MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI

GREATEST FIGURE IN MODERN INDIA

BORN 1869

BY H.S.L. AND M.G.POLAK

        In every  period of man’s activity there have appeared significant figures to whom history later points as the leaders of a new age. Such a figure is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , known to the world as Mahatma Gandhi , born on October 2, 1869 , in the small state of porbandar, west India . Gandhi has repeatedly called himself truth-seeker   and has learned , in the course of his search, that truth is a condition of being , not a quality outside of oneself or a moral acquisition; that it is of the very essence of the divine in man. His belief in non violence is by now a legend.

        Of Gandhi’s passion for unity amongst his countrymen much could be said. By pleading, by argument, by suffering and by example he sought most earnestly and diligently to weld into one strong whole the two main streams of Indian life, Hindus and Muslims.

        It is too early yet to estimate finally Gandhi’s influence upon his Motherland or upon world events; but it may be truly said that to him, more than to any predecessor or contempory, is due the vivid national consciousness of India today and the growing respect in which she is held abroad. With his courage, his integrity of purpose, the splendour of his idealism, his deep patriotism, and his fine example of public conduct and personal sacrifice …universal recognition and  a place in history is just a small byproduct!

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BAL GANGADHAR TILAK

“RESPECTED OF THE PEOPLE”

1856-1920

BY ROBERT BRYAN

        The period covered by the last decade of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth centuries was marked in India by the growth of agitation in every sphere of life against the British rule and domination.

      The force of this agitation took the government of India ,and many Indians as well, completely by surprise; it owed its origin and sustained continuance, more than to any other single factor, to the personality of Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

        Tilak in these early years bent all his efforts to re-awake in the Maratha people a sense of their past greatness with a view to future independence. He founded Ganpati societies , banded the students in the towns and the youths in the villages into melas and gymnastic societies , giving to them a corporate feeling and a sense of  their own importance the while he urged them in the columns of the kesari to deeds of self-denial and valour - and by implication , violence-in defence of their ancient glory against the hated foreigner.

        Tilak had been the first Indian to bring political agitation to masses. Between the methods used by these two men to establish a free India there is a wide gulf  fixed; to Gandhi the use of bullet, dagger or bomb is anathema. Yet this they have in common: to both was accorded by millions in India a hero-worship which is only given to those who, according to their lights, are doing their utmost to ensure the greatness of their country.

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Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

The champion of the Indian people

By C.F.Andrews

         It was Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru who told Englishmen exactly what they wanted to know about India in his own.

        Transparently clear style, and made them feel that India was not merely a land of saints and mystics but also of quite human and fallible people like himself, who were definitely lined up to fight against Hitler and Mussolini along with any freedom-loving Englishmen, if only the latter would allow the same freedom to India that he demanded for himself.

        He was not the average peasant. A man of the keenest intellect, of fine feeling and good taste, wide vision; very human, and yet essentially the ascetic, who has suppressed his passions and emotions, sublimated them and directed them in spiritual channels; a tremendous personality, drawing people to himself like a magnet, and calling out fierce loyalties and attachments…a fine example of charismatic leader indeed!

        His role in India’s freedom struggle, his efficiency as it’s first prime minister... his first speech to the newly independent India ..All this is the crux of Indian history…glorious, unforgettable and inspiring!!!