Life Stories

Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi ( 30 December 1887 – 8 February 1971), popularly known by his pen name Ghanshyam Vyas, was an Indian independence movement activist, socialist, politician, writer and educationist from Gujarat state. A lawyer by profession, he later turned to author and politician. He is a well-known name in Gujarati literature. He founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational trust, in 1938.
Munshi wrote his works in three languages namely Gujarati, English and Hindi. Before independence of India, Munshi was part of Indian National Congress and after independence, he joined Swatantra Party. Munshi held several important posts like member of Constituent Assembly of India, minister of agriculture and food of India, and governor of Uttar Pradesh. In his later life, he was one of the founding members of Vishva Hindu Parishad.
Munshi was born on 30 December 1887 at Bharuch, a town in Gujarat State of British India. Munshi took admission at Baroda College in 1902 and scored first class with 'Ambalal Sakarlal Paritoshik'. In 1907, by scoring maximum marks in the English language, he received 'Elite prize' along with degree of Bachelor of Arts. Later, he was given honoris causa from same university. He received degree of LLB in Mumbai in 1910 and registered as lawyer in the Bombay High Court.
One of his professor at Baroda College was Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo) who had a profound impression on him. Munshi was also influenced by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Bhulabhai Desai.
Due to influence of Aurobindo, Munshi leaned towards revolutionary group and get himself involved into the process of bomb-making. But after settling in the Mumbai, he joined Indian Home Rule movement and became secretary in 1915. In 1917, he became secretary of Bombay presidency association. In 1920, he attended annual congress session at Ahmedabad and was influenced by its president Surendranath Banerjee.
In 1927, he was elected to the Bombay legislative assembly but after Bardoli satyagraha, he resigned under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi.[5] He participated in the civil disobedience movement in 1930 and was arrested for six months initially. After taking part in the second part of same movement, he was arrested again and spent two years in the jail in 1932. In 1934, he became secretary of Congress parliamentary board.
Munshi was elected again in the 1937 Bombay presidency election and became Home Minister of the Bombay Presidency. During his tenure of home minister, he suppressed the communal riots in Bombay. Munshi was again arrested after he took part in Individual satyagraha in 1940.

Kartar Singh Taunque became the first personnel of Indian Air Force (then the Royal Indian Air Force) to win an award for Gallantry for a successful bombing raid during "Operations in Waziristan 1937–38". He was mentioned in dispatches. Flt. Lt. Peter Haynes and Hawai Sepoy 1st Class Kartar Singh Taunque (later Wing Commander), as the air gunner/bombardier, conducted a daring bombing raid in Waziristan during the World War II operations.

Peter Haynes and Taunque were flying Wapiti II Army Co-operation biplane during this sortie. Peter Haynes flew steady at a constant altitude as Taunque conducted precession bombing using 112-lb RL bombs and Mk.IX bombsight. This daring bombing sortie required tremendous courage and presence of mind on the part of Taunque for calculating terminal velocity, feeding speed and heading on the compass on-the-fly, and releasing 112-1b RL bombs at the enemy targets over the Pir of Ipi's fortress with pinpoint accuracy and devastating impact. He later served in Mesopotamia.
Taunque was the grandfather of Sergeant Uday Singh Taunque, who was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star posthumously for showing gallantry in Iraq in 2003 as part of the US Army.

An Indo-Anglian novelist, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humour, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioural characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as editor of several literary and news magazines, as well as two broadsheet newspapers, through the 1970s and 1980s. He is a
recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award in India.
Singh was born in Hadali District Khushab, Punjab (which now lies in Pakistan), in a Sikh family. His father, Sir Sobha Singh (builder), was a prominent builder in Lutyens’ Delhi. His uncle Sardar Ujjal Singh (1895–1983) was Ex. Governor of Punjab & Tamil Nadu. He was educated at Modern School, New Delhi, Government College, Lahore, St. Stephen’s College in Delhi and King’s College, London, before reading for the Bar at the Inner Temple.

Kushal Konwar was an Indian-Assamese freedom fighter from Assam and he happened to be the only martyr in India who was hanged during last phase of the Quit India Movement of 1942-43.

Kushal Konwar was born in 21 March 1905 at Balijan near Sarupathar in the modern District of Golaghat in Assam. His family descended from the royal family of Ahom kingdom and used the surname "Konwar", which was later abandoned. Kushal attended the Bezbaruah School. In 1921, while still at school he was inspired by Gandhiji’s call for a non-cooperation movement and took an active part in it. Inspired by Gandhiji’s ideals of Swaraj, Truth and Ahimsa, Konwar set up a primary school at Bengmai and served as its honorary teacher. Later, he joined the Balijan Tea Estate as a clerk where he worked for a while. However, the spirit of independence and call of Mahatma Gandhi inspired him to dedicate himself wholeheartedly in the Independence Movement. He organised the Congress party and lead the people of Sarupathar area in Satyagraha and non-cooperation movement against the British. He was elected the President of the Sarupathar Congress Committee.
Royal Ancestry
His family descended from the royal family of Chutia kingdom and used the surname "Boruah", which was later abandone. Born to middle class parents at the village called Chowdang Chariali of Ghiladhari Mouza of Golaghat District (formerly falling under Sivasagar District) in 1905, Kushal Konwar was just like other youths of his times, leading a quiet family life. But from 1925 onwards, he came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and this changed the course of his life. Since then, Kushal Konwar pledged to remain a vegetarian and accepted the Shrimad Bhagawad Gita as his only companion. Starting from the salt satyagraha led by Gandhiji in 1931, Konwar even stopped taking salt. He observed these pledges till the last moment of his life. Kushal Konwar was quiet and truth loving as a child - the traits that he inherited from his parents, Sonaram Konwar, and Kanakeswari Konwar. The fifth child of his parents, Kushal Konwar completed his primary school education in 1918 and took admission at the Bezbarua Middle English School at Golaghat.

Lakshmi Sahgal was a former Indian Army officer called Captain Lakshmi. She picked up a Gun for Indian National Army (INA) founded by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and led it like a tigress in the struggle for Freedom. She was in charge of establishing and leading the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, comprising women soldiers. Also, before joining INA, she had served a sentence in a Burma prison for her role in World War II.

The only ruler of a united Sikh Empire, Ranjit Singh is more commonly known as Shere-e Panjab (the lion of Panjab) equally famed for contributing to the rise and fall of Sikh power.

Ranjit Singh was born in 1780 to Mahan Singh Sukerchakia, the leader of one of Panjab's leading Misls (conferederacies). His youth was spent fighting Afghan invaders, local rajas and other Sikh Misls in order to gain power in Panjab, in fact, he joined his father in his first battle aged just 10. A bout of smallpox at an early age disfigured his face and he lost the sight of one eye, but by the age of 12 he had risen to leadership of his Misl. By his teens, the young leader began drinking alcohol, a habit that would increasingly lead to alcoholism in his older age and contribute to illnesses that would take his and his son's life and leave a power vacuum after his death.

Ranjit Singh was constantly waging battles in his youth and in 1797, at the age of only 17 he fought against invading Afghans and killed their leader, Shah Zaman. Victories over rival Misls left him in command of the one of the strongest military forces in Panjab. By the age of 21, Ranjit Singh, together with Sada Kaur of the Kanheya Misl jointly entered Lahore and Ranjit Singh was crowned Maharaja of Panjab by defeating the Bhangi Misl.

Married to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Jind Kaur was the first female freedom fighter in the struggle to oust the British from the subcontinent. After Ranjit Singh’s death, the British annexed the Punjab through bribery and treachery. Jind Kaur’s revolutionary speeches and rallying cries rattled the British who imprisoned her. She escaped – a dramatic saga in itself – and lived in exile in Nepal. Later, when finally allowed to see her son, the exiled Maharaja Duleep Singh who had been taken away when still a child, she died shortly thereafter in England in 1863 at the age of 46. She is credited for sowing the seeds of the subcontinent’s struggle for independence.

Not much is known about early life of the highest ranking female warrior in list, but her later life is well documented.

Her father, Malo Shah, was a part of the Akaal Sena created by Guru Hargobind and passed on his Shaster Vidhya (knowledge of weaponry and fighting) to his daughter a young age.

In 1704 a large Mughal force attacked the 10th Guru, Gobind Singh at Anandpur. After defeating the expeditionary unit led by Saiyad and Ramjan Khan, the Mughals returned under Wazir and Zaberdast Khan in May to kill or capture the Guru. They began laying a protracted siege. During the siege, many of the Guru's followers began to doubt their leader, openly rebelling. In response, the Guru told his followers that they were free to leave after signing a document stating that he was no longer their Guru and they were no longer his Sikhs. After consultation, 40 Sikhs from the Majha area agreed to sign the document and escaped from the siege. According to Max Arthur Macauliffe, a noted British historian, the number of Sikhs that left the Guru was actually considerably more, however the Singhs from Majha formed a significant core of the Guru's army.

Following the Battle of Anandpur, Battle of Sirsa and the Battle of Chamkaur in 1704, the Mughal Army relentlessly pursued the Guru across Panjab. Meanwhile, the 40 Sikhs had returned back to their native villages. On hearing the Guru's plight, the wife of Nidhan Singh Patti, Mai Bhago told her husband to take care of the household as she would go fight for the Guru's cause. Donning her armour and taking their horse, she began to gather the women of the local village together. Feeling ashamed, the 40 Sikhs had a change of heart and decided to follow the warrior princess into battle.

Mata Khivi followed Guru Nanak and prepared food for all who came to hear the Guru’s spiritual discourse. When her husband Angad became the second Sikh Guru, she presided over langar, a free and open kitchen, serving food to rich and poor of all castes, faiths and backgrounds. Today, every Sikh gurdwara in the world serves langar to the community and is open to all. Sikh and non-Sikh alike.

Matangini Hazra was known as Gandhi Buri. She participated in the Quit India Movement and Non-Cooperation Movement. During one procession, she continued to lead with the Indian flag even after being shot thrice. She kept shouting "Vande Mataram”. The first statue of a woman was put up in Kolkata, in Independent India and that was Hazra’s in 1977. The statue stands at the spot where she was killed in Tamluk. Even Hazra Road in Kolkata is also named after her.

Baba Sain Mir Mohammed Sahib (c. 1550 – 22 August 1635), popularly known as Mian Mir or Miyan Mir, was a famous Sufi Muslim saint who resided in Lahore, specifically in the town of Dharampura (in present-day Pakistan). He was a direct descendant of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab. He belonged to the Qadiri order of Sufism. He is famous for being a spiritual instructor of Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.[1][2] He is identified as the founder of the Mian Khel branch of the Qadiri order. His younger sister Bibi Jamal Khatun was a disciple of his and a notable Sufi saint in her own right.
Mian Mir was a friend of God-loving people and he would shun worldly, selfish men, greedy Emirs and ambitious Nawabs who ran after faqirs to get their blessings. To stop such people from coming to see him, Mian Mir posted his mureeds (disciples) at the gate of his house.[5]
Once, Jahangir, the Mughal emperor, with all his retinue came to pay homage to the great faqir. He came with all the pomp and show that befitted an emperor. Mian Mir's sentinels however, stopped the emperor at the gate and requested him to wait until their master had given permission to enter. Jahangir felt slighted. No one had ever dared delay or question his entry to any place in his kingdom. Yet he controlled his temper and composed himself. He waited for permission. After a while, he was ushered into Mian Mir's presence. Unable to hide his wounded vanity, Jahangir, as soon as he entered, told Mian Mir in Persian: Ba dar-e-darvis darbane naa-bayd ("On the doorstep of a faqir, there should be no sentry"). The reply from Mian Mir was, "Babayd keh sage dunia na ayad" (So that selfish men may not enter).[6]
The emperor was embarrassed and asked for forgiveness. Then, with folded hands, Jahangir requested Mian Mir to pray for the success of the campaign which he intended to launch for the conquest of the Deccan. Meanwhile, a poor man entered and, bowing his head to Mian Mir, made an offering of a rupee before him. The Sufi asked the devotee to pick up the rupee and give it to the poorest, neediest person in the audience. The devotee went from one dervish to another but none accepted the rupee. The devotee returned to Mian Mir with the rupee saying: "Master, none of the dervishes will accept the rupee. None is in need, it seems."[6]
"Go and give this rupee to him," said the faqir, pointing to Jahangir. "He is the poorest and most needy of the lot. Not content with a big kingdom, he covets the kingdom of the Deccan. For that, he has come all the way from Delhi to beg. His hunger is like a fire that burns all the more furiously with more wood. It has made him needy, greedy and grim. Go and give the rupee to him."

Nobody knows her by her name but she played an important role in the freedom struggle as the mother of Ram Prasad Bismil. Ram Prasad was a revolutionary involved in the famous Mainpuri Conspiracy case of 1918 and the Kakori Conspiracy of 1925. In Gorakhpur Jail on 19 Dec 1927, he was arrested and hanged.
Moolmati was a simple woman, supported and helped her son in his struggle for freedom. Also, she went to Gorakhpur jail to see her son before his hanging. Ram Prasad broke down on seeing his mother who remained unmoved. She was firm in her response and told him that she was proud to have a son like him. After his death in a speech at a public gathering, she raised her other son’s hand and offered him to the Independence movement. Without her unstinting support and belief in the freedom struggle, Ram Prasad Bismil might not have had the resolve to pursue the path he had chosen.