PRELIM BITS

Important Personalities (Modern History)

For CSE 2024 (Final Pdf.)
Also Important for All other UPSC and State PSC Exams
By Roman
2/24/2024

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Table of Contents
Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan ..................................................................................................... 7
Dhondo Keshav Karve ......................................................................................................... 7
Subhas Chandra Bose .......................................................................................................... 8
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772 – 1833) ............................................................................... 10
Sachindra Nath Sanyal ...................................................................................................... 12
E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker.................................................................................................. 13
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar .............................................................................................. 14
Balshastri Jambhekar ........................................................................................................ 17
Acharya Vinoba Bhave ...................................................................................................... 17
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan ........................................................................................................ 18
Chaudhary Charan Singh .................................................................................................. 20
Swami Vivekananda .......................................................................................................... 20
Bal Gangadhar Tilak .......................................................................................................... 22
Dayanand Saraswati .......................................................................................................... 23
Lala Lajpat Rai (Punjab Kesari /Lion of Punjab) ............................................................ 24
Bipin Chandra Pal .............................................................................................................. 26
Bhagat Singh ...................................................................................................................... 26
Ashfaqulla Khan ................................................................................................................. 27
Dr B.R. Ambedkar .............................................................................................................. 28
Thakkar Bapa...................................................................................................................... 29
Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray ......................................................................................... 29
Alluri Sitharama Raju ........................................................................................................ 30
Naoroji and his Drain Theory ........................................................................................... 31
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi ........................................................................................................ 31
Abanindranath Tagore [Aban Thakur] ........................................................................... 31
Rabindranath Tagore ........................................................................................................ 33
Acharya Narendra Dev ...................................................................................................... 34
Pingali Venkayya ............................................................................................................... 34
Sri Aurobindo ..................................................................................................................... 35
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Sohan Singh Bhakna (1870-1968) ................................................................................. 114

Sir S. Subramania Iyer (1842-1924) .............................................................................. 114
Ahmadullah Shah (1787 -1858) ..................................................................................... 115
Anant Maral Shastri (1912–1999) .................................................................................. 115
Ananta Lal Singh (1903 – 1979) ..................................................................................... 116
Atulkrishna Ghosh (1890 –1966) ................................................................................... 116
Badal Gupta (1912 -1930) .............................................................................................. 116
Baikuntha Shukla (1907 –1934) ..................................................................................... 116
Basawon Singh (1909 –1989) ......................................................................................... 117
Sarat Chandra Bose (1889 –1950) ................................................................................. 117
Potti Sreeramulu (1901 -1952) ...................................................................................... 118
Hasrat Mohani (1875 –1951) .......................................................................................... 118
Kumaraswami Kamaraj ................................................................................................... 119
Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das ..................................................................................... 120
Swami Anandatheerthan ................................................................................................ 121

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Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan

 He was a Pashtun leader and ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was known for his
non-violent opposition to British Rule.
 He was known as Badshah Khan and ―Sarhadi Gandhi‖ (Frontier
Gandhi).
 He had started the first Pushto political monthly Pukhtoon.
 He also Participated in opposing the Rowlatt Act.
 He also played an active part in the Khilafat movement, and as a
result, he was arrested in 1921 under the Frontier Crimes Regulations
for spreading nationalistic ideas among the Pathans. He was kept in solitary confinement,
with his hands and feet tied. After his release in 1924 he came to be known as Fakhr-e-
Afghan.
 He was offered the presidency of the Indian National Congress in 1931 which he
refused saying that ―I am a simple soldier and Khudai Khidmatgar, and I only want to
serve.”
 He remained a member of the Congress Working Committee for many years, resigning only
in 1939 because of his differences with the Party‘s War Policy. He rejoined the Congress
Party when the War Policy was revised.

 He strongly opposed the All-India Muslim League‘s demand for the

partition of India. When the Indian National Congress declared its acceptance of the
partition plan without consulting the Khudai Khidmatgar leaders, he felt very sad and told
the Congress ―you have thrown us to the wolves”. He was against the partition of India
and he was many times targeted for being Anti-Muslim.
 Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan formed a clan of non-violent revolutionaries, the Khudai
Khidmatgars (known as Red Shirts), who played an active role in the Civil Disobedience
Movement. Initially, his Khudaikhidmatgar movement was a social reform organization
focusing on education and elimination of bloodfeuds from Afghan society but turned more
political later.

Dhondo Keshav Karve

 Resident : Maharashtra
 He was a social reformer in India in the field of women‘s welfare.
[Pioneer of Widows Education in India.]
 He was popularly known as Maharishi Karve. In honor of Karve, Queen‘s
Road in Mumbai (Bombay) was renamed to Maharishi Karve Road.
 He was inspired by Japan Women‘s University and established the first
university for women in India [SNDT Women's University]
 He worked for the upliftment of the status of the widows and himself married to a widow.
 He established the Widow Marriage Association in 1893. Maharishi Karve founded an
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educational institution, Hindu Widows Home, in 1896, in Poona to help widows support
themselves, in case they were unable to remarry.
 In 1958, the Government of India issued stamps commemorating the birth centenary of him,
it was the first time a living person was pictured on the issued stamps.
 The Government of India awarded him with the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in
1958, the year of his 100th birthday.

Subhas Chandra Bose

 Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23rd January 1897, in Cuttack, Orissa Division, Bengal
Province, to Prabhavati Dutt Bose and Janakinath Bose.
 His Jayanti is celebrated as 'Parakram Diwas' on 23rd January.
Education and Early Life
 In 1919, he had cleared the Indian Civil Services (ICS) examination. Bose, however,
resigned later.
 He was highly influenced by Vivekananda's teachings and considered him as his spiritual
Guru.
 His political mentor was Chittaranjan Das.
 He worked as the editor for Das‘s newspaper–Forward, and later started his own
newspaper, Swaraj.
Association with Congress
 He stood for unqualified swaraj (independence), and opposed the Motilal Nehru Report
which spoke for dominion status for India.
 He actively participated in the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 and vehemently opposed the
suspension of Civil Disobedience Movement and signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in
1931.
 In the 1930s, he was closely associated with left politics in Congress along with Jawaharlal
Nehru and M.N. Roy.
 Bose won the congress presidential elections at Haripura in 1938.
 Again in 1939 at Tripuri, he won the presidential elections against Gandhi's
candidate Pattabhi Sitarammayya. Due to ideological differences with Gandhi, Bose
resigned and left congress. Rajendra Prasad was appointed in his place.
 He founded a new party, 'the Forward Bloc'. The purpose was to consolidate the political
left and major support base in his home state Bengal.
Formation of Indian Legion (Free India Legion)
 Was a military unit raised during the Second World War initially as part of the German
Army.
 Intended to serve as a Liberation Force for British - Ruled India, it was made up of Indian

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Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772 – 1833)

 Born in Radhanagar, Hooghly District, Bengal Presidency in May 1772 into an orthodox
Bengali Hindu family.
 Education of Ram Mohan – He was sent to Patna for higher studies where he studied
Persian and Arabic. He read the Quran, the Arabic translation of the works of Plato and
Aristotle and the works of Sufi mystic poets. By the age of fifteen, Raja Rammohun Roy had
learnt Bangla, Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. He also knew Hindi and English.
 He went to Varanasi and studied the Vedas, the Upanishads and Hindu
philosophy deeply.
 He studied Christianity and Islam as well.
 At the age of sixteen, he wrote a rational critique of Hindu idol worship.
 From 1809 to 1814, he served in the Revenue Department of the East India Company
also worked as a personal Diwan to Woodforde and Digby.
 From 1814 onwards he devoted his life to religious, social and political reforms.
 In his address, entitled ‗Inaugurator of the Modern Age in India,‘ Tagore referred to Ram
Mohan as ‗a luminous star in the firmament of Indian history‘.
 He visited England as an ambassador of the Mughal king Akbar Shah II (father of
Bahadur Shah) where he died of a disease. He died in September 1833 in Bristol, England.
o He was given the title ‗Raja‘ by the Mughal Emperor of Delhi, Akbar II whose
grievances he presents before the British king.
Economic and Political Contributions
 He was impressed and admired the civil liberties given to people under the British
System of Constitutional Government. He wanted to extend the benefits of that system
of government to the Indian people.
 Reforms for Taxes
o He condemned the oppressive practices of Bengali zamindars.
o He demanded fixation of minimum rents.
o He called for a reduction of export duties on Indian goods abroad and demanded
the abolition of taxes on tax-free lands.
o He raised his voice for the abolition of the East India Company‘s trading rights.
 Press freedom: he spoke against the unjust policies of the British government especially
the restrictions on press freedom. Through his writings and activities, he supported the
movement for free press in India.
 When press censorship was relaxed by Lord Hastings in 1819, Ram Mohan found three
journals- The Brahmanical Magazine (1821); The Bengali weekly, Samvad
Kaumudi (1821); and the Persian weekly, Mirat-ul-Akbar.
 Administrative reforms: He demanded equality between Indians and Europeans. He
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(Brothers and sisters).

Ananta Lal Singh (1903 – 1979)

 He was an Indian revolutionary, who participated in the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930.
 Later, he founded a far-left radical communist group, the Revolutionary Communist
Council of India

Atulkrishna Ghosh (1890 –1966)

 Resident → Bengal
 He was an Indian revolutionary, member of the Anushilan Samiti, and a leader of the
Jugantar movement involved in Hindu German Conspiracy during World War I.

Badal Gupta (1912 -1930)

 Resident → Dhaka District, Bengal Presidency
 Badal Gupta was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who is noted for
launching an attack on the Secretariat Building (Writers' Building in the Dalhousie
square in Calcutta), along with Benoy Basu and Dinesh Gupta.
 On 8 December 1930, Badal along with Dinesh Gupta and Benoy,
dressed in European costume, entered the Writers' Building and
shot dead Simpson.
 Soon police overpowered them. However, the three did not wish to
be arrested. Badal took Potassium cyanide, while Benoy and Dinesh
shot themselves with their own revolvers.
 After independence, the Dalhousie Square was named B. B. D. Bagh - after the Benoy-
Badal-Dinesh trio. In memory of their Writers' Building attack, a plate was engraved in the
wall of Writers' Building, first floor.

Baikuntha Shukla (1907 –1934)

 Resident → Muzaffarpur District (now Vaishali) of North Bihar.
 His uncle Yogendra Shukla was one of the founders of the Hindustan Socialist
Republican Association (HSRA), and so he grew up in an environment where freedom
from the British Raj was the main agenda.
 After completing his elementary education, he began teaching in a lower primary school at
Mathurapur, situated 4kms away from Jalalpur.
 He was hanged for murdering (in 1932) Phanindra Nath Ghosh who had become a
government approver which led to hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev & Rajguru

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Basawon Singh (1909 –1989)

 Resident → Jamalpur, near Vaishali (Bihar
 He was an activist in the Indian independence movement and a campaigner for the rights
of the underprivileged, industrial labourers and agricultural workers.
 He spent around 18 years in prison in British India.
 He absconded after the Lahore conspiracy case (1929). He was co-accused in the
Bhusawal, Kakori, Tirhut and Deluaha conspiracy cases.
 During the Second World War he was the first man in Bihar to be arrested under
Defence of India Ordinance on 26 January 1940 in Husainabad, Palamu and released after
eighteen months.
 During the Quit India Movement, after the interception of Jayaprakash Narayan's Deoli
letter addressed to him, he went underground in 1941 and went to Afghanistan to
collect firearms and ammunition.
 He attended the Bombay AICC session (9 August 1942) and conducted the movement from
the underground.
 He was held in Delhi and later freed, after which he continued his nationalist and trade
union work.

Sarat Chandra Bose (1889 –1950)

 Sarat Chandra Bose was a Bengali barrister and independence activist.
 He belonged to the kulin Kayastha family. His father was descended from the Boses of
Mahinagar (South 24 Parganas) while his mother Prabhabati Devi was part of the famous
Dutta family of Hatkhola in north Kolkata. She gave birth to fourteen children, six daughters
and eight sons, among whom were leftist leader Sarat Chandra Bose, Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose and distinguished cardiologist Dr. Sunil Chandra Bose.
 Sarat Bose studied in Presidency College, Scottish Church College, then affiliated with
the University of Calcutta, and then went to England in 1911 to become a barrister. He was
called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. He began a successful legal practice upon his return
to India, but later abandoned it to join the Indian independence movement.
 He established a news agency, Orient Press Agency in 1929.
 In August 1947, Sarat Chandra Bose formed the Socialist Republican Party and in 1949,
Sarat Chandra formed the United Socialist Organisation which sought to bring all the
socialist forces of the country on a common platform.
 In his newspaper ‗The Nation‘, he wrote his last editorial urging East Pakistan to join the
Indian Union as a separate state for the well-being of Bengali Hindus and Muslims as a
whole.

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Potti Sreeramulu (1901 -1952)

 Potti Sreeramulu was a freedom fighter and a revolutionary who sacrificed his life for the
cause of Andhra Pradesh.

 He was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and participated in various movements for

India‘s independence, such as the Salt Satyagraha, the individual satyagraha and the Quit
India movement

 He also worked for the upliftment of the Dalits and the rural poor

 He is best known for his hunger strike for 56 days in 1952, demanding a separate state
for the Telugu-speaking people of Madras Presidency. He died on 1952 in Madras,
without achieving his goal

 His death sparked widespread protests and riots across the Telugu regions, and forced
the central government to announce the formation of Andhra State on 19 December
1952

 He is considered as the founding father of Andhra Pradesh and is revered as Amarajeevi

(―Immortal Being‖) by the Telugu people. He is also honoured with a statue in the
Parliament of India.

Hasrat Mohani (1875 –1951)

 Syed Fazl-ul-Hasan, known by his pen name Hasrat Mohani, was an eminent figure in
India's struggle for independence and a renowned Urdu poet.

 He was the mastermind behind the iconic slogan "Inquilab Zindabad" in 1921,
symbolizing the spirit of revolution in India's fight for freedom.

 Mohani was born in Mohan, a town in British India's Unnao district, around 1875 (some
records suggest 1881 or 1880), with his pen name derived from his birthplace.

Political Involvement
 Hasrat Mohani, a member of both the Indian National Congress and the All India
Muslim League, served as the latter's president in 1919.

 He adamantly opposed India's partition. Despite his association, upon the announcement
of the Partition Plan in June 1947, Mohani resigned from the All India Muslim League and
chose to live in independent India.

 He contributed to drafting the Indian Constitution but abstained from signing it

Struggle for Indian independence

 Mohani actively participated in India's independence struggle and faced imprisonment in
1903 under British rule, enduring harsh treatment as a political prisoner.

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 He is also known as Kulabruddha (Grand Old Man) and Madhu Babu.

 In Odisha, his birthday is celebrated as the Lawyers' Day on 28 April.

Swami Anandatheerthan
 Swami Anandatheerthan was a significant figure in Kerala history who fought against the
caste system. He was a crusader against all forms of discrimination, especially caste,
and waged his wars in his birth land of Kerala and nearby regions in south India.

 Born in 1905 to a Konkani Brahmin family in Thalassery, he was drawn to the teachings of
Gandhi and Sree Narayana Guru, another early crusader against caste, and became his
last disciple. He set up a school for Dalits in Payyannur in 1931.

 Despite facing opposition and being attacked by violent casteists and conservatives, he
continued his fight against casteism. He led attempts for access to public spaces, temple
entry, and equal treatment for Dalits, organized inter-caste feasts, and encouraged people
to get married out of their castes.

 A documentary titled ―Nishedhiyude Aathmashakthi‖, sheds light on the life of Swami

Anandatheerthan.

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