Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950) One of the architects of Indian freedom, one of the chief builders of independent India, popularly known as—Iron Man of India—the first Deputy Prime Minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s Government, responsible for Indian States’ integration with the Union, Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, son of Jhaverbhai Patel and Ladbai, was born on 31 October 1875 at Nadiad in Gujarat. He belonged to a lower middle-class family. Vallabhbhai’s childhood was spent...

Morarji Desai                                                                       Morarji Ranchhodji Desai, popularly known as Morarji Desai, is a dynamic personality, who rose to higher heights from a humble beginning. His life is full of conflicts — ups and downs — out of...

Dr. Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956) The life of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is the saga of a great crusader who had become a living legend during his own life time. A true socialist he sought to establish social democracy which could satisfy the economic, social, educational and cultural aspirations of the people. A revolutionary to the very core of his heart, he fought relentlessly against the evils of social system....

Nelson  Mandela (1918- 2013 ) Free at last from 27 years imprisonment on February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela, an African Nationalist leader of black protest against the while-minority government of South Africa and its policy of racial segregation called apartheid. Apartheid prohibits blacks mixing with whites in many spheres of life in South Africa. Mandela was born in Umitata, Transkei, South Africa, on July 18, 1918. His father, Chief Henry, was...

Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran MGR (1917-1987) Leader of the masses, and the founder leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Marudur Gopalan Ramactiandran, MGR, as he was lovingly and popularly known to millions of people, was a man of the masses. He began his career in films even when he was a young boy and, till he retired from the celluloid world on assumption of office as Chief Minister...

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...