Category: Biography Story

To tell the tale of a great leader, engineeringinterviewquestions is bestowing students with Swami Vivekananda Biography – About, Background, History, and Death article. The biography could be found on engineeringinterviewquestions’s website. It is totally free of cost and doesn’t require any prior signups and registration fee. Furthermore, the content could be downloaded in PDF format. The PDF is accessible on all types of digital devices like phone, laptop or tablet.  The students should not miss the opportunity and actively use the opportunity to learn about Swami Vivekananda and his life for free. Download and read now!

Vivekananda

Vivekananda who was also referred to as Swami Vivekananda was originally named Narendranath Datta. He was influenced by both Indian and western culture. His exposure to Hindus deity form of worship and Christian religion often conflicted with his beliefs. This was until he accepted Ramakrishna as his guru and became a monk. His vast knowledge of culture also earned him the respect and recognition of raising interfaith awareness. He believed through his learnings from his guru that service to God can be displayed by service to humankind.

About Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda born as Narendranath Datta to father Vishwanath Datta and mother Bhubaneswari Devi on 12 January 1863, in Calcutta presently known as Kolkata, India. When he was later regarded as a patriotic saint, Swami Vivekananda Birthday is celebrated as National Youth Day. His grandfather was a Sanskrit and Persian Scholar, his father was an attorney in the high court and his mother was a homemaker and had a religious temperament. Swami Vivekananda grew up in an upper-middle-class-family. His personality and attitude were shaped by both his parents progressive, rational as well as religious approaches in life. Since his childhood, he was always interested in spirituality and meditated and prayed before the Hindu Deities.

Swami Vivekananda Background

Swami Vivekananda had a fascinating journey with his foray into spirituality. He was an excellent student. He studied anything that interests him, be it philosophy, science, history, religion or literature. He also was an avid reader of all kinds of religious texts like the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Upanishads, and the Vedas.

 

 At 10 when his family moved back to his birthplace after living in Raipur for 2 years he gave an entrance exam for Presidency College. He was the only student who secured 1st division marks. He was an allrounder, who was also trained in Indian classical music, and very actively participated in sports and organized events as we. His intelligence was not just in books but applied in real life and this showed when he traveled abroad. He never dismissed the western way of materialistic life rather infused his knowledge of the western world into traditional teachings. 

 

Due to his belief in western philosophy, he rebelled against the caste differences practiced and ingrained deeply in the Asian culture. Swami Vivekananda also joined Brahmo Samaj in 1884 which is a society founded in 1828 that adopted Christian practices and this allowed him to venture into social reform. He was determined to challenge the ideas of society by spreading the importance of education among women and the lower caste and eliminating illiteracy and child marriage. He was also actively working from 1881-1884 with Band Of Hope that helped youth step into the light and stay away from harmful habits like smoking and drinking. 

 

During this period in his early 20’s, he first met Ramakrishna in He detested the practices of Ramakrishna who prayed before the deity of a Hindu Goddess, Kaali.  He always questioned the forms of God and due to his western influence argued God to be a formless being. It was in 1884 when his father suddenly died and he suddenly faced the harsh realities when he learnt he had to repay many debts his father had. During this time his visits to Ramakrishna became more frequent and he actually understood his belief system that demonstrated unity in all religions. At 25 Swami Vivekananda renounced all worldly possessions to truly realize God. He became the leader after the death of his Guru in 1886.

Swami Vivekananda History 

After the death of his guru, the trustees withdrew funding and many disciples gave up the practice and went on to live the homely life whereas Swami Vivekananda was determined to build the place into a monastery and there they sat in meditation for several hours and went on with such religious practices. 2 years later from 1888-1893 he traveled extensively in India carrying only a pot, and 2 books namely the Bhagavad Gita and The Imitation of Christ. He lived off alms that he could get and got acquainted with the people by living with many scholars, and kings of all religions. 

 

He witnessed extreme poverty and suffering of the people and felt deep sympathy for his fellow beings. He later traveled to the West starting on 1st May 1893. Visiting Japan, China, Canada and reaching Chicago on 30th July 1893. In the Parliament Of Religions that took place in September of 1893 with the help of a Harvard Professor, John Henry Wright spoke about Hinduism and his practices in the monastery in India. He went abroad as Vivekananda and not Narendranath as suggested by Ajit Singh of Khetri, who first met him when he was teaching in the monastery and was blown away by his knowledge. Vivekananda is derived from the Sanskrit word Vivek meaning imparting wisdom and ananda means bliss. 

 

He was an open-minded person whose sublime message in all his teachings was nationalism. He spread the knowledge of Yoga and all the forms mentioned in the Patanjali Sutras. He also accompanied Jamsetji Tata in his travels and inspired him to set up an educational institute focused on research.

 

He visited the UK and the US again and during his second visit set up the Vedanta Societies, meant to be a peace retreat in San Francisco and many ashrams. He always incorporated the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita in his speeches and tried to enlighten people with the meaning of Karma Yoga which is the path of life to follow. He believed in the philosophy of doing good to others and that divinity is supreme and divinity resides in each soul. His incredible legacy is still remembered and followed. 

Swami Vivekananda Death

On 4 July 1902, Swami Vivekananda died while in a state of meditation after living his day like any other and teaching his followers and discussing the teachings with Vedic Scholars. Went to his room in the Ramakrishna Math, the monastery he built in honor of his Guru to meditate and breathe his last. His followers believed the cause of death to be the rupture of a blood vessel in his brain that happens when one attains nirvana, the highest form of spiritual enlightenment when the 7th chakra that is the crown chakra which is located on the head opens and then gains maha samadhi while meditating. The time of his death was 9:20 pm. He was cremated on a sandalwood funeral pyre on the banks of the Ganga opposite his guru.  

 

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Martin Luther was a theologian, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk, and a pivotal figure in the Protestant Reformation. In 1507, Luther was baptised as a priest. He came to reject several Roman Catholic Church teachings and practices, particularly the view on indulgences. In his Ninety-five Theses of 1517, Luther suggested an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the request of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in the pope’s ex-communication and the Holy Roman Emperor’s condemnation as an outlaw. 

Luther expressed antagonistic, aggressive views toward Jews in two of his later works, calling for the burning of their synagogues and their deaths. His rhetoric targeted not only Jews, but also Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, and nontrinitarian Christians. The ex-communication of Pope Leo X was still in effect when Luther died in 1546.

Information About Martin Luther

Martin Luther Date of Birth: 10 November 1483

Place of Birth:  Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire

Death date: 18 February 1546

Place of Death: Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire

Spouse:  Katharina von Bora

Martin Luther History

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Mansfeld County, Holy Roman Empire, to Hans Luder and his wife Margarethe.  His family moved to Mansfeld in 1484, where his father was a copper mine and smelter leaseholder who also served on the local council as one of four citizen representatives; in 1492, he was elected as a town councillor. 

Luther’s mother was a hardworking woman of “trading-class stock and middling means,” according to religious scholar Martin Marty. He had several brothers and sisters, and one of them, Jacob, was known to be close to him. Hans Luther was driven by a desire to see his eldest son, Martin, become a lawyer for himself and his family.

Martin was sent to Latin schools in Mansfeld, Magdeburg (1497), and Eisenach (1498). The “trivium” (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) was the focus of the three schools. He enrolled in the University of Erfurt in 1501 when he was 17 years old. In 1505, he got his master’s degree.

He enrolled in law school following his father’s wishes, but dropped out almost immediately, feeling that law was fraught with uncertainty. Luther was looking for answers to his questions about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, particularly Aristotle, William of Ockham, and Gabriel Biel.

Bartholomaeus Arnoldi von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter, two of his tutors, taught him to be wary of even the greatest thinkers and to test all himself through experience. Philosophy proved unsatisfying, assuring the application of reason but none about loving God, which Luther considered to be more important. 

He believed that reason could not lead men to God, and he formed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle as a result of the latter’s focus on reason. The reason may be used to inquire men and institutions, but not God, according to Luther. He believed that the only way for humans to learn about God was through divine revelation, so Scripture grew in importance.

Martin Luther Reformation

The Roman Catholic Church dispatched Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar, to Germany in 1516 to sell indulgences to raise funds to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Tetzel’s experiences as an indulgence preacher, particularly between 1503 and 1510, led to his appointment as general commissioner by Albrecht von Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, who was deeply in debt to pay for a vast accumulation of benefices and had to contribute a significant amount toward the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Albrecht received permission from Pope Leo X to sell a special plenary indulgence (i.e., a remission of the temporal punishment of sin), with half of the proceeds going to pay the fees of his benefices.

Luther wrote to his bishop, Albrecht von Brandenburg, on October 31, 1517, protesting the sale of indulgences. He included a copy of his “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”, also known as the Ninety-five Theses, in his letter. According to Hans Hillerbrand, Luther had no intention of facing the church, but rather saw his debate as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing reflects this.

Luther insisted that, because only God can grant forgiveness, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers of all punishments and granted them salvation were mistaken. Christians, he said, must not be discouraged from following Christ because of false assurances.

In 1517, the Latin Theses were printed in several towns across Germany. Luther’s friends translated the Ninety-five Theses from Latin to German in January 1518. The theses had spread across Germany in less than two weeks. As early as 1519, Luther’s works had made their way to France, England, and Italy. 

Luther’s speech drew a large crowd of students to Wittenberg. In addition to his Work on the Psalms, he wrote a short commentary on Galatians. Luther’s early career was one of his most creative and productive periods. In 1520, he published three of his most well-known works: “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation”, “On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church”, and “On the Freedom of a Nation.”

Justification by Faith 

Luther lectured on the Psalms, as well as Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians, from 1510 to 1520. As he studied these passages of Scripture, he began to see the Catholic Church’s use of words like penance and righteousness in a new light. He came to believe that the church was corrupt in its ways and had lost sight of many of Christianity’s central truths. 

The doctrine of justification— God’s act of declaring a sinner righteous—by faith alone through God’s grace was the most important for Luther. He began to preach that salvation or redemption is a gift from God, available only to those who believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

Luther came to believe that justification was entirely God’s work. This teaching was clearly expressed by Luther in his 1525 publication On the Bondage of the Will, which was written in response to Desiderius Erasmus’ On Free Will (1524). St. Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians 2:8–10 informed Luther’s position on predestination. Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves, that righteousness not only comes from Christ but is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians (rather than infused into them) through faith, in opposition to the teaching of his day that believers’ righteous acts are performed in cooperation with God.

The Breach Widens

Luther was originally rejected by Pope Leo X as “a drunken German who wrote the Theses” who would “change his mind when sober.” As a result, he agreed to have the Augustinians deal with the meddling monk at their April 1518 chapter meeting. After being warned of the possibility of assassination along the way, Luther went incognito to Heidelberg. He was, however, surprised to find that he was well-received and that he returned triumphantly. Luther was emboldened to question the Roman Church’s primacy and the power of ex-communication as a result of this.

He went on to say that popes and councils could make mistakes and that the only final authority was the Bible. Luther was summoned to Rome shortly after to answer charges of heresy. The proceedings were moved to Germany thanks to the intervention of Luther’s territorial ruler, Fredrick the Wise. At Augsburg, Luther had an inconclusive interview with Cardinal Cajetan, the papal legate. Luther refused to recant, writing that the cardinal was as unfit to handle the case and requesting that his case be heard by a general council.

Due to the political situation following the death of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian, in early 1519, the Pope adopted a conciliatory policy. Despite their preference for one of their own, the German electors were content to accept the leader of one of the great powers, either Francis I of France or Charles V of Spain. The pope, on the other hand, objected to both of them, claiming that their election would disrupt the balance of power that ensured the church’s security. Instead, the pope preferred Luther’s territorial lord, Fredrick the Wise. Given the circumstances, the pope had to be cautious when it came to Fredrick’s prized professor.

Carl von Militz, a Fredrick relative, was appointed as Cajetan’s assistant with the mission of keeping Luther silent until the election was settled. Luther was unfortunately drawn into a controversy between the Universities of Leipzig and Wittenberg, which hampered those seeking reconciliation. In a debate with Johann Eck, an Ingolstadt theology professor, Luther maintained “A simple layman armed with Scripture has more credibility than a pope of the council who lacks it. We should reject popes and councils for the sake of Scripture.” Luther was also persuaded by Eck to defend the Bohemian “heretic” John Hus.

The 1520’s Treatise

During the year 1520, Luther published three highly influential tracts that expanded on his ideas and established his agenda for ecclesiastical reform. Luther expressed his beliefs about the “priesthood of all believers” in “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation”. He declared his intention to attack the Romanists’ “three walls,” which had protected them and stifled reform. Luther proclaimed that the first wall, that the temporal has no authority over the spiritual and that “spiritual power is above the temporal,” had been broken down, and that all believers were priests under their baptism.

He also argued that the second wall, that only the pope can interpret scripture, was unfounded because all priests could distinguish what was right or wrong in matters of faith. “As soon as the first two have fallen,” Luther said, the third wall, which no one but the pope may call a council, “falls of itself.” If the pope breaks the law and offends Christendom, Luther believed a “truly free council” should be convened, which could only be summoned by temporal officials, who he described as “fellow Christians” and “fellow priests.”

Luther then went on to criticise papal mismanagement and annates (taxes), calling for a “German Prime Minister,” declaring that clerical marriage should be allowed, “far too many holy days” should be reduced, and beggary, including that of monks, should be prohibited. Luther expressed sentiments shared by many Germans in all of these calls. 

Luther’s next tract, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, dealt with the mediaeval church’s seven sacraments. Only two of them, Luther claimed, were instituted by Christ: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. He believed that penance—contrition, confession, and absolution—could provide relief to troubled consciences. 

The Freedom of a Christian, Luther’s third major tract from 1520, laid out his ethical vision. Luther used a central paradox in this way. “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none,” he explained, “a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” 

Luther essentially tried to show that the doctrine of justification by faith alone (sola fides) was not mutually exclusive with Christian love and service. Luther claims that “For the Christian, faith is sufficient. He doesn’t need his works to be perfected.” A Christian was “perfectly free” in this regard. This was not, however, an invitation to “be lazy or loose.” In the same way that Christ “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,” the Christian was also “subject to everything.” 

“Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good work,” Luther insisted, even though he was “justified and acceptable to God, although there are sin, unrighteousness, and terror of death” in him.

Who was Martin Luther Excommunicated by?

The Freedom of a Christian was prefaced by a letter in which Luther deferred to Pope Leo X but slammed the Roman curia as “pestilent, hateful, and corrupt… more impious than the Turk.” If these feelings were meant to foster peace, they failed miserably. 

Leo X issued a bull of ex-communication, Decet Pontificem Romanum, on January 3, 1521. (It Pleases the Roman Pontiff). The civil authorities were now in charge of enforcing the ecclesiastical condemnation.

However, because Luther had sparked a popular movement, Fredrick the Wise worked to ensure Luther’s right to a fair hearing, and Charles V did not want to alienate the Germans and saw the possibility of using Luther to extract concessions from the pope, it was agreed that Luther would be summoned to appear before the emperor and the German Reichstag under the protection of an imperialist.

Martin Luther Protestant

While Erasmus and other humanists saw Luther as a tumultuous figure, radical spiritualists saw him as a “halfway” reformer. Andreas Carlstadt, a former associate of Luther’s who had taken up a parsonage outside of Wittenberg, denounced the use of all “externals” in religion, such as art or music. Carlstedt’s stance eventually became so radical that he rejected the actual presence of Christ in the sacrament. Early Luther follower Thomas Müntzer (1488-1525) was even more radical. 

An early follower of Luther, Thomas Müntzer (1488-1525) was even more radical. Müntzer promoted deep spiritualism in which the Bible was seen as secondary to religious experiences such as dreams and revelations. 

In this vein, Müntzer attacked Romanists and Lutherans as “scribes” who suppressed the spirit’s “inner word.” He also opposed traditional baptism, believing that only the “inner” baptism of the spirit was valid. He mocked Luther as “Dr Easychair and Dr Pussyfoot,” praising Wittenberg’s “easygoing flesh.” Müntzer’s goal was to establish a “new apostolic church” of the elect who would usher in a new social order, if necessary through bloodshed.

Carlstadt and Müntzer, as well as others of their ilk, were dubbed “fanatics” by Luther. He warned the princes of Saxony that they were responsible for maintaining the peace and agreed to Carlstadt’s expulsion from the country. After preaching to the Saxon princes that they needed a “new Daniel” to tell them about the “leadings of the spirit” and “wipe out the ungodly,” Müntzer fled Saxony by night over the city walls. Luther wanted to create a “middle way” between papists and spiritualists by rejecting both the papal monarchy and spiritualist theocracies.

Who was Martin Luther’s Family?

The mass marriages of Protestant reformers, many of whom had previously served as priests or monks, were as much a revolutionary break from mediaeval Catholic tradition as their theological and faith positions. Luther was not the first monk to marry, and he waited a long time because he feared being martyred. Despite this, he found a bride through extraordinary circumstances. Luther praised a burgher who successfully removed his daughter and eleven other nuns from a cloister, hidden in empty herring barrels, in 1523.

Luther and the reformers saw themselves as champions of women and marriage, rejecting the long-standing tradition of ascetic sexuality. Rather than promoting celibacy as a higher calling, Luther believed that being unmarried was a sin in itself. 

Although the reformers saw marriage as a natural state for men and women, they did not see it as a sacrament or as part of humanity’s eternal destiny. As a result, they tended to take a more relativist approach to marriage’s indelible nature.

A marriage could only be dissolved or annulled, and partners allowed to marry again, under mediaeval Catholicism, if the marriage had never actually existed and there had been an approved dispensation attesting to that fact. 

Protestant reformers, on the other hand, allowed divorce and remarriage before marriage on the grounds of adultery, abandonment, impotence, life-threatening animosity, or deception (i.e., that a partner already had illegitimate children or was impregnated by another). Some Protestants went so far as to justify divorce by claiming that it was caused by a lack of affection.

Luther advocated secret bigamy as an alternative to divorce and remarriage for women with impotent husbands as early as 1521. This became public knowledge in 1539 when Luther sanctioned a bigamous union between Philip of Hesse and a 17-year-old daughter of his sister’s court in one of the reformation’s most bizarre and scandalous episodes. 

Although Luther acknowledged that polygamy was against natural law, he believed that it could be justified in extreme cases of distress. He insisted, however, that such pastoral advice be kept completely confidential.

Martin Luther Contributions, Legacy and Commemoration

Luther is commemorated in the Lutheran Calendar of Saints and the Episcopal (United States) Calendar of Saints on February 18th. 

He is commemorated on October 31 in the Church of England’s Calendar of Saints. Luther is revered by Christian traditions that emerged directly from the Protestant Reformation, such as Lutheranism, the Reformed tradition, and Anglicanism, in different ways. 

Following Luther’s death, various branches of Protestantism have varying degrees of remembrance and veneration of him, ranging from a complete lack of any mention of him to a commemoration almost identical to how Lutherans commemorate and remember his persona. There is no record of Proteus condemning Luther.

Various local memorials commemorate Martin Luther’s visit to various locations both within and outside Germany during his lifetime. Lutherstadt Eisleben and Lutherstadt Wittenberg are official Luther municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt.

Mansfeld is sometimes referred to as Mansfeld-Lutherstadt, although the state government has yet to determine whether the Lutherstadt suffix should be added to the official name.

The publication of Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses in 1517 is commemorated on Reformation Day, which has historical significance in the following European organisations. In the German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Schleswig-Holstein, it is a public holiday.

Two more states (Lower Saxony and Bremen) are debating whether or not to implement it. Slovenia commemorates it because of the Reformation’s significant cultural impact. Protestant pupils are allowed to skip school on that day, and Protestant employers are allowed to leave work to attend a church service. The holiday is celebrated in Switzerland on the first Sunday following the 31st of October. It is also observed in other parts of the world.

Conclusion

Through Martin Luther Biography, we get to know his belief that God has come to rescue his human beings from the mystery of evil and to restore them to full enjoyment of God’s gift of mankind. God’s Word, delivered in oral, written, and sacramental forms, a word of forgiveness and redemption, provided answers to life’s most pressing and oppressive issues for Martin Luther.

Chanakya was a teacher, philosopher, economist, and statesman who wrote the Indian political treatise, the ‘Arthashastra’ (Science of Politics and Economics). He played an important role in the establishment of the Maurya dynasty. 

Born in a poor Brahmin family, Chanakya was educated at Takshashila (Now in Pakistan), an ancient center of learning located in the north-western part of India. He was a highly learned person having in-depth knowledge in a variety of subjects like economics, politics, war strategies, medicine, and astrology. He began his career as a teacher, and went on to become a trusted ally of Emperor Chandragupta. Working as the emperor’s adviser, he helped Chandragupta overthrow the powerful Nanda dynasty at Pataliputra, in the Magadha region and helped Chandragupta attain new powers. Chanakya was the adviser for Chandragupta’s son Bindusara as well. In this article we have learned about Chanakya biography. 

Now let us learn more about Information about Chanakya, Life history of Chanakya.

Chanakya was a philosopher, jurist, and royal advisor. His original name was Vishnu Gupta yet he is recognized for his pen name Kautilya. He wrote ‘Arthashastra’ on the Science of Politics and Economics between the 2nd century BCE and 3rd century CE. He wrote books on many things such as ethics and statecraft. He worked as a political advisor for the famous Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta and he has been given many credentials in the expansion of the state. He later became the advisor to Chandragupta’s son Bindusara.

Childhood Days of Chanakya

Chanakya was born into a Brahmin family and was educated at Takshashila which is an ancient center for learning that is located in north-western ancient India. He was a person who had in-depth knowledge in various subjects such as politics, economics, medicine, war strategies, and astrology and he was highly learned. He began his career as a teacher and later he became the trusted ally of Emperor Chandragupta. He acted as the emperor’s counselor and advisor and helped Chandragupta in overthrowing the power Nanda dynasty at Pataliputra, in the Magadha region. He was instrumental in helping Chandragupta to consolidate his powers. 

Information About Chanakya

Chanakya was also known as Kauṭilya or Vishnugupta.

Chanakya date of birth: 350 BCE

Chanakya birth place: Takshashila (Now in Pakistan)

Chanakya religion: Brahmin

Chanakya Date of Death: 275 BCE

Life History of Chanakya

Childhood Days

Chanakya was born in a very poor Brahmin family in around 350 BC at Takshashila. His father’s name was Chanak and his mother’s name was Chaneshvari. In his childhood days, Chanakya studied the whole Vedas and learned about politics. He had a wisdom tooth. There was a common belief at that time, that having a wisdom tooth is a sign of becoming the king. His mother was scared to hear an astrologer say “he will grow up to become a king and forget her after becoming king”. At that time Chanakya broke his wisdom teeth and promised his mother that “Mother, don’t worry. I will take good care of you.”

Before the rise of the Maurya Empire, North India was under the rule of Nandas. Due to the lack of proper administrations, the Kings of Nandas empire were exploiting the people. Chanakya played a major role in removing such robbers like Dhananand and establishing the Mauryan Empire. 

Chanakya was born in 350 BC into a Brahmin family though the details of his birthplace are still unclear. According to Hemachandra, a Jain writer he was born to Chanin and his wife Chaneshvari in the Chanaka village of the Golla region on the contrary there are other sources that claim the name of Chanakya’s father was Chanak. 

He completed his education in Takshashila and grew up to be a well-read young man. It is believed that along with his knowledge in subjects like political science, economics, war strategies, astrology, and medicine, he was also familiar with the elements of Persian and Greek learning. He had full knowledge of Vedas Literature as well.

Marriage Life

After completing his education, Chanakya began to work as a teacher in nearby areas of  Takshashila, Nalanda. Chanakya had a firm belief that “A woman who is beautiful from the body only can keep you happy for one night. While a woman who is beautiful from her soul can keep you happy for a lifetime”. So he decided to marry a girl named Yashodhara in his Brahmin lineage. She was not as beautiful as him. Her black color became a joke for some people.

Once upon a time, Yashodhra decided to go to a ceremony at her brother’s house with Chanakya, everyone made fun of Chanakya’s poverty. She was unhappy with the situation, so she advised him to meet King Dhanananda and get some money as a gift.

Meeting with Dhananda

Dhanananda who was the emperor of Magadha at that time had organized a food meal for the Brahmins at Pushpapuri. Chanakya also attended the meal in the desire to receive some gifts from King Dhanananda by giving suggestions about unbroken India. But Dhanananda was a very arrogant King and he insulted Chanakya by looking at his ugly appearance and directly rejected his suggestions. 

Then Chanakya got very angry and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire. Then Dhanananda ordered his people to arrest him. But Chanakya escaped from there in disguise. After escaping from the court of Dhanananda, Chanakya successfully hid and started living around Magadh. During this time he became friends with his rival Dhanananda’s son, Pabbata. Chanakya was able to conquer Pabbata’s mind and was able to obtain a royal ring and went to the forest. 

Chanakya used his wisdom to earn 80 crores of golden coins from that royal ring. Keeping so many golden coins safe by digging a hole in the jungle, he went to look for a person who could successfully help him finish Dhananand. Chanakya was looking for someone who could destroy the Nanda dynasty of Dhanananda from the root. At the same time, Chandragupta was seen in the eyes of Chanakya. Chanakya then gave 1000 gold coins to his foster parents and took him with them to the forest. At present Chanakya was ready with two weapons to remove Dhanananda’s head. If Chandragupta was among them, the other was Pabbata. Chanakya decided to train one among those two and make him the emperor. He decided to take a small test between them. In that test, Chandragupta successfully removed Pabbata’s head and became victorious.

The Rise of Chandragupta

Chanakya was very proud of Chandragupta who was able to win the test. Chanakya gave him rigorous military training for 7 years. Under Chanakya’s guidance, Chandragupta became a capable warrior. Chanakya always wanted to overthrow the Nanda dynasty of Dhana Nanda and establish the Maurya empire. Chandragupta formed a small army without thinking much and attacked Magadha which was the capital of the Nandas. But Chandragupta’s small army was crushed away in front of the huge army of Nandas. Chanakya’s hand burned at the beginning for making a foolish decision. Chanakya and Chandragupta began to roam in frustration after the defeat.

Revenge of Chanakya

One day Chanakya and Chandragupta were roaming in Magadha, One mother was scolding her son who burnt his hand by putting it in the middle of the hot bread. Looking at that mother exclaimed “If you put your hands directly between hot bread, it will surely burn you. Why are you acting like a stupid Chanakya, who instead of seizing the border territories, has directly attacked the capital and burned his hands? First, eat the border of the bread and then slowly put your hand in the middle, then it will not burn you”. That mother was scolding her child like this. Chanakya and Chandragupta hear it secretly. Listening to that, They realized their mistake. He regretted that it was his biggest mistake to attack the capital Pataliputra without seizing the border first. Chanakya bowed to the women who enlightened them with those words and they decided to go ahead.

Listening to the advice of Chanakya, Chandragupta attacked the borders first and started taking them under his control. Chandragupta tried to train the forest people who were roaming purposeless and included them in their army. When the army was completely ready, Chanakya decided to take out the gold coins which he had hidden in the forest and provided all the necessary goods and armor to the army. By doing this Chanakya strengthened the army but some of the smaller kings on the border did not agree to join Chandragupta’s army.

Chanakya killed such kings by poisoning girls. ( According to a popular legend mentioned in Jain texts, Chanakya used to mix small doses of poison in the food from a very early age, he had poisoned some girls with food and had transformed them into poison girls also called Vishkanya. A kiss of poison girls was enough to kill the enemy’s king. Chanakya took very smart and calculative moves and took control of all the border places which were under the leadership of Nanda.

“Thinking about the enemy in anger is of no use.” Chanakya started thinking calmly and used a new strategy to overcome the enemy. Seeing the correct time, Chandragupta attacked Magadha capital Pataliputra and successfully killed Dhanananda. After the death of Dhana Nanda, Chandragupta established the Mauryan Empire by overthrowing the Nanda dynasty. In this way, Chanakya’s dream of a united Indian empire became true. At the same time, his revenge on Dhana Nanda was also over.

Chanakya became the prime minister of Chandragupta when he became the emperor of the Maurya Empire. Chanakya created a competent cabinet for strong governance in the empire. He provided separate ministries to all the ministers. He also provided all the possible facilities for the welfare of the citizens. Chanakya also appointed female bodyguards to Chandragupta along with male bodyguards. Chandragupta Maurya became the first king to have female bodyguards in his empire. Due to concerns over Chandragupta’s life, 

Chanakya used to feed him a small amount of poison in his food since his childhood.  He used to add some poison to his meal. One day Chandragupta’s wife Durdhara mistakenly had his meal. Durdhara got into the jaws of death by eating that poisoned food. She was pregnant at that time. Watching that Chandragupta was sitting in fear of losing his wife and child, Chanakya cut off Durdhara’s womb and took out the baby from her belly. The child’s body was covered with many bloodstains. That is why that child was named Bindusara.

Bindusara

Soon after Chandragupta, Bindusara became the new emperor of the Mauryan Empire. Chanakya also became prime minister for him. But Subandhu was jealous of Chanakya. Subandhu was an ordinary minister in Bindusara’s court. He always wished to become the Prime minister. So, he used to sharpen the sword on Chanakya. One day Subandhu was narrating his birth story to Bindusara. Bindusara became angry with Chanakya when he came to know that Chanakya was the cause of his mother’s death. Seeing the king’s anger, Chanakya decided to sacrifice everything and joined the forest near Pataliputra (Patna).

Death of Chanakya

Chanakya served as Chandragupta’s advisor and with his guidance, Chandragupta was able to defeat the generals of Alexander and helped him turn the Mauryan empire into one of the most powerful empires. Chanakya was a highly learned person who had knowledge in a wide range of topics and he wrote ‘Arthashastra’ that explored many important subjects such as military strategy, economic policy, issues of social welfare, and so on.

Chanakya died in 275 BC and the details regarding the death are wrapped in mystery. One legend says that he starved himself to death while another legend says that he died during the reign of Bindusara as a result of a political conspiracy.

After a few days, Bindusara repented that he should not have behaved so angry with Chanakya. But now it was too late. Chanakya was living like a monk in a small hut near the forest. Bindusara ordered Subandhu to go into the forest and get Chanakya back by convincing him. But Chanakya’s arrival was not at all liked by Subandhu. When he found Chanakya’s hut in the forest, He burned him alive in it. In this way, Chanakya lost his life by Subandhu’s conspiracy.

Subandhu after killing Chanakya gave a false report to the cour that “Chanakya committed suicide after facing insult”. 

Chanakya made Chandragupta the King from the street and founded the Mauryan Empire. But he was killed by the people of his own kingdom only. The old saying “The one who goes to take revenge, definitely joins the graveyard badly” became true in the case of Chanakya also. Even today also, Chanakya’s ideas, policies, and machinations have brought success to millions of people. At present, politicians, businessmen, and many people are using these Chanakya Sutras to get what they are seeking in life.

Kautilya Philosophy

Acharya Chanakya’s Arthashastra deals with various subjects including welfare, fiscal and monetary policies, war strategies, and international relations. While the ‘Neeti Shastra’ is regarded as the collection of aphorisms that were collected by him from the existing shastras. Some of the famous life lessons that he gave:

• Never judge the future of a person by his present conditions, because time has the power to change coal into a shiny diamond.

• A person should not be very honest. Straight trees are always cut first and honest people are screwed first.

• Unless the enemy’s weakness is known, he should always be kept on friendly terms.

• Our bodies will decay one day, wealth is not permanent and death is always nearby. Therefore we must engage ourselves in good acts.

• These seven should not be awakened from sleep: The serpent, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the king, the dog owned by other people, and the fool:

• Always learn from the mistakes of others, you can’t live long enough to make them all yourselves.

• Treat your kid like a darling till the first five years. After the next five years, scold them. By the time their age turns sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown-up children are your best friends.

The idea proposed by Kautilya is very much relevant in politics where each state is looking to assert its power in a very different way. All the modern states and countries are giving tough competition to each other. But the problem could be solved by diplomacy suggested by Chanakya. But the idea of Chanakya remained as an influence on the nature of India and how it solves its own problem with the neighboring countries. Even today, Chanakya’s ideas, policies have brought success to millions of people. At present, politicians, businessmen, and many people are using these Chanakya Niti to get what they want in life.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was a politician and statesman from India who served as the country’s second Prime Minister. In this article about Lal Bahadur Shastri biography, we will study the life history of Lal Bahadur Shastri, his achievements, his tenure as a Prime Minister of India and his date of death.

 

Early Life of Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on October 2, 1904, in Mughalsarai, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India (now Uttar Pradesh). Lal Bahadur Shastri’s father was Sharada Prasad Srivastava, who was a school teacher before becoming a clerk in the revenue office at Allahabad. His mother was Ramdulari Devi. He was the second child. to He had an elder sister Kailashi Devi and a younger sister Sundari Devi.

When Lal Bahadur Shastri was six months old, his father died in an epidemic of bubonic plague. Lal Bahadur Shastri and his sisters grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather Munshi Hazari Lal after his father died.

Shastri started his education at the East Central Railway Inter college in Mughalsarai at the age of four, under the tutelage of a maulvi, Budhan Mian. He was a student there until the sixth grade.

Lal Bahadur Shastri began seventh grade at Harish Chandra High School in Varanasi. 

 

Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Family

Lal Bahadur Shastri married Lalita Devi, a Mirzapur native, on May 16, 1928. Kusum Shastri, Hari Krishna Shastri, Suman Shastri, Anil Shastri, Sunil Shastri, and Ashok Shastri were the couple’s four sons and two daughters.

The entire Shastri family continues to participate in social initiatives and is actively involved in shaping relevant forums in India to aid in the country’s growth and advancement.

 

Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Independence Activism

Lal Bahadur Shastri became interested in the freedom movement after being inspired by a patriotic and well-respected teacher named Nishkameshwar Prasad Mishra at Harish Chandra High School. He started to research its history and the works of many notable figures, including Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, and Annie Besant.

Lal Bahadur Shastri attended a public meeting in Banaras organised by Gandhi and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya in January 1921, when he was in the tenth grade. Shastri withdrew from Harish Chandra High School the next day, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s call for students to withdraw from government schools and join the non-cooperation movement. He joined the local branch of the Congress Party as a volunteer, actively engaging in picketing and anti-government demonstrations.

He was quickly apprehended and imprisoned but was later released because he was still a minor. J.B. Kripalani, a former Banaras Hindu University professor who went on to become one of the most influential figures of the Indian independence movement and one of Gandhi’s closest followers, was Lal Bahadur Shastri’s immediate supervisor.

On 10 February 1921, recognising the need for younger volunteers to continue their education, Kripalani and a friend, V.N. Sharma, established an informal school centred on nationalist education to educate the young activists in their nation’s heritage, and the Kashi Vidyapith was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in Banaras.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was one of the first students to graduate from the Vidyapith with a first-class degree in philosophy and ethics in 1925. The title “Shastri” (Scholar) was bestowed upon him, which was a bachelor’s degree from the university, and later it became part of his identity.

Lal Bahadur Shastri became  a member of Lala Lajpat Rai’s Servants of the People Society (Lok Sevak Mandal) and started working for the betterment of the Harijans in Muzaffarpur under Gandhi’s leadership. He later became the Society’s President.

At Mahatma Gandhi’s request, Shastri joined the Indian National Congress as an active and mature member in 1928. He spent two and a half years in jail. Later, in 1937, he served as the Organising Secretary of the U.P. Parliamentary Board. He was imprisoned for a year in 1940 for providing individual Satyagraha support to the independence movement.

At Gowalia Tank in Bombay on August 8, 1942, Mahatma Gandhi delivered the Quit India address, demanding that the British leave India. Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had just been released from prison after a year, travelled to Allahabad.

In 1937 and 1946, he was elected to the United Provinces legislature.

 

Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Political Career

After India’s independence, Lal Bahadur Shastri was named Parliamentary Secretary in his home state of Uttar Pradesh. Following Rafi Ahmed Kidwai’s departure to become a minister at the centre, he became the Minister of Police and Transport under Govind Ballabh Pant’s Chief Ministership on 15 August 1947. He was the first to name female conductors as Transport Minister.

As the minister in charge of the Police Department, he requested that unruly crowds be dispersed using water jets, which he instructed officers to use instead of lathis. During his time as police minister, he was instrumental in putting an end to communal riots in 1947, as well as mass migration and refugee resettlement.

With Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister, Shastri was appointed General Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee in 1951. He was in charge of the candidate selection process and the direction of advertising and electioneering efforts. He was a key figure in the Congress Party’s landslide victories in the Indian general elections of 1952, 1957, and 1962.

In 1952, he ran for the Uttar Pradesh Vidhansabha and won the Soraon North cum Phulpur West seat with over 69% of the votes. On May 13, 1952, Shastri was appointed Minister of Railways and Transport in the First Cabinet of the Republic of India. In 1959, he was appointed Minister of Commerce and Industry, and in 1961, he was appointed the Minister of Home Affairs.

As a minister without a portfolio, Shastri laid a foundation for Mangalore Port in 1964.

When Jawaharlal Nehru died in office on 27 May 1964. Lal Bahadur Shastri was elected as the second Prime Minister of India on 9 June.

During Lal Bahadur Shastri’s time as Prime Minister, the Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 took place. Under the Official Languages Act of 1963, it was proposed that Hindi would be the primary official language. To defuse the crisis, Shastri promised that English would remain the official language as long as the non-Hindi-speaking states wanted it. After Shastri’s assurance, the riots and student unrest subsided.

Shastri used central planning to carry on Nehru’s socialist economic policies. He supported the Amul milk cooperative in Anand, Gujarat, and founded the National Dairy Development Board to promote the White Revolution, a national movement to increase milk production and supply. On October 31, 1964, he came to Anand to inaugurate the Amul Cattle Feed Factory at Kanjari.

Shastri maintained Nehru’s non-alignment policy while strengthening relations with the Soviet Union. Shastri’s government agreed to increase the country’s defence budget following the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the establishment of military relations between China and Pakistan.

Shastri and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike signed an agreement Sirima-Shastri Pact or Bandaranaike-Shastri Pact, in 1964 about the status of Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka, which was then known as Ceylon.

Shastri’s crowning achievement came in 1965 when he led India in the Indo-Pak War. The Pakistani army clashed with Indian forces in August 1965, claiming half of the Kutch peninsula. During this time, Shastri used the popular slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” to encourage soldiers to protect India while encouraging farmers to increase food grain production and reduce reliance on imports.

The Indo-Pak war ended on September 23, 1965, when the United Nations ordered a ceasefire. Following the declaration of a cease-fire with Pakistan in 1965, Shastri and Pakistani President Mohammed Ayub Khan met in Tashkent for a summit arranged by Alexei Kosygin. Shastri and Ayub Khan signed the Tashkent Declaration on January 10, 1966. Shastri travelled to many countries during his time as Prime Minister, including the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, England, Canada, Nepal, Egypt, and Burma.

 

Achievements of Lal Bahadur Shastri

These achievements and memoirs of Lal Bahadur Shastri include both before and after his death.

• During his time as Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri laid the foundation stone for Bal Vidya Mandir, a prestigious Lucknow school, on November 19, 1964.

• In November 1964, he opened the Central Institute of Technology Campus in Tharamani, Chennai.

• In 1965, he opened the Plutonium Reprocessing Plant in Trombay. 

• Shastri approved the development of nuclear explosives, as suggested by Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha. Bhabha spearheaded the initiative by forming the Study of Nuclear Explosions for Peaceful Purposes nuclear explosive design project (SNEPP).

• In November 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri opened the Chennai Port Trust’s Jawahar Dock and began construction on the Tuticorin Port.

• In the state of Gujarat, he opened the Sainik School Balachadi.

• He was the one who laid the foundation stone for the Almatti Dam.

• Throughout his life, Shastri was known for his integrity and modesty. 

• He received the Bharat Ratna posthumously, and a memorial called “Vijay Ghat” was established in Delhi in his honour.

• Several educational institutions bear his name, including the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. The Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, one of India’s top business schools, was established in 1995 by the ‘Lal Bahadur Shastri Educational Trust’ in Delhi.

• Because of Shastri’s position in promoting scholarly activity between India and Canada, the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute was named after him.

• The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Memorial Trust runs the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial, located next to 10 Janpath, where he lived as Prime Minister.

• Lal Bahadur Shastri Hall of Residence is one of IIT Kharagpur’s residence halls named after him.

Lal Bahadur Shastri Death 

Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death date was 11 January 1966. He died in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, one day after signing a peace treaty ending the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War.

He was hailed as a national hero, and the Vijay Ghat memorial was named after him.

 

Conclusion

Lal Bahadur Shastri was a very simple man who worked for the betterment of the country. When he died, all he left was an old car, which he had bought in instalments from the government. He was a member of the Servants of India Society, which encouraged its members to avoid accumulating private property and instead serve the people in public.

He was the first railway minister to resign as a result of moral obligation after a major train crash. The Lal Bahadur Shastri Biography teaches the moral values adopted by one of the most honest and significant figures and politicians in Indian history.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, also known as Swatantryaveer Savarkar, Vinayak Savarkar or simply Veer Savarkar in Marathi, was a freedom fighter and an Indian independence leader and politician who coined the Hindu nationalist ideology of Hindutva. The date of birth of Savarkar is May 28, 1883, and died on February 26, 1966. He was a prominent figure in the Hindu Mahasabha. In this article, we are going to study the biography of Veer Savarkar in detail.

 

Savarkar entered the Hindu Mahasabha and popularised Chandranath Basu’s term Hindutva (Hinduness) to establish a collective “Hindu” identity as an essence of Bharat (India). Savarkar was an atheist but practised Hindu philosophy pragmatically.

 

As a high school student, Savarkar became involved in politics and continued to do so at Fergusson College in Pune. He and his brother founded the Abhinav Bharat Society, a secret society. He became involved with organizations such as the India House and the Free India Society while studying law in the United Kingdom. He also wrote books calling for full Indian independence by revolution. The British authorities banned one of his novels, The Indian War of Independence, which was about the Indian revolt of 1857. For his links to the revolutionary party India House, Savarkar was arrested in 1910 and ordered to be extradited to India.

 

Savarkar staged an attempt to flee and seek refuge in France when the ship was docked in the port of Marseilles on the way back to India. However, in violation of international law, French port officials returned him to the British. When he returned to India, Savarkar was sentenced to two life sentences, totalling fifty years, and was sent to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands’ Cellular Jail.

 

Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar began travelling widely after 1937, becoming a powerful orator and writer who advocated Hindu political and social unity. As president of the Hindu Mahasabha political party, Savarkar supported the concept of a Hindu Rashtra in India (Hindu Nation). He began militarising Hindus from that point forward to liberate the country and defend Hindus in the future. Savarkar was critical of the Congress working committee’s decision in the Wardha session of 1942, which passed a resolution saying to the British, “Quit India but keep your armies here,” suggesting the reinstallation of British military rule over India, which he claimed would be much worse. In July 1942, he resigned as president of the Hindu Mahasabha because he was overworked and wanted a break, and the timing of his resignation coincided with Gandhi’s Quit India Movement.

 

Savarkar was charged with co-conspiracy in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, but the court acquitted him due to a lack of evidence. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 1998, and again in 2014, with the Modi-led BJP government at the top, Savarkar resurfaced in public discourse.

 

Early Life and Education of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Now we will learn about Veer Savarkar’s early life and education. Vinayak Savarkar was born on May 28, 1883, in the village of Bhagur, near Nashik, Maharashtra, to the Marathi Chitpavan Brahmin Hindu family of Damodar and Radhabai Savarkar. Ganesh, Narayan, and a sister named Maina were his other siblings.

 

When Savarkar was 12, the news of the atrocities committed on Hindus during the 1893 Hindu––Muslim riots in Bombay and Pune inspired him to seek vengeance. As a result, he led a group of selected students to a village mosque. It was broken by the Battalion of students who hurled stones at it, shattering its windows and tiles.

 

Savarkar studied at Pune’s ‘Fergusson College’ and received his bachelor’s degree. Shyamji Krishna Varma assisted him in getting a scholarship to study in England. He enrolled in the ‘Gray’s Inn Law College’ and sought refuge at the ‘India House.’ It was a North London student residence. Veer Savarkar inspired his fellow Indian students in London to form the ‘Free India Society’ to fight for independence from the British.

 

Involvement in Freedom Activities During the Early Years

Savarkar was active in the formation of secret societies while at Fergusson College. Savarkar created the Aryan Weekly, a handwritten weekly in which he published illuminating articles on patriotism, literature, history, and science. Any of the weekly’s thought-provoking posts were distributed in local weeklies and newspapers. Savarkar often gave academic talks and debates on world history, the revolutions in Italy, the Netherlands, and America, and gave his colleagues an understanding of the stress and struggle those countries faced in reclaiming their lost freedom. He also urged his fellow countrymen to hate all English and refrain from buying foreign goods. Savarkar founded the Mitra Mela community at the turn of the century. This fold was secretly initiated by chosen youths of merit and valour. In 1904, the Mitra Mela developed into the Abhinav Bharat Society, whose network spread throughout western and central India, and whose branches became the Ghadar Party.

 

Arrest in London and Marseille

Ganesh Savarkar, an Indian nationalist, had led an armed uprising against the Morley––Minto reforms of 1909. Savarkar was involved in the investigation by British police for allegedly planning the crime. Savarkar moved to Madame Cama’s house in Paris to escape detention. Despite this, he was apprehended by police on March 13, 1910. Savarkar wrote letters to a close friend planning his escape in the final days of his freedom. Savarkar asked his friend to keep track of which ship and route he would be taken on, knowing that he would most likely be transported to India. On the 8th of July 1910, when the SS Morea arrived in Marseille, Savarkar escaped from his cell in the hopes that his friend would be waiting for him in a car. However, because his friend was late, and the alarm had been raised, Savarkar was re-arrested.

 

The Case Before the Permanent Court of Arbitration

The arrest of Vinayak Savarkar in Marseilles led the French government to protest the British, alleging that the British would not be able to retrieve Savarkar unless they followed proper legal procedures for his rendition. The Permanent Court of International Arbitration heard the case in 1910 and issued its verdict in 1911. The case sparked a lot of debate and was widely discussed in the French press, and it was thought to include a fascinating international issue of asylum rights.

 

First, the Court held that since there was a pattern of cooperation between the two countries about the likelihood of Savarkar’s escape in Marseilles, and there was no coercion or deception used to persuade the French authorities to return Savarkar to them, the British authorities did not have to hand him over to the French for them to begin rendition proceedings. The tribunal, on the other hand, found “irregularities” in Savarkar’s arrest and delivery to the Indian Army Military Police guard.

 

Trial and Sentence

When Savarkar arrived in Bombay, he was taken to the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune. On September 10, 1910, the special tribunal began its hearings. The abetment to the murder of Nashik Collector Jackson was one of the charges levelled against Savarkar. The second was waging a plot against the King-Emperor in violation of Indian penal code 121-A. Following the two trials, Savarkar, who was 28 at the time, was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years in prison, and was transported to the notorious Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on July 4, 1911. The British government treated him as a political prisoner.

 

Prisoner in Andaman

In accordance with his sentences, Savarkar appealed to the Bombay government for some concessions. His application was denied by Government letter No. 2022, dated 4 April 1911, and he was told that the matter of remitting the second sentence of transportation for life would be considered after the first sentence of transportation for life expired. On August 30, 1911, a month after arriving in the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Savarkar filed his first clemency petition. On September 3, 1911, this petition was denied.

On November 14, 1913, Savarkar proposed his next clemency petition to Sir Reginald Craddock, a member of the Governor General’s council from India. He portrayed himself as a “prodigal son” longing to return to the “parental doors of the government” in his letter asking for forgiveness. Many Indians’ confidence in British rule will be recast as a result of his release, he wrote. “Moreover, my conversion to the constitutional line will restore all those misguided young men in India and abroad who once looked up to me as their guide,” he added. I am willing to represent the government in whatever capacity they need, because my conversion was conscientious, and I hope that my future actions will be as well. Nothing can be gotten in contrast to what would be if I were not in prison”.

 

Savarkar filed another clemency petition in 1917, this time requesting a general amnesty for all political prisoners. On February 1, 1918, Savarkar was told that a mercy petition had been filed with the British Indian Government. King-Emperor George V issued a Royal decree in December 1919. This proclamation contained a declaration of Royal clemency for political prisoners in Paragraph 6. In light of the Royal declaration, Savarkar submitted his fourth clemency petition to the British Government on March 30, 1920, stating, “I do not contribute even to the peaceful and intellectual anarchism of a Kuropatkin or a Tolstoy. And, as for my revolutionary impulses in the past, I have told and written to the Government in my petitions (1918, 1914) of my firm intention to abide by the constitution and stand by it as soon as Mr. Montagu began to frame it. Since then, the Reforms and then the Proclamation have only strengthened my convictions, and I have recently publicly declared my belief in and willingness to support orderly and constitutional progress”.

 

The British government denied this petition on July 12, 1920. The British government considered releasing Ganesh Savarkar but not Vinayak Savarkar after considering the petition. The following is the justification for doing so:

 

“If Ganesh is released but Vinayak is held in detention, the latter will become a hostage for the former, who will ensure that his misbehaviour does not jeopardise his brother’s chances of being released at a later date.”

 

In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi, Vithalbhai Patel, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak demanded his unconditional release from the Indian National Congress. In exchange for his freedom, Savarkar signed a declaration praising his conviction, verdict, and British rule, as well as renouncing abuse.

 

Restricted Freedom in Ratnagiri

The Savarkar brothers were transferred to a jail in Ratnagiri on May 2, 1921. He wrote his “Essentials of Hindutva” while imprisoned in Ratnagiri jail in 1922, which formulated his Hindutva theory. He was released on January 6, 1924, but confined to the Ratnagiri District. He began working on the consolidation of Hindu culture, or Hindu Sangathan, soon after. He was given a bungalow by the colonial government, and he was permitted visitors. During his internment, he met notable figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B. R. Ambedkar. In 1929, Nathuram Godse, who would later assassinate Gandhi, met Savarkar for the first time as a nineteen-year-old. During his years of confinement in Ratnagiri, Savarkar became a prolific journalist. His publishers, on the other hand, wanted to state that they were completely divorced from politics. Until 1937, Savarkar was limited to the Ratnagiri district. At the time, the newly elected government of Bombay president unconditionally released him.

 

Leader of the Hindu Mahasabha

During World War II, as president of the Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar promoted the slogan “Hinduism all Politics and Militarize Hinduism” and agreed to support the British war effort in India by providing Hindus with military training. When Congress launched the Quit India movement in 1942, Savarkar slammed it and urged Hindus to remain engaged in the war effort and not revolt against the government; he also encouraged Hindus to join the armed forces to learn the “arts of war.” In 1944, Hindu Mahasabha activists protested Gandhi’s proposal to hold talks with Jinnah, which Savarkar called “appeasement.” He attacked both the Congress and the British for making concessions to Muslim separatists in the British plans for power transfer. Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee resigned as Vice-President of the Hindu Mahasabha soon after Independence, distancing himself from the Hindu Mahasabha’s Akhand Hindustan (Undivided India) plank, which suggested undoing partition.

 

Reaction to Quit India Movement

The Hindu Mahasabha publicly opposed and boycotted the Quit India Movement under Savarkar’s leadership. Savarkar also wrote a letter titled “Stick to your Posts,” in which he advised Hindu Sabhaites who were “members of municipalities, local bodies, legislatures, or those serving in the army” to “stick to their posts” around the country and not to join the Quit India Movement at all costs.

 

Relationship with the Muslim League and Others

In the 1937 Indian provincial elections, the Indian National Congress defeated the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha by a large margin. In 1939, however, the Congress ministries resigned in protest of Viceroy Lord Linlithgow’s decision to declare India a belligerent in WWII without consulting the Indian people. Under Savarkar’s presidency, the Hindu Mahasabha joined forces with the Muslim League and other parties to form governments in some provinces. Sindh, NWFP, and Bengal have all formed coalition governments.

 

Hindu Mahasabha members in Sindh joined the Muslim League government of Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah. In the words of Savarkar,

 

“Witness the fact that only recently in Sindh, the Sind-Hindu-Sabha accepted an invitation to join hands with the League that is running a coalition government.”

 

In 1943, Hindu Mahasabha members joined forces with Sardar Aurangzeb Khan of the Muslim League to form a government in the North–West Frontier Province. Finance Minister Mehar Chand Khanna was the cabinet’s Mahasabha member.

 

In December 1941, the Hindu Mahasabha joined Fazlul Haq’s Progressive Coalition government in Bengal, which was headed by the Krishak Praja Party. Savarkar lauded the coalition government’s ability to work efficiently.

 

Arrest and Acquittal in Gandhi’s Assassination

Following Gandhi’s assassination on January 30, 1948, the assassin Nathuram Godse and his alleged accomplices and conspirators were apprehended by police. He was a part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha. Godse was the editor of Agrani – Hindu Rashtra, a Pune-based Marathi daily published by “The Hindu Rashtra Prakashan Ltd.” (The Hindu Nation Publications). Gulabchand Hirachand, Bhalji Pendharkar, and Jugal Kishore Birla were among the eminent contributors to this venture. Savarkar had put ₹15,000 into the company. On February 5, 1948, Savarkar, a former president of the Hindu Mahasabha, was arrested from his home in Shivaji Park and detained at the Arthur Road Prison in Bombay. He was charged with murder, murder conspiracy, and murder abetment. In a public written statement published in The Times of India, Bombay on February 7, 1948, a day before his arrest, Savarkar called Gandhi’s assassination a fratricidal crime that jeopardised India’s life as a nascent country. The vast amount of papers confiscated from his home showed nothing even remotely linked to Gandhi’s assassination. Savarkar was detained under the Preventive Detention Act due to a lack of facts.

 

Approver’s Testimony

Godse assumed sole responsibility for the assassination’s preparation and execution. However, according to the Approver Digambar Badge, Nathuram Godse went to see Savarkar one last time in Bombay on January 17, 1948, before the assassination. Nathuram and Apte entered while Badge and Shankar waited outside. When Apte returned, he told Badge that Savarkar had blessed them, saying, “Yashasvi houya” (be successful and return). According to Apte, Savarkar predicted that Gandhi’s 100 years would be over soon and that the mission would be completed successfully. However, since the approver’s evidence lacked impartial corroboration, Badge’s testimony was not acknowledged, and Savarkar was acquitted.

 

Mr Manohar Malgonkar saw Digamber Badge many times in the last week of August 1974 and asked him about the veracity of his testimony against Savarkar. “Even though he had blurted out the full story of the plot as far as he understood, without much persuasion, he had put up a brave fight against being forced to testify against Savarkar,” Badge insisted to Mr Manohar Malgonkar. Badge eventually caved in. He agreed to testify under oath that he saw Nathuram Godse and Apte with Savarkar and that Savarkar had blessed their venture in front of Badge.

 

Kapur Commission

Dr G. V. Ketkar, the grandson of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, former editor of Kesari and then editor of “Tarun Bharat,” who presided over a religious programme in Pune on November 12, 1964, to commemorate the release of Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, and Vishnu Karkare from prison after their sentences had expired, gave information about a conspiracy to kill Gandhi, about which he professed knowledge. Ketkar was taken into custody. Outside and within the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, as well as both houses of the Indian parliament, a public outcry erupted. Gulzarilal Nanda, the then Union home minister, named Gopal Swarup Pathak, M. P, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India, as a Commission of Inquiry to re-investigate the plot to murder Gandhi under the pressure of 29 members of parliament and public opinion. In coordination with the Maharashtra government, the central government planned to conduct a detailed investigation using old documents. Pathak was given three months to complete his investigation, after which the Commission’s chairman, Jeevan Lal Kapur, a retired Supreme Court of India judge, was named.

 

Evidence not presented in court was given to the Kapur Commission, including testimony from two of Savarkar’s closest aides, Appa Ramachandra Kasar, his bodyguard, and Gajanan Vishnu Damle, his secretary. Mr Kasar and Mr Damle’s testimony was reported by Bombay police on March 4, 1948, but these testimonies were not submitted to the court during the trial. According to these testimonies, Godse and Apte paid a visit to Savarkar on or about the 23rd or 24th of January, when they returned from Delhi following the bombing. Godse and Apte allegedly saw Savarkar in the middle of January and sat with him in his yard, according to Damle. From the 21st to the 30th of January 1948, the C. I. D. Bombay was on the lookout for Savarkar. The C. I. The crime report makes no mention of Godse or Apte meeting Savarkar at this time. “All of these facts taken together were destructive to any hypothesis other than the plot to murder by Savarkar and his party,” Justice Kapur concluded. The testimony of approver Digambar Badge was a significant factor in Savarkar’s arrest. Digambar Badge was not re-interviewed by the commission. The badge was alive and employed in Bombay at the time of the commission’s investigation.

 

Later Years

After Gandhi’s assassination, angry mobs stoned Savarkar’s home in Dadar, Bombay. Savarkar was arrested by the government for making “Hindu nationalist remarks” after being cleared of the charges linked to Gandhi’s assassination and released from jail; he was released after promising to give up political activities. He went on to discuss Hindutva’s social and cultural aspects. After the ban on political activity was lifted, he resumed it, but only until his death in 1966 due to ill health. When he was alive, his admirers conferred distinctions and financial awards on him. A guard of honour of 2,000 RSS staff escorted his funeral procession. According to McKean, Savarkar and the Congress had a public rivalry for the majority of their political career, but after independence, Congress ministers Vallabhbhai Patel and C. D. Deshmukh attempted unsuccessfully to ally with the Hindu Mahasabha and Savarkar. It was illegal for members of the Congress party to attend public functions honouring Savarkar. During the centennial celebrations of India’s First War of Independence in Delhi, Nehru refused to share the stage. Following Nehru’s death, the Congress government, led by Prime Minister Shastri, began paying him a monthly pension.

 

Veer Savarkar Autobiography

Two years after Savarkar’s release from jail, a biography titled “Life of Barrister Savarkar” was released, written by a man named “Chitragupta.” Indra Prakash of the Hindu Mahasabha contributed to a revised edition that was published in 1939. Veer Savarkar Prakashan, the new official publisher of Savarkar’s writings, published a second edition of the book in 1987. Ravindra Vaman Ramdas deduced in the preface that “Chitragupta is none other than Veer Damodar Savarkar”.

 

Death

Let’s now discuss how Savarkar died. Yamuna Savarkar, Savarkar’s wife, died on November 8, 1963. Savarkar began abstaining from drugs, food, and water on February 1, 1966, which he referred to as atmaarpan (fast until death). He wrote an article titled “Atmahatya Nahi Atmaarpan” before his death, in which he argued that when one’s life mission is complete and one’s desire to serve society is no longer present, it is preferable to end one’s life at will rather than waiting for death. His condition was identified as “highly serious” before his death on February 26, 1966, at his home in Bombay, and that he had trouble breathing. Attempts to resuscitate him failed, and he was pronounced dead at 11:10 a.m. (IST) that day. Before his death, Savarkar requested that his relatives only conduct his funeral and not the Hindu faith’s 10th and 13th-day rituals. As a result, his son Vishwas performed his last rites the next day at an electric crematorium in Bombay’s Sonapur locality. Huge crowds gathered to pay their respects at his cremation. Vishwas Chiplunkar, his son, and Prabha Chiplunkar, his daughter, survive him. Prabhakar, his first son, had died in infancy. His house, belongings, and other personal relics have all been preserved for public viewing. There was no formal mourning by Maharashtra’s then-Congress-led government or at the federal level. Long after his death, political indifference to Savarkar persisted.

Relevance of Veer Savarkar

He had a vision of popularising the concept of “Hinduism” even during times of criticism and controversy. He wanted to create a sense of Hindu identity and he did this through his speeches and writings. His ideology was free from caste discrimination and other elements which fragmented all the Hindus. When he was studying in London, he learnt the atrocities of the British and explained the same to other students and educated them. He wrote many books on what he believed and always wanted India to be independent of the British clutches. He was very brave, he confronted the Britishers, Indian National Congress, and its string leaders regarding the partition. Savarkar was very practical, he allied with the people whom he was not a fan of to achieve his goal. In 1939, he allied with the Muslim League and other political parties to come into power. He even opposed the “Quit India” movement which asked the British to leave but the British army to stay. He was very patient and wrote many books when he was imprisoned in the Andaman jail and did not lose his belief in Hindutva ideology. 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in the small city of Porbandar in Gujarat (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948). He was a politician, social activist, Indian lawyer, and writer who became the prominent Leader of the nationwide surge movement against the British rule of India. He came to be known as the Father of The Nation. October 2, 2022, marks Gandhi Ji’s 153rd birth anniversary, celebrated worldwide as International Day of Non-Violence, and Gandhi Jayanti in India.

Gandhi Ji was a living embodiment of non-violent protests (Satyagraha) to achieve independence from the British Empire’s clutches and thereby achieve political and social progress. Gandhi Ji is considered ‘The Great Soul’ or ‘The Mahatma’ in the eyes of millions of his followers worldwide. His fame spread throughout the world during his lifetime and only increased after his demise. Mahatma Gandhi, thus, is the most renowned person on earth.

Education of Mahatama Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi’s education was a major factor in his development into one of the finest persons in history. Although he attended a primary school in Porbandar and received awards and scholarships there, his approach to his education was ordinary. Gandhi joined Samaldas College in Bhavnagar after passing his matriculation exams at the University of Bombay in 1887.

Gandhiji’s father insisted he become a lawyer even though he intended to be a docto. During those days, England was the centre of knowledge, and he had to leave Smaladas College to pursue his father’s desire. He was adamant about travelling to England despite his mother’s objections and his limited financial resources.

Finally, he left for England in September 1888, where he joined Inner Temple, one of the four London Law Schools. In 1890, he also took the matriculation exam at the University of London.

When he was in London, he took his studies seriously and joined a public speaking practice group. This helped him get over his nervousness so he could practise law. Gandhi had always been passionate about assisting impoverished and marginalised people.

Mahatma Gandhi During His Youth

Gandhi was the youngest child of his father’s fourth wife. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the dewan Chief Minister of Porbandar, the then capital of a small municipality in western India (now Gujarat state) under the British constituency.

Gandhi’s mother, Putlibai, was a pious religious woman.Mohandas grew up in Vaishnavism, a practice followed by the worship of the Hindu god Vishnu, along with a strong presence of Jainism, which has a strong sense of non-violence.Therefore, he took up the practice of Ahimsa (non-violence towards all living beings), fasting for self-purification, vegetarianism, and mutual tolerance between the sanctions of various castes and colours.

His adolescence was probably no stormier than most children of his age and class. Not until the age of 18 had Gandhi read a single newspaper. Neither as a budding barrister in India nor as a student in England nor had he shown much interest in politics. Indeed, he was overwhelmed by terrifying stage fright each time he stood up to read a speech at a social gathering or to defend a client in court.

In London, Gandhiji’s vegetarianism missionary was a noteworthy occurrence. He became a member of the executive committee in joined the London Vegetarian Society. He also participated in several conferences and published papers in its journal. Gandhi met prominent Socialists, Fabians, and Theosophists like Edward Carpenter, George Bernard Shaw, and Annie Besant while dining at vegetarian restaurants in England.

Political Career of Mahatma Gandhi

Nevertheless, in July 1894, when he was barely 25, he blossomed overnight into a proficient campaigner. He drafted several petitions to the British government and the Natal Legislature signed by hundreds of his compatriots. He could not prevent the passage of the bill but succeeded in drawing the attention of the public and the press in Natal, India, and England to the Natal Indian’s problems.

He still was persuaded to settle down in Durban to practice law and thus organised the Indian community. The Natal Indian Congress was founded in 1894, and he became the unwearying secretary. He infused a solidarity spirit in the heterogeneous Indian community through that standard political organisation. He gave ample statements to the Government, Legislature, and media regarding Indian Grievances.

Finally, he got exposed to the discrimination based on his colour and race, which was pre-dominant against the Indian subjects of Queen Victoria in one of her colonies, South Africa.

Mahatma Gandhi spent almost 21 years in South Africa. But during that time, there was a lot of discrimination because of skin colour. Even on the train, he could not sit with white European people. But he refused to do so, got beaten up, and had to sit on the floor. So he decided to fight against these injustices, and finally succeeded after a lot of struggle.

It was proof of his success as a publicist that such vital newspapers as The Statesman, Englishman of Calcutta (now Kolkata) and The Times of London editorially commented on the Natal Indians’ grievances.

In 1896, Gandhi returned to India to fetch his wife, Kasturba (or Kasturbai), their two oldest children, and amass support for the Indians overseas. He met the prominent leaders and persuaded them to address the public meetings in the centre of the country’s principal cities.

Unfortunately for him, some of his activities reached Natal and provoked its European population. Joseph Chamberlain, the colonial secretary in the British Cabinet, urged Natal’s government to bring the guilty men to proper jurisdiction, but Gandhi refused to prosecute his assailants. He said he believed the court of law would not be used to satisfy someone’s vendetta.

Death of Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi’s death was a tragic event and brought clouds of sorrow to millions of people. On the 29th of January, a man named Nathuram Godse came to Delhi with an automatic pistol. About 5 pm in the afternoon of the next day, he went to the Gardens of Birla house, and suddenly, a man from the crowd came out and bowed before him.

Then Godse fired three bullets at his chest and stomach, who was Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was in such a posture that he to the ground. During his death, he uttered: “Ram! Ram!” Although someone could have called the doctor in this critical situation during that time, no one thought of that, and Gandhiji died within half an hour.

How Shaheed Day is Celebrated at Gandhiji’s Samadhi (Raj Ghat)?

As Gandhiji died on January 30, the government of India declared this day as ‘Shaheed Diwas’.

On this day, the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, and the Defence Minister every year gather at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi at the Raj Ghat memorial in Delhi to pay tribute to Indian martyrs and Mahatma Gandhi, followed by a two-minute silence.

On this day, many schools host events where students perform plays and sing patriotic songs. Martyrs’ Day is also observed on March 23 to honour the lives and sacrifices of Sukhdev Thapar, Shivaram Rajguru, and Bhagat Singh.

Conclusion

Gandhi believed it was his duty to defend India’s rights. Mahatma Gandhi had a significant role in attaining India’s independence from the British. He had an impact on many individuals and locations outside India. Gandhi also influenced Martin Luther King, and as a result, African-Americans now have equal rights. Peacefully winning India’s independence, he altered the course of history worldwide.