Mangal Pandey

Born on July 19, 1827 in the village of Nagwa, district Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, Mangal Pandey was introduced to Indian history as the first freedom fighter and martyr of 1857. He is popularly named ‘Shaheed Mangal Pandey’ because ‘Shaheed’ means martyr in Urdu and he was the first Indian sepoy who woke up the Indian messages to fight for the nation.

Mangal Pandey, at the age of 22 joined the British East India Company as a soldier in the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry. He was a true freedom fighter who gave a spark to the First War of Indian Independence. The British termed it as Sepoy Mutiny 1857 as it was a mass revolt of Indian soldiers in the British Army.

The main reason of Sepoy Mutiny was the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket. To load a new rifle, the soldiers had to bite the cartridge and open to pour gunpowder into the rifle’s muzzle. There was a widespread rumor that these cartridges were greased with lard or tallow. Lard is the pork fat which the Muslims regarded as unclean and tallow is the beef fat which the Hindus regarded as sacred. The British army constituted 96% of Indians and so both the Hindus and the Muslims refused to accept these cartridges. Everyone had a firm belief that this was done intentionally and this discontent turned into a major revolt.

Mass revolt forced Pandey to attack his British sergeant on the parade ground, besides wounding an adjutant. A native soldier stopped him from killing them. The officer in charge ordered a Jamadaar of the troop to arrest Pandey but he refused to do so. Mangal tried to commit suicide to light the flame of nationalism in the hearts of millions of Indians but he failed to do so. He was then captured and sentenced to death on April 8, 1857 in Barrackpore. March 29, 1857 is considered to be a day when Mangal Pandey reaped the seed for a struggle which gave India her freedom.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Born on November 14, 1889 in Allahabad, Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India. The only son of Motilal Nehru and Swarup Rani was a patriot, a freedom fighter and the most highly respected personality. He completed his early education in a boarding school in England. For higher studies he went to Cambridge University and returned to India in 1912 as a barrister. Just after his studies, in 1916 he got married to Kamala Kaul.

Nehru was an intellectual with strong feelings of patriotism, liberty and unity. Being highly influenced by Gandhi Ji, he wanted to join the freedom struggle. During the struggle he was imprisoned several times. He had spent almost 14 years of his life in prison. For consequently 5 times he was elected as the President of Indian National Congress and under his influence Congress adopted the goal of complete independence. After centuries of struggle, India became independent in 1947 and soon after that Nehru was appointed as the first Prime Minister of the country.

Even after independence he had served the country that had left a profound influence on the social structure, intellectual development and overall development of the country. He is said to be the architect, the maker of modern India. On May 27, 1964 India lost its architecture.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel , popularly known as a ‘Man of Steel’, was born on October 31, 1875 at Nadiad, Gujarat. He passsed his high school studies in Nadiad and came out with a strong desire to become a lawyer. Because of financial reasons he could not join any school of law so he studied at home and passed the law exam with flying colors.

Sardar started his legal practice in Godhra and at the age of 36, he went to England for further studies. He returned to India in 1913 and started his practice in Ahemdabad. He soon became a successful lawyer but his dream and career soon flourished.

Inspired by the work and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, he decided to join the freedom struggle. His first attempt was to fight for the cause of peasants in Kheda, Bardoli and other parts of Gujarat who were asked to pay heavy taxes to the British Government. Patel, under the leadership of Gandhi Ji, launched non-violent Civil Disobedience Movement against the payment of raised taxes. The Government tried to suppress the revolt but unfortunately could not do so. Finally, the taxes were suspended and thereafter everyone addressed Patel as Sardar. Further, he was also involved in Salt Satyagraha in Nagpur and Quit India Movement in 1942. He also opposed alcoholism, untouchability, caste discrimination and violence. In 1931, he was elected as the President of Indian National Congress.

After independence he was appointed as the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India. He had served the country during the tenure but Gandhi Ji’s death gave him a major heart attack and he died on December 15, 1950.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad , born on November 11, 1888 in Mecca, was a distinguished scholar, a great poet, a true freedom fighter and independent India’s first Education Minister. He was the son of Maulana Khaiiruddin and Aliyah. His father left India during Sepoy Mutiny and settled in Mecca. In 1890, he along with his family returned to India and settled down in Calcutta. 

Maulana Azad pursued traditional Islamic education at home and learned many different languages. He was imbued with the pan-Islamic spirit and visited many places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. In these places he met many exiled revolutionaries, patriotic leaders, freedom fighters and other political members who influenced Azad with their revolutionary activities. He then imbibed patriotism and was metamorphosed into a nationalist revolutionary.

After returning back to India, he joined the revolutionary movement under Aurbindo Ghosh and Sri Shyam Sunder Chakravarthy. He also opened secret revolutionary centers all over North India and in Bombay. Azad convinced the Muslim revolutionaries to fight for India’s freedom rather than fighting for anti-Muslim causes. In 1912, he started a weekly journal to propagate Indian nationalism and revolutionary ideas based on Hindu-Muslim unity. This weekly proved to be a threat to British Empire and so he was expelled from Calcutta in 1916 and was released in 1920 after the First World War.

After his release he actively participated in Khilafat Movement, Non Cooperation Movement and Salt Stayagraha. He was imprisoned several times but this could not stop him from fighting for freedom struggle. He was a strong opponent of Hindu Muslim separation and the day partition took place his dream of a unified nation was shattered.

In 1947, Maulana Azad was appointed as the Minister of Education in the cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru. He served the country till 1958 and on February 22, 1958 died of a stroke.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Gopal Krishna Gokhale , a pioneer of Indian National Movement, was bron on May 9, 1866 in Kothapur, Maharashtra. 

This great son of Krishna Rao and Valubai was the political guru of Gandhi Ji. He received his early education at Rajaram High School in Kothapur and later on moved to Bombay in 1884 to receive higher education.

It is said that Gokhale was one of the first Indians who completed graduation. Higher education made him understand the importance of liberty, democracy and parliamentary system. He wanted to widespread the knowledge he gained and so moved on to teaching. With strong command over English he was able to communicate with the Britishers but he also wanted local Indians to speak in a way that their voices are heard.

In 1885, Gokhale along with his Deccan Education Society colleagues founded the Fergusson College in Pune. In the subsequent year he met a great scholar and a social reformer Mahadev Govind Rane. Being highly influenced by the social works of Ranade, Gokhale called him guru and started moving on the path of social reforms. He founded the Servants of India Society in 1905. The main objective of this society was to train Indians to raise their voices and serve their country.

Gokhale was actively involved in the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909 that gave Indians right to access highest posts in the government. He also wrote articles for Tilak’s weekly paper. Through his articles he tried to awaken the lost voices, latent patriotism and the feeling of liberty.

Gokhale had greatly contributed to India’s independence and development in all spheres. He was a patient of diabetes and asthma and unfortunately died on February 19, 1915.

Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji was a man who laid the foundation of India’s freedom struggle. He was fondly known as ‘the promise of India’ in his youth and ‘the grand old man of India’ in the later years of his life. This great man was personified as the symbol of purity, sincerity, generosity, bravery and patriotism.

Dadabhai was born on September 4, 1825 in Bombay in a Parsi priest’s family. His childhood was uplifted by his mother Maneckbai because his father Naorji Palanji Dordi expired when he was just four years old. He studied in the Elphinstone College in Bombay and after completing his studies he was appointed as the Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the same college.

Naorji started with his political career in 1852. He strongly opposed the misrule of British Government and wrote several petitions to Governors and Viceroys regarding the sufferings of Indian people. There was no action taken to it and later he realized that this is because of the ignorance of Indian people. To promote education and propagate the seeds of Free India, he founded the Gyan Prasarak Mandal.

In 1855, Dadabhai left for England to join the first Indian business firm and later in 1859, he established his own business firm there. During his time in England, he endeavored to educate local people through various learned societies, articles and speeches. Most of his life he had spent writing on India’s plight, trying to influence people to realize the importance of freedom.

Naorji was the driving spirit of Indian National Congress and was elected three times as the President of the Congress in 1866, 1893 and 1906. He demanded for Swaraj, self government for India, publicly during his third term of presidentship and strongly opposed violence and revolutionary methods as means of attaining freedom.

This great noble life lived for almost a century and came to end on June 30, 1917. The people around the world still believe that Dadabhai came to earth with a mission to achieve Self-Rule for India.

Bipin Chandra Pal

Bipin Chandra Pal was one of the mightiest prophets of nationalism who fought bravely for a noble cause of India’s independence. He was a great patriot, orator, journalist and warrior, born on November 7, 1858 in Sylhet in a wealthy Kayastha family. He was admitted to Presidency College in Calcutta but unfortunately could not complete his education and started his career as a headmaster. 

In the later years, while Bipin was working as a librarian in Calcutta public library he met many political leaders like Shivnath Shashtri, S.N Banerjee and B.K. Goswami. He was influenced to quit teaching and start up a new career in politics. He was further inspired by the work, philosophy, spiritual ideas and patriotism of Tilak, Lala and Aurbindo.

Being highly influenced and inspired by all these political leaders, Bipin decided to devote himself to the freedom struggle. He also went to England to study comparative ideology in 1898. In a span of one year he returned to Indi and since then he started preaching local Indians with the idea of Swaraj. Being a good journalist and orator he always used articles, speeches and other write ups to spread nationalism, humanity and social awareness and the need for complete independence.

Pal had ‘never say die’ attitude and with great courage he participated in Bombay session of Indian National Congress in 1904, Partition of Bengal in 1905, Swadeshi Movement, Non Cooperation Movement and Bengal Pact in 1923. He had also published a lot of journals, weekly and books to spread nationalism and the idea of Swaraj. Most prominent books of Pal include Indian Nationalism, Nationality and Empire, Swaraj and the Present Situation, The Basis of Social Reform, The Soul of India, The New Spirit and Studies in Hinduism.

Bipin was a great warrior and till the end he fought against ill practices of Indian culture and for freedom of India. He expired in 1932 leaving behind a remarkable feeling of Free India.