mangal pandey

Born on July 19, 1827 in the village of Nagwa, district Ballia, Uttar
Pradesh, Mangal Pandey was introduced to Indian history as the first freedom fighter and martyr
of 1857. He is popularly named ‘Shaheed Mangal Pandey’ because ‘Shaheed’ means martyr in
Urdu and he was the first Indian sepoy who woke up the Indian masses to fight for the nation.

Mangal Pandey, at the age of 22 joined the British East India Company as a soldier in the 34th
Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry. He was a true freedom fighter who gave a spark to the First
War of Indian Independence. The British termed it as Sepoy Mutiny 1857 as it was a mass revolt
of Indian soldiers in the British Army.

The main reason of Sepoy Mutiny was the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket. To load a new
rifle, the soldiers had to bite the cartridge and open to pour gunpowder into the rifle’s muzzle.
There was a widespread rumor that these cartridges were greased with lard or tallow. Lard is the
pork fat which the Muslims regarded as unclean and tallow is the beef fat which the Hindus
regarded as sacred. The British army constituted 96% of Indians and so both the Hindus and the
Muslims refused to accept these cartridges. Everyone had a firm belief that this was done
intentionally and this discontent turned into a major revolt.

Mass revolt forced Pandey to attack his British sergeant on the parade ground, besides wounding
an adjutant. A native soldier stopped him from killing them. The officer in charge ordered a
Jamadaar of the troop to arrest Pandey but he refused to do so. Mangal tried to commit suicide to
light the flame of nationalism in the hearts of millions of Indians but he failed to do so. He was
then captured and sentenced to death on April 8, 1857 in Barrackpore. March 29, 1857 is
considered to be a day when Mangal Pandey reaped the seed for a struggle which gave India her
freedom.

sukhdev thapar
 Like many other freedom fighters, Sukhdev Thapar was also a
famous Indian revolutionary who sacrificed his life for the cause of India’s independence. He
was born on May 15, 1907 in Naughara in Ludhiana. Since childhood, he had witnessed the
brutal behavior of British authorities on Indians and grew up with a firm decision and an earnest
desire to set India free from British dominion.

Sukhdev was a member of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association and took active part in
various revolutionary activities. He along with other revolutionaries founded the Naujawan
Bharat Sabha with the aim to aware and gear up Indian youth for the freedom struggle showing
them an imaginary picture of India’s future.

As a active participant of Lahore Conspiracy Case in 1928 and Prison Hunger Strike in 1929,
Sukhdev shook the established foundation of British Government. On 1929, he along with his
accomplice Bhagat Singh and Shivram Rajguru was arrested for assassinating Deputy
Superitendent Saunder in 1928, thus avenging the death of Lalaji. The three brave
revolutionaries were sentenced to death, as per the verdict, on March 23, 1931 and their bodies
were secretly cremated on the banks of River Sutlej.

bhagat singh

Bhagat Singh, a symbol of heroism, was born in a Sikh family in

Layalpur, Punjab on September 27, 1907. He was a national hero who gave a new wave to the
revolutionary movement in India. His only goal in life was the destruction of British Empire.

Bhagat started his education in DAV School in Lahore but was not able to complete his studies
because he was highly disturbed and influenced by the Jalianwala Bagh massacre at the age of
12. His desire to drive British out from India became stronger and he joined the Non-
Cooperation Movement called by Gandhi Ji in 1921. The incidence of Chauri-Chaura in
Gorakhpur made Bhagat violent and he decided to earn freedom with armed revolution rather
than non-violence. He then joined the National College in Lahore, a center of revolutionary
activities.
To spread message of revolution in Punjab, Bhagat formed a union of revolutionaries by the
name ‘Naujavan Bharat Sabha’ and gave a call for mass mobilization. In 1928, he went to Delhi
to attend a meeting of revolutionaries’ and there he came in contact with Chandrashekhar Azad.
With a common aim to establish republic in India they both formed ‘Hindustan Samajvadi
Prajatantra Sangha’. There were protests against of Simon Commission visit to India and in this
protest Lala Lajpat Rai was brutally lathi charged and later on he died. This added to the anger
and discontent of Bhagat and he was determined to kill the British official and Deputy Inspector
General Scott responsible for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai. By mistake, he killed assistant
superintendent Saunders and ran from Lahore to escape punishment. He threw a bomb in the
Central Legislative Assembly on April 18, 1929 and was sentenced to death on March 23, 1931.

Though dead, Bhagat Singh is still living in the history of humanity and remembered as a
prominent face of the freedom struggle.

bal gangadhar tilak

Born in a well-cultured Brahim family on July 23, 1856 in Ratangari,

Maharashtra, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a multifacet personality. He is considered to be the
‘Father of Indian Unrest’. He was a scholar of Indian history, Sanskrit, mathematics, astronomy
and Hinduism. He had imbibed values, cultures and intelligence from his father Gangadhar
Ramchandra Tilak who was a Sanskrit scholar and a famous teacher. At the age of 10, Bal
Gangadhar went to Pune with his family as his father was transferred. In Pune, he was educated
in an Anglo-Vernacular school. After some years he lost his mother and at the age of 16 his
father too he got married to a 10-year-old girl named Satyabhama while he was studying in
Matriculation. In 1877, Tilak completed his studies and continued with studying Law.

With an aim to impart teachings about Indian culture and national ideals to India’s youth, Tilak
along with Agarkar and Vishnushstry founded the ‘Deccan Education Society’. Soon after that
Tilak started two weeklies, ‘Kesari’ and ‘Marathi’ to highlight plight of Indians. He also started
the celebrations of Ganapati Festival and Shivaji Jayanti to bring people close together and join
the nationalist movement against British. In fighting for people’s cause, twice he was sentenced
to imprisonment. He launched Swadeshi Movenment and believed that ‘Swaraj is my birth right
and I shall have it’. This quote inspired millions of Indians to join the freedom struggle. With the
goal of Swaraj, he also built ‘Home Rule League’. Tilak constantly traveled across the country to
inspire and convince people to believe in Swaraj and fight for freedom. He was constantly
fighting against injustice and one sad day on August 1, 1920, he died.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was one of the prime architects of modern India and is still living in the
hearts of millions of India.
jawaharlal nehru

Born on November 14, 1889 in Allahabad, Jawaharlal Nehru was

the first Prime Minister of India. The only son of Motilal Nehru and Swarup Rani was a patriot, a
freedom fighter and the most highly respected personality. He completed his early education in a
boarding school in England. For higher studies he went to Cambridge University and returned to
India in 1912 as a barrister. Just after his studies, in 1916 he got married to Kamala Kaul.

Nehru was an intellectual with strong feelings of patriotism, liberty and unity. Being highly
influenced by Gandhi Ji, he wanted to join the freedom struggle. During the struggle he was
imprisoned several times. He had spent almost 14 years of his life in prison. For consequently 5
times he was elected as the President of Indian National Congress and under his influence
Congress adopted the goal of complete independence. After centuries of struggle, India became
independent in 1947 and soon after that Nehru was appointed as the first Prime Minister of the
country.

Even after independence he had served the country that had left a profound influence on the
social structure, intellectual development and overall development of the country. He is said to
be the architect, the maker of modern India. On May 27, 1964 India lost its architecture.

chandrasekhar azad

Chandrashekhar, a fearless revolutionary and a great freedom

fighter, was born on July 23, 1906 in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh. He was the son of
Pandit Sita Ram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. He started his education in Bhavra and at the age of 14
he went to Varanasi where he was taught to live the austere life of a Brahamachari.

During his stay in Varanasi he was highly inspired by the Non Cooperation movement of
Mahatma Gandhi. He actively participated in the movement for which he was sentenced to
fifteen lashes of logging at the age of 15. In the court he addressed himself as ‘Azad’, and gave
his father’s name as ‘Swadhin’ and his mother’s name as ‘Dhart Ma’. With endurance, courage
and fortitude he tolerated all the lashes. With each stroke of the whip he shouted ‘Bharat Mata Ki
Jai’. From then, he was honored and titled as ‘Azad’ by the local Indians. Thereafter, he got the
name Chandrashekhar Azad. When he was released, he took a pledge that he would never be
arrested by the Britishers and will die as a free man.

When the Non Cooperation Movement was suspended due to Chauri-Chaura incidence, Azad
switched over to armed revolution and formed ‘Hindustan Socialist Republican Association’
with other revolutionaries to spread the message of complete independence. He actively
participated in revolutionary activities and was involved in Kakori Train Robbery and the
attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train in 1926. For British Government, he was a terrorist
because he killed John Poyantz Saunders to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai.

On 27th February 1931, Azad was betrayed by one of the associates who informed the British
Police. In Alfred Park, Allahabad he was besieged by the British police. He fought bravely for
quite some time but seeing no other way he shot himself and fulfilled his desire to die a 'free
man'. A great Indian leader, Chandrashekhar Azad was the heart of all revolutionary leaders and
his poetic composition, ‘Dushman ki goliyon ka hum samna karenge, Azad hee rahein hain, azad
hee rahenge' is still recited by Indian soldiers fighting for free and Happy India.

dadabhai naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji was a man who laid the foundation of India’s

freedom struggle. He was fondly known as ‘the promise of India’ in his youth and ‘the grand old
man of India’ in the later years of his life. This great man was personified as the symbol of
purity, sincerity, generosity, bravery and patriotism.

Dadabhai was born on September 4, 1825 in Bombay in a Parsi priest’s family. His childhood
was uplifted by his mother Maneckbai because his father Naorji Palanji Dordi expired when he
was just four years old. He studied in the Elphinstone College in Bombay and after completing
his studies he was appointed as the Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the same
college.

Naorji started with his political career in 1852. He strongly opposed the misrule of British
Government and wrote several petitions to Governors and Viceroys regarding the sufferings of
Indian people. There was no action taken to it and later he realized that this is because of the
ignorance of Indian people. To promote education and propagate the seeds of Free India, he
founded the Gyan Prasarak Mandal.

In 1855, Dadabhai left for England to join the first Indian business firm and later in 1859, he
established his own business firm there. During his time in England, he endeavored to educate
local people through various learned societies, articles and speeches. Most of his life he had
spent writing on India’s plight, trying to influence people to realize the importance of freedom.

Naorji was the driving spirit of Indian National Congress and was elected three times as the
President of the Congress in 1866, 1893 and 1906. He demanded for Swaraj, self government for
India, publicly during his third term of presidentship and strongly opposed violence and
revolutionary methods as means of attaining freedom.

This great noble life lived for almost a century and came to end on June 30, 1917. The people
around the world still believe that Dadabhai came to earth with a mission to achieve Self-Rule
for India.