Eternal India Encyclopedia

where the young JRD received his training. He became the right hand man of the Chairman of Tata Steel, Sir Nowroji Saklatvala. When he died in 1938, JRD was elected chairman of Tatas by the other Directors who were all older than himself. He had developed an interest in flying when he was in France. In 1928 he became the first Indian to get a flying licence. In October 1932 he inaugurated the first air service in India by carrying mail from Karachi to Bombay in a Puss Moth. Later the air service was extended to Madras and Delhi and passengers were carried when bigger aircraft were commissioned. In 1948 Air- India International began services to Europe. In 1953 when the airlines was nationalised J.R.D. Tata became chairman of Air-India and continued in that capacity till 1978. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1992. He has described the secret of his success in working with others in these words : If I have any merit it is getting on with individuals according to their ways and characteristics. In fifty years I have dealt with a hundred top directors and I have got on well with all of them. At times it involves suppressing yourself. It is painful but necessary. To be a leader you have got to lead human beings with affection." Lai Bahadur Shastri was bom on October 2,1904, the first child of his parents, Sharda Prasad and Ramdulari Devi, who were Kayasths of Uttar Pradesh. Sharda Prasad was a teacher in the Kayasths Pathshala in Allahabad. He died when his son was barely a year and a half. The family lived in Mughalsarai and it was there that Lai Bahadur had his early schooling. When he passed the sixth standard his mother sent him to Banaras to enter the Harishcharidra High School. A well-off cousin of hers agreed that her son could stay with him. In 192:2 he joined the Kasi Vidya Peeth which was headed by Dr. Bhagavan Das and had outstanding personalities like Acharya Narendra Dev, J.B. Kripalini, Sri Prakasa and Dr. Sampurnanand on its staff. In 1926 Lai Bahadur took his degree of "Shastri" in philosophy in the first division and came out as Lai Bahadur Shastri. He married Lalitadew in 1928. He joined the Servants of People Society, founded by LalaLajpatRai, in 1926 soon after he graduated from the Vidyapeeth. He became secretary of the Allahabad District Congress Committee and was a frequent visitor to the Nehru ancestral home of Anand Bhavan where he often met Jawaharlal. In Lai Bahadur Shastri (1904- 1966)

opportunity presented itself on March 13, 1940 when O'Dwyer attended a meeting at the Caxton Hall in London. He spoke at the meeting and when he finished his speech, he was shot dead by Udham Singh. He was sentenced to death and was hanged at Rentenville Prison on July 31,1940. JayaprakashNarayan (1902-1980) He was bom in Sitab Diyara in the district of Saran in Bihar. His father was a government servant in the Revenue Department. He completed his primary education in his village and joined the Patna Collegiate School. He then came to the Bihar Vidyapeeth from where he took his ISc. In May 1922 he obtained a scholarship from an association in Calcutta and went to the USA. He stayed there for 8 years and studied at Iowa, Chicago, Wisconsin, California and Ohio Universities. He obtained his MA from Ohio. He worked on farms to earn his way through college. It was in the US that he came in contact with radical socialist ideas. He studied Marxist literature and even joined the Communist cell. On his return to India in 1929 he joined the Banaras Hindu University as a Professor of Sociology. But the Lahore session of the Congress and the speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru influenced him so much that he accepted Nehru's offer to take charge of the Labour Portfolio of the Congress. After his return to India. Jayaprakash also came in touch with Gandhi. The failure of the Gandhi - Irwin talks led to the civil disobedience movement and Jayaprakash joined it. He was imprisoned in Nasik jail. Here he met Achyut Patwardhan and Minoo Masani which reinforced his socialist leanings. Later with Acharya Narendra Deva he organised the All India Congress Socialist Party. After Independence he resigned from the Praja Socialist Party, devoting himself to Sarvodaya and Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan movement. In 1975 he began organising public opinion against what he regarded as Indira Gandhi's authoritarian rule. He was imprisoned during the Emergency. His consolidation of the non- communist opposition parties resulting in the formation of the Janata Party led to the success of the Janata Party in the March 1977 elections.

where he did a bachelor's course in English, economics and philosophy. He got his MA in 1920. He then made what he later described as "the first conscious decision of my life, perhaps the only one I have ever taken for the rest of my life has flowed from it." He decided to leave Aligarh, after listening to Mahatma Gandhi at a meeting on the campus, because the MAO was backed by the Raj and start a nationalist institution. On October 29,1920 the Jamia Millia Islamia - the National Muslim University - was born in Delhi. After two years Zakir Husain left for Germany for higher Studies. He was there for three years during which time he obtained a PhD for a thesis on Britain!s agrarian policy in India and studied the philosophy of education. In 1926 when he returned to India at the age of 29, he became Vice-Chancellor of the Jamia Millia. In 1930 when Gandhi announced his Civil Disobedience programme Zakir Husain decided that the Jamia should continue with its normal work but that individuals could join the movement. In 1937 he joined Gandhi in propagating the concept of Nai Talim or Basic Education. In 1948 Zakir Husain was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. In 1957 he became Governor of Bihar and in 1962 he was elected Vice- President of India to fill the place left by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He was elected President of India in 1967 and passed away on May 3,1969 after a heart- attack. The son of a poor peasant, Udham Singh was brought up in a Sikh orphanage in Amritsar along with his brother after his father died leaving his two young sons as orphans. After some time his elder brother too died. Although Udham Singh did not directly participate in the Indian independence movement he attended many meetings and rallies and listened to the speeches of leaders. One such meeting was held at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919 on the day of the Baisakhi festival to protest against the Rowlatt Act. The meeting was banned by Michael O'Dwyer, the Governor of Punjab. When a crowd had gathered in defiance of the ban, troops under the command of General Dyer opened fire killing 379 men, women and children and wounding over 1500. Udham Singh was among those wounded. He was later awarded five years' rigorous imprisonment. After his release he was so harassed by the police that he left India and went to England in 1937 where he made up his mind to kill Michael O'Dwyer. An Udham Singh (1899-1940)

J.R.D.Tata (1904-1993)

Bom of a Parsi father and French mother, Jahangir Ratanji Dadaboy Tata presided over the House of Tata for 50 years He came to settle in India in 1924 at the age of 21. His father R.D.Tata was a Director of Tata Steel,