Abbas Tyabji Indian Freedom Fighter

Abbas Tyabji was an Indian freedom fighter from Gujarat, who had served as the Chief Justice of the High court of Baroda. He was a key ally and supporter of Sardar Vallabhai Patel during the Kheda Satyagraha (1918) and Bardoli Satyagraha (1928). He was also a close supporter of Mahatma Gandhi during National Movement. In 1919-20, he was one of the members of committee appointed by Indian National Congress to review the charges against General Reginald Dyer for the Amritsar Massacre, which occurred during the fight for independence. He also one of the legend in Bombay trio, who played an important role in national movement from Bombay region. He died at Mussoorie.

Abbas Tyabji Indian Freedom Fighter
Year of birth: 1853,   date of death: 9^th June, 1936

JUSTICE ABBAS TYABJI

Date of Birth: 1^st February, 1854 and Date of Death: 9^th May, 1936

            Abbas Tayabji was born on 1^st February, 1854 in an aristocratic family of the Tayyabjis in Gujarat.  ‘There is no death to Great People… their sacrifice for the nation will make them live long.  He was the noblest soul… meeting him was a great opportunity’.  This was how Justice Abbas Tayabji was eulogized by Mahatma Gandhi.  Abbas travelled to England at a very young age for Education, where from he became Bar-at-Law in 1875 and returned to India in the same year.  He became a Judge in the Baroda High Court in 1893.  His meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in 1915 changed his life.  He became a very close associate of Gandhiji.  He led the Gujarat Political Council, which had taken up the Non-Cooperation movement prior to the Indian National Congress.  He had sacrificed his luxurious life in 1919 and took part in the national movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.  Even at the ripe old age of eighty years, he travelled all over Gujarat in a bullock cart for selling Khadi cloth and to promote use of Khadi.  He led the Bardoli Satyagraha successfully in 1928 and took the leadership of the National Movement as a ‘Dictator’, when Mahatma Gandhi was arrested during the Dandi march.  He was arrested several times for leading the national movement.  But he did not care for his health and marched ahead with the freedom movement despite his old age and other difficulties.  Under the leadership of Tyabji in Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi had successfully implemented several experiments in the national movement.  Several other movements like Non-cooperation movement, movement for boycotting the foreign goods, Anti-Liquor Movement Civil Disobedience Movement were initiated first in Gujarat successfully under the leadership of Abbas Tayabji, which was later extended to the whole of the country.  He was aptly praised as the ‘Gujarat Diamond’ by Gandhiji.  Justice Abbas Tyabji played a leading role in the Indian national movement with a strong determination to free Mother India from the yoke of British imperialism till he breathed his last on 9^th May, 1936.

Aravind Ackroyd Gosh Indian Freedom fighter and philosopher

ARAVIND ACKROYD GHOSH:
Date of birth: 15^th August, 1872   date of death: 5^th December, 1950
            Aravind Ghosh was born at Calcutta. His father, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh, a civil medical officer in Bengal, added the middle name Ackroyd because a Miss Ackroyd, a visitor from England, was present at his birth.  His mother, Swarnalatha Devi, was the daughter of nationalist Rajnarayan Bose.  Aravind’s father attained his M.D. from the University of Aberdeen in England.  By the time Krishnadhan returned to India, he was so westernized that he vowed to bring his children up as Englishmen.
Aravinda and his brothers were admitted to a special school in Darjeeling, in 1877, which was meant only for English children.  For two years the boys were taught by Irish nuns of the Loretto Convent School.  In 1879, the children were taken to England.  The two elder boys were admitted to a school, while Aravinda, who was just seven years old, was left in the care of Rev. W.H. Drewett and his wife in Manchester.  The Drewetts were to tutor Aravinda.  Aravinda learned English and Latin from the Reverend, and history, geography, arithmetic and French from Mrs. Drewett.
Aravinda became fond of reading and made full use of the personal library of the Drewetts.  After five years of comfortable living in Manchester, when the boys moved to London, their remittances from Dr. Ghosh started dwindling.  Aravind continued to excel in his studies despite difficulties.  He carried away prizes for the classics-classical literature in particular.  He won the Butterworth prize for literature, the Bedford prize for history and a scholarship at St. Paul’s.  While in the King’s College at Cambridge, Aravind was awarded a senior classical scholarship of 80 pounds per annum, in addition to a stipend as a candidate of the Indian Civil Service.  Aravind passed the Classical Trios examination in the first class with distinction and passed in the open competition for the Indian Civil Service in 1890.  He cleared the periodical examination and the medical examination but failed to appear for the horse-riding test which was compulsory for entering the Indian Civil Service.  Aravind returned to India on January 1893 aboard the S.S. Carthage.  Just before Aravinda set foot in India, his father died of heart failure.  He was only 21 and did not even possess proper qualifications.  He accepted a post promised by Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of Baroda when he was in England, with a fixed salary of Rs. 200.  He was first appointed in the survey settlement department, and later in the department of stamp and revenue.  Often he served as the Gaekwad’s personal secretary and prepared the Gaekwad’s speeches and wrote the communiqués between Baroda State and the Indian Government.  In 1900, Aravind accepted the post of English at Baroda College and also taught French as a part-time professor.  Aravinda married Mrinalini, daughter of Bhupal Chanda Basu, in 1901.  Aravind was 29 years of old at the time of marriage while Mrinalini was only 14.
The two had very little time to spend with each other since Aravind lived in Baroda, and Mrinalini remained in Calcutta.  Aravinda deeply loved his wife and was always regular in writing letters to her.  His letters to her were published as a book called “Letters to Mrinalini”.  Mrinalini was initiated by Ma Sarad, saintly wife of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa of Dakshineshwara seeking spiritual refuge.  Mrinalini died of influenza in 1918 in Calcutta at the age of 31.  In one of his letters to Mrinalini, Aranvind mentioned his three beliefs.  First, he believed that whatever he had: talent, virtue, high education-all belonged to God.  Second, he wished to come face to face with God.  Third, in his own words, “Others look upon India, their country, as a mass of matter, a number of fields, plains, forests, mountains, and rivers and nothing more”.  He believed his nation to be his own mother.  He adored her and worshipped her.  He saw the entire nation at his door, seeking shelter and help in attaining freedom from foreign shackles.  Initially, Aravind’s political activities were limited to Baroda, but they soon extended to Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bengal.  He studied Bengal under literature Dinendra Kumar Roy.
Ghosh’s goal was to capture the public through writing.  He made an extensive study of Indian literature and papers on the Indian freedom struggle.  Armed with fluency in Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali, he then transcribed his views in papers like the Indu Prakash, Bande Mataram, Dharma, and Karma Yogin.  His writing became the ideal for the Indian youth.  He called on the young to serve the nation as “karmayogins”.  He wanted the youth to devote all the energies toward freeing Mother India.  He told the youth that, “if you will study, study for her sake; train yourself body and mind and soul for her service; work so that she may prosper; suffer so that she may rejoice”.  Ghosh formed secret revolutionary societies which enveloped Bengal.  He asked members of these secret societies to take a solemn oath to “secure the freedom of Mother India at any cost”.  He stoked the fire of revolution by organising a huge rally on 9^th November, 1905.
Aravind Ackroyd Gosh Indian Freedom fighter and philosopher

Ashfaqulla Khan Indian Freedom Fighter

ASHFAQULLA KHAN:
Date of birth: 22^nd October, 1900   date of death: 19^th December, 1927
            Ashfaqullah Khan was a freedom fighter in national movement who had given away his life along with Ram Prasad Bismil for the betterment of his country. Bismil and Ashfaq, both were good friends and Urdu poets. Bismil was the pen name or Takhallus of Ram Prasad whereas Ashfaq used to write poetry with the pen name of ‘Hasrat’. Both were hanged on the same day, date and time but in different jails.
He was born at Shahjahanpur, a historical city of Uttar Pradesh. His father, Shafiq Ullah Khan belonged to a Patan family who was famous for militancy. His maternal uncle was more knowledgeable where so many members had served in the police and administrative services of British India. In 1922, he met Ram Prasad Bismil at a meeting and then onwards both were fight together against British till their death.
The case of Kakori conspiracy was concluded by awarding death sentence to four daredevils, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Thakur Roshan Singh. The 16 others were awarded the rigorous punishment varying from four years upto life sentence. By an eye witness account, on a Wednesday, four days before he was hanged, two English officers looked into the solitary cell where Ashfaqullah Khan was lodged. He was in the middle of his namaz, “I would like to see how much of that faith remains in him when we hang the rat”, quipped one of them. But he continued his prayer as usual and both of them went away murmuring like a wind’s way.
On Monday, 19^th December, 1927, Ashfaq is known to have taken two steps at a time, as he walked up to the post. When his chains were released, he reached for the hanging rope and kissed it by saying like, “my hands are not soiled with the murder of a man. The charges framed against me are a bare false. God will give me justice”.
Ashfaq was a very good Urdu poet who wrote beautiful couplets and ghazals with pen names of ‘Warsi’ and ‘Hasrat’.
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Ashfaqulla Khan, a nationalist revolutionary who revolted against the British empire risking his life for the liberation of his motherland, India, was born on 22^nd October, 1900 in Shahjahanpur of Uttar Pradesh in a wealthy Zamindari family.  Shafiqullah Khan and Mazaharunnisa Begum were his parents.  Because of his mother’s influence, he developed interest in literature and became an acclaimed poet in Urdu.  He was involved in anti-government activities since his school days and expressing his resentment against the government through his poems.  He got himself introduced to Ram Prasad Bismil, who was the president of the ‘Hindustan Republican Association’.  Initially Bismil hesitated to give membership to Ashfaqulla in his revolutionary organisation.  Later, Bismil was convinced with the commitment of Ashfaqulla and allowed him to become the member of ‘Hindustan Republican Assoication’.  Ashfaqulla actively participated in several actions under the leadership of Bismil planned to rob a train containing the government treasure at Kakori, to procure arms and ammunition for the revolution.  Ashfaqulla opposed the idea and warned that the government would oppress the revolutionaries with full force, if such a robbery took place.  However, as disciplined activist and a democrat as he was, finally agreed to the idea of Bismil as a majority members of the organisation had supported it.  He played a vital role in getting the plan successfully implemented.  When the train was passing through Kakori village on 9^th August, 1925 carrying the government treasure, it was robbed.  This incident shocked the British government.  It relentlessly attacked the revolutionaries and arrested the members of the revolutionary organisation.  Ashfaqulla went underground after the incident.  After a year, he was arrested in Delhi because of a betrayer from his own village, who provided information to police.  During the trial, he wished to save Bismil taking total responsibility for the Kokari train robbery incident.  He even did not heed the advice of his advocate and wrote to the Privy Council that he was responsible for the entire incident.  Later on, the court sentenced Ashfaqulla Khan to death.  He was executed on 19^th December, 1927 in Fyzabad Jail.
Ashfaqulla Khan Indian Freedom Fighter

Bal Gangadhar Tilak Indian Freedom Fighter

BAL GANGADHAR TILAK:
Date of birth: 23^rd July, 1856   year of death: 1920
            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 23^rd July, 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 Pune and later became a journalist.  He became a strong critic of the Western education system, feeling it demeaning to Indian students and disrespectful to India’s heritage.  He organised the Deccan Education Society to improve the quality of education for India’s youth.  Tilak founded the Marathi daily Kesari (The Lion) which fast became a popular reading for the common people of India.  Tilak strongly criticised the government for its brutalism in suppression of free expression, especially in face of protests against the division of Bengal in 1905, and for denigrating India’s culture, its people and heritage.  He demanded the British immediately give the right to self-government to India’s people.  Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in the 1890s, but soon fell into opposition of its liberal-moderate attitude towards the fight for self-government.  Tilak opposed the moderate views of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and was supported by fellow Indian nationalists Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal and Lala Lajpat Rai in Punjab.  In 1907, the Congress Party split into the Garam Dal (literally, “Hot Faction”), led by Tilak, Pal and Lajpat Rai, and the Naram Dal literally, “Soft Faction”), led by Gokhale during its convention at Surat in Gujarat.  When arrested on charges of sedition in 1906, Tilak asked a young Mohammad Ali Jinnah to represent him.  But the British judge convicted him and he was imprisoned from 1908 to 1914 in Mandalay, Burma.  Upon his release, Tilak re-united with his fellow nationalists and re-united the Indian National Congress in 1916.  He also helped found the All India Home Rule League in 1916-1918 with Annie Besant and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.  Tilak proposed various social reforms, such as a minimum age for marriage, and was especially keen to see a prohibition placed on the sale of alcohol.  His thoughts on education and Indian political life have remained highly influential – he was the first Congress leader to suggest that Hindi, written in the devanagari script, should be accepted as the sole national language of India, a policy that was late strongly endorsed by Mahatma Gandhi.  However, English, which Tilak wished to remove completely from the Indian mind, remains as important means of communication in India.  But the usage of Hindi (and other Indian languages) has been reinforced and widely encouraged since the days of the British Raj, and Tilak’s legacy is often credited with this resurgence.  Another of the major contributions relates to the propagation of Sarvajanik (public) “Ganesh festival”, over 10-11 days from Bhadrapada Shukla (Ganesh) Chaturthi to (Anant) Chaturdashi (in August/September span), which contributed for people to get together and celebrate the festival and provided a good platform for leaders to inspire masses.  His call for boycott of foreign goods also served to inspire patriotism among Indian masses.  When Tilak died in 1920, Gandhi paid his respects at is cremation in Bombay, along with 2,00,000 people.  Gandhi called Tilak as the maker of modern India.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak Indian Freedom Fighter

Dadabai Nauroji Indian Freedom Fighter and Economist

DADABHAI NAOROJI:
Date of birth: 4^th September, 1825   date of death: 30^th June, 1917
He was a Parsi intellectual and a political leader. He was a Member of Parliament of United Kingdom between 1892 and 1895 and was a first Asian became British M.P. he was educated at Elphinstone College and later became a teacher. By 1855 he was Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He moved to England in 1855, first working in business, later became Professor of Gujarati at University College, London. In 1867, he established East India Association. In 1874, he became Prime Minister of Baroda and was also member of Legislative Council of Bombay (1885-88). Elected for House of Commons from the Liberal Party from Central Finsbury in July, 1892, as the first British Indian M.P. He refused to take oath on the Bible as he was not a Christian, but was allowed to take the oath of office in the name of God on his small book of Avestha. In his political campaign and duties as a Member of Parliament, he was assisted by Mohmad Ali Jinnah. Dadabhai Naoroji is fondly called as the "Grand Old Man of India". He is viewed as the architect who laid the foundation of the Indian freedom struggle.
Dadabhai Naoroji was instrumental in the establishment of the Indian National Congress founded by A.O. Hume in 1885. Thrice he was elected to the post of the President of the Indian National Congress, in 1886, 1893 and in 1906. During his third term, he prevented a split between moderates and extremists in the party. The Congress' demand for swaraj (self-rule) was first expressed publicly by him in his presidential address in 1906. Dadabhai Naoroji believed in non-violent and constitutional methods of protest. He died at the age of 92 on June 30, 1917.
The “Drain of wealth” theory was his and he even published a book “Poverty and Un-British rule in India”. He said that there are so many British officials working in India and they send all their money back to England. The salary of the people of the Indian Council is paid from the Indian revenue, though it is in England. After retirement of the British their pensions are given from India. There are so many British soldiers in India, but they are being paid by the Indian revenues. There are so many British companies in India and their profit was given to England.

Chittaranjan Das Indian Freedom Fighter

CHITTARANJAN DAS:
Date of birth: 25^th November, 1870   date of death: 16^th June, 1925
            Cittaranjan Das (popularly called as Deshabandhu) was a Bengali lawyer and a major figure in the national movement. Educated in England, his public career began in 1909 when he successfully defended Aurobindo Ghosh on charges of involvement in the previous year’s Alipore Bomb case. He was a leading figure in Bengal during the Non co-operation movement of 1920-22 and initiated the ban on British clothes, setting an example by burning his own European clothes and taking up ‘desi’ Khadi clothes. With Motilal Nehru, he founded the Swaraj Party to express his non- moderate opinions. He brought out a news paper called ‘Forward’ and later changed its name to ‘Liberty’ to fight the British. When the Calcutta Corporation was formed, he became its first Mayor. He presided over the Gaya session of Indian National Congress.
Chittaranjan Das Indian Freedom Fighter

Bipin Chandrapal Indian Freedom Fighter

BIPIN CHANDRA PAL
Date of Birth: 7^th November, 1858 and Date of Death: 20^th May, 1932
Pal was born on November 7, 1858 in at Sylhet (now in Bangladesh). He came to Calcutta and got admitted in the Presidency college but left studies before graduating. However he had remarkable Literacy competence and studied various books extensively. He started his career as school master andworked as a librarian in the Calcutta Public Library. Here he came in contact with Keshav Chandra Senand others like Shivnath Shastri, B.K.Goswami and S.N.Banerjee. Their influence attracted him to join active politics. Soon he got inspired by the extremist patriotism of Tilak, Lala and Aurobindo. In 1898 he went to England to study comparative theology but came back to preach ideal of Swadeshi through himself in the non cooperation movement due to his difference of view points with other leaders of the movement.
Bipin Chandra was the only son of his parents, but he had a sister, Kripa by name. In December 1881, he married his first wife, Nrityakali Devi, a Brahmin widow, in Bombay, and after her death nine years later he married again (1891), this time also a Brahmin widow, Birajmohini Devi, who happened to be a distant cousin of Surendranath Banerjea. He had by his two wives three sons and five daughters.
Through his weekly journal, the New India (1992), he preached the ideal of Swaraj or complete political freedom to be achieved through courage, self-help and self-sacrifice. He did not agree with Tilak’s concept of Hindu nationalism, but preached a “composite patriotism.” which was better suited for a country of so many diversities like India. The partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905 caused an unprecedented political upheaval in the country. In 1996 Bipin Chandra started a daily paper, the Bande Mataram, as the Editor of which Aurobindo Ghose appeared “like a stormy petrel in Bengal politics”. He also started a monthly journal, the Hindu Review (1973), and tried to popularise the idea, though without much success. He then joined the Home Rule Movement of Besant and Tilak and rejoined the Congress in 1916. He tried to make the people conscious of the great dangers which political pan-Islamism presented to the future of India. The empire-idea alone, in his opinion, could provide an effective remedy for this evil.
Bipin Chandra was not only a great preacher but also a prolific writer. Besides regularly contributing to the journals of his day, he wrote on the philosophy of Bengal Vaishnavism, contributed a series of studies on the lives of some of the makers of modern India like Rammohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Aurobindo Ghose, Rabindranath Tagore, Asutosh Mukherjee and Annie Besant, gave expositions of some of the fundamental aspects of Indian culture, attempted an interpretative history of the modern renaissance in Bengal and left for us memoirs of his own life and times.
Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist.  He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.  Bipin Chandra Pal was born in Poil Village, Habiganj District, Bangladesh, in a wealthy Hindu Vaishnava family.  His father was Ramchandra Pal, a Persian scholar and small landowner.  His son was Niranjan Pal, one of the founders of Bombay Talkies.  B.C. Pal is known as the ‘Father of Revolutionary Thoughts’ in India and was one of the freedom fighters of India.
Bipin Chandra Pal was a teacher, journalist, orator, writer and librarian; he was famous as one of the triumvirate of three militant patriots of the Congress – the “Pal” of Lal Bal Pal.  The trio was responsible for initiating the first popular upsurge against British colonial policy in the 1905 partition of Bengal, before the advent of Gandhi into Indian politics.  Pal was also the founder of the journal Bande Mataram.
Even thought he understood the positive aspects of Empire as a ‘great idea’, the ‘Federal-idea is greater’.  In both public and private life he was radical.  He married a widow (he had to sever ties to his family for this).  At the time of B.G. Tilak’s (“Bal”) arrest and government repression in 1907, he left for England, where he was briefly associated with the radical India House and founder the Swaraj journal.  He was among the first to criticize Gandhi or the ‘Gandhi cult’ since it ‘sought to replace the present government by no government or by the priestly autocracy of the Mahatma’.  His criticism of Gandhi was persistent beginning with Gandhi’s arrival in India and open in 1921 session of the Indian National Congress he delivered in his presidential speech a severe criticism of Gandhi’s ideas as based on magic rather than logic, addressing Gandhi: “You wanted magic.  I tried to give you logic.  But logic is in bad odour when the popular mind is excited.   You wanted mantaram, I am not a Rishi and cannot give Mantaram…. I have never spoken a half-truth when I know the truth…. I have never tried to lead people in faith blindfolded’, for his ‘priestly, pontifical tendencies’, his alliance with pan-Islamism during the Khilafat movement, which led to Pal’s eclipse from political life from 1922 till his death in 1932 under conditions of object poverty.  Comparing Gandhi with Leo Tolstoy during the year he died, Pal noted that Tolstoy ‘was an honest philosophical anarchist’ while Gandhi remained in his eyes as ‘a papal autocrat’ Firm and ethically grounded, not only did he perceive the ‘Congress Babel’ in terms of its short-sightedness in late 1920s or, Congress as an instance of repudiating debt’s folly, composed of a generation ‘that knows no Joseph’, Pal’s critical comments should be located in context, since nobody can jump out of his skin of time.
The trio had advocated radical means to get their message across the British, like boycotting British manufactured goods, burning Western clothes made in the mills of Manchester or Swadeshi and strikes and lockouts of British owned businesses and industrial concerns.
He came under the influence of eminent Bengali leaders, not as a hero-worshipper or somebody looking for a guru for guidance, of his time such as Keshab Chandra Sen and Sibnath Sastri, as his family were in Brahmo Samaj.  He was imprisoned for six months on the grounds of his refusal to give evidence against Sri Aurobindo in the Vande Mataram sedition case.  He died on 20^th May, 1932.

Bipin Chandra Pal was born at Sylhet (now in Bangladesh) in a wealthy Kayastha family. His father was Ramchandra Pal. He was a teacher, journalist, orator, writer and editor, who also started the journal ‘Bandematarm’. He advocated extremist means to get the message to the British like boycotting goods.
Bipin Chandrapal Indian Freedom Fighter

Bhagath Singh Indian Freedom Fighter

BHAGAT SINGH:
Date of birth: 27^th September, 1907   date of death: 23^rd March, 1931
Bhagat Singh was an Indian revolutionary, considered to be the most famous martyrs of the Indian Freedom struggle. He was born in a Sikh family to Sardar Kishan Singh and Vidhyavati in the Khatkar Kalnlage near Banga in the Jalandhar district of Punjab. His uncle Sardar Ajith Singh as well as his father was great freedom fighters, so Bhagat Singh grew up in atmosphere. Ajith Singh established the Indian Patriotic Association along with Syed Haider Raza, to organise the peasants against the Chenab Canal Colony Bill. He also established the secret organisation, Bharat Mata Society.
The Ghadar Movement left a deep imprint on his mind. Kartar Singh Sarabha hanged at the age of 19, became his hero. The massacre at Jallianwallah Bagh on April 13, 1919 drove him to go to Amritsar, where he kissed the earth sanctified by the martyr’s blood and brought back to home a little of the soaked soil. He studied in the D.A.V School at Lahore and in search of revolutionary groups and ideas, he met Sukhdev and Rajguru. Bhagat Singh with the help of Chandrasekhar Azad formed the Hindusthan Socialist Republican Army (HRSA). During the Simon Go Back movement, Lala Lajpat Rai was wounded and died later. To avenge his death, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru killed Mr.Sunders.
When the British Government promulgated the two bills ‘The Trade Union Dispute Bill’ and ‘Public Safety Bill’ which Bhagat Singh and his party thought that black laws aimed to curbing the citizen’s civil liberties, they decided to oppose these bills by throwing a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly. However, things changed and the Government arrested Bhagat Singh and his friends on 8^th April, 1929. On 23^rd March, 1931, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged to death.
Bhagath Singh Indian Freedom Fighter

Ajith Singh Indian Freedom Fighter

AJITH SINGH
Date of death: 16^th August, 1947
            An uncle of Bhagat Singh, the well- known revolutionary, he was a close associate of Lala Lajpat Rai. He was arrested along with the latter and deported to Mandalay in 1907. After his release, he started a paper, Peshwa and founded the revolutionary Bharath Mata Society. In 1908, he escaped from India and till 1947 he worked with Ghadar Party, living in various countries.
Ajith Singh Indian Freedom Fighter

Asaf Ali Indian Freedom Fighter

ASAF ALI (1888- 1953):
            A nationalist Muslim and freedom fighter who courted arrest several times. Member, Congress Working Committee, Member, Central Legislative Assembly, 1935- 1947, Member, Executive Council, Government of India, 1946- 47, first Indian ambassador to USA, 1947- 48 and Governor of Orissa.
Asaf Ali Indian Freedom Fighter

Amir Chand Indian Freedom Fighter

AMIR CHAND (1859- 1915):
            A revolutionary, who was arrested in connection with the Lahore Bomb and Delhi conspiracy case (the latter an alleged plot to kill the Viceroy Lord Hardinge) in February, 1914. Sentenced to death and executed on 8^th May, 1915.

Charles Freer Andrews Deenabandhu Indian Freedom Fighter

ANDREWS, CHARLES FREER [DINABANDHU ANDREWS] (1871-1940)
He was an English missionary and a teacher at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.  He had a deep love for Indian and wanted to be an Indian in every respect.  He was closely associated with Rabindranath Tagore, G.K. Gokhale, Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders.  He lived with Gandhiji at the Phoenix Ashram in South Africa and strove to improve the lot of Indians living in South Africa, East Africa, West Indies, Fiji, etc.  He also actively participated in Trade Union activities and was twice elected President of the Trade Union Congress, in 1925 and 1927.  He also joined the movements for the removal of untouchability.  It was in pursuit of this that he joined the Vaikom Satyagraha in 1925 and worked with Dr. Ambedkar in formulating the Harijan demands in 1933.  On account of his constant concern for the poor, he earned the title of Dinabandhu from Mahatma Gandhi.
Charles Freer Andrews Deenabandhu Indian Freedom Fighter

M A Ansari Indian Freedom Fighter

ANSARI, M.A. (1880-1936)
Qualified as a physician.  Organised the All-India Medical Mission to Turkey in 1912-13.  Later took a leading part in the Home Rule League agitation.  Elected President, Muslim League in 1920.  He also participated in the Khilafat, the Home Rule and Non-Cooperation movements.  He was the founder of the nationalist educational institution, Jamia, in 1920.
M A Ansari Indian Freedom Fighter

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Indian Freedom Fighter

AZAD, ABUL KALAM (1888-1958)
He was born in Mecca.  His father was a great mystic and scholar of eminence.  His Arab mother was the daughter of the Mufti of Medina.  He had traditional education and was a great scholar of Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Islamic theology.  Adopted the pen-name of Azad at the age of 16.  In 1909 he took to journalism and published a number of papers, such as Al-Nadwah, The Vakil, Al-Hilal and Al-Balagh.  He was elected President of the INC when only 35, the youngest to hold that office.  In 1940, he was elected a second time and continued to hold that position until June, 1946.  After independence and until his death on 22^nd February, 1958, Azad was Education Minister in Nehru’s cabinet.  Azad’s autobiographical narrative, India Wins Freedom, is both famous and controversial.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Indian Freedom Fighter

Asur Singh Indian Freedom Fighter

ASUR SINGH (1872-1916)
A freedom fighter and revolutionary terrorist of modern India.  Killed policemen and sabotaged railway lines.  Credited with a vital role in Delhi Conspiracy case.  Remained in underground for 18 months.  Died on the gallows in the Lahore Jail in December, 1916.
Asur Singh Indian Freedom Fighter

Chandra Shekhar Azad Indian Freedom Fighter

CHANDRASEKHAR AZAD
Date of birth: 23^rd July, 1906 and Date of Death: 27^th February, 1931
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 generations 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.  Young Azad and contemporaries like Bhagat Singh were deeply and emotionally influenced by that tragedy.  As a revolutionary, he adopted the last name ‘Azad’, which means “Free” in Urdu.  There is an interesting story that while he adopted the name “Azad” he made a pledge that the Police will never capture him alive.  Azad and other had committed themselves to absolute independence by any means.  He was most famous for the Kakori Rail Dacoity in 1925and the assassination of the assistant superintendent of Police John Poyaniz Saunders in 1928.  Azad and his compatriots would target British officials known for their oppressive actions against ordinary people, or for beating and torturing arrested freedom fighters.  Azad was also a believer in socialism as the basis for a future India, free of social and economic oppression and adversity.  Bhagat Singh joined Azad following the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, an Indian leader who was beaten to death by police officials.  Azad trained Singh and others in covert activities, and the latter grew close to him after witnessing his resolve, patriotism and courage.  Along with fellow patriots like Rajguru and Sukhdev, Azad and Singh formed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, committed to complete Indian Independence and socialist principles of for India’s future progress.  Betrayed by an informer on 27^th February, 1931, Azad was encircled by British troops in the Alfred Park, Allahabad.  He kept on fighting till the last bullet.  Azad is a hero to many Indians today.  Alfred Park was renamed Chandrasekhar Azad Park, as have been scores of schools, colleges, roads and other public institutions across India.

One of the most famous revolutionaries from the present-day Uttar Pradesh, he was arrested during the Non-Cooperation movement, and was flogged for ridiculing the court during trial by declaring his name as Azad, his father’s as Swatantra and his home as prison.  From thence he became famous as Azad.  He was actively associated with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army and was involved in a number of revolutionary and terrorist cases such as Kakori Conspiracy, Lahore Conspiracy, etc.  At Alfred Park, Allahabad, while fighting alone with the police it is said that he shot himself dead with the last bullet he had in his pistol, after exhausting all his ammunition.
Chandra Shekhar Azad Indian Freedom Fighter
CHANDRA SEKHAR AZAD:
Date of Birth: July 23, 1906 and Date of death: February 27, 1931
Chandrashekhar Azad was born on July 23, 1906 in Badarka village of Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh. His parents were Pandit Sitaram Tiwari and Jagarani Devi. Pandit Sitaram Tiwari was serving in erstwhile estate of Alirajpur (situated in present day Madhya Pradesh) and Chandrashekhar Azad’s childhood was spent in the village Bhabra . On the insistence of her mother Jagrani Devi, Chandrashekhar Azad went to Kashi Vidyapeeth, Benaras for studying Sanskrit.
Young Chandra Shekhar was fascinated by and drawn to the great national upsurge of the non-violent, non-cooperation movement of 1920-21 under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. When arrested and produced before the magistrate, he gave his name as 'Azad', his father's name as 'Swatantra' and his residence as 'prison'. The provoked magistrate sentenced him to fifteen lashes of flogging. The title of Azad stuck thereafter.
After withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement, Azad was attracted towards revolutionary activities. He joined the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) and was involved in the Kakori Conspiracy (1926), the attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train (1926), the Assembly bomb incident, the Delhi Conspiracy, the shooting of Saunders at Lahore (1928) and the Second Lahore conspiracy.
Azad was on the wanted list of the police. On 27February 1931, in the Alfred Park, Allahabad, when an associate betrayed him, well-armed police circled Azad. For quite some time he held them at bay, single-handedly with a small pistol and few cartridges. Left with only one bullet, he fired it at his own temple and lived up to his resolve that he would never be arrested and dragged to gallows to be hanged.

Madhav Srihari Aney Indian Freedom Fighter

ANEY, MADHAV SRIHARI (1880-1968)
A statesman and right wing Congressman of Berar.  He had a distinguished academic career and started life as a teacher; member Congress Working Committee 1924-25.  Arrested in Civil Disobedience Movement, 1930.  Vice-President, Indian Home Rule League, and member Legislative Assembly from 1924-30 and 1935.  Joined Responsivist Party, which was formed in 1926.  General Secretary, Anti-Communal Award Committee, 1935.  Member, Governor-General’s Executive Council, 1941, but resigned in 1943 as a protest against the Government’s attitude towards Mahatma Gandhi’s fast unto death.  Representative of India in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), 1943-47; member, Constituent Assembly and later Member of Parliament.
Madhav Srihari Aney Indian Freedom Fighter

Gapal Ganesh Agarkar Indian Freedom Fighter

GOPAL GANESH AGARKAR (1856- 1895):
            A Chitpavan Brahmin from Maharastra, he was a journalist, social reformer and a great nationalist. He was the editor of the Maharatta and the Kesari. In 1888, he launched his own weekly Sudharak to popularise his ideas of social reform. He denounced caste and untouchability and battled to increase the minimum marriageable age of boys and girls. He worked with Tilak, M.G.Ranade and other social reformers of the period.
Gapal Ganesh Agarkar Indian Freedom Fighter

Kharshedji Rustamji Cama Indian freedom fighter and social reformer

KHARSHEDJI RUSTAMJI CAMA (1831-1909)
He was a Parsi businessman, who as deeply interested in public activities and social reforms.  He advocated socio-religious reforms among the Parsis.  In 1858, Cama took over the proprietorship of the weekly, the Rast Goftar, an organ of the new progressive social reforms.  The famous revolutionary Madam Bhikaiji Cama was his daughter-in-law.
Kharshedji Rustamji Cama Indian freedom fighter and social reformer

Ras Behari Bose Indian Freedom Fighter

RASBEHARI BOSE (1886-1945)
Rash Behari Bose was born on May 25, 1886, in Palara- Bighati (Hoogly) village. His mother passed away in 1889 when Rash Behari was still a baby. He was brought up thereafter by his maternal Aunt Vama Sundari.
Rash Behari Bose left Calcutta on May 12, 1915. He went to Japan as Raja P.N.T. Tagore, a distant relative of Rabindranath Tagore. Some historians say that Rabindranath Tagore was aware of this impersonation. Rash Behari reached Singapore on May 22, 1915 and Tokyo in June. Between 1915 and 1918, Rash Behari lived almost like a fugitive, changing his residence 17 times. During this period he met Herambalal Gupta and Bhagwan Singh of the Ghadar Party. Japan was an ally of Britain's in the First World War and tried to extradite Rash Behari and Herambalal from Japan. Herambalal escaped to U.S.A. and Rash Behari ended his hide and seek by becoming a Japanese citizen. He married Tosiko, daughter of the Soma family who were sympathetic toward Rash Behari's efforts. The couple had two children, a boy, Masahide, and a girl, Tetaku. Tosiko died in March 1928 at the age of 28.
Rash Behari Bose learned Japanese and became a journalist and writer. He took part in many cultural activities and wrote many books in Japanese, explaining India's viewpoints. It was due to Rash Behari's efforts that a conference was help in Tokyo from March 28 to 30, 1942, for discussion on political issues.
A great revolutionary of the first phase of the revolutionary terrorism.  He was associated with the Yugantar and the Ghadar Party.  In 1912, he and Basant Biswas threw a bomb at the procession of Viceroy Hardinge at Chandni Chowk, Delhi.  In 1915, he escaped to Japan, where he founded the Indian Independence League (1924) and also the Indian National Army.
It was on 21^st January 1945 that Rash Bihari Bose died in Tokyo before the end of World War II. The Japanese government honoured him with the highest title given to a foreigner – The Second Order of Merit of the Rising Sun.
Ras Behari Bose Indian Freedom Fighter