re-examined his specimens and accepted his mistakes. With this, began a close friendly relationship between Ali and Whistler. He introduced Ali to Richard Meinertzhagen and the two went

on an expedition to Afghanistan. Initially, Meinertzhagen was also critical of Ali's views but later, the two became close friends. Salim Ali was more attracted towards studying birds in the field rather than getting into the details of bird systematics and taxonomy. However, he did show some interest in bird photography with the help of his friend Loke Wan Tho, a wealthy businessman from Singapore. Ali and Loke were introduced by JTM Gibson, a member at BNHS and Lieutenant Commander of Royal Indian Navy, who had also taught English to Loke in Switzerland. Hence, Loke provided financial support to both Ali and BNHS. Ali talked about the history and importance of bird study in India in Sunder Lal Hora memorial lecture in 1971 and again in Azad memorial lecture in 1978.

Literary Career

     Salim Ali was not only passionate about studying birds in general; he also showed equal interest in capturing his views on them in words. With the help of his wife Tehmina, a learned scholar from England, Ali improved his English prose. Thus, began Ali's writing career, particularly journal articles for Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. One of his most popular articles was "Stopping by the woods on a Sunday morning" in 1930 which was reprinted again in Indian Express on this birthday in 1984. He penned several books as well, the most prominent of them being "The Book of Indian Birds" in 1941, which was inspired by Whistler's "Popular Handbook of Birds". It was later translated into several languages and saw more than 12 editions. However, his masterpiece was the 10 volume "Handbook of the Birds of India & Pakistan", written along with Dillon Ripley and was often known as "The Handbook". The first edition began in 1964 and was completed in 1974. The second edition came from contributions by J.S. Serrao of BNHS, Bruce Beehler, Michel Desfayes, and Pamela Rasmussen. This was completed after Ali's death.

     Besides the national and international bird books, Ali also authored several regional field guides, like "The Birds of Kerala" (first edition was titled "The Birds of Travancore and cochin" in 1953), "The Birds of Sikkim", "The Birds of Kutch" (later renamed as "The Birds of Gujarat"), "Indian Hill Birds", "Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern Himalayas". He penned his autobiography "The Fall of a Sparrow" in 1985 where he included his vision for BNHS and the importance of conservation related activities. One of his last students, Tara Gandhi, published a two-volume compilation of his shorter letters and writings in 2007.

Personal Life

     On his return from Burma, Salim Ali was married off to his distant relative, Tehmina, in December 1918 in Bombay. She accompanied him to all his expeditions and surveys. But his life came to a halt when she suddenly died following a minor surgery in 1939. Ali then started living with his sister Kamoo and brother-in-law.

Death

     After battling with prostate cancer for a very long duration, Salim Ali died on July 27, 1987 in Mumbai at the age of 90.

Honors & Memorials

     Salim Ali was honored and credited with several honorary doctorates and awards during his lifetime, though this journey began late. Starting with "Joy Gobinda Law Gold Medal" in 1953 by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, he went on to receive numerous accolades. It was based on the appreciation he received from Sunder Lal Hora. Thus, in 1970, he was conferred upon with the Sunder Lal Hora Memorial Medal of the Indian National Science Academy. He was bestowed with honorary doctorate degrees from Aligarh Muslim University in 1958, Delhi University in 1973, and Andhra University in 1978. On receiving the Gold Medal from the British Ornithologists' Union in 1967, Salim Ali became the first non-British citizen to be bequeathed with such an honor. He received the John C. Philips Memorial Medal of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in the same year.

     In 1973, he received the Pavlovsky Centenary Memorial Medal from the USSR Academy of Medical Science and was made the Commander of the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernhard of Netherlands. He was honored with Padma Bhushan Award in 1958 and Padma Vibhushan Award in 1976. The Government of India established the Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) in Coimbatore in 1990. Further, Salim Ali School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences has been established by Pondicherry University. The Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary in Goa and Thattakad Bird Sanctuary near Vembanad, Kerala have been set up in his honor. The place where BNHS was located in Bombay was renamed as "Dr Salim Ali Chowk".

Timeline

1896: Born on November 12 in Mumbai

1913: Completed matriculation from Bombay University

1914: Admitted to St. Xavier's College and went to Burma

1917: Returned to India

1918: Married distant cousin, Tehmina in December

1926: Employed as guide lecturer in Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay

1928: Left the job and went to Germany

1930: Came back to India

1939: Wife Tehmina died

1941: Wrote first book "The Book of Indian Birds"

1953: Awarded with Joy Gobinda Law Gold Medal by Asiatic Society of Bengal

1958: Received doctorate degree from Aligarh Muslim University

1958: Honored with Padma Bhushan Award

1970: Bestowed with Sunder Lal Hora Memorial Medal from INSA

1973: Received honorary doctorate from Delhi University

1976: Conferred upon with Padma Vibhushan Award

1978: Received honorary doctorate from Andhra University

1985: Penned autobiography "The Fall of a Sparrow"

1987: Died on July 27 in Mumbai from prostate cancer, aged 90

1990: Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History established at Coimbatore

     Rani Lakshmi Bai was the queen of the princely state of Jhansi, which is located on the northern side of India. She was one of the most leading personalities of the first war of India's independence that started in 1857. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Rani Lakshmibai, who was an epitome of bravery and courage.

Rani of Jhansi

Rani Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi

Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi (portrayed as asowar)

Predecessor               Rani Kopal Bai

Successor                  British Raj

Born                           Manikarnika Tambe 19 November 1828, Varanasi, India

Died                            18 June 1858 (aged 29) Kotah ki Serai, near Gwalior, India

Spouse                       Jhansi Naresh Maharaj Gangadhar Rao Newalkar

Issue                           Damodar Rao, Anand Rao (adopted)

House                         Maratha Empire

Father                         Moropant Tambe

Early Life

     She was born to a Maharashtrian family at Kashi (now Varanasi) in the year 1828. During her childhood, she was called by the name Manikarnika. Affectionately, her family members called her Manu. At a tender age of four, she lost her mother. As a result, the responsibility of raising her fell upon her father. While pursuing studies, she also took formal training in martial arts, which included horse riding, shooting and fencing. To know the complete life history of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, read on. In the year 1842, she got married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, Raja Gangadhar Rao Niwalkar. On getting married, she was given the name Lakshmi Bai. Her wedding ceremony was held at the Ganesh temple, located in the old city of Jhansi. In the year 1851, she gave birth to a son. Unfortunately, the child did not survive more than four months. In the year 1853, Gangadhar Rao fell sick and became very weak. So, the couple decided to adopt a child. To ensure that the British do not raise an issue over the adoption, Lakshmibai got this adoption witnessed by the local British representatives. On 21st November 1853, Maharaja Gangadhar Rao died.

Invasion

     During that period, Lord Dalhousie was the Governor General of British India. The adopted child was named Damodar Rao. As per the Hindu tradition, he was their legal heir. However, the British rulers refused to accept him as the legal heir. As per the

Doctrine of Lapse, Lord Dalhousie decided to seize the state of Jhansi. Rani Lakshmibai went to a British lawyer and consulted him. Thereafter, she filed an appeal for the hearing of her case in London. But, her plea was rejected. The British authorities confiscated the state jewels. Also, an order was passed asking the Rani to leave Jhansi fort and move to the Rani Mahal in Jhansi. Laxmibai was firm about protecting the state of Jhansi.

The war

      Jhansi became the focal point of uprising. Rani of Jhansi began to strengthen her position. By seeking the support of others, she formed a volunteer army. The army not just consisted of the men folk, but the women were also actively involved. Women were also given military training to fight a battle. In the revolt, Rani Lakshmibai was accompanied by her generals. From the period between Sep-Oct 1857, Rani defended Jhansi from being invaded by the armies of the neighboring rajas of Orchha and Datia. In January

1858, the British army headed it's away towards Jhansi. The conflict went on for two weeks. Finally, the Britishers succeeded in the annexation of the city. However, Rani

Laksmi Bai managed to escape along with her son, in the guise of a man. She took refuge in Kalpi, where she met Tatya Tope, a great warrior. She died on 17thJune, during the battle for Gwalior. It is believed that, when she was lying unconscious in the battle field, a Brahmin found her and brought her to an ashram, where she died. For her immense effort, she is referred to as the 'Icon of the Indian Nationalist Movement'. Throughout the uprising, the aim of Rani was to secure the throne for her adopted son Damodar. Her story became a beacon for the upcoming generations of freedom fighters. Lot of literature has been written on the life history of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi. Heroic poems have been composed in her honor.

Nelson Mandela

Biography

     Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician,

and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

Born: July 18, 1918, Mvezo, South Africa

Died: December 5, 2013, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, South Africa

Spouse: Graça Machel (m. 1998–2013), more

Influenced by: Mahatma Gandhi, Walter Sisulu, Albert Lutuli

Awards: Nobel Peace Prize, Arthur Ashe Courage Award, more

Movies: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Introduction

     Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo , Transkei, on 18 July 1918. His mother was Nonqaphi Nosekeni and his father was Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. In 1930, when he was 12 years old, his father died and the young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. Hearing the elders‘stories of his ancestors‘ valour during the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.The narrated life and times of Nelson Mandela.

     He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom of giving all schoolchildren ―Christian names. He completed his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and went o to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute, where he matriculated.

     Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but did not complete the degree there as he was expelled for joining in a student protest.

     On his return to the Great Place at Mqhekezweni the King was furious and said if he didn‘t return to Fort Hare he would arrange wives for him and his cousin Justice. They ran away to Johannesburg instead, arriving there in 1941. There he worked as a mine security officer and after meeting Walter Sisulu, an estate agent, he was introduced to Lazer Sidelsky. He then did his articles through a firm of attorneys – Witkin, Eidelman and Sidelsky. He completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.

     Meanwhile, he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand.

By his own admission he was a poor student and left the university in 1952 without graduating. He only started studying again through the University of London after his imprisonment in 1962 but also did not complete that degree.

     In 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment, he obtained an LLB through the University of South Africa. He graduated in absentia at a ceremony in Cape Town.

Entering politics

     Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped to form the ANC Youth League

(ANCYL).

     In 1944 he married Walter Sisulu‘s cousin, Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They had two sons, Madiba Thembekile "Thembi" and Makgatho, and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. He and his wife divorced in 1958. Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its efforts, the ANC adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action, in 1949.

     In 1952 he was chosen as the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his deputy. This campaign of civil disobedience against six unjust laws was a joint programme between the ANC and the South African Indian Congress. He and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months of hard labour, suspended for two years.

     A two-year diploma in law on top of his BA allowed Mandela to practise law, and

in August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established South Africa‘s first black law firm,

Mandela & Tambo.

     At the end of 1952 he was banned for the first time. As a restricted person he was only permitted to watch in secret as the Freedom Charter was adopted in Kliptown on 26

June 1955.

The Treason Trial

     Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused, including Mandela, were acquitted on 29 March 1961.

     On 21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest in Sharpeville against the pass laws. This led to the country‘s first state of emergency and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) on 8 April. Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among thousands detained during the state of emergency. During the trial Mandela married a social worker, Winnie Madikizela, on 14 June 1958. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple divorced in 1996.

     Days before the end of the Treason Trial, Mandela travelled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, which resolved that he should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a national convention on a non-racial constitution, and to warn that should he not agree there would be a national strike against South Africa becoming a republic. After he and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial, Mandela went underground and began planning a national strike for 29, 30 and 31 March. In the face of massive mobilisation of state security the strike was called off early. In June 1961 he was asked to lead the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), which launched on 16 December 1961 with a series of explosions.

     On 11 January 1962, using the adopted name David Motsamayi, Mandela secretly left South Africa. He travelled around Africa and visited England to gain support for the armed struggle. He received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia and returned to South Africa in July 1962. He was arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on 5 August while returning from KwaZulu-Natal, where he had briefed ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli about his trip.

     He was charged with leaving the country without a permit and inciting workers to strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, which he began serving at the Pretoria Local Prison. On 27 May 1963 he was transferred to Robben Island and returned to Pretoria on 12 June. Within a month police raided Liliesleaf, a secret hide-out in Rivonia used by ANC and Communist Party activists, and several of his comrades were arrested.

     On 9 October 1963 Mandela joined 10 others on trial for sabotage in what became known as the Rivonia Trial. While facing the death penalty his words to the court at the end of his famous "Speech from the Dock" on 20 April 1964 became immortalised:

     On 11 June 1964 Mandela and seven other accused, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni, were convicted and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment. Goldberg was sent to Pretoria Prison because he was white, while the others went to Robben Island.

     Mandela‘s mother died in 1968 and his eldest son, Thembi, in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.

     On 31 March 1982 Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada joined them in October. When he returned to the prison in November 1985 after prostate surgery, Mandela was held alone. Justice

Minister Kobie Coetsee visited him in hospital. Later Mandela initiated talks about an ultimate meeting be Release from prison

     On 12 August 1988 he was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. After more than three months in two hospitals he was transferred on 7 December 1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl where he spent his last 14 months of imprisonment. He was released from its gates on Sunday 11 February 1990, nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC and nearly four months after the release of his remaining Rivonia comrades. Throughout his imprisonment he had rejected at least three conditional offers of release.

     Mandela immersed himself in official talks to end white minority rule and in 1991 was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend, Oliver Tambo. In 1993 he and President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for the first time in his life.

President

     On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated as South Africa‘s first democratically elected President. On his 80th birthday in 1998 he married Graça Machel, his third wife.

    True to his promise, Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term as President. He continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children‘s Fund he set up in 1995 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

     In April 2007 his grandson, Mandla Mandela, was installed as head of the Mvezo

Traditional Council at a ceremony at the Mvezo Great Place.

     Nelson Mandela never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he never answered racism with racism. His life is an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived; and to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.

     He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

Abraham Lincoln

Biography

     Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Wikipedia

Born: February 12, 1809, Hodgenville, Kentucky, United States

Died: April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C., United States

Spouse: Mary Todd Lincoln (m. 1842–1865)

Children: William Wallace Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln, Edward Baker Lincoln, Tad Lincoln

Movies: The Perfect Tribute, more

Previous offices: President of the United States (1861–1865), more

    

     Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He preserved the Union during the U.S. Civil War and brought about the emancipation of slaves.

Synopsis

     Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of America's greatest heroes due to both his incredible impact on the nation and his unique appeal. His is a remarkable story of the rise from humble beginnings to achieve the highest office in the land; then, a sudden and tragic death at a time when his country needed him most to complete the great task remaining before the nation. Lincoln's distinctively human and humane personality and historical role as savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves creates a legacy that endures. His eloquence of democracy and his insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve.

Childhood

     Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky to Thomas

Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Thomas was a strong and determined pioneer who found a moderate level of prosperity and was well respected in the community. The couple had two other children: Abraham's older sister Sarah and younger brother Thomas, who died in infancy. Due to a land dispute, the Lincolns were forced to move from Kentucky to Perry County, Indiana in 1817, where the family "squatted" on public land to scrap out a living in a crude shelter, hunting game and farming a small plot. Thomas was eventually able to buy the land.

     When young Abraham was 9 years old, his mother died of tremetol (milk sickness) at age 34. The event was devastating on him and young Abraham grew more alienated from his father and quietly resented the hard work placed on him at an early age. A few months after Nancy's death, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a Kentucky widow with three children of her own. She was a strong and affectionate woman with whom Abraham quickly bonded. Though both his parents were most likely illiterate, Sarah encouraged Abraham to read. It was while growing into manhood that he received his formal education—an estimated total of 18 months—a few days or weeks at a time. Reading material was in short supply in the Indiana wilderness. Neighbors recalled how Abraham would walk for miles to borrow a book. He undoubtedly read the family Bible and probably other popular books at that time such as Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrims Progress and Aesop‘s Fables.

Law Career

     In March, 1830, the family again migrated, this time to Macon County, Illinois.

When his father moved the family again to Coles County, 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln struck out on this own, making a living in manual labor. At six feet four inches tall, Lincoln was rawboned and lanky, but muscular and physically strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait. He was known for his skill in wielding an ax and early on made a living splitting wood for fire and rail fencing. Young Lincoln eventually migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois, where over a period of years he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner. It was here that Lincoln, working with the public, acquired social skills and honed story-telling talent that made him popular with the locals. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. He saw no combat during this time, save for "a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes," but was able to make several important political connections.

     After the Black Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature, in 1834, as a member of the Whig Party. He supported the Whig politics of government-sponsored infrastructure and protective tariffs. This political understanding led him to formulate his early views on slavery, not so much as a moral wrong, but as an impediment to economic development. It was around this time that he decided to become a lawyer, teaching himself the law by reading William Blackstone'sCommentaries on the Laws of England. After being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and began to practice in the John T. Stuart law firm.

     It was soon after this that he purportedly met and became romantically involved with Anne Rutledge. Before they had a chance to be engaged, a wave of typhoid fever came over New Salem and Anne died at age 22. Her death was said to have left Lincoln severely depressed. However, several historians disagree on the extent of Lincoln‘s relationship with Rutledge and his level of sorrow at her death may be more the makings of legend.

     In 1844, Abraham Lincoln partnered with William Herndon in the practice of law. Though the two had different jurisprudent styles, they developed a close professional and personal relationship. Lincoln made a good living in his early years as a lawyer, but found that Springfield alone didn't offer enough work, so to supplement his income, he followed the court as it made its rounds on the circuit to the various county seats in

Illinois.

Entering Politics

     Abraham Lincoln served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849. His foray into national politics seemed to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from the state of Illinois, showing party loyalty, but finding few political allies. He used his term in office to speak out against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848. His criticism of the war made him unpopular back home and he decided not to run for second term, but instead returned Springfield to practice law.

     By the 1850s, the railroad industry was moving west and Illinois found itself becoming a major hub for various companies. Abraham Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad as its company attorney. Success in several court cases brought other business clients as well—banks, insurance companies and manufacturing firms. Lincoln also did some criminal trials. In one case, a witness claimed that he could identify Lincoln's client who was accused of murder, because of the intense light from a full moon. Lincoln referred to an almanac and proved that the night in question had been too dark for the witness to see anything clearly. His client was acquitted.

     About a year after the death of Anne Rutledge, Lincoln courted Mary Owens. The two saw each other for a few months and marriage was considered. But in time, Lincoln called off the match. In 1840, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, a high spirited, well-educated woman from a distinguished Kentucky family. In the beginning, many of the couple's friends and family couldn't understand Mary‘s attraction, and at times

     Lincoln questioned it himself. However, in 1841, the engagement was suddenly broken off, most likely at Lincoln's initiative. They met later at a social function and eventually married on November 4, 1842. The couple had four children, of which only one, Robert, survived to adulthood.

Elected President

     In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, and allowed individual states and territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. The law provoked violent opposition in Kansas and Illinois, and it gave rise to the Republican Party. This awakened Abraham Lincoln's political zeal once again, and his views on slavery moved more toward moral indignation. Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856.

     In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its controversial decision Scott v. Sanford, declaring African Americans were not citizens and had no inherent rights. Though Abraham Lincoln felt African Americans were not equal to whites, he believed the America's founders intended that all men were created with certain inalienable rights. Lincoln decided to challenge sitting U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas for his seat. In his nomination acceptance speech, he criticized Douglas, the Supreme Court, and President Buchanan for promoting slavery and declared "a house divided cannot stand."

     The 1858 Senate campaign featured seven debates held in different cities across Illinois. The two candidates didn't disappoint the public, giving stirring debates on issues ranging from states' rights to western expansion, but the central issue was slavery. Newspapers intensely covered the debates, often times with partisan commentary. In the end, the state legislature elected Douglas, but the exposure vaulted Lincoln into national politics.

     In 1860, political operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. On May 18, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln surpassed better known candidates such as William Seward of New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Lincoln's nomination was due in part to his moderate views on slavery, his support for improving the national infrastructure, and the protective tariff. In the general election, Lincoln faced his friend and rival, Stephan Douglas, this time besting him in a four-way race that included John C. Breckinridge of the Northern Democrats and John Bell of the Constitution Party. Lincoln received not quite 40 percent of the popular vote, but carried 180 of 303 Electoral votes.

     Abraham Lincoln selected a strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates and Edwin Stanton. Formed out the adage "Hold your friends close and your enemies closer," Lincoln's Cabinet became one of his strongest assets in his first term in office… and he would need them. Before his inauguration in March, 1861, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union and by April the U.S. military installation Fort Sumter was under siege in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, the guns stationed to protect the harbor blazed toward the fort signaling the start of America‘s costliest and most deadly war.

Civil War

     Abraham Lincoln responded to the crisis wielding powers as no other president before him. He distributed $2 million from the Treasury for war material without an appropriation from Congress; he called for 75,000 volunteers into military service without a declaration of war; and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, arresting and imprisoning suspected Confederate sympathizers without a warrant. Crushing the rebellion would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil War, with its preceding decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. From all directions, Lincoln faced disparagement and defiance. He was often at odds with his generals, his Cabinet, his party and a majority of the American people.

    The Union Army's first year and a half of battlefield defeats made it especially difficult to keep morale up and support strong for a reunification the nation. With the hopeful, but by no means conclusive Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, Lincoln felt confident enough to reshape the cause of the war from saving the union to abolishing slavery. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which stated that all individuals who were held as slaves in rebellious states "henceforward shall be free." The action was more symbolic than effective because the North didn‘t control any states in rebellion and the proclamation didn‘t apply to Border States.

    Gradually, the war effort improved for the North, though more by attrition than by brilliant military victories. But by 1864, the Confederate armies had eluded major defeat and Lincoln was convinced he'd be a one-term president. His nemesis, George B. McClellan, the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, challenged him for the presidency, but the contest wasn't even close. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of 243 Electoral votes. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Virginia, surrendered his forces to Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the war for all intents and purposes was over.

Assassination

    Reconstruction began during the war as early as 1863 in areas firmly under Union military control. Abraham Lincoln favored a policy of quick reunification with a minimum of retribution. But he was confronted by a radical group of Republicans in the Senate and House that wanted complete allegiance and repentance from former Confederates. Before a political battle had a chance to firmly develop, Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer John

     Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was taken from the theater to a Petersen House across the street and laid in a coma for nine hours before dying the next morning. His body lay in state at the Capitol before a funeral train took him back to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.