Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (pronounced [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] ( listen); 2

October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader and freedom fighter of Indian
nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to
independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The
honorific Mahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable"[2])—applied to him first in 1914 in
South Africa,[3]—is now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for
"father",[4] "papa"[4][5]) in India.

Born and raised in a Hindu, merchant caste, family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained
in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent 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
to protest against 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, but above all for
achieving Swaraj or self-rule.

Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging 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, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi
attempted to practise nonviolence 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 hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food,
and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.

Gandhi's vision of a free India based on religious pluralism, however, was challenged in the early
1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved
out of India.[6] Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian
Empire[6] was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan.[7] As
many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious
violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Eschewing the official celebration of
independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the
months following, he undertook several fasts unto death to promote religious harmony. The last
of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 at age 78,[8] also had the indirect goal of pressuring
India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.[8] Some Indians thought Gandhi was too
accommodating.[8][9] Among them was Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, who assassinated
Gandhi on 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest at point-blank range.[9]

Gandhi is commonly, though not officially,[10] considered the Father of the Nation[11] in India.
His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and
world-wide as the International Day of Nonviolence.
NEHRU

Jawaharlal Nehru (Hindustani: [ˈdʒəʋaːɦərˈlaːl ˈneːɦru] ( listen); 14 November 1889 – 27 May

1964) was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics for much of the
20th century. He emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian Independence Movement under
the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and ruled India from its establishment as an independent nation
in 1947 until his death in office in 1964.[5] Nehru is considered to be the architect of the modern
Indian nation-state; a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic.[6] He was the father
of Indira Gandhi and the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi, who served as the third and sixth
Prime Ministers of India, respectively.

The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and nationalist statesman, Nehru was a graduate
of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, where he trained to be a barrister. Upon his
return to India, he enrolled at the Allahabad High Court, at the same time taking an interest in
national politics. Nehru's involvement in politics would gradually replace his legal practice. A
committed nationalist since his teenage years, Nehru became a rising figure in Indian politics
during the upheavals of the 1910s. He became the prominent leader of the left-wing factions of
the Indian National Congress during the 1920s, and eventually of the entire Congress, with the
tacit approval of his mentor, Gandhi. As Congress President, Nehru called for complete
independence from Britain and initiated a decisive shift towards the left in Indian politics. He
was the principal author of the Indian Declaration of Independence (1929).

Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s as the country moved
towards independence. His idea of a secular nation state was seemingly validated when the
Congress, under his leadership, swept the provincial elections in 1937 while the separatist
Muslim League failed to form a government in any of the Indian provinces. But these
achievements were seriously compromised in the aftermath of the Quit India Movement in 1942,
which saw the British effectively crush the Congress as a political organisation. Nehru, who had
reluctantly heeded Gandhi's call for immediate independence, for he had desired to support the
Allied war effort during the World War II, came out of a lengthy prison term to a much altered
political landscape. The Muslim League under his old Congress colleague and now bête noire,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had come to dominate Muslim politics in India. Negotiations between
Nehru and Jinnah for power sharing failed and gave way to the independence and bloody
partition of India in 1947.

Nehru was elected by the Congress to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister,
although the question of leadership had been settled as far back in 1941, when Gandhi
acknowledged Nehru as his political heir and successor. As Prime Minister, Nehru set out to
realise his vision of India. The Constitution of India was enacted in 1950, after which he
embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social and political reforms. Chiefly, he
oversaw India's transition from a monarchy to a republic, while nurturing a plural, multi-party
democracy. In foreign policy, Nehru took a leading role in Non-Alignment while projecting
India as a regional hegemon in South Asia.
Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress emerged as a catch-all party, dominating national
politics and winning consecutive elections in 1951, 1957, and 1962. He remained popular with
the people of India in spite of political troubles in his final years and failure of leadership during
Sino-Indian War. In India, his birthday is celebrated as Children's Day.

KAMARAJ

Kumarasami Kamaraj , better known as K. Kamaraj, (15 July 1903[2] – 2 October 1975[3])
was an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu widely acknowledged as the "Kingmaker" in Indian
politics during the 1960s. He was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu during 1954–1963 and a
Member of Parliament during 1952–1954 and 1969–1975. He was known for his simplicity and
integrity.[2][4]

He was involved in the Indian independence movement.[5] As a high-ranking office bearer of the
Indian National Congress, he was instrumental in bringing to power two Prime Ministers, Lal
Bahadur Shastri in 1964 and Indira Gandhi in 1966. In Tamil Nadu, his home state, he is still
remembered for bringing school education to millions of the rural poor by introducing free
education and the free Midday Meal Scheme during his tenure as chief minister. He was awarded
India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously in 1976.[6] The domestic terminal
of the Chennai airport is named "Kamaraj Terminal", Chennai's Beach Road renamed
"Kamarajar Salai", Bengaluru's North Parade Road as "K. Kamaraj Rd." and the Madurai
Kamaraj University in his honour.[4][7]

ANNA

C. N. Annadurai ({{ta:கக. க. ககககககககக}} (15 September 1909 – 3 February 1969),

popularly called Anna (“elder brother"), or Arignar Anna (Anna the scholar) was a former
Chief Minister of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was the first member of a Dravidian
party to hold that post.

He was well known for his oratorical skills and was an acclaimed writer in the Tamil language.
He scripted and acted in several plays. Some of his plays were later made into movies. He was
the first politician from the Dravidian parties to use Tamil cinema extensively for political
propaganda. Born in a middle-class family, he first worked as a school teacher, then moved into
the political scene of the Madras Presidency as a journalist. He edited several political journals
and enrolled as a member of the Dravidar Kazhagam. As an ardent follower of Periyar E. V.
Ramasamy, he rose in stature as a prominent member of the party.

With differences looming with Periyar, on issues of separate independent state of Dravida Nadu
and on inclusion in the Indian Union, he crossed swords with his political mentor. The antipathy
between the two finally erupted when Periyar married Maniammai, who was much younger than
him. Angered by this action of Periyar, Annadurai with his supporters parted from Dravidar
Kazhagam and launched his own party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The DMK
initially followed ideologies the same as the mother party, Dravidar Kazhagam. But with the
evolution of national politics and the constitution of India after the Sino-Indian war in 1963,
Annadurai dropped the claim for an independent Dravida Nadu.

Various protests against the then ruling Congress government took him to prison on several
occasions; the last of which was during the Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965. The agitation
itself helped Annadurai to gain popular support for his party. His party won a landslide victory in
the 1967 state elections. His cabinet was the youngest at that time in India. He legalised Self-
respect marriages, enforced a two language policy (in preference to the three language formula in
other southern states), implemented subsidies for rice, and renamed Madras State to Tamil Nadu.

However, he died of cancer just two years into office. His funeral had the highest attendance of
any to that date, earning it a Guinness record. Several institutions and organisations are named
after him. A splinter party launched by M. G. Ramachandran in 1972 was named after him as
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.