This document provides biographical information about several important figures in India's independence movement: - Mahatma Gandhi, who pioneered satyagraha or non-violent civil disobedience and led India to independence. - Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhagat Singh, and other leaders who fought for India's freedom from British rule through both non-violent and more militant means. - Key figures like Rajendra Prasad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Vallabhbhai Patel who played prominent roles in the independence struggle and early governance of independent India.

1. AKASH.R
VIIIth B
C.K.S English School
HASSAN

4. Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi)
was born into a Hindu Modh family in Porbandar,
Gujarat, India in 1869. He was the son of Karamchand
Gandhi, the diwan (Chief Minister) of Porbandar, and
Putlibai, Karamchand’s fourth wife (his previous three
wives had died in childbirth), a Hindu of the Pranami
Vaishnava order. Growing up with a devout mother
and surrounded by the Jain influences of Gujarat,
Gandhi learned from an early age the tenets of non-injury
to living beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification,
and mutual tolerance between members
of various creeds and sects. He was born into the

5. In May 1883, at the age of 13, Gandhi was married through his parents’
arrangement to Kasturba Makhanji (also spelled “Kasturbai” or known
as “Ba”), who was the same age as he. They had four sons: Harilal
Gandhi, born in 1888; Manilal Gandhi, born in 1892; Ramdas Gandhi,
born in 1897; and Devdas Gandhi, born in 1900. Gandhi was a mediocre
student in his youth at Porbandar and later Rajkot. He barely passed the
matriculation exam for the University of Bombay in 1887, where he
joined Samaldas College. He was also unhappy at the college, because
his family wanted him to become a barrister. He leapt at the opportunity
to study in England, which he viewed as “a land of philosophers and
poets, the very centre of civilization.” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
was a major political and spiritual leader of India, and the Indian
independence movement. He was the pioneer and perfector of
Satyagraha – the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience
strongly founded upon ahimsa (total non-violence) – which led India to
independence, and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom
across the world.

8. Date of Birth : Jan 23, 1897 Date of Death : Aug 18, 1945 Place of Birth : Orissa
Subhash Chandra Bose (January 23, 1897 – August 18, 1945?), also
known as Netaji, was one of the most prominent leaders of the Indian
Independence Movement against the British Raj. Subhas Chandra Bose
was born to an affluent family in Cuttack, Orissa. His father, Janakinath
Bose, was a public prosecutor who believed in orthodox nationalism,
and later became a member of the Bengal Legislative Council. His
mother was Prabhavati Bose, a remarkable example of Indian
womanhood. Bose was educated at Cambridge University. In 1920,
Bose took the Indian Civil Service entrance examination and was placed
second. However, he resigned from the prestigious Indian Civil Service
in April 1921 despite his high ranking in the merit list, and went on to
become an active member of India’s independence movement. He
joined the Indian National Congress, and was particularly active in its
youth wing. Subhas Chandra Bose felt that young militant groups could
be molded into a military arm of the freedom movement and used to
further the cause. Gandhiji opposed this ideology because it directly

12. Date of Birth : Nov 14, 1889 Date of Death : May 27, 1964 Place of Birth : Uttar
Pradesh Political party : Indian National Congress Took Office : Aug 15, 1947 Left
Office : May 27, 1964 Successor : Lal Bahadur Shastri
Jawaharlal Nehru also called Pandit Nehru, was an important leader of the
Indian Independence Movement and the Indian National Congress, and became
the first Prime Minister of India when India won its independence on August 15,
1947. Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, to Swaroop Rani, the
wife of Motilal Nehru, a wealthy Allahabad based barrister and political leader
himself. He was Nehru’s only son amongst three younger daughters. The Nehru
family is of Kashmiri lineage and of the Saraswat Brahmin caste. Educated in the
finest Indian schools of the time, Nehru returned from education in England at
Harrow, Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple to practice law before
following his father into politics. By his parents’ arrangement, Nehru married
Kamala Nehru, then seventeen in 1916. At the time of his wedding on 8 February
1916, Jawaharlal was twenty-six, a British-educated barrister. Kamala came from
a well-known business family of Kashmiris in Delhi. His father Motilal Nehru was
already a prominent figure in the Indian National Congress and had served as its
president. Nehru did not share Motilal’s moderate-liberal line.

16. Date of Birth : Sep 27, 1907 Date of Death : Mar 23, 1931 Place of Birth : Jalandhar
Bhagat Singh (September 27, 1907 – March 23, 1931) was an Indian
revolutionary, considered to be one of the most famous martyrs of the
Indian freedom struggle. For this reason, he is often referred to as Shaheed
Bhagat Singh (the word shaheed means “martyr”). Bhagat Singh was born
into a Sikh family to Sardar Kishan Singh and Vidyavati in the Khatkar
Kalan village near Banga in the Jalandhar district of Punjab. His uncle,
Sardar Ajit Singh, as well as his father, were great freedom fighters, so
Bhagat Singh grew up in a patriotic atmosphere. Ajit Singh established the
Indian Patriots’ Association, along with Syed Haidar Raza, to organize the
peasants against the Chenab Canal Colony Bill. He also established the
secret organization, the Bharat Mata Society. At an early age, Bhagat Singh
started dreaming of uprooting the British empire. Never afraid of fighting
during his childhood, he thought of “growing guns in the fields,” so that he
could fight against the British. The Ghadar Movement left a deep imprint on
his mind. Kartar Sing Sarabha, hanged at the age of 19, became his hero.
The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919 drove him to go to
Amritsar, where he kissed the earth sanctified by the martyrs’

18. Date of Birth : Dec 3, 1884 Date of Death : Feb 28, 1963 Place of Birth
: Zeradei, Bihar Tenure Order : 1st President Took Office : Jan 26,
1950 Left Office : May 13, 1962 Successor : Dr.S Radhakrishnan
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the first President of India. Rajendra
Prasad was a great freedom-fighter, and the architect of the
Indian Constitution, having served as President of the
Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution of the
Republic from 1948 to 1950. He had also served as a Cabinet
Minister briefly in the first Government of Independent India. He
was a crucial leader of the Indian Independence Movement.
Prasad was born in Jiradei, in the Siwan district of Bihar. His
father, Mahadev Sahay, was a Persian and Sanskrit language
scholar; his mother, Kamleshwari Devi, was a devout lady who
would tell stories from the Ramayana to her son. At the age of
5, the young Rajendra

21. Date of Birth : Oct 2, 1904 Date of Death : Jan 11, 1966 Place of Birth : Uttar
Pradesh
Lal Bahadur Shastri was the second Prime Minister of independent
India and a significant figure in the struggle for independence.
Shashtriji was born in Mughalsarai, in Uttar Pradesh. To take part
in the non-cooperation movement of Mahatma Gandhi in 1921, he
began studying at the nationalist, Kashi Vidyapeeth in Kashi, and
upon completion, he was given the title Shastri, or Scholar, Doctor
at Kashi Vidyapeeth in 1926. He spent almost nine years in jail in
total, mostly after the start of the Satyagraha movement in 1940, he
was imprisoned until 1946. Following India’s independence, he was
Home Minister under Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant of Uttar
Pradesh. In 1951, he was appointed General Secretary of the Lok
Sabha before re-gaining a ministerial post as Railways Minister. He
resigned as Minister following a rail disaster near Ariyalur, Tamil
Nadu. He returned to the Cabinet following the General Elections,
first as Minister for Transport, in 1961,

24. Date of Birth : Jul 23, 1906 Date of Death : Feb 27, 1931 Place of Birth : India
Chandrasekhar Azad was a great Indian freedom fighter and
revolutionary thinker. Revered for his audacious deeds and fierce
patriotism, he was the mentor of Bhagat Singh, the famous Indian
martyr. Chandrasekhar Azad is considered one of the greatest Indian
freedom fighter along with Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Ram
Prasad Bismil, and Ashfaqulla Khan. Chandrasekhar Azad’s parents
were Pandit Sita Ram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. He received his early
schooling in Bhavra District Jhabua (Madhya Pradesh). For higher
studies he went to the Sanskrit Pathashala at Varanasi. Young Azad
was one of the young generation of Indians when Mahatma Gandhi
launched the Non-Cooperation Movement. But many were disillusioned
with the suspension of the struggle in 1922 owing to the Chauri Chaura
massacre of 22 policemen. Although Gandhi was appalled by the brutal
violence, Azad did not feel that violence was unacceptable in the
struggle, especially in view of the Amritsar Massacre of 1919, where
Army units killed hundreds of unarmed civilians and wounded thousands
in Amritsar

27. Date of Birth : Oct 31, 1875 Date of Death : Dec 15, 1950 Place of Birth :
Gujarat
Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel was born at his maternal uncle’s house in
Nadiad, Gujarat. His actual date of birth was never officially recorded –
Patel entered October 31st as his date of birth on his matriculation
examination papers. He was the fourth son of Jhaverbhai and Ladba
Patel, and lived in the village of Karamsad, in the Kheda district.
Somabhai, Narsibhai and Vithalbhai Patel (also a future political leader)
were his elder brothers. He had a younger brother, Kashibhai, and a
sister, Dahiba. Patel helped his father in the fields, and bimonthly kept a
day-long fast, abstaining from food and water – a cultural observance
that enabled him to develop physical tougheness. He entered school
late – parental attention was focused on the eldest brothers, thus
leading to a degree of neglect of Patel’s education. Patel travelled to
attend schools in Nadiad, Petlad and Borsad, living self-sufficiently with
other boys. He took his matriculation at the late age of 22; at this point,
he was generally regarded by his elder relatives as an unambitious man
destined for a commonplace job

28. BAL GANGADHAR TILAK

31. BAL GANGADHAR TILAK
Date of Birth : Jul 23, 1856 Date of Death : 1920 Place of Birth :
Maharashtra
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, was an Indian nationalist, social reformer and
freedom fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian
Independence Movement. Tilak sparked the fire for complete
independence in Indian consciousness, and is considered the father of
Hindu nationalism as well. Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it! This
famous quote of his is very popular and well-remembered in India even
today.
Reverently addressed as Lokmanya (meaning “Beloved of the
people” or “Revered by the world”), Tilak was a scholar of Indian
history, Sanskrit, Hinduism, mathematics and astronomy. He was
born on July 23, 1856, in a village near Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, into a
middle class Chitpavan Brahmin family. Tilak was an avid student
with a special aptitude for mathematics. He was among India’s first
generation of youth to receive a modern, college education. After
graduation, Tilak began teaching mathematics in a private school in

34. Date of Birth : May 9, 1866 Date of Death : 1915 Place of Birth :
Maharashtra
Gopal Krishna Gokhale was born on May 9, 1866, in Ratnagiri,
Maharashtra, and he became one of the most learned men in India, a
leader of social and political reformists and one of the earliest, founding
leaders of the Indian Independence Movement. Gokhale was a senior
leader of the Indian National Congress and the Servants of India Society.
The latter was committed to only social reform, but the Congress Party
in Gokhale’s time was the main vehicle for Indian political
representation. Gokhale was a great, early Indian champion for public
education. Being one of the first generations of Indians to
receive college education, Gokhale was respected widely in the nascent
Indian intellecutal community and acoss India, whose people looked up
to him as the least elitist of educated Indians. Coming from a
background of poverty, Gokhale was a real man of the people, a hero to
young Indians discovering the new age and the prospects of the coming

35. B.R AMBEDKAR

38. B.R AMBEDKAR
Dr. Ambedkarwas the main architect of the Indian Constitution.
He was born in a very poor low caste family of Madhya Pradesh.
In U.S.A., he did his M.A. in 1915 and Ph.D. in 1916. From 1918 to
1920, he worked as a Professor of Law. Dr. Ambedkar set up his
legal practice at the Mumbai High Court. Ambedkarwas the main
inspiration behind the inclusion of special provision in the
Constitution of India for the development of Schedule Caste
people. Dr. Ambedkarwas the Law Minister of India from 1947 to
1951. He took part in the Satyagraha of untouchables at Nasik in
1930 for opening the Hindu temples to them. Dr. Ambedkarwas
emancipator of the 'untouchables' and crusader for social justice.
This liberator of the down trodden was affectionately called
"Babasaheb". He was posthumously awarded 'Bharat Ratna' in

41. Rabindranath Tagore was a rare and great personality. He was a scholar,
freedom fighter, writer and painter and above all a humble man. His
contributions to Indian Literature was immense. He won the noble prize in
1913 for his collection of well known poems 'Gitanjali'. Tagore was born on
May 7, 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sharada Devi at Jorasanko in West
Bengal. He did his schooling in the prestigious St. Xavier School. He has written
thousands of Poems and lyrics and about 35 plays about 12 novels, numerous
short stories and a mass of prose literature. He was called as 'Vishwa Kavi'.
Besides the famous ' Gitanjali' his other well known poetic works include '
Sonar Tari', 'Puravi', ' The cycle of the spring', ' The evening songs' etc. The
names of his well known novels are: 'Gora', ' The wreck', ' Raja Rani', ' Ghare
Baire', ' Raj Rishi' etc. ' Chitra' is his famous play in verse. ' Kabuli Wallah' and '
Kshudita Pashan' are his famous stories. In 1901, he founded the
Vishwabharati University- earlier known as Shantiniketan at Bolepur in West
Bengal. This was founded with the aim of evolving a world culture, a synthesis
of eastern and western values. Our National Anthem 'Jana Gana Mana ......'
was written by him.

43. Bipin Chandra Pal was born on November 7, 1858 in Sylhet,
(now in Bangladesh), in a wealthy Hindu Kayastha family. His
father was Ramchandra Pal. He was a teacher, journalist,
orator, writer and librarian who started the journal Bande
He was one of the trilogy of the three Extremist patriots of
the Indian National Congress who had fought and gave his life
during Indian independence movement in the first half of the
twentieth century. The other two were Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal
Gangadhar Tilak. Together they were known as Lal-Bal-Pal.
They had advocated extremist means to get their message
across to the British, like boycotting British manufactured
goods, burning Western clothes made in the mills of
Manchester and strikes and lock outs of British owned
businesses and industrial concerns.

45. INDIRA GANDHI

46. INDIRA GANDHI
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was Prime Minister of India
from January 19, 1966 to March 24, 1977, and again
from January 14, 1980 until her assassination on
October 31, 1984. Born to India's first Prime Minister,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi was one of India's most
notable and controversial political leaders. The Nehru
family can trace their ancestry to the Brahmins of
Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi. Indira's grandfather
Motilal Nehru was a wealthy barrister of Allahabad in
Uttar Pradesh. Nehru was one of the most prominent
members of the Indian National Congress in pre-Gandhi
times and would go on to author the Nehru Report, the
people's choice for a future Indian system of government
as opposed to the British system.

49. Annie Besant (1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a
prominent British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist,
writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self-rule.
At age 20 she married Frank Besant, but separated from him over
religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for
the National Secular Society (NSS) and writer and a close friend
of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing
a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The
scandal made them famous, and Bradlaugh was elected M.P. for
Northampton in 1880.
She became involved with union actions including the Bloody
Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888.
She was a leading speaker for the Fabian Society and
the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). She was elected
to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll
even though few women were qualified to vote at that time.

51. Lakshmibai was born probably on 19 November 1828[1][3][4][5][6] in the holy
town of Varanasi into a Kshatriya Maratha family.[7] She was named
Manikarnika and was nicknamed Manu.[8] Her father was Moropant Tambe
and her mother Bhagirathi Sapre (Bhagirathi Bai). Her parents came
from Maharashtra. Her mother died when she was four. Her father worked for
a court Peshwa of Bithoor district who brought Manikarnika up like his own
daughter[clarification needed] .[9] The Peshwa called her "Chhabili", which means
"playful". She was educated at home and was more independent in her
childhood than others of her age; her studies included archery,
horsemanship, and self-defence.[citation needed][10]
Manikarnika was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, Raja Gangadhar Rao, in
1842,[4] and was afterwards called Lakshmibai (or Laxmibai).[11] She gave
birth to a boy, later named Damodar Rao, in 1851, who died when four
months old. The Maharaja adopted a child called Anand Rao, the son of
Gangadhar Rao's cousin, who was renamed Damodar Rao, on the day
before the Maharaja died. The adoption was in the presence of the British
political officer who was given a letter from the Maharaja instructing that the
child be treated with respect and that the government of Jhansi should be
given to his widow for her lifetime

53. Rani Chennamma sent a letter to the governor at Bombay to plead the
cause of Kittur, but Elphinstone turned her down, and war broke out.[2]The
British tried to confiscate the treasure and jewels of Kittur, valued around
fifteen Lakhs of rupees.[3] They attacked with a force of 200 men and four
guns, mainly from the third troop of Madras Native Horse Artillery.[4] In the
first round of war, during October 1824, British forces lost heavily and St
John Thackeray, collector and political agent,[5] was killed by Kittur
forces.[2] Amatur Balappa, a lieutenant of Chennamma, was mainly
responsible for his killing and losses to British forces.[6] Two British officers,
Sir Walter Elliot and Mr. Stevenson[5] were also taken as hostages.[2] Rani
Chennamma released them with an understanding with Chaplin that the war
would be terminated but Chaplin continued the war with more
forces.[2] During the second assault, Subcollector of Sholapur, Mr. Munro,
nephew of Thomas Munro was killed.[5] Rani Chennamma fought fiercely
with the aid of her lieutenant, Sangolli Rayanna, but was ultimately captured
and imprisoned at Bailhongal Fort, where she died on 21 February
1829.[2] Chennamma was also helped by her lieutenant Gurusiddappa in the
war against British.[7]

55. Vijaya Lakshmi Nehru Pandit (Kashmiri: विजयलक्ष्मी नेहरू पंडित)
(18 August 1900 – 1 December 1990) was an
Indian diplomat andpolitician, the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru,[1] the
aunt of Indira Gandhi and the grand-aunt of Rajiv Gandhi, each of
whom served asPrime Minister of India.
In 1921 she married Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, a successful
Maharashtrian barrister from Kathiawad and classical scholar who
translatedKalhana's epic history Rajatarangini into English
from Sanskrit. He was arrested for his support of Indian
independence and died in Lucknow prison jail on 14 January
1944.
Her daughter Nayantara Sahgal, who later settled in her mother's
house in Dehradun, is a well-known novelist.
Gita Sahgal, the writer and journalist on issues of feminism,
fundamentalism, and racism, director of prize-winning
documentary films, and human rights activist,is her
granddaughter. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. [2]

57. The former soldier Timmanna Nayaka rose to the rank
of Governor of Chitradurga as a reward for his excellence in
military achievements, from the Vijayanagara ruler. His son Obana
is known by the name Madakari Nayaka. Madakari Nayaka's
son Kasturi Rangappa succeeded him, consolidated the kingdom,
and rule peacefully . As he had no heirs to succeed him, his
adopted son — the apparent heir — was enthroned, but was killed
a few months later by the Dalavayis. Chikkanna Nayaka, the
brother of Madakari Nayaka II sat on the throne in 1676, and his
other brother succeeded him with the title Madakari Nayaka III.
The unwillingness of Dalawayis to accept Madakari Nayaka III's
rule gave an opportunity to a distant relative, Bharamappa
Nayaka, to ascend the throne in 1689. The quick succession of
rulers led to the people of Chitradurga not experiencing the
benefits of longer ruling periods. Hiri Madakari Nayaka (1721–
1748), Kasturi Rangappa Nayaka II and Madakari Nayaka IV

59. Sarojini Naidu, born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay (Bengali: সর োজিনী চরটোপোধ্যোয়) also
known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India,[1] was a child
prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. Naidu served as the first
governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949;[2] the first
woman to become the governor of an Indian state.[3] She was the second woman
to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first
Indian woman to do so.[4][5] Sarojini naidu was born in Hyderabad to Aghore Nath
Chattopadhyay and Barada Sundari Debi on 13 February 1879. Her father, with
a doctorate of Science from Edinburgh University, settled in Hyderabad, where
he found and administered the Hyderabad College, which later became
the Nizam's College in Hyderabad. Her mother was a poetess and used to write
poetry in Bengali. She was the eldest among the eight siblings. Her
brother Virendranath Chattopadhyaya was a revolutionary and her other
brother, Harindranathwas a poet, a dramatist, and an actor.[6]
Naidu passed her matriculation examination from the University of Madras, but
she took four years' break from her studies. In 1895, the "Nizam scholarship
Trust" founded by the 6th Nizam – Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, gave her the chance to
study in England first atKing's College London and later at Girton College,
Cambridge.