1.
Mahatma Gandhi
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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 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, the honorific Mahatma —applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa—is now used worldwide. In India, he is also called Bapu and Gandhiji and he is unofficially called the Father of the Nation. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth in all situations, and 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 food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest. Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab, eschewing the official celebration of independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook several fasts unto death to promote religious harmony, the last of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 when he was 78, also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan. Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating, among them was Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, who assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest. Mahatma Gandhis birthday,2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday and his father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi, served as the diwan of Porbandar state. The Gandhi family originated from the village of Kutiana in what was then Junagadh State, in the late 17th or early 18th century, one Lalji Gandhi moved to Porbandar and entered the service of its ruler, the Rana. In 1831, Rana Khimojiraji died suddenly and was succeeded by his 12-year-old only son, as a result, Rana Khimojirajjis widow, Rani Rupaliba, became regent for her son. She soon fell out with Uttamchand and forced him to return to his village in Junagadh. While in Junagadh, Uttamchand appeared before its Nawab and saluted him with his hand instead of his right. In 1841, Vikmatji assumed the throne and reinstated Uttamchand as his diwan, in 1847, Rana Vikmatji appointed Uttamchands son, Karamchand, as diwan after disagreeing with Uttamchand over the states maintenance of a British garrison. Although he only had an education and had previously been a clerk in the state administration
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
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He held several senior ministerial posts during this time, most notably those of Viceroy of India from 1925 to 1931 and of Foreign Secretary between 1938 and 1940. From 1941 to 1946, he served as British Ambassador in Washington, Halifax was born into a Yorkshire family, the fourth son of Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax. He and his siblings were all sickly, his three brothers died young, leaving him as heir to his fathers fortune and seat in the House of Lords. He was born with no left hand and a left arm. That, and his religiosity as a devout Anglo-Catholic like his father, in 2009, the familys roots were traced back to the Viking warrior, Magnus Irwinsson, who arrived in England in 1066 with the army of Harold Hardrada. Woods childhood was divided mainly between two houses in Yorkshire, Hickleton Hall, near Doncaster, and Garrowby and he was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, then became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. In 1910 he was elected Member of Parliament for Ripon, holding the seat until his elevation to the Lords in 1925. In 1918, he and George Ambrose Lloyd wrote The Great Opportunity and he held this position until 1924, when he was apparently equally undistinguished as Minister for Agriculture under Stanley Baldwin. Woods career had become bogged down. Wood was Viceroy of India from 1926 to 1931, proposed in 1925 at the suggestion of King George V, created Baron Irwin, he arrived in Bombay on 1 April 1926, hoping to improve Anglo-Indian relations and calm interfaith tensions in the country. His rule was marked by a period of political turmoil. He had all the Congress leaders put behind bars and then opened negotiations with Gandhi, some criticism of Irwin may have been unfair, but he had made an error and the consequences were serious and unrest grew. Irwins attempts to mediate with Indian leaders were stymied by Londons refusal to make concessions, Gandhis detention, however, only made matters worse. The fortnight-long discussions resulted in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, after which the Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended, the agreement between Gandhi and Irwin was signed on 5 March 1931. The salient points were, The Congress would discontinue the Civil Disobedience Movement, the Congress would participate in the Round Table Conference. The Government would withdraw all ordinances issued to curb the Congress, the Government would withdraw all prosecutions relating to offences not involving violence. The Government would release all persons serving sentences of imprisonment for their activities in the civil disobedience movement and it was also agreed that Gandhi would join the Second Round Table Conference as the sole representative of the Congress. On 20 March 1931, Irwin paid tribute to Gandhis honesty, sincerity, a month following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Lord Irwins term ended and he left India
4.
Jawaharlal Nehru
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Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state, a sovereign, socialist, secular and he was also known as Pandit Nehru due to his roots with the Kashmiri Pandit community while many Indian children knew him as Chacha Nehru. The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and nationalist statesman and Swaroop Rani, Nehru was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, where he trained to be a barrister. Upon his return to India, he enrolled at the Allahabad High Court, and took an interest in national politics, a committed nationalist since his teenage years, he became a rising figure in Indian politics during the upheavals of the 1910s. He became the prominent leader of the factions of the Indian National Congress during the 1920s. As Congress President in 1929, Nehru called for independence from the British Raj. Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s as the country moved towards independence, but these achievements were seriously compromised in the aftermath of the Quit India Movement in 1942, which saw the British effectively crush the Congress as a political organisation. The Muslim League under his old Congress colleague and now bête noire, negotiations between Nehru and Jinnah for power sharing failed and gave way to the independence and bloody partition of India in 1947. As Prime Minister, he set out to realise his vision of India, the Constitution of India was enacted in 1950, after which he embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social and political reforms. Chiefly, he oversaw Indias transition from a colony to a republic, while nurturing a plural, in foreign policy, he took a leading role in Non-Alignment while projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia. Under Nehrus leadership, the Congress emerged as a party, dominating national and state-level politics and winning consecutive elections in 1951,1957. He remained popular with the people of India in spite of troubles in his final years. In India, his birthday is celebrated as Childrens Day, Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India. His father, Motilal Nehru, a barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community. His mother, Swaruprani Thussu, who came from a well-known Kashmiri Brahmin family settled in Lahore, was Motilals second wife, Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children, two of whom were girls. The elder sister, Vijaya Lakshmi, later became the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly, the youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing, became a noted writer and authored several books on her brother. Nehru described his childhood as a sheltered and uneventful one and he grew up in an atmosphere of privilege at wealthy homes including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhawan. His father had him educated at home by governesses and tutors
5.
Salt March
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Gandhi led the Dandi March from his base, Sabarmati Ashram, near the city of Ahmedabad. 78 people began the march with Gandhi, who intended to walk 240 miles to the village of Dandi. As Gandhi and the continued on what would become a 24-day march to Dandi to produce salt without paying the tax. When Gandhi broke the laws at 6,30 am on 6 April 1930. The campaign had a significant effect on changing world and British attitudes towards Indian sovereignty and self-rule, after making salt at Dandi, Gandhi continued southward along the coast, producing salt and addressing meetings on the way. The Congress Party planned to stage a satyagraha at the Dharasana Salt Works,25 miles south of Dandi, however, Gandhi was arrested on the midnight of 4–5 May 1930, just days before the planned action at Dharasana. The Dandi March and the ensuing Dharasana Satyagraha drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement through extensive newspaper, the satyagraha against the salt tax continued for almost a year, ending with Gandhis release from jail and negotiations with Viceroy Lord Irwin at the Second Round Table Conference. Over 80,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha, however, it failed to result in major concessions from the British. The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhis principles of nonviolent protest called satyagraha, literally, it is formed from the Sanskrit words satya, truth, and agraha, insistence. In early 1930 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian sovereignty and self-rule from British rule, Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha. At midnight on 31 December 1929, the Indian National Congress raised the flag of India on the banks of the Ravi at Lahore. The Indian National Congress, led by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, publicly issued the Declaration of sovereignty and self-rule, or Purna Swaraj, on 26 January 1930. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and we believe therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraji or complete sovereignty and self-rule. The Congress Working Committee gave Gandhi the responsibility for organising the first act of civil disobedience, Gandhis plan was to begin civil disobedience with a satyagraha aimed at the British salt tax. The 1882 Salt Act gave the British a monopoly on the collection and manufacture of salt, limiting its handling to government salt depots, violation of the Salt Act was a criminal offence. Even though salt was freely available to living on the coast. The Statesman, a prominent newspaper, wrote about the choice, It is difficult not to laugh, the British establishment too was not disturbed by these plans of resistance against the salt tax. The Viceroy himself, Lord Irwin, did not take the threat of a salt protest seriously, writing to London, however, Gandhi had sound reasons for his decision
6.
Indian National Congress
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The Indian National Congress is one of two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. Congress was founded in 1885 during the British Raj, its founders include Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, there have been seven Congress Prime Ministers, the first being Jawaharlal Nehru, and the most recent Manmohan Singh. The partys social liberal platform is considered to be on the centre-left of Indian politics. From 2004 to 2014, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, a coalition of regional parties. As of March 2017, the party is in power in five states, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Meghalaya, in Bihar, it is a part of the ruling coalition. The Congress has previously directly ruled Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, in the 2014 general election, the Congress had its poorest post-independence general election performance, winning only 44 seats of the 543-member house. The party primarily endorses social liberalism—seeking to balance individual liberty and social justice, the Congress was founded in 1885 by Indian and British members of the Theosophical Society movement, including Scotsman Allan Octavian Hume. It has been suggested that the idea was conceived in a meeting of 17 men after a Theosophical Convention held in Madras in December 1884. Hume took the initiative, and in March 1885 the first notice convening the first Indian National Union to meet in Poona the following December was issued. Its objective was to obtain a share in government for educated Indians and to create a platform for civic. The first meeting was scheduled to be held in Poona, Hume organised the first meeting in Bombay with the approval of the Viceroy Lord Dufferin. Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee was the first president of the Congress, the first session was held from 28–31 December 1885, representing each province of India, the Partys delegates comprised 54 Hindus and 2 Muslims, the rest were of Parsi and Jain backgrounds. It also included Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mohammed Ali Jinnah—later leader of the Muslim League and instrumental in the creation of Pakistan. The Congress was transformed into a movement by Surendranath Banerjea and Sir Henry Cotton during the partition of Bengal in 1905. Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in 1915, in 1923 following the deaths of policemen at Chauri Chaura, Gandhi suspended the agitation. In protest, a number of leaders, Chittaranjan Das, Annie Besant, the Khilafat movement collapsed and the Congress was split. Although its members were predominantly Hindu, it had members from other religions, economic classes, at the Congress 1929 Lahore session under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, Purna Swaraj was declared as the partys goal, declaring 26 January 1930 as Purna Swaraj Diwas, Independence Day. The same year, Srinivas Iyenger was expelled from the party for demanding full independence, the British government allowed provincial elections in India in the winter of 1936–37 under the Government of India Act 1935
