Great Personalities

 Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883) 🙏🙏             Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, was born in a conservative Brahmin family of Gujrat, in 1824. In his childhood, he was known as Moolshankar. His father, Karsanji Trivedi, was a Tehsildar in Morbi, Kathiawar in Gujarat. He was raised in the orthodox Hindu tradition but soon he found himself unsatisfied with the archaic teachings and practices. At a very young age, he lost faith in idol worship, when on Shivaratri night, (when he was keeping awake to seek blessings of Lord Shiva) he saw mice running over the idol of Shiva. This greatly shocked him and he could not reconcile with the idea of an omnipotent living God, with this idol, which allowed mice to run over his body. Thus, in a flash, the maladies which afflicted Hinduism in those days appeared before him. Hindu religion should be freed from superstitions, dogmas, excess of ritualism and a new social or...

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee         Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, an Indian author, whose novels firmly established prose as a literary vehicle for the Bengali language and helped to create in India a school of fiction on the European model. He was a brilliant student, administrator, writer, philologian, philosopher and lawyer. But above all he was a patriot who paid tribute to his motherland through the hymn Bande Mataram. This later became the slogan of the freedom struggle and after independence, the national song of India.      Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was born on 26 th June, 1838, at Kathalpara in the district of North 24 Pargana in Bengal. His father Jadabchandra Chatterjee was in government service under the British rule. Bankim Chandra was a member of an orthodox Brahmin family and was educated at Hooghly College and Presidency College, Calcutta, and become one of the first graduates of the newly established Calcutta Univer...

Iron Man Of India   Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the Indian leaders whose contributions to the freedom struggle and role in building up the infant nation are of equal significance. He helped to organise the Indian nationalist movement and after independence in 1947, was successful in integrating several hundred princely states into the Republic of India.    Vallabhbhai Patel was born on October 31, 1875, in a farmer’s family in Nadiad in Gujrat. His father had served in the army of the Queen of Jhansi against the British. Thus, patriotism seemed to be inherited by him. Early in life, he showed qualities of leadership and determination. Before he completely immersed himself into the struggle for independence, he did a brief stint as a barrister, earning good money, living fashionably and moving in elite social circles.   However, a speech at the Gujrat Club by Mahatma Gandhi, changed his life. The Mahatama’s views, his conviction, his gentleness and his s...

      Ramon Magsaysay was born in Iba, Zambales, on 31 st august, 1907, to Exequiel Magsaysay, a blacksmith, and Perfecta del Fierro. The son of an artist, Magsaysay was a school teacher in the provincial town of Iba on the island town of Luzon. He entered the University of the Philippines in 1927. He worked as a driver to support himself as he studied engineering. Later, he transferred to the Institute of Commerce at Jose Rizal College (1928-1932), where he received a baccalaureate in commerce. He then worked as an automobile mechanic and shop superintendent and become general manager of a Manila transportation company.         Ramon Magsaysay was the third president of Philippines. Credited with restoring peace, law, and order during the Philippine crisis of the 1950s and the Hukbalahap rebellion, he was the first Philippine president from the landless lower middle class – the petit bourgeois (capitalist) stratum of society. He w...

    Aurobindo Ghose was born on August 15, 1872, in a family having a completely western ambience. His parents were Krishnadhan Ghose and Rajnarayan Basu. His father was completely westernised in habits, ideas and ideals and wanted his sons to follow suit. However, he would not know that his son would become one of the leading revolutionary activists of India.     Aurobindo was educated at an elite English school and college in England. He also qualified for the Indian Civil Service, a great honour for an Indian under the British rule. However, he deliberately skipped the mandatory horse riding test and was disqualified. During his stay in England he was educated in English, Latin and French as well as in English and European literature.    In 1983, financial difficulties forced him back to his homeland. He started working at the Baroda state during the reign of Sayaji Rao, the then Gaekwad. He worked in various departments ranging from stamp and r...

                                                 Rajiv Gandhi     No Prime Minister has been as full of ironies as Rajiv Gandhi’s was. Here’s an example: If his government lasted for just two and a half years, that is pretty much the norm these days, he would have been regarded as one of our best Prime Minister ever. By the spring of 1987, accords were in place in Punjab and Mizoram; the foreign policy was looking up, V.P. Singh’s Finance Ministry was being heralded for its honesty liberalising zeal, and the Prime Minister was astonishingly popular. If his government had fallen that March, then Rajiv would have been treated as a world-class statesman. But the problem was: his government lasted only for five years.              Rajiv Gandhi, the leading general secreta ry of India’s Congress ( I ) Party from 1981,...