1. Some Great People
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati:
; Devnagari ), pronounced[moːˈɦəndaːs
kəˈrəmtʃənd ˈɡaːndʱi] ( listen). 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-
eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence
movement. A pioneer of satyagraha, or resistance to tyranny through mass civil
disobedience—a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence—
Gandhi led India toindependence and inspired movements for civil rights and
freedom across the world.[2] Gandhi is often referred to
asMahatma ([məˈɦaːtmaː]; Sanskrit: mahātmā or "Great Soul," an
honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore).[3] In India, he is also
called Bapu (Gujarati: , bāpu or "Father") and officially honoured as
the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India
as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as theInternational Day of
Non-Violence.
Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in
South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his
return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban
labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership
of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for
easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity,
ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for
achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi
famously led Indians in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km
(250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit
India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, on many occasions, in both
South Africa and India.
Gandhi strove to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated
that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential
community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he
had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook
long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.

2. Subhas Chandra Bose (Bengali: ; Hindi:
; Urdu: ‫;ن ی تاجی س بھاش چ ندر ب وس‬Oriya: , 23 January
1897 – - unconfirmed) known by name Netaji (Hindi: "Respected Leader") was an
Indian revolutionary who led an Indian national political and military force against
Britain and the Western powers during World War II. Bose was one of the most
prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and is a legendary figure
in India today. Bose was born on 23 January 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa to Janakinath
Bose and Prabhabati Devi.
He is presumed to have died "in absentia" on 18 August 1945 from injuries
sustained in an alleged aircraft crash in Taihoku (Taipei). However, no actual
evidence of the death of Subhas Chandra Bose on that day has ever been officially
authenticated and many committees were set up by the government of India to
investigate the mystery of his presumed death.[1]
Jawaharlal Nehru (IPA: [dʒəʋaːɦərˈlaːl ˈneːɦru] ( listen), Hindi:
, Urdu: ‫ 41 جواهر الل ن ھرو‬November 1889 – 27 May 1964[4]), often referred to
with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian politician who became the first Prime
Minister of independent India (1947–64) and became noted for his ―neutralist‖
policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s
independence movement in the 1930s and ’40s. Nehru was elected by the Indian
National Congress to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, and
re-elected when the Congress Party won India's first general election in 1951 and
1952. Nehru contributed to the establishment of a secularParliamentary
democracy in India and was one of the founders of the international Non-Aligned
Movement.
The son of moderate nationalist leader and Congressman Motilal Nehru,
Jawaharlal Nehru became a leader of the left wing of the Congress when fairly
young. Rising to become Congress President under the mentorship of Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi, Nehru was a charismatic and radical leader,
advocating complete independence for India from theBritish Empire. In the long
struggle for Indian independence, Nehru was eventually recognized as Gandhi's
political heir. Throughout his life, Nehru advocated Democratic socialism/Fabian
Socialism and a strong Public sector as the means by which economic
development could be pursued by poorer nations. He was the father of Indira
Gandhi and the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi, who would later serve as the
third and sixth Prime Ministers of India.

3. Bhagat Singh (IPA: [p ɡət sɪŋɡ] ( listen),(Punjabi:
; 28 September 1907[8] – 23 March 1931[2][3]) was an Indian
nationalist considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian
independence movement. He is often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the
Urdu word Shaheed meaning "martyr".
Born into a Jat Sikh family which had earlier been involved in revolutionary
activities against the British Raj, as a teenager Singh studied European
revolutionary movements and was attracted
to anarchist and marxist ideologies.[9]He became involved in numerous
revolutionary organisations, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Hindustan
Republican Association (HRA) to become one of its main leaders, eventually
changing its name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in
1928.[10][11]
Seeking revenge for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police, Singh
was involved in the assassination of British police officer John Saunders. He
eluded efforts by the police to capture him. Together with Batukeshwar Dutt, he
undertook a successful effort to throw two bombs and leaflets inside the Central
Legislative Assembly, subsequently volunteering to surrender and be arrested.
Held on this charge, he gained widespread national support when he underwent a
116 day fast in jail, demanding equal rights for British and Indian political
prisoners.[12] During this time, sufficient evidence was brought against him for a
conviction in the Saunders case, after trial by a Special Tribunal and appeal at
the Privy Council in England. He was convicted and subsequently hanged for his
participation in the murder, aged 23. His legacy prompted youths in India to begin
fighting for Indian independence and he continues to be a youth idol in modern
India, as well as the inspiration for several films.[13][14][15][16] He was
commemorated with a large bronze statue in the Parliament of India, as well as a
range of other memorials.
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindi: Indirā Priyadarśinī
Gāndhī listen (help·info); 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian
politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive
terms (1966–77) and a fourth term (1980–84). She was assassinated by Sikh
extremists. Gandhi was the second female head of government in the world
after Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, and she remains as the world's second
longest serving female Prime Minister as of 2011. She was the first woman to
become prime minister in India.[1]

4. Gandhi was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of
independent India. She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial
development that had been begun by her father. Gandhi established closer relations
with the Soviet Union, depending on that nation for support in India’s long-
standing conflict with Pakistan. She was also the only Indian Prime Minister to
have declared a state of emergency in order to 'rule by decree' and the only Indian
Prime Minister to have been imprisoned after holding that office.
Albert Einstein ( /ˈælbərt ˈaɪnstaɪn/; German: [ˈalbɐt ˈaɪnʃtaɪn] ( listen); 14
March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who
developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For
this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physicsand one
of the most prolific intellects in human history.[2][3] He received the 1921 Nobel
Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his
discovery of the law of thephotoelectric effect".[4] The latter was pivotal in
establishing quantum theory within physics.
Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was
no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of
the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of
relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be
extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in
1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal
with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his
explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated
the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photontheory of
light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the
structure of theuniverse as a whole.[5]
He was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and
did not go back to Germany, where he had been a professor at the Berlin Academy
of Sciences. He settled in the U.S., becoming a citizen in 1940.[6] On the eve of
World War II, he helped alert President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might
be developing an atomic weapon, and recommended that the U.S. begin similar
research; this eventually led to what would become the Manhattan Project. Einstein
was in support of defending the Allied forces, but largely denounced using the new
discovery of nuclear fissionas a weapon. Later, together with Bertrand Russell,
Einstein signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, which highlighted the danger of
nuclear weapons. Einstein was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced
Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955.

5. Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along with over 150 non-
scientific works.[5][7] His great intelligence and originality have made the word
"Einstein" synonymous with genius.[8]
Sir Isaac Newton PRS (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727 [NS: 4 January 1643
– 31 March 1727])[1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural
philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be
the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."[7]
His monograph Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687,
lays the foundations for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton
described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, which dominated the
scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton
showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed
by the same set of natural laws, by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's
laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last
doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the Scientific Revolution.
The Principia is generally considered to be one of the most important scientific
books ever written, due, independently, to the specific physical laws the work
successfully described, and for the style of the work, which assisted in setting
standards for scientific publication down to the present time.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope[8] and developed a theory of
colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many
colours that form the visible spectrum. He also formulatedan empirical law of
cooling and studied the speed of sound.
In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the
development of differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated
the generalised binomial theorem, developed Newton's method for approximating
the roots of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.
Newton was also highly religious. He was an unorthodox Christian, and wrote
more on Biblical hermeneuticsand occult studies than on science and mathematics,
the subjects he is mainly associated with. Newton secretly rejected Trinitarianism,
fearing to be accused of refusing holy orders.
Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 –August 2, 1922) was an eminent
scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first
practical telephone.[N 1]

6. Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work
on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly
influencing Bell's life's work.[2] His research on hearing and speech further led him
to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being
awarded the first US patent for the telephone in 1876.[N 2] In retrospect, Bell
considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist
and refused to have a telephone in his study.[4]
Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work
in optical telecommunications, hydrofoilsand aeronautics. In 1888, Alexander
Graham Bell became one of the founding members of the National Geographic
Society.[5] Bell has been described as one of the most influential figures in human
history.[6]
Meerabai (c. 1498 – c. 1547AD) (alternate orthographies: Meera; Mira; Meera
Bai) was an aristocratic Hindu mysticalsinger and devotee of
Lord Krishna from Rajasthan and one of the most significant figures of
the Sant tradition of theVaishnava bhakti movement. Some 1,200–1,300 prayerful
songs or bhajans attributed to her are popular throughout India and have been
published in several translations worldwide. In the bhakti tradition, they are in
passionate praise of LordKrishna.
Details of her life, which has been the subject of several films, are pieced together
from her poetry and stories recounted by her community and are of debatable
historical authenticity, particularly those that connect her with the later Tansen. On
the other hand, the traditions that make her a disciple of Ravidas who disputed
with Rupa Goswami are consonant with the usual account of her life.
Surdas, the 15th century sightless saint, poet and musician, is known for his
devotional songs dedicated to Lord Krishna. Surdas is said to have written and
composed a hundred thousand songs in his magnum opus the 'Sur Sagar' (Ocean of
Melody), out of which only about 8,000 are extant. He is considered a saint and so
also known as Sant Surdas, a name which literally means the "slave of melody".
Early Life of Sant Surdas The time of Surdas's birth and death are uncertain and
suggest that he lived over a hundred years, which make the facts even murkier.
Some say, he was born blind in 1479 in Siri village near Delhi. Many others
believe, Surdas was born in Braj, a holy place in northern Indian district of
Mathura, associated with the exploits of Lord Krishna. His family was too poor to
take good care of him, which led the blind boy to leave home at the age of 6 to join

7. a wondering group of religious musicians. According to one legend, one night he
dreamt of Krishna, who asked him to go to Vrindavan, and dedicate his life to the
praise of the Lord
Valmiki (Sanskrit: , vālmīki) (during Lord Rama's time)[1] is
celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the
epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself.[2] He is
revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the
first śloka i.e. first verse, which set the base and defined the form to Sanskrit
poetry.
At least by the 1st century AD, Valmiki's reputation as the father of Sanskrit
classical poetry seems to have been legendary. Ashvagosha writes in
the Buddhacarita:
"The voice of Valmiki uttered poetry which the great seer Chyavana could
not compose."
This particular verse has been speculated to indicate a familial relationship
between Valmiki and Chyavana, as implied by the previous and subsequent
verses.[3][4]