Eternal India Encyclopedia

Dandi march. When India got her freedom he was made the Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. His greatest contribution was the reduction of526 princely states to 26. He was called the Iron Man of India.

coalitions with the Congress but this demand was rejected by the Congress. Jinnah declared that the Muslims can expect "neither fairplay nor justice under Congress Government." In 1940 at the Lahore session of the Muslim League, Jinnah declared that the Muslim nation must have a separate independent state. He became the unquestioned leader of the Muslim masses, who hailed him as Quaid- i-Azam, the Supreme Leader. He was reelected president of the Muslim League year after year, and took part as the representative of the Muslims in the negotiations with the Viceroy and British Government that resulted in partition and the creation of the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947. Jinnah became the first Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, described by Gandhi as "the keeper of my conscience" was bom on December 10,1878 in Thorapalli, a village in Salem District of Tamil Nadu. He was the third and youngest son of Chakravarti Venkataraya also called Chakravarti Iyengar, and Saligaramma. His father was Munsiff of Hosur. He joined the Hosur Government School and at 11, went to the Central College in Bangalore for higher studies. He joined the Madras Law College, joined the Salem Bar in 1910 and soon made a mark. As chairman of the Salem Municipal Council, to which post he was elected in 1917, he began his lifelong crusade against the evils of caste and alcohol. He entered politics as a radical. His hero was Tilak. He supported Annie Besant at first but when she moved to a moderate position, C.R. decided to organise the radicals in the South. He met Gandhi for the first time in 1919 in Madras. The following year he gave up his legal practice. From 1922-1942 Rajaji was a member of the Congress Working Committee. The Dandi Salt march in 1930 led by Gandhi was replicated in the south when Rajaji organised a march from Tiruchi to Vedaranyam. As a result of the Salt Satyagraha at Vedaranyam, Rajaji was sent to prison for a year. During his first spell as Chief Minister of Madras in 1937-39 he enacted laws which opened all the temples to Harijans and introduced Prohibition in three districts. His first office in free India was Governor of West Bengal. In June 1948 he succeeded Lord Mountbatten as Governor- General. When differences arose between Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajaji was called to Delhi and sworn in as Minister without portfolio. On Patel's death in Governor-General of Pakistan. Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878-1972)

December 1950 he took over as Union Home Minister. In the first general elections held in the composite province of Madras in 1952, no party emerged with a decisive majority. Nominated to the Legislative Council, Rajaji su0ceede,d in forming a stable Congress Ministry/and served as Chief Minister from 1952 to 1954. As Chief Minister, he reluctantly agreed to the formation of a separate Andhra Province. He felt that linguistic provinces would weaken the country and create problems. The controversy over the modified scheme of elementary education which he introduced led to his resignation. He was past 80 when he formed the Swatantra Party to counter the "authoritarian tendencies" creeping into the body politic. At 84 he made his only trip abroad when, in 1962, he went to Washington to plead with President Kennedy for cessation of nuclear explosions. He passed away on December 25, 1972. Jaya Prakash Narayan decribed him as a "gadfly to the Congress rulers who came to look upon this ardent patriot as a thorn in their side and branded him a reactionary and spokesman of the rich, though in truth it was the Congress that was enjoying the patronage of the rich..." She was born in Paris to wealthy parents Mirra had psychic and spiritual experiences early in her life. In 1914, she arrived in Pondicherry with her husband, Paul Richards, and met Sri Aurobindo, the patriot- poet and yogi who was in self-exile from British India. She became a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and was the main force behind the setting up of the Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry. While Aurobindo was the Guruji she became The Mother to the inmates. She was the inspiration behind the establishment of the international city of Auroville, the City of Dawn, which was inaugurated in February 1968. She died in her 95th year in November 1973. He was born in Rampur, a small Muslim princely state in northern India. Following his education at Aligarh and Oxford he entered the civil service of Baroda State. After starting an independent weekly review, The Comrade, Muhammed Ali entered politics. He was one of the original founders of the Muslim League and it was through his efforts that the founder of Pakistan, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, joined the Muslim League in 1913. Was a leader of the Khilafat movement after the end of World War I, organised to protest against the Mother (Mirra Richards) (1878- 1973) Muhammad Ali (1879- 1930)

Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru (1875-1949)

Kashmiri Brahmin born on December 3, 187 5 was a brilliant student and topped first class in B.A, M.A. He did his law and joined the Bar. Started his practice at the Allahabad High Court in the company of legal luminaries like Motilal Nehru and Pandit Sunderlal. At the age of 46 he was made Law Member of Lord Reading's Executive Council. But the exit of Montagu from the India Office and Gandhiji's imprisonment made him resign his Membership of the Executive Council. He joined the National Convention of Annie Besant which had the support of many parties except the Congress and was elected its president in 1923. In 1944 he was called by Gandhi for consultations in regard to a compromise solution with Jinnah but warned that this would ultimately lead to the partition of India. Bom in Karachi, he was sent by his father to England for training as a barrister. After returning to India in 1896, Jinnah moved to Bombay to practise as a lawyer. Through his integrity, ability and hard work, Jinnah became one of the best-known lawyers in the subcontinent. He joined the Indian National Congress. In 1909 the Bombay Muslim constituency elected him to the Central Legislative Council in Delhi. He came in contact with Gopal Krishna Gokhale who considered Jinnah to be a potential ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. In 1913 he was persuaded by Muhammed Ali to join the Muslim League. He did this on the assurance that the aims of the League were similar to the Congress and that his membership of the League would not imply disloyalty to "the larger national cause to which his life was dedicated." Jinnah continued to work for Hindu-Muslim understanding and brought about the Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the League in 1916 by which the Congress accepted the principle of separate electorates for the Muslims. The end of World War I saw the rise of Gandhi as the leader of the national movement. In the Provincial elections held in 1937 the Congress swept the polls so far as the General or predominantly Hindu seats were concerned. The Muslims wanted to form Muhammed Ali Jinnah (1876-1948)