Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988) Known as an uncrowned Pathan king, the Red Shirt Khudai Khidmatgar (Servant of God), the pride of the Pathans, Fakher-e-Afghan, Badhshah Khan (Sardar), the Sarhadi Gandhi (Gandhi of the Frontier), Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a symbol of peace and sacrifice in the subcontinent. Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a scion of a leading family belonging to the Mohamadzai Pathan tribe of village Uttamanzai in the Charsadda Tehsil...

Acharya Vinoba Brave (1895-1982)   Sarvodaya leader—”a symbol of the role of conscience in human affairs”—Vinayak Narahari Bhave, commonly known as Vinoba, was born at Gagoda, Pen taluka, Kolaba District, Maharashtra, on 11 September 1885. The Bhaves had lived there for several decades. His father. Narahari Shambhurao Bhave was a well-to-do Brahmin. Vinoba was very fond of his mother Rukminibai and she of him. Vinoba inherited her austerity, asceticism and altruism....

Marry Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa)  Mother Teresa is an exemplary person in the service of the humanity. She gave up everything “totally to God and the poorest in serving the poorest of the poor”. She is a Roman Catholic nun renowned and revered for her work among the poor and sick in India. Mother Teresa was born of Albanian parents in Skopje, Yugoslavia, on August 27, 1910. Her original name is...

Kumaraswami Kamaraj (1903-1975) A true democrat and a socialist, a product of the national movement, one who participated in it, from the age of eighteen, with his rich and valuable experience, huge popularity and tremendous influence, Kumaraswami Kamaraj played a leading role in shaping India’s destiny from the passing away of the first Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to the Indian National Congress-split in 1969. When the question, ‘After...

Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894-1980)   Politician, an experienced Parliamentarian and veteran Trade Unionist Varahagiri Venkata Giri was born at Berhampore in Ganjam District in the then Madras Presidency and now in Orissa, on August 10, 1894, as the second son of a prominent and prosperous lawyer and the leader of the local bar, V.V. Jogaiah Pantulu. V.V. Giri started taking keen interest in public life when he was merely 12. He...

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) Being the beloved leader of the Indian people and the faithful and outstanding successor of the cause of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi made great contribution to the cause for safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, developing the national economy, raising the people’s livelihood and making India an important factor of peace in Asia and the rest of the world. I do not regard myself as...

Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-1966) Lal Bahadur Shastri was one of those few Indian personalities who, born in an ordinary family, gained national recognition by their talents and sacrifice. Shastriji gave of his best to the service of his nation. Rising from the rank of an unknown worker, churning out cyclostyled copies of political leaflets at Anand Bhavan, Allahabad, to the position of highest rank as Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur...