Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/ˈɡɑːndi,   ˈɡæn-/ ;[2] Hindustani: [ˈmoːɦənd� aːs

ˈkərəmtʃənd� ˈɡaːnd� ʱi] (  listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the

preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India.

Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired

movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

The honorificMahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable")[3]—applied to him first in

1914 in South Africa,[4]—is now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu (Gujarati:

endearment for "father",[5] "papa"[5][6]) in India.

Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and

trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil

disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's

struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising

peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and

discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi

led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building

religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or

self-rule.

Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km

(250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in

1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa

and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth in all situations, and

advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential

community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun

on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means

of both self-purification and social protest.

Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism, however, was

challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a

separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.[7] Eventually, in August 1947, Britain

granted independence, but the British Indian Empire[7] was partitioned into

two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan.[8] As many displaced

Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke

out, especially in the Punjaband Bengal. Eschewing the official celebration of

independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace.

Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed Azad (Bengali: আবু�ল কা�ল�ম ম�হিয়ু�হি�ন আমেমদ

আজা�দ,   pronunciation (help·info); Urdu: آازاد Abul Kalam Azad; 11 ابو الکلام محی الدین احمد

November 1888 – 22 February 1958 was an Indian scholar and a senior political leader

of the Indian independence movement. Following India's independence, he became the

first [Minister of Education] in the Indian government. In 1992 he

was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.[1] There is

also a theory which suggests that earlier when he was offered Bharat Ratna he

promptly declined it saying that it should not be given to those who have been on the

selection committee. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word

Maulana is an honorific meaning 'learned man', and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his

pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is

recognised by celebrating his birthday as "National Education Day" across India.[2]

As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu language, as well as treatises on

religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist,

publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian

nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement, during which he came

into close contact with the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Azad became an

enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked to

organise the non-co-operation movement in protest of the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad

committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting Swadeshi(indigenous)

products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. In 1923, at an age of 35, he

became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress.

Azad was one of the main organisers of the Dharasana Satyagraha in 1931, and

emerged as one of the most important national leaders of the time, prominently leading

the causes of Hindu-Muslim unity as well as espousing secularism and socialism.[3] He

served as Congress president from 1940 to 1945, during which the Quit India rebellion

was launched. Azad was imprisoned, together with the entire Congress leadership, for

three years.

Amidst communal turmoil following the partition of India, he worked for religious

harmony. As India's Education Minister, Azad oversaw the establishment of a national

education system with free primary education and modern institutions of higher

education. He is also credited with the establishment of the 

Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917), known as the Grand Old Man of

India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political and

social leader. He was a Liberal Party member of parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom

House of Commons between 1892 and 1895, and the first Asian to be a British MP.[1]

Naoroji is also credited with the founding of the Indian National Congress, along with A.O.

Hume and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought

attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain. He was also member of theSecond

International along with Kautsky and Plekhanov.

Naoroji was born in Mumbai and educated at the Elphinstone Institute School. He was patronised by Maharaja of Baroda Sayajirao Gaekwad III and started his public life as the Dewan (Minister) to the Maharaja in 1874. Being an Athornan (ordained priest), Naoroji founded the Rahnumae Mazdayasne Sabha (Guides on the Mazdayasne Path) on 1 August 1851 to restore the Zoroastrian religion to its original purity and simplicity. In 1854, he also founded a fortnightly publication, the Rast Goftar (or The Truth Teller), to clarify Zoroastrian concepts. In 1855, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the Elphinstone College in Bombay,[2] becoming the first Indian to hold such an academic position. He travelled to London in 1855 to become a partner in Cama & Co, opening a Liverpool location for the first Indian company to be established in Britain. Within three years, he had resigned on ethical grounds. In 1859, he established his own cotton trading company, Dadabhai Naoroji & Co. Later, he became professor ofGujarati at University College London.

Plaque referring to Dadabhai Naoroji, located outside the Finsbury Town Hall on Rosebery

Avenue, London.

In 1867 Naoroji helped to establish the East India Association, one of the predecessor

organisations of the Indian National Congresswith the aim of putting across the Indian point

of view before the British public. The Association was instrumental in counter-acting

the propaganda by the Ethnological Society of London which, in its session in 1866, had

tried to prove the inferiority of the Asians to the Europeans. This Association soon won the

support of eminent Englishmen and was able to exercise considerable influence in

theBritish Parliament. In 1874, he became Prime Minister of Baroda and was a member of

the Legislative Council of Mumbai (1885–88). He was also a member of the Indian National

Association founded by Sir Surendranath Banerjee from Calcutta a few years before the

founding of the Indian National Congress in Bombay, with the same objectives and

practices. The two groups later merged into the INC, and Naoroji was elected President of

the Congress in 1886. Naoroji published Poverty and un-British Rule in India in 1901.

Khān Abdul Ghaffār Khān (6 February 1890 – 20 January 1988) (Pashto:  عبدالغفار خان

:nicknamed as Bāchā Khān (Pashto ,(خان خان پاچا ) lit. "king of chiefs") or Pāchā Khān ,باچا

was a Pashtun independence activist against the rule of the British Raj. He was a ,(خان

political and spiritual leader known for his nonviolent opposition, and a lifelong pacifist and

devout Muslim.[1] A close friend ofMahatma Gandhi, Bacha Khan was nicknamed the

"Frontier Gandhi" in British India.[2] Bacha Khan founded the Khudai Khidmatgar("Servants

of God") movement in 1929, whose success triggered a harsh crackdown by the British

Empire against him and his supporters, and they suffered some of the most severe

repression of the Indian independence movement.[3]

Bacha Khan strongly opposed the All-India Muslim League's demand for the partition of

India.[4][5] When the Indian National Congress declared its acceptance of the partition plan

without consulting the Khudai Khidmatgar leaders, he felt very sad and told the Congress

"you have thrown us to the wolves."[6] After partition, Bacha Khan pledged allegiance

to Pakistan and demanded an autonomous "Pashtunistan" administrative unit within the

country, but he was frequently arrested by the Pakistani government between 1948 and

1954. In 1956, he was again arrested for his opposition to the One Unit program, under

which the government announced to merge the former provinces of West

Punjab, Sindh, North-West Frontier Province, Chief Commissioner's Province of

Balochistan, and Baluchistan States Union into one single polity of West Pakistan. Bacha

Khan also spent much of the 1960s and 1970s either in jail or in exile. Upon his death in

1988 in Peshawar under house arrest, following his will, he was buried at his house

in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of mourners attended his funeral, marching

through the Khyber Pass from Peshawar to Jalalabad, although it was marred by two bomb

explosions killing 15 people. Despite the heavy fighting at the time, both sides of theSoviet

war in Afghanistan, the communist army and the mujahideen, declared a ceasefire to allow

his burial.[7]

Ghaffar Khan was born on 6 February 1890 into a generally peaceful and prosperous family

from Utmanzai in the Peshawar Valley of British India. His father, Bahram Khan, was a land

owner in the area commonly referred to as Hashtnaghar. Ghaffar was the second son of

Bahram to attend the British run Edward's mission school, since this was the only fully

functioning school because it was run by missionaries. At school the young Ghaffar did well

in his studies, and was inspired by his mentor Reverend Wigram to see the importance of

education in service to the community. In his 10th and final year of high school, he was

The Rani of Jhansi (19 November 1828 – 18 June 1858[1][2][3]), born as Manikarnika and

renamed Lakshmibai   pronunciation (help·info) in 1842, was the queen of the Maratha-

ruled Jhansi State, situated in the north-central part of India. She was one of the leading

figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became for Indian nationalists a symbol of

resistance to the British Raj. Lakshmibai was born probably on 19 November 1828[1][3][4][5][6] in

the holy town of Varanasi into a Marathi Brahman (Karhade Brahmin[citation needed]) family.[7][8] She

was named Manikarnika and was nicknamed Manu.[9] Her father was Moropant Tambe and

her mother Bhagirathi Sapre (Bhagirathi Bai). Her parents came from Maharashtra. Her

mother died when she was four. Her father worked for a court Peshwa of Bithoor

district who brought Manikarnika up like his own daughter.[10] The Peshwa called her

"Chhabili", which means "playful". She was educated at home and was more independent in

her childhood than others of her age; her studies included shooting, horsemanship, and

fencing.[11][12]

Manikarnika was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, Raja Gangadhar Rao Newalkar, in May

1842[4][13] and was afterwards called Lakshmibai (or Laxmibai) in honour of the Hindu

goddess Lakshmi.[14] She gave birth to a boy, later named Damodar Rao, in 1851, who died

when four months old. The Maharaja adopted a child called Anand Rao, the son of

Gangadhar Rao's cousin, who was renamed Damodar Rao, on the day before the Maharaja

died. The adoption was in the presence of the British political officer who was given a letter

from the Maharaja instructing that the child be treated with respect and that the government

of Jhansi should be given to his widow for her lifetime. After the death of the Maharaja in

November 1853, because Damodar Rao was adopted, theBritish East India Company,

under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie, applied the Doctrine of Lapse, rejecting Damodar

Rao's claim to the throne and annexing the state to its territories. In March 1854,

Lakshmibai was given a pension of Rs. 60,000 and ordered to leave the palace and the fort.[15][16]

Rani Lakshmibai was accustomed to riding on horseback accompanied by a small escort

between the palace and the temple although sometimes she was carried bypalanquin.[17] Her

horses included Sarangi, Pavan and Badal; according to tradition she rode Badal when

escaping from the fort in 1858. The Rani Mahal, the palace of Rani Lakshmibai, has now

been converted into a museum. It houses a collection of archaeological remains of the

period between the 9th and 12th centuries AD.