Great Personalities

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...