1.
Porbandar
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Porbandar pronunciation is a coastal city in the Indian state of Gujarat, perhaps best known for being the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Sudama. It is the center of Porbandar District. This is another evidence to suggest that the Harappan legacy of maritime activity continued till the late Harappan period on the Saurashtra coast, the discovery of ancient jetties along the Porbandar creek signifies the importance of Porbandar as an active centre of maritime activities in the past. Past Harappan age and classical Vedic ages, Indian mythology says it is the birthplace of Sudaama, Porbandar was formerly the seat of the eponymous princely state in British India. The ruling family of the state belonged to the Jethwa clan of rajputs and had established in the area since at least the mid-16th century. In 1817, the Peshwa ceded his share to the HEIC, in 1820, during the British Raj, the state covered an area of 1,663 square kilometres, encompassing 106 villages and a population, in 1921, of over 100,000 people. It enjoyed a revenue of Rs.21,00, 000/-, by 1947, the rulers held the style of Highness and the title of Maharaj Rana Sahib, they were entitled to a salute of 13 guns as a hereditary distinction. Upon the Independence of India in 1947, the state acceded unto the dominion of India and it was merged with the United State of Kathiawar, effective from February 15,1948 and eventually came to form part of the present-day state of Gujarat. The last King of Porbandar was Natwarsinhji Bhavsinhji Maharaj, the area around Mahatma Gandhis home has been renovated to become a temple of peace. Porbandars beach locally known as Chowpati has a long, sandy expanse along the ocean, the Chowpati ground has also been used for the Janamastmi Fair, an annual festival. This place is equipped with a circuit house and a range of hotels located nearby for visitors. Fishery gives a lot of employment to the city and to neighboring districts, Porbandar is also one of the last few coasts remaining where the threatened marine mammal dugong can be found. Officials are working out for the policies for the mammal. The current member of Parliament is Vitthalbhai Hansrajbhai Radadiya, the current member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly is Babubhai Bokhiriya. Porbandar is located at 21°37′48″N 69°36′0″E and it has an average elevation of 1 metre. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot semi-arid and it is the least hot city of the rest of the major cities in Gujarat. As of 2011 India census, Porbandar had a population of 217,307, males constituted 51. 66% of the population and females 48. 44%. Porbandar has an literacy rate of 86. 46%, higher than the national average of 74. 04%, male literacy is 91. 69%
2.
Porbandar State
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Porbandar State was a princely state during the British Raj. It was one of the few states with a coastline. The capital of state was the town of Porbandar. Some other important towns of state were Bhanvad, Chhaya, Ranpar and Shrinagar, earlier Ghumli served as the capital of Jethwas, which was lost to Jadejas, however, architectural heritage built by them still stands at Ghumli. During the British Raj, the state covered an area of 1,663 square kilometres, encompassing 106 villages and it enjoyed a revenue of Rs. In 1193 Porbandar State was founded by an ancestral ruler expelled from Morvi State, in 1307 the state was renamed Ranpur and in 1574 it was renamed Chhaya. Finally in 1785 the state reverted to the name Porbandar, on 5 December 1809 it became a British protectorate and between 1886 and 15 September 1900 the state was administered by Bombay Province. In 1888, during the reign of Vikramatji Khimojiraj, the State started metre-gauge railway called Porbandar State Railway, upon the Independence of India in 1947, the state acceded unto the dominion of India. It was merged with the United State of Kathiawar, effective from 15 February 1948, Porbandar was the birthplace of Nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi in 1869, whose ancestors served as Dewan to the State Porbandar State was ruled by the Jethwa dynasty of Rajputs. By 1947, the rulers held the style of Highness and the title of Maharaj Rana Sahib, tambe – Wala Vajsur Valera – F. de B
3.
Kathiawar Agency
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The agencys headquarters were at Rajkot, the town where the British Political Agent used to reside. He reported to the Political Department office at Bombay, Bombay Presidency, the agency was formed in 1822, after the princely states in the area became British protectorates. The region was affected by the famine of 1899–1900. Between 1891 and 1901 the population of the covered by the Agency decreased by 15 per cent. There were altogether 193 states of varying size and importance, of which fourteen exercised independent jurisdiction, the eight states of the first class were Bhavnagar State, Dhrangadhra State, Gondal State, Jafarabad State, Junagadh State, Morvi State, Nawanagar State and Porbandar State. The agency covered an area of 20,882 square miles, the headquarters of the political agent was at Rajkot, in the centre of the peninsula, this was also the site of the Rajkumar College, Rajkot, where many of the sons of the rulers were educated. There was a school for girasias, or chiefs of lower rank. The estimated gross revenue of the states was 1,278,000 rupees in 1911. An excellent system of railways was built at the cost of the leading states. Maritime trade was very active, the chief ports being Porbandar, Mangrol. In 1903–1904 the total exports were valued at 1,300,000 rupees. Western India States Agency Imperial Gazetteer - Kathiawar
4.
Bombay Presidency
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The Bombay Presidency, also known as Bombay and Sind from 1843 to 1936 and the Bombay Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India. The English East India Company transferred its Western India headquarters from Surat, its first colony in that region, the Presidency was brought under British Parliament control along with other parts of British India through Pitts India Act. Aden was annexed in 1839, while Sind was annexed by the Company in 1843 after defeating the Talpur dynasty in the Battle of Hyderabad and it was made a part of the Bombay Presidency. The districts and provinces of the presidency were directly under British rule, while the administration of the native or princely states was in the hands of local rulers. The presidency, however, managed the defence of princely states, the Bombay Presidency along with the Bengal Presidency and Madras Presidency were the three major centres of British power. In 1661 Bombay was ceded to the Kingdom of England as part of the dowry of the infanta Catherine of Braganza on her marriage to King Charles II, as English trade in Bombay increased, Surat began its relative decline. In 1687, Bombay was made the headquarters of all the East India Companys possessions in India, however, in 1753 the governor of Bombay became subordinate to that of Calcutta. During the 18th century, the Hindu Maratha Empire expanded rapidly, claiming Konkan, in western Gujarat, including Kathiawar and Kutch, the loosening of Mughal control allowed numerous local rulers to create virtually independent states. The British annexed Surat in 1800, British territory was enlarged in the Second Anglo-Maratha War which ended in 1803. The East India Company received the districts of Bharuch, Kaira, etc. in 1803 the Bombay Presidency included only Salsette, the islands of the harbour, Surat and Bankot, but between this date and 1827 the framework of the presidency took shape. The Gujarat districts were taken over by the Bombay government in 1805, in 1858, under the terms of Queens Proclamation issued by Queen Victoria, the Bombay Presidency, along with the rest of British India, came under the direct rule of the British crown. Henry Bartle Frere was the first Governor appointed by the Crown, under Sir Bartle Frere agricultural prosperity reached its highest point, as a result of the American Civil War and the consequent enormous demand for Indian cotton in Europe. The money thus poured into the country produced an epidemic of speculation known as the Share Mania, which ended in a commercial crisis, but the peasantry gained on the whole more than they lost, and the trade of Bombay was not permanently injured. However, the important portfolios like finance, police and irrigation were reserved with members of the Governors Executive Council, in 1932, Aden was separated from Bombay and made a separate province, and Sindh became a separate province on 1 April 1936. The Government of India Act 1935 made the Bombay Presidency into a regular province and it enlarged the elected provincial legislature and expanded provincial autonomy vis a vis the central government. In the 1937 elections, the Indian National Congress won the elections in Bombay, the Cooper ministry did not last long and a Congress ministry under B. G. Kher was sworn in. Council of Ministers in Khers Cabinet, In 1939, all of the Congress ministries in British Indian provinces resigned and Bombay was placed under the Governors rule. After the end of World War II, the Indian National Congress re-entered politics, the Bombay Presidency became the Bombay State when India was granted independence on 15 August 1947 and Kher continued as the Chief Minister of the state, serving until 1952
5.
British Raj
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The British Raj was the rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. The rule is also called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India, the resulting political union was also called the Indian Empire and after 1876 issued passports under that name. It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The British Raj extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan and this area is very diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, and the Thar desert. In addition, at times, it included Aden, Lower Burma, Upper Burma, British Somaliland. Burma was separated from India and directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948, among other countries in the region, Ceylon was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. Ceylon was part of Madras Presidency between 1793 and 1798, the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having fought wars with the British, subsequently signed treaties with them and were recognised by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however. The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory, British India and the Native States. In general, the term British India had been used to also to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has also used to refer to the British in India. The terms Indian Empire and Empire of India were not used in legislation, the monarch was known as Empress or Emperor of India and the term was often used in Queen Victorias Queens Speeches and Prorogation Speeches. The passports issued by the British Indian government had the words Indian Empire on the cover, in addition, an order of knighthood, the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, was set up in 1878. At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a Governor or a Lieutenant-Governor, during the partition of Bengal the new provinces of Assam and East Bengal were created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, and the new provinces in the east became, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, there were 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent from Britain in August 1947. The princely states did not form a part of British India, the larger ones had treaties with Britain that specified which rights the princes had, in the smaller ones the princes had few rights. Within the princely states external affairs, defence and most communications were under British control, the British also exercised a general influence over the states internal politics, in part through the granting or withholding of recognition of individual rulers. Although there were nearly 600 princely states, the majority were very small
6.
Gujarat
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Gujarat is a state in Western India, sometimes referred to as the Jewel of Western India. It has an area of 196,024 km2 with a coastline of 1,600 km, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula, and a population in excess of 60 million. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the north, Maharashtra to the south, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and its capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. Gujarat is home to the Gujarati-speaking people of India, the state encompasses some sites of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, such as Lothal and Dholavira. Lothal is believed to be one of the worlds first seaports, Gujarat was known to the ancient Greeks, and was familiar in other Western centres of civilisation through the end of the European Middle Ages. Modern-day Gujarat is derived from Sanskrit term Gurjaradesa, the Gurjar nation, parts of modern Rajasthan and Gujarat have been known as Gurjaratra or Gurjarabhumi for centuries before the Mughal period. Gujarat was one of the centres of the Indus Valley Civilization. It contains ancient metropolitan cities from the Indus Valley such as Lothal, Dholavira, the ancient city of Lothal was where Indias first port was established. The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, the most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. Altogether, about 50 Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat, the ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by the commercial activities of its inhabitants. There is clear evidence of trade and commerce ties with Egypt, Bahrain. The early history of Gujarat reflects the grandeur of Chandragupta Maurya who conquered a number of earlier states in what is now Gujarat. Pushyagupta, a Vaishya, was appointed governor of Saurashtra by the Mauryan regime and he ruled Giringer and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Between the decline of Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of the Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain, in the first half of the 1st century AD there is the story of a merchant of King Gondaphares landing in Gujarat with Apostle Thomas. The incident of the cup-bearer killed by a lion might indicate that the city described is in Gujarat. For nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century AD, the weather-beaten rock at Junagadh gives a glimpse of the ruler Rudradaman I of the Saka satraps known as Western Satraps, or Kshatraps. Mahakshatrap Rudradaman I founded the Kardamaka dynasty which ruled from Anupa on the banks of the Narmada up to the Aparanta region which bordered Punjab, in Gujarat several battles were fought between the south Indian Satavahana dynasty and the Western Satraps. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Western Satraps, the Kshatrapa dynasty was replaced by the Gupta Empire with the conquest of Gujarat by Chandragupta Vikramaditya
7.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
8.
Aga Khan Palace
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The Aga Khan Palace was built by Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III in Pune, India. Built in 1892, it is one of the biggest landmarks in Indian history, the palace was an act of charity by the Sultan who wanted to help the poor in the neighbouring areas of Pune, who were drastically hit by famine. Aga Khan Palace is a building and is considered to be one of the greatest marvels of India. The palace is linked to the Indian freedom movement as it served as a prison for Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba Gandhi, his secretary Mahadev Desai. It is also the place where Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai died, in 2003, Archaeological Survey of India declared the place as a monument of national importance. Historically, the palace holds great significance, Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba Gandhi and his secretary Mahadev Desai were interned in the palace from 9 August 1942 to 6 May 1944, following the launch of Quit India Movement. Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai died during their captivity period in the palace and have their Samadhis located over there, Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi have their memorials located in the same complex, near Mula river. In 1969, Aga Khan Palace was donated to the Indian people by Aga Khan IV as a mark of respect to Gandhi, today the palace houses a memorial on Gandhi where his ashes were kept. The then prime minister Indira Gandhi had visited the place in 1974 where she allotted a sum of ₹200,000 every year, for its maintenance. The amount rose to ₹1 million till the 1990s, after which the monument of India, was neglected for many years due to improper allocation of funds. There was a protest held at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near Pune railway station in July 1999 to protest against the condition of the monument. Coordinates of the location, 18°33′8″N 73°54′8″E and it is located at about 2 km away from Bund Garden in Yerwada, on Pune-Nagar Road. Aga Khan palace has Italian arches and spacious lawns and it covers an area of 19 acres, out of which 7 acres is the built up area. The palace captivates the eye of a spectator with its magnificence and it took 5 years and an estimated budget of ₹1.2 million to complete this Palace. The area of the floor is 1756 m2, that of the first floor is 1080 m2. The speciality of this structure is its corridor of 2.5 meters around the entire building, prince Karim Aga Khan donated this palace to Gandhi Smarak Samittee in 1972 and since then Parks and Gardens organisation is maintaining it. The palace archives a number of photos and portraits depicting glimpses from the life of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation of India and this palace is also the headquarters of the Gandhi National Memorial Society. It also hosts a shop that deals in khaadi and other hand loomed textiles, Gandhi Memorial society celebrates the following public functions at the palace, Martyrs Day –30 January
9.
Pune
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Pune is the second largest city in the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ninth most populous city in the country. In the 18th century, Pune was the centre of the Indian subcontinent. Considered to be the capital of Maharashtra, Pune is known as Oxford of the East due to the presence of several well-known educational institutions in the city. The city has emerged as an educational hub in recent decades. Since the 1950s and 1960s, Pune has had a traditional old-economic base as most of the old industries continue to grow, a few college in the Europe have also actively engaged in Student-exchange programs with several colleges in Pune. Pune is also one of the fastest growing cities in the Asia-Pacific region, the ‘Mercer 2015 Quality of Living rankings’ evaluated local living conditions in more than 440 cities around the world where Pune ranked at 145, second in India after Hyderabad. It also highlights Pune among evolving business centres and emerging nine cities around the world with citation Hosts IT, the oldest reference to the place is found inscribed on a Rashtrakuta Dynasty copper plate dated AD937, which refers to the town as Punya-Vishaya meaning Sacred News. By the 13th century, it had come to be known as Punawadi, copper plates dated 858 AD and 868 AD show that by the 8th century an agricultural settlement known as Punnaka existed where Pune is today. The plates indicate that this region was ruled by the Rashtrakuta dynasty, the Pataleshwar rock-cut temple complex was built during this era. Pune was part of the territory ruled by Seuna Yadavas of Devagiri from the 9th century to 1327, in 1595, Maloji Raje Bhosale was granted the jagirdari of Pune by the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. Pune was ruled by the Ahmadnagar Sultanate until it was annexed by the Mughals in the 17th century, Pune was part of the Jagir granted to Maloji Bhosale in 1599 for his services to the Nizamshahi of Ahmadnagar. His grandson, Shivaji, the founder of Maratha Empire, was born in Shivneri fort not far from Pune, Shivaji was brought up by his mother in Pune. Pune changed hands several times between the Mughals and the Marathas in the period between 1660 and 1705 and he stabilised the revenue collection and administrative systems of areas around Pune and in neighbouring area of the Maval region. In addition, he developed methods to manage disputes and to enforce law. Construction on the Lal Mahal began in 1631 AD, the Lal Mahal was completed in 1640 AD. Jijabai is said to have commissioned the building of the Kasba Ganapati temple, the Ganesha idol consecrated at this temple has been regarded as the presiding deity of the city. Shivaji encouraged the development of dams in the Parvati and Kondhwa regions of Pune for agricultural purposes, Pune and its surrounding villages were the major recruitment areas for Shivajis army between 1645 AD and 1680 AD. Between 1660 AD and 1670 AD the town was captured by Mughal General Shahista Khan, Shivaji often used Pune as his transit base during his major campaigns such as Varhad-Karanja, AhemadaNagar District, Karnataka, and Jalna
10.
Maharashtra
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Four Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India and is Indias second-most populous state and third-largest state by area. It is the wealthiest Indian state and it is also the worlds second-most populous sub-national entity. It has over 112 million inhabitants and its capital, Mumbai, has a population of approximately 18 million, Nagpur is Maharashtras second capital as well as its winter capital. Maharashtras business opportunities along with its potential to offer a standard of living attract migrants from all over India. Ancient and medieval Maharashtra included the empires of the Satavahana dynasty, Rashtrakuta dynasty, Western Chalukyas, Mughals, the major rivers of the state are Godavari, and Krishna. The Narmada and Tapti Rivers flow near the border between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, Maharashtra is the second most urbanised state in India. The state has several popular Hindu places of pilgrimage including Pandharpur, Dehu and Alandi, other places that attract pilgrims from other parts of India and beyond include Hazur Sahib Gurudwara at Nanded, Sai Baba shrine at Shirdi and Dikshabhumi at Nagpur. Maharashtra is the wealthiest and one of the most developed states in India, as of 2011, the state had a per capita income of ₹1.0035 lakh, more than the national average of ₹0.73 lakh. Its GDP per capita crossed the ₹1.20 lakh threshold for the first time in 2013, however, as of 2014, the GDP per capita reduced to ₹1.03 lakh Agriculture and industries are the largest parts of the states economy. Major industries include chemical products, electrical and non-electrical machinery, textiles, petroleum, Jai Maharashtra The modern Marathi language developed from the Maharashtri Prakrit, and the word Mahratta is found in the Jain Maharashtri literature. The terms Maharashtra, Maharashtri, Marathi and Maratha may have derived from the same root, however, their exact etymology is uncertain. But the Marathas as a people do not seem to be mentioned before the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the most widely accepted theory among the linguistic scholars is that the words Maratha and Maharashtra ultimately derived from a combination of Maha and rashtrika. The word rashtrika is a Sanskritized form of Ratta, the name of a tribe or dynasty of petty chiefs ruling in the Deccan region. Another theory is that the term is derived from Maha and ratha / rathi, an alternative theory states that the term derives from the word Maha and Rashtra. However, this theory has not found acceptance among scholars who believe it to be the Sanskritised interpretation of later writers. Maharashtra was ruled by the Maurya Empire in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, around 230 BCE Maharashtra came under the rule of the Satavahana dynasty for 400 years. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni, in 90 CE Vedishri, son of the Satavahana king Satakarni, the Lord of Dakshinapatha, wielder of the unchecked wheel of Sovereignty, made Junnar, thirty miles north of Pune, the capital of his kingdom. The state was ruled by Western Satraps, Gupta Empire, Gurjara-Pratihara, Vakataka, Kadambas, Chalukya Empire, Rashtrakuta Dynasty, and Western Chalukya before finally
11.
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
12.
Harilal Gandhi
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Harilal Mohandas Gandhi,1888 –18 June 1948) was the eldest son of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He had three younger brothers Manilal Gandhi, Ramdas Gandhi and Devdas Gandhi, Harilal wanted to go to England for higher studies and hoped to become a barrister as his father had once been. His father firmly opposed this, believing that a Western-style education would not be helpful in the struggle against British rule over India, eventually rebelling against his fathers decision, in 1911 Harilal renounced all family ties. Harilal was married to Gulab Gandhi and they had five children, Rasik and Shanti died at an early age. He had four grandchildren via Rani, two via Kanti, and one via Manu and he became detached from his children after Gulab’s death in a flu epidemic. Nilam Parikh, the daughter of Ranibehn, the eldest of Harilals children, wrote a biography of him, entitled Gandhijis Lost Jewel and he appeared at his fathers funeral in such derelict condition that few recognized him. He died of tuberculosis on 18 June 1948 in a hospital in Bombay. It is said[ that for a short time Harilal converted to Islam, however, on his mother Kasturba Gandhis request he converted back to Hinduism through the Arya Samaj. In June 1935, Mahatma Gandhi wrote a letter to Harilal, accusing him of alcohol, in the letters, Mahatma Gandhi stated that Harilals problems were more difficult for him to deal with than the struggle for Indian republic. Harilal died of TB four months after Gandhi’s death on the night of June 18 at the age of 60, being alcoholic he was racked by liver disease, and possibly syphilis. But records at the Sewri Hospital suggest that he died a lonely death, harilal’s death certificate is preserved at the BMC’s archives in Vakola. It mentions 8 pm on June 18,1948, as the time of death, there is no mention of any family members on the document, but it reveals that he was admitted to the hospital after being found unconscious in Kamathipura. The troubled relationship between Harilal and his father is the subject of the film and play Gandhi, My Father, the film adaptation was released on 3 August 2007 and directed by Feroz Abbas Khan and produced by Anil Kapoor. Harilal is portrayed by Akshaye Khanna, khans play, Mahatma vs. Gandhi, while different from this film, had a similar theme. There is also a Marathi play named Gandhi virudh Gandhi, Harilal Gandhi, What Life by Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal Gandhijis Lost Jewel, Harilal Gandhi by Nilam Parikh, grand daughter of Harilal Gandhi Dinkar Joshi
13.
Devdas Gandhi
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Devdas Gandhi was the fourth and youngest son of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in South Africa and returned to India with his parents as a young man and he became active in his fathers movement, spending many terms in jail. He also became a prominent journalist, serving as editor of Hindustan Times, Devdas fell in love with Lakshmi, the daughter of C. Rajagopalachari, Devdass fathers associate in the Indian independence struggle, due to Lakshmis age at that time – she was only fifteen, whereas Devdas was twenty eight years – both Devdass father and Rajaji asked the couple to wait for five years without seeing each other. After five years had passed, they were married with their fathers permissions in 1933, Devdas and Lakshmi had four children, Rajmohan Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Ramchandra Gandhi and Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee
14.
Eternal Gandhi Multimedia Museum
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The Eternal Gandhi Multimedia Museum is a digital multimedia museum established in 2005. It is located at Gandhi Smriti, formerly Birla House, the site where Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated, the Museum presents historical records of Gandhi’s life, and aims to revive and redefine the values by which India obtained freedom. The project is an initiative of the Aditya Birla Group and Gandhi Smriti Darshan Samiti and it is supported by Grasim and Hindalco, and developed by the Sacred World Research Laboratory. The Museum was inaugurated on April 14,2005 by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and it embellishes the life of Gandhi in rhythmic with photographs, paintings, film footage, and video clips. A collection of over 40 exhibits shows the intersection of modern tactile computing, the Project won the ID Magazine New York award for its design contributions. A mobile version of the travels to different states of the country
15.
Gandhi Smriti
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Gandhi Smriti formerly known as Birla House or Birla Bhavan, is a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, situated on Tees January Road, formerly Albuquerque Road, in New Delhi, India. It is the location where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and was assassinated on 30 January 1948 and it was originally the house of the Indian business tycoons, the Birla family. It is now home to the Eternal Gandhi Multimedia Museum. The 12-bedroom house was built in 1928 by Ghanshyamdas Birla, sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi were frequent guests of the Birlas. During his final stay, Mahatma Gandhi stayed here from 9 September 1947 to 30 January 1948 when he was assassinated, jawaharlal Nehru wrote to Ghanshyamdas Birla seeking to turn part of the Birla House in to a memorial. Ghanshyamdas was rather reluctant to give up the house with associated memories, eventually KK Birla, sold the property to the Government for Rs 5.4 million and seven acres of urban land in exchange, which was considered a very profitable deal. Birla House opened for the public on 15 August 1973, renamed the Gandhi Smriti, the museum in the building houses a number of articles associated with Gandhis life and death. Visitors can tour the building and grounds, viewing the preserved room where Gandhi lived, Gandhi was shot during his prayers at the place where Martyrs Column now stands. The Martyrs Column now marks the place where Gandhi, the Father of the Nation was assassinated, the Gandhi Smriti or Birla House is located at 5 Tees January Marg, a couple of kilometres from the Connaught Place, one of the Central Business Districts of New Delhi. Outside the house stands a pillar that contains a swastika symbol, the prominence of the pillar means that it has been used as a visual example of the way the ethical meaning of the swastika symbol has changed in the West in the 20th century. The same pillar also contains the Sanskrit symbol for the meditation sound, Om. Gandhi Smriti – Government of India website
16.
New Delhi
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New Delhi is the capital of India and one of Delhi citys 11 districts. The National Capital Region is a larger entity comprising the entire National Capital Territory along with adjoining districts. The foundation stone of the city was laid by George V and it was designed by British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker. The new capital was inaugurated on 13 February 1931, by Viceroy, New Delhi has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under Prime Minister of India Narendra Modis flagship Smart Cities Mission. Calcutta was the capital of India during the British Raj until December 1911, Delhi had served as the political and financial centre of several empires of ancient India and the Delhi Sultanate, most notably of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857. During the early 1900s, a proposal was made to the British administration to shift the capital of the British Indian Empire, as India was officially named, from Calcutta on the east coast, to Delhi. The Government of British India felt that it would be easier to administer India from Delhi in the centre of northern India. The land for building the new city of Delhi was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1894. The foundation stone of New Delhi was laid by King George V and Queen Mary at the site of Delhi Durbar of 1911 at Kingsway Camp on 15 December 1911, during their imperial visit. Large parts of New Delhi were planned by Edwin Lutyens, who first visited Delhi in 1912, the contract was given to Sobha Singh. The original plan called for its construction in Tughlaqabad, inside the Tughlaqabad fort, construction really began after World War I and was completed by 1931. The city that was later dubbed Lutyens Delhi was inaugurated in ceremonies beginning on 10 February 1931 by Lord Irwin, Lutyens designed the central administrative area of the city as a testament to Britains imperial aspirations. Soon Lutyens started considering other places, however, it was rejected by the Viceroy when the cost of acquiring the necessary properties was found to be too high. The central axis of New Delhi, which faces east at India Gate, was previously meant to be a north-south axis linking the Viceroys House at one end with Paharganj at the other. During the projects early years, many believed it was a gate from Earth to Heaven itself. Eventually, owing to space constraints and the presence of a number of heritage sites in the North side. A site atop the Raisina Hill, formerly Raisina Village, a Meo village, was chosen for the Rashtrapati Bhawan, then known as the Viceroys House. The reason for this choice was that the hill lay directly opposite the Dinapanah citadel, which was considered the site of Indraprastha
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Indian independence movement
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The Indian independence movement encompassed all activities and ideas aiming to end the East India Company rule and the British Indian Empire in the Indian subcontinent. The movement spanned a total of 190 years, the early part of the 20th century saw a more radical approach towards political self-rule proposed by leaders such as the Lal, Bal, Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai. The last stages of the struggle from the 1920s onwards saw Congress adopt Mohandas Karamchand Gandhis policy of nonviolence and civil resistance. Nationalist like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh and Vinayak Damodar Sawarkar preached armed revolution to achieve self-rule, feminists such as Sarojini Naidu and Begum Rokeya promoted the emancipation of Indian women and their participation in national politics. Babasaheb Ambedkar championed the cause of the sections of Indian society within the larger self-rule movement. The period of the Second World War saw the peak of the campaigns by the Quit India Movement led by Congress, the Indian self-rule movement was a mass-based movement that encompassed various sections of society. It also underwent a process of constant ideological evolution, in 1971, East Pakistan declared independence as the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. European traders first reached Indian shores with the arrival of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 AD at the port of Calicut, in search of the lucrative spice trade. Just over a century later, the Dutch and English established trading outposts on the subcontinent, the decline of the Mughal empire in the first half of the eighteenth century provided the British with the opportunity to establish a firm foothold in Indian politics. After the defeat of Tipu Sultan, most of South India came either under the Companys direct rule, the Company subsequently gained control of regions ruled by the Maratha Empire, after defeating them in a series of wars. The Punjab was annexed in 1849, after the defeat of the Sikh armies in the First, in 1835, English was made the medium of instruction in Indias schools and many Indians increasingly disliked British rule. With the British now dominating most of the subcontinent, many British increasingly disregarded local customs, Puli Thevan was one of the opponents of the British rule in India. He was in conflict with the Nawab of Arcot who was supported by the British and his prominent exploits were his confrontations with Marudhanayagam, who later rebelled against the British in the late 1750s and early 1760s. Nelkatumseval the present Tirunelveli Dist of Tamil Nadu state of India was the headquarters of Puli Thevan, kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja was one of the earliest freedom fighters in India. He was the regent of the princely state of Kottiyur or Cotiote in North Malabar, near Kannur. He fought a war with tribal people from Wynad supporting him. He was caught by the British and his fort was razed to the ground, Rani Velu Nachiyar, was a queen of Indian Sivaganga in 1760–1790. She was the first queen to fight against the British in India, Rani Nachiyar was trained in war match weapons usage, martial arts like Valari, Silambam, horse riding and archery
18.
Bania (caste)
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The Bania is an occupational community of merchants, bankers, money-lenders, dealers in grains or in spices, and in modern times numerous commercial enterprises. The term is used in a sense in Bengal than it is elsewhere in India. Bania is derived from the Sanskrit word vaṇij or baṇij, which means merchant, in western India the caste is called Vani or Vania. Although in Bengal the term is applied to all people who are involved in moneylending and similar activities, elsewhere in India it is used in the more limited sense of referring to specific castes
19.
Gujarati language
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Gujarati /ɡʊdʒəˈrɑːti/ is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat. It is part of the greater Indo-European language family, Gujarati is descended from Old Gujarati. In India, it is the language in the state of Gujarat, as well as an official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra. Gujarati is the language of the Gujjars, who had ruled Rajputana, according to the Central Intelligence Agency,4. 5% of the Indian population speaks Gujarati, which amounts to 54.6 million speakers in India. There are about 65.5 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, Gujarati was the first language of Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Gujarati is a modern IA language evolved from Sanskrit, Central, in Gujarati/Rajasthani, Western Hindi, and Punjabi/Lahanda/Sindhi, on the basis of innovation of auxiliary verbs and postpositions in Gujarati/Rajasthani. Gujarati/Rajasthani into Gujarati and Rajasthani through development of such characteristics as auxiliary ch-, grammatically, a new plural marker of -o developed. In literature, the quarter of the 19th century saw a series of milestones for Gujarati. The printing was introduced in Gujarati in 1812, the first printed book published was the Gujarati translation of Dabestan-e Mazaheb prepared and printed by Parsi priest Fardunjee Marzban in 1815. 1822, first Gujarati newspaper, Mumbai Samachar, the oldest newspaper in India still in circulation, 1840s, personal diary composition, Nityanondh, Durgaram Mehta. 1845, first modern Gujarati poem, Bapani Piparu, Dalpatram 1851, first essay, Mandaḷī Maḷvāthi Thātā Lābh, Narmadashankar Dave 1866, first original novel, Karaṇ Ghelo, Nandshankar Mehta. 1866, first social novel, Sasu Vahu ni Ladai, Mahipatram Rupram Nilkanth 1866, first autobiography, Mārī Hakīkat,1900, first original short story, Shantidas, Ambalal Desai. Of the approximately 46 million speakers of Gujarati in 1997, roughly 45, however, Gujarati community leaders in Pakistan claim that there are 3 million Gujarati speakers in Karachi. There is an amount of Mauritian population and a large amount of Réunion Island people who are from Gujarati descent among which some of them still speak Gujarati. According to the 2011 census, Gujarati is the seventeenth most spoken language in the Greater Toronto Area, most, with British passports, settled in the UK. Gujarati is offered as a GCSE subject for students in the UK, a distribution of the geographical area can be found in Linguistic Survey of India by George A. Grierson. Gujarati is one of the recognized constitutional languages and fourteen regional languages of India. It is officially recognized in the state of Gujarat, India, in A simplified grammar of the Gujarati language by William Tisdall, two major dialects of Gujarati are mentioned, a standard Hindu dialect and a Parsi dialect
20.
Arranged marriage
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Arranged marriage is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are selected by their families. Arranged marriages were common throughout the world until the 18th century. Typically, marriages were arranged by parents, grandparents or other relatives, some historical exceptions are known, such as courtship and betrothal rituals during the Renaissance period of Italy and Gandharva marriages in the Vedic period of India. In China, arranged marriages - sometimes called blind marriages - were the norm before the mid 20th century, a marriage was a negotiation and decision between parents and other older members of two families. The boy and girl were typically told to get married, without a right to consent, arranged marriages were the norm in Russia before the early 20th century, most of which were endogamous. Until the first half of the 20th century, arranged marriages were common in migrant families in the United States and these marriages among immigrants were typically arranged by parents, or relatives from the country of their origin. Similar historical dynamics are claimed in other parts of the world, in most other parts of the world, arranged marriages continue to varying degrees and increasingly in quasi-arranged form, along with autonomous marriages. Similarly, Broude and Greene, after studying 142 cultures worldwide, have reported that 130 cultures have elements of arranged marriage, extreme examples of forced arranged marriage have been observed in some societies, particularly in child marriages of girls below age 12. Illustrations include vani which is seen in some tribal / rural parts of Pakistan. Arranged endogamous marriage, is one where a third party finds and selects the bride and groom from a social, economic. Consanguineous marriage, is a type of arranged endogamous marriage and it is one where the bride and groom share a grandparent or near ancestor. Examples of these include first cousin marriages, uncle-niece marriages, second cousin marriages, the most common consanguineous marriages are first cousin marriages, followed by second cousin and uncle-niece marriages. Non-consanguineous arranged marriage is one where the bride and groom do not share a grandparent or near ancestor and this type of arranged marriages is common in Hindu and Buddhist South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Christian Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Consanguineous marriages are against the law in parts of United States. Consanguineous arranged marriages were common in Jewish communities before the 20th century, child marriage, particularly those below the age of 12, does not prepare or provide the individual much opportunity to make an informed, free choice about matrimony. These child marriages are arranged marriages. Child marriages is primarily seen in areas of poverty, by marrying their daughter to a good family the parents improve their social status by establishing a social bond between each other. According to Warner, in nations with the highest rates of child marriages, the nations with the highest rates of arranged child marriages are, Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Pakistan
21.
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
22.
Rabindranath Tagore
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Author of Gitanjali and its profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Sometimes referred to as the Bard of Bengal, Tagores poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial, however, his elegant prose, a Pirali Brahmin from Calcutta with ancestral gentry roots in Jessore, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At the age of sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusiṃha, by 1877 he graduated to his first short stories and dramas, published under his real name. As a humanist, universalist internationalist, and ardent anti-nationalist, he denounced the British Raj, Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal, Gitanjali, Gora and Ghare-Baire are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems, Indias Jana Gana Mana and Bangladeshs Amar Shonar Bangla, the Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work. The youngest of thirteen surviving children, Tagore was born on 7 May 1861 in the Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta to Debendranath Tagore, Tagore was raised mostly by servants, his mother had died in his early childhood and his father travelled widely. The Tagore family was at the forefront of the Bengal renaissance and they hosted the publication of literary magazines, theatre and recitals of Bengali and Western classical music featured there regularly. Tagores father invited several professional Dhrupad musicians to stay in the house, Tagores oldest brother Dwijendranath was a philosopher and poet. Another brother, Satyendranath, was the first Indian appointed to the elite, yet another brother, Jyotirindranath, was a musician, composer, and playwright. His sister Swarnakumari became a novelist, jyotirindranaths wife Kadambari Devi, slightly older than Tagore, was a dear friend and powerful influence. Her abrupt suicide in 1884, soon after he married, left him for years profoundly distraught, Tagore largely avoided classroom schooling and preferred to roam the manor or nearby Bolpur and Panihati, idylls which the family visited. His brother Hemendranath tutored and physically conditioned him—by having him swim the Ganges or trek through hills, by gymnastics and he learned drawing, anatomy, geography and history, literature, mathematics, Sanskrit, and English—his least favourite subject. Tagore loathed formal education—his scholarly travails at the local Presidency College spanned a single day, there Tagore read biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Kālidāsa. Tagore returned to Jorosanko and completed a set of works by 1877. As a joke, he claimed that these were the lost works of a newly discovered 17th-century Vaiṣṇava poet Bhānusiṃha, regional experts accepted them as the lost works of Bhānusiṃha. He debuted in the genre in Bengali with Bhikharini. Published in the year, Sandhya Sangit includes the poem Nirjharer Swapnabhanga
23.
Santiniketan
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Shantiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 160 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son Rabindranath Tagore whose vision became what is now a university town, Shantiniketan was earlier called Bhubandanga, and was owned by the Tagore family. In 1862, Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, while on a visit to Raipur, earlier, on request from his zamindar friend, Maharshi use to teach his son English occasionally. On this occasion Maharshi Devendranath expressed his desire to open up an ASHRAM, then his friend told Maharshi Devendranath about a big barren land near Bolpur. Maharshi showed his interest to see the place himself, then he took Maharshi one day to the barren land. There was only one building there namely Santiniketan, Maharshi liked the place very much and expressed it to his friend. His friend readily agreed to give the entire land to Maharshi Devendranath. Shantiniketan became a centre where people from all religions were invited to join for meditation. He founded an Ashram here in 1863 and became the initiator of the Brahmo Samaj, here Rabindranath Tagore started Patha Bhavana, the school of his ideals, whose central premise was that learning in a natural environment would be more enjoyable and fruitful. After he received the Nobel Prize, the school was expanded into a university in 1921, by 1951, it had become one of Indias central universities. Barun De, Historian, who was a member of both the court and the council of Visva Bharati. Rajat Kanta Ray, Historian, who was a chancellor of Visva Bharati. Amartya Sen, Economist, who studied at Patha Bhavana, Santiniketan, surajit Sinha, Anthropologist, who was the vice chancellor of Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. Supriyo Tagore, Educationist, who was the longest serving principal of Patha Bhavana, Shantiniketan is at 23. 68°N87. 68°E /23.68,87.68. It has an elevation of 56 metres. Shantiniketan can be visited at any time of the year, the climate is moderately warm, with summer temperatures at around 34-45 °C and winter at 8-15 °C. July and August see heavy rainfall, social and cultural events take place throughout the year. These include Basanta Utsav, Barsha Mangal, Sharodutsav, Nandan Mela, Poush Mela, Magh Mela, of these, the Poush Mela is a major tourist attraction
24.
West Bengal
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West Bengal is an Indian state, located in East India on the Bay of Bengal. It is Indias fourth-most populous state, with over 91 million inhabitants and it has a total area of 34,267 sq mi, making it similar in size to Serbia. A part of the ethno-linguistic Bengal region, it borders Bangladesh in the east and Nepal and it also has borders five Indian states, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata, the seventh-largest city in India, the geography of West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in its extreme north, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region and the coastal Sundarbans. The main ethnic group are the Bengali people, with Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority, Ancient Bengal was the site of several major janapadas, including Vanga, Radha, Pundra and Suhma. In the 2nd century BC, the region was conquered by the emperor Ashoka, in the 4th century AD, it was absorbed into the Gupta Empire. From the 13th century onward, the region was ruled by sultans, powerful Hindu states and Baro-Bhuyan landlords. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the following the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Between 1977 and 2011, the state was administered by the worlds longest elected Communist government, a major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to Indias net domestic product. It is noted for its activities and the presence of cultural and educational institutions. The states cultural heritage, besides varied folk traditions, ranges from stalwarts in literature including Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore to scores of musicians, film-makers and artists. West Bengal is also distinct from most other Indian states in its appreciation and practice of playing football besides cricket. The origin of the name Bengal is unknown, one theory suggests that the word derives from Bang, a Dravidian tribe that settled the region around 1000 BC. The word might have derived from the ancient kingdom of Vanga. Although some early Sanskrit literature mentions the name, the early history is obscure. At the end of British Rule over the Indian subcontinent, the Bengal region was partitioned in 1947 along religious lines into east and west, the east came to be known as East Bengal and the west came to known as West Bengal, which continued as an Indian state. In 2011, the Government of West Bengal proposed a change in the name of the state to Poschimbongo. This is the name of the state, literally meaning western Bengal in the native Bengali language
25.
Quit India Movement
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The Cripps Mission had failed, and on 8 August 1942, Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. The All-India Congress Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called An Orderly British Withdrawal from India, even though it was wartime, the British were prepared to act. Almost the entire leadership of the INC was imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhis speech, most spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses. The British had the support of the Viceroys Council, of the All India Muslim League, the states, the Indian Imperial Police, the British Indian Army. Many Indian businessmen profiting from heavy wartime spending did not support Quit India Movement, many students paid more attention to Subhas Chandra Bose, who was in exile and supporting the Axis Powers. The only outside support came from the Americans, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Prime Minister Winston Churchill to give in to some of the Indian demands, the Quit India campaign was effectively crushed. The British refused to grant immediate independence, saying it could happen only after the war against the Axis powers had ended, sporadic small-scale violence took place around the country and the British arrested tens of thousands of leaders, keeping them imprisoned until 1945. In terms of immediate objectives Quit India failed because of heavy-handed suppression, weak co-ordination, however, the British government realised that India was ungovernable in the long run due to the cost of World War II, and the question for postwar became how to exit gracefully and peacefully. For several weeks there was rioting and the British lost control in some parts of the country. Only the strongest measures, including the use of guns and aerial bombing. In 1992 Reserve Bank of India issue 1 Rupee Commemorative Coin to mark the Golden Jubilee of Quit India Movement, in 1939 Indian nationalists were angry that British Governor-General of India, Lord Linlithgow, had without consultation with them brought India into the war. The Muslim League supported the war, but Congress was divided, Gandhi had not supported this initiative, as he could not reconcile an endorsement for war. After the onset of the war, only a group led by Subhas Chandra Bose took any decisive action. In 1939, with the outbreak of war between Germany and Britain, India was announced to be a party to the war for being a constituent component of the British Empire. Following this declaration, the Congress Working Committee at its meeting on 10 October 1939, at the same time the resolution also stated that India could not associate herself with war unless it was consulted first. Responding to this declaration, the Viceroy issued a statement on 17 October wherein he claimed that Britain is waging a war driven by the motif to strengthen peace in the world. He also stated that after the war, the government would initiate modifications in the Act of 1935, Gandhis reaction to this statement was, the old policy of divide and rule is to continue. The Congress has asked for bread and it has got stone, According to the instructions issued by High Command, the Congress ministers were directed to resign immediately
26.
Mahadev Desai
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Mahadev Desai was an Indian independence activist and writer best remembered as Mahatma Gandhis personal secretary. He has variously described as Gandhis Boswell, a Plato to Gandhis Socrates. Mahadev Desai was born on 1 January 1892 in the village of Saras in Surat District of Gujarat to Haribhai Desai a school teacher, Jamnabehn died when Desai was only seven years of age. In 1905, aged 13, Mahadev was married to Durgabehn and he was educated at the Surat High School and the Elphinstone College, Mumbai. Graduated with a BA Degree, he passed his L. L. B in 1913, Mahadev Desai first met Gandhi in 1915 when he went to meet him to seek his advice on how best to publish his book. Desai joined Gandhis Ashram in 1917 and with Durgabehn accompanied him to Champaran that year and he maintained a diary from 13 November 1917 to 14 August 1942, the day before his death, chronicling his life with Gandhi. In 1919 when the government arrested Gandhi in Punjab, he named Desai his heir. Desai was for the first time arrested and sentenced to a year in prison in 1921 and he was Gandhis personal secretary for 25 years, but as Verrier Elwin wrote of him, he was much more than that. He was in fact Home and Foreign Secretary combined and he was equally at home in the office, the guest-house and the kitchen. He looked after many guests and must have saved 10 years of Gandhis life by diverting from him unwanted visitors, in 1920, Motilal Nehru requisitioned the services of Mahadev Desai from Gandhi to run his newspaper, the Independent, from Allahabad. Desai created a sensation by bringing out a hand-written cyclostyled newspaper after the Independents printing press was confiscated by the British government, Desai was sentenced to a years rigorous imprisonment for his writings in 1921 – his first stint in prison. In prison, Desai saw that the jail authorities mistreated prisoners and his report describing the life inside an Indian jail, published in Young India and Navajivan, compelled the British authorities to bring about some drastic jail reform measures. Desai took over as editor of Navajivan in 1924 and from 1925 he began the translation into English of Gandhis autobiography, the following year he became chairman of the executive committee of the Satyagraha Ashram and won a prize from the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad for his article in Navajivan. He took part in the Bardoli Satyagraha along with Sardar Patel and he was the only person to accompany Gandhi when the latter met with King George V. Following the collapse of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the deadlock at the Round Table Conference, the colonial government, under the new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, was determined to crush the movement and ordered a clampdown on the Indian National Congress and its activists. In 1932, Desai was arrested again and sent to prison with Gandhi, following his release in 1933, he was re-arrested and detained in the Belgaum Jail. It was during time in prison that he wrote Gita According to Gandhi which was posthumously published in 1946. He also played a role in organising peoples movements in the states of Rajkot
27.
Ayurveda
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Ayurveda, or Ayurveda medicine, is a system of medicine with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. Globalized and modernized practices derived from Ayurveda traditions are a type of complementary or alternative medicine, in the Western world, Ayurveda therapies and practices have been integrated in general wellness applications and as well in some cases in medical use. The main classical Ayurveda texts begin with accounts of the transmission of knowledge from the Gods to sages. In Sushruta Samhita, Sushruta wrote that Dhanvantari, Hindu god of Ayurveda, incarnated himself as a king of Varanasi and taught medicine to a group of physicians, Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia. Therapies are typically based on complex compounds, minerals and metal substances. Ancient Ayurveda texts also taught surgical techniques, including rhinoplasty, kidney stone extractions, sutures, other researchers consider it a protoscience, or trans-science system instead. Close to 21% of Ayurveda U. S. and Indian-manufactured patent medicines sold through the Internet were found to contain levels of heavy metals, specifically lead, mercury. The public health implications of such metallic contaminants in India are unknown, some scholars assert that Ayurveda originated in prehistoric times, and that some of the concepts of Ayurveda have existed from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization or even earlier. Humoral balance is emphasized, and suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy, Ayurveda names three elemental substances, the doshas, and states that a balance of the doshas results in health, while imbalance results in disease. Ayurveda has eight components, which are derived from classical Sanskrit literature. Ayurveda practitioners had developed various medicinal preparations and surgical procedures by the medieval period, the earliest classical Sanskrit works on Ayurveda describe medical science as being divided into eight components. This characterization of the art, the medicine that has eight components, is first found in the Sanskrit epic the Mahābhārata. The central theoretical ideas of Ayurveda developed in the mid-first millennium BCE, balance is emphasized, and suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy and claimed to lead to illness. For example, to suppress sneezing is said to give rise to shoulder pain. However, people are also cautioned to stay within the limits of reasonable balance, for example, emphasis is placed on moderation of food intake, sleep, and sexual intercourse. Ayurveda names seven basic tissues, which are plasma, blood, muscles, fat, bone, marrow, like the medicine of classical antiquity, Ayurveda has historically divided bodily substances into five classical elements eliminates toxic elements from the body. Panchakarma includes Vamana, Virechana, Basti, Nasya and Raktamokshana and it is preceded by Poorvakarma as a preparatory step, and is followed by Paschatkarma and Peyadikarma. Based on the World Health Assembly resolution on traditional medicine, the WHO has established a traditional medicine strategy, the first previous global strategy was published in 2002 and dealt especially with herbal medicines
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Penicillin
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Penicillin is a group of antibiotics which include penicillin G, penicillin V, procaine penicillin, and benzathine penicillin. Penicillin antibiotics were among the first medications to be effective against many bacterial infections caused by staphylococci and streptococci, penicillins are still widely used today, though many types of bacteria have developed resistance following extensive use. About 10% of people report that they are allergic to penicillin, however, serious allergies only occur in about 0. 03%. Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, people began using it to treat infections in 1942. There are several enhanced penicillin families which are effective against additional bacteria, these include the penicillins, aminopenicillins. They are derived from Penicillium fungi, the term penicillin is often used generically to refer to benzylpenicillin, procaine benzylpenicillin, benzathine benzylpenicillin, and phenoxymethylpenicillin. Procaine penicillin and benzathine penicillin have the same activity as benzylpenicillin. Phenoxymethylpenicillin is less active against gram-negative bacteria than benzylpenicillin, infrequent adverse effects include fever, vomiting, erythema, dermatitis, angioedema, seizures, and pseudomembranous colitis. About 10% of people report that they are allergic to penicillin, however, serious allergies only occur in about 0. 03%. Penicillin can also induce serum sickness or a serum sickness-like reaction in some individuals, serum sickness is a type III hypersensitivity reaction that occurs one to three weeks after exposure to drugs including penicillin. It is not a drug allergy, because allergies are type I hypersensitivity reactions. Pain and inflammation at the site is also common for parenterally administered benzathine benzylpenicillin, benzylpenicillin. Significantly, there is a reaction to Streptolysin S, a toxin released by certain killed bacteria and associated with Penicillin injection. Allergic reactions to any β-lactam antibiotic may occur in up to 1% of patients receiving that agent, the allergic reaction is a Type I hypersensitivity reaction. Anaphylaxis will occur in approximately 0. 01% of patients and it has previously been accepted that there was up to a 10% cross-sensitivity between penicillin-derivatives, cephalosporins, and carbapenems, due to the sharing of the β-lactam ring. Assessments in 2006 found no risk for cross-allergy for second-generation or later cephalosporins than the first generation. However, as a risk, research shows that all beta lactams have the intrinsic hazard of very serious hazardous reactions in susceptible patients. Only the frequency of these reactions vary, based on the structure, bacteria constantly remodel their peptidoglycan cell walls, simultaneously building and breaking down portions of the cell wall as they grow and divide
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Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
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Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse at Birla House in New Delhi. Gandhi had just climbed up the steps of a raised lawn behind Birla House where he conducted his prayer meetings. Godse stepped out from the crowd and into Gandhis path, Gandhi crumpled to the ground, leaving the crowd stunned. The first to approach Godse was an American vice-consul, Herbert Reiner Jr. who grasped him by the shoulders, Gandhi was carried back to his room in Birla House, where a doctor declared him dead. Godse, a member of the Hindu nationalist political party, Hindu Mahasabha, thought Gandhi was being too accommodating to Muslims, Godse, who had planned the assassination with Narayan Apte and six others, was tried and convicted of murder. He was hanged in November 1949,550 million to Pakistan on 13 January 1948. Godse, Apte and their friends felt that this was appeasing Pakistani Muslims at the expense of Hindus in India and this decision of Gandhi and Nehru had also caused Vallabhbhai Patel to submit his resignation. Interestingly, Gandhis fast was for the restoration of Hindu-Muslim peace and it is possible that Godse may not have known of this, however this cannot be said for certain. However, being under the thumb of Gandhi they resorted to more feeble ways and he also felt that Gandhi had not protested against these atrocities being suffered in Pakistan and instead resorted to fasts. In his court deposition, Godse said, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be ruined. If I were to kill Gandhiji, but at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. In Godses own words during his deposition in the court during the trial. Nathuram Godse was arrested immediately after he assassinated Gandhi, based on a FIR filed by Nandlal Mehta at the Tughlak Road Police station at Delhi, the trial, which was held in camera, began on May 27,1948, and concluded on February 10,1949. An appeal to the Punjab High Court, then in session at Shimla, did not find favour, Godse approached Gandhi on 30 January 1948 during the evening prayer at 5,17 pm.380 ACP bearing the serial number 606824. As the attending crowd was overcome by shock, Herbert Reiner Jr. Reiner then held Godse by the neck and shoulders until he was taken away by the military, All of those involved in the crime were arrested and tried in a trial that attracted considerable media attention. Those convicted were either executed or served their complete sentences, Nathuram Godse and his fellow conspirators Digambar Badge, Gopal Godse, Narayan Apte, Vishnu Karkare and Madanlal Pahwa were identified as prominent members of the Hindu Mahasabha. Along with them, police arrested Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who was suspected of being the mastermind behind the plot, the Kapur Commission in 1967 established that Savarkar was in close contact with the plotters for many years. The accused were put on trial at Peterhoff, Shimla which housed the Punjab High Court, Savarkar was acquitted and set free due to lack of evidence
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Narayan Desai
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Narayan Desai was an Indian Gandhian and author. The son of Mahatma Gandhis personal secretary and biographer Mahadev Desai, he was born in Bulsar, brought up in Gandhis Ashram in Sabarmati, Ahmedabad and Sevagram near Wardha, Narayan stopped attending school to be educated and trained by his father and other residents of the Ashram. He specialized in education, spinning and weaving khadi. He started the mouthpiece of Bhoodan movement, titled Bhoomiputra and remained its editor till 1959, Narayan joined the Akhil Bharatiya Shanti Sena Mandal, founded by Vinoba and headed by veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan. Narayan was involved in the setting up of Peace Brigades International and was elected as the chairman of the War Resisters International and he along with a Pakistani peace group were awarded the UNESCO prize for International Peace. Narayan was active in the campaign against the imposition of emergency in India, following JPs death, Narayan moved to Vedchhi and set up the Sampoorna Kranti Vidyalaya. The Institute imparts training in non-violence and Gandhian way of life and he recited Gandhi-Katha across the world starting 2004. The biography was written in four volumes containing 2000 pages, after completing Gandhis biography he thought that very few people would buy this book due to its volume and high price. He thought of an idea for spreading Gandhis message. Like Ramayan and Bhagwat katha he started Gandhi Katha, for seven days X3 hours he narrated the life and thought of Gandhi. He also sang songs written and composed by him during katha, to some he would tell about Gandhis political activities and to the executives he would tell about the leadership and management skill of Gandhi. This katha telling disperse many wrong perception about Mahatma prevailing in the minds of public and he also narrated many unpublished and unknown incidents of the life of Gandhi. This katha was very popular in India and overseas and it is to be noted that he took this venture of Katha telling at the age of 81. He served as Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith since 23 July 2007 and he slipped into coma on 10 December 2014 but later recovered and spun charkha. He had difficulties in daily activities and was on liquid diet and he died on 15 March 2015 at Mahavir Trauma Centre, Surat. He was cremated at Sampoorna Kranti Vidyalaya at Vedchhi on the same day, Narayan was accorded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati in 1993 for the biography of his father Mahadev Desai he wrote as part of the centenary celebrations of Gandhis close aide. Earlier, Narayans book about his reminiscences of Gandhi too had won the Sahitya Academy Award. He also received Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak, the highest award of Gujarati literature, in 2001
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the PG, is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It has won six Pulitzer Prizes since 1938, the Post-Gazette began its history as a four-page weekly called The Pittsburgh Gazette, first published on July 29,1786 with the encouragement of Hugh Henry Brackenridge. It was the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains, published by Joseph Hall and John Scull, the paper covered the start of the nation. As one of its first major articles, the Gazette published the newly adopted Constitution of the United States, in 1820, under publishers Eichbaum and Johnston and editor Morgan Neville, the name changed to Pittsburgh Gazette and Manufacturing and Mercantile Advertiser. David MacLean bought the paper in 1822, and later reverted to the former title, craig, whose service lasted from 1829 to 1841, the Gazette championed the Anti-Masonic movement. Craig turned the Gazette into the citys first daily paper, issued every afternoon except Sunday starting on July 30,1833, in 1844, shortly after absorbing the Advocate, the Gazette switched its daily issue time to morning. Its editorial stance at the time was conservative and strongly favoring the Whig party, by the 1850s the Gazette was credited with helping to organize a local chapter of the new Republican Party, and with contributing to the election of Abraham Lincoln. The paper was one of the first to suggest tensions between North and South would erupt in war, after consolidating with the Commercial in 1877, the paper was again renamed and was then known as the Commercial Gazette. In 1900, George T. Oliver acquired the paper, merging it six years later with The Pittsburg Times to form The Gazette Times, the Pittsburgh Post first appeared on September 10,1842, as the Daily Morning Post. It had its origin in three pro-Democratic weeklies, the Mercury, Allegheny Democrat, and American Manufacturer, which came together through a pair of mergers in the early 1840s, the three papers had for years engaged in bitter editorial battles with the Gazette. Like its predecessors, the Post advocated the policies of the Democratic Party and its political opposition to the Whig and later Republican Gazette was so enduring that an eventual combination of the two rivals would have seemed unlikely. The 1920s were a time of consolidation in the long-overcrowded Pittsburgh newspaper market, in 1923, local publishers banded together to acquire and kill off the Dispatch and Leader. After swapping the Sun in return for Hearsts Gazette Times, Block had both morning papers, which he combined to form the Post-Gazette, hearst united the evening papers, creating the Sun-Telegraph. Both new papers debuted on August 2,1927, in 1960, Pittsburgh had three daily papers, the Post-Gazette in the morning, and the Pittsburgh Press and the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph in the evening and on Sunday. The Post-Gazette bought the Sun-Telegraph and moved into the Sun-Telegraphs Grant Street offices, the Post-Gazette tried to publish a Sunday paper to compete with the Sunday Press but it was not profitable, rising costs in general were challenging the companys bottom line. In November 1961, the Post-Gazette entered into an agreement with the Pittsburgh Press Company to combine their production, the Post-Gazette owned and operated its own news and editorial departments, but production and distribution of the paper was handled by the larger Press office. This agreement stayed in place for over 30 years, the agreement gave the Post-Gazette a new home in the Press building, a comfortable upgrade from the hated Sun-Telly barn. Constructed for the Press in 1927 and expanded with a wall in 1962
listen (help·info) born Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia on (11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was a political activist and the wife of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. In association with her husband, Kasturba Gandhi was involved in the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India.
