Important Freedom Fighters of India

Dadabhai Naoroji
Brief biography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Well-known as the Grand Old Man of India.

He was the first Asian to be elected to the British House of Commons in 1892.
Author of book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India.
He prepared the first estimates of National income in 1876.
He was also the first Indian to be appointed as a Professor at the Elphinstone College, Bombay.
He was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress thrice in 1886, 1893 and 1906.
He started the newspaper Voice of India in 1883.
8. He was also the founder of Gyan Prasarak Mandali, an organistaion dedicated to spreading education among the adult.
C Rajagopalachari
Brief biography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Also known as Rajaji and CR, he was a laywer and a freedom fighter.
Rajagopalachari was the first and last Indian Governor-General of India.
In 1930 he led the salt march to Vedaranyam in Madras State.
He was one of first recipients of the Bharat Ratna in 1954 alongwith Dr. S Radhakrishnan and C.V. Raman.
He was the Home Minister from 1951 to 1952, Chief Minister of Madras from 1952 to 1954.
Rajaji founded the Swatantra Party in 1959 after breaking away from the Congress.
7. Rajaji was one of the favourites of Gandhi who described him as the "keeper of my conscience".

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Brief biography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Also known as Lokmanya Tilak, he was a scholar of Indian History, astronomy and Sanskrit.
He is well-known for his quote Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it.
He was considered by the British to be the Father of Indian Unrest.
Tilak along with Vishnushastry founded the Deccan Education Society to impart teachings about India culture to India's youth.
Tilak was also the founder of two weeklies, Kesari (in Marathi) and Maratha (in English) to highlight plight of Indians.
He also started the celebrations of Ganapati Festival and Shivaji Jayanti to bring people close together and join the nationalist movement against British.
He was one of the chief architects of the Swadeshi Movement alongwith Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai, launched with the partition of Bengal. The
three were fondly called Lal-Bal-Pal.
8. With the goal of Swaraj, he also built Home Rule League.
9. He was the author of the book Gita Rahasya and The Arctic Home in the Vedas.
10. He breathed his last on August 1, 1920, the day on which Non-cooperation Movement was launched by Mahatma Gandhi.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Brief biography
1. He is widely known as the political guru of Mahatma Gandhi.
2. He was the founder of Servants of India Society, in 1905, an organisation which worked for promoting education, sanitation, health care and fighting the
social evils of untouchability and discrimination, alcoholism, poverty etc.
3. He started his career as an Assistant Master in a school in Pune.
4. He was the leader of Soft Faction of the Congress party (Naram Dal), while Tilak led the Garam Dal (Hot Faction) of the party, when it split in 1907.
5. He was also the founder of leading daily from Nagpur, The Hitavada in 1911 (completing 100 years this year).
6. In 1885, Gokhale founded the Fergusson College in Pune.

Lala Lajpat Rai

Brief biography
1. Popularly known as Punjab Kesari or Lion of Punjab, he was a lawyer and a freedom fighter.
2. At the Bombay session of INC in 1889, he was linked with other two leading freedom fighters Bipin Chandra Pal and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The trio was
popularly known as Lal-Bal-Pal.
3. He was one of the pioneers of the Swadeshi Movement alongwith Bipin Chandra Pal and Lokmanya Tilak.
4. He went to USA for promoting the cause of Indias freedom struggle, where he founded the India Home League Society of America, which published a
monthly journal titled Young India. Click here to see the link
5. In 1920 he formed the Congress Independence Party in protest against the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre and Non Cooperation Movement.
6. His efforts saw the formation of Punjab National Bank in 1895.
7. He was the first President of the All India Trade Union Congress formed in 1920.
8. He founded the Servants of People Society which worked for the freedom movement as well as for social reform movement in the country.
9. His famous words Every blow aimed at me is a nail in the coffin of British imperialism were spoked when he received lathis blows during the protest
against the visit of Simon Commission.
10. Lala Lajpat Rai died in 1928 as a result of lathi blows.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Brief biography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

He was a renowned scholar well versed in Arabic, English, Urdu, Hindi, Persian and Bengali.
He adopted the pen name 'Azad' as a mark of his mental emancipation from a narrow view of religion and life.
Started a weekly journal Al Hilal to increase the revolutionary recruits amongst the Muslims.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna in 1992.
He was elected as Congress President in 1923, becoming the youngest person to hold the office. He was again elected the president in 1940.
He became independent India's first education minister.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born on November 11, 1888 in Mecca.

Brief biography
8. Azad met two leading revolutionaries of Bengal, Aurobindo Ghosh and Sri Shyam Shundar Chakravarty, and joined the revolutionary movement against
British rule.
9. He helped setup secret revolutionary centers all over north India and Bombay.
10. He was one of the main organisers of the Dharasana Satyagraha in 1931, which was a non-violent raid on Dharasana Salt Works.
11. He was a member of the Foundation Committee of the Jamia Milia Islamia which met in 1920.
12. He is the author of the book India Wins Freedom.

Motilal Nehru
Brief biography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Father of Jawaharlal Nehru, he was one of the best lawyers of the country.
He was elected to the Presidentship of Congress President twice.
He formed the Swaraj Party alongwith Chittaranjan Das.
In 1923, Nehru was elected to the new Central Legislative Assembly of British India in New Delhi and became leader of the Opposition.
He was chairman of the All Parties Conference which put up the Nehru Report, a draft constitution which recommended full dominion status for India.
6. He launched the daily paper Independent in 1919.

Madan Mohan Malaviya

Brief biography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Often addressed as Mahamana, he was an educationist, lawyer and freedom fighter.

He founded the Banaras Hindu University in 1916.
He represented India at the First Round Table Conference.
He founded the newspaper The Leader published from Allahabad.
He also edited the weekly Hindustan and the daily The Indian Union at different times.
6. He was elected the President of Indian National Congress on four ocassions - 1909, 1918, 1932 and 1933.

Important Revolutionaries of India

Bhagat Singh
Important Points to Remember
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

He helped organise Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha in 1926 and became its founding secretary.
He was the involved in the murder of Mr. Saunders in order to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai.
He re-organised Hindustan Republic Association under the leadership of Chandershekhar Azad and renamed it Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.
He was the author of the famous pamphlet Why I am Atheist.
He once declared before the Lahore High Court "The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting stone of ideas."
He alongwith Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs in the Legislative Assembly chamber in Delhi against the passage of Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes
Bill.
7. He was hanged alongwith Rajguru and Sukhdev on Mar 23, 1931 in Lahore Jail.

Chandershekhar Azad
Important Points to Remember
1.
2.
3.
4.

Born Chandershekhar Tiwari, he adopted the surname Azad which means free.
He had vowed never to be caught alive by the British.
He was the chief re-organiser of the Hindustan Republican Socialist Association after the death of its founder Ram Prasad Bismil.
He was involved in the Kakori Train Dacoity but managed to evade arrest.
5. He shot himself dead at the end of an encounter in Alfred Park, Allahabad on 27 Feb 1931.

Ram Prasad Bismil

Important Points to Remember
1. Author of the famous poem Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna.
2. He masterminded the Kakori Train Dacoity alongwith Ashfaqullah Khan.
3. He was a co-founder of Hindustan Republican Association alongwith Sachindranath Sanyal.
4. He was hanged by the British on 19 Dec 1927 in Gorakhpur Jail.

Sachindranath Sanyal
Important Points to Remember
1. He was the founder of Hindustan Republican Association alongwith Ram Prasad Bismil.
2. Author of the famous book Bandi Jeevan.
3. He was sentenced to life in the Kakori Train Dacoity and sent to Cellular Jail in the Andamans.
4. He was also involved in the Ghadar Conspiracy case.

Ashfaqulla Khan
Important Points to Remember
1. One of the members of the Hindustan Republican Association.
2. He was actively involved in the Kakori Train Dacoity, alongwith Ramprasad Bismail.
3. He was sentenced to death and hanged by the British on 19 Dec 1927 at Faizabad Jail.
4. At his gallows he said My hands are not soiled with the murder of man, God will give me justice.

Khudiram Bose
Important Points to Remember
1.
2.
3.
4.

He was one of the youngest of the revolutionaries of the Indian Independence Movement who died at the age of 18 years.
He was drawn into the nationalist movement during the protest against the partition of Bengal by the British.
He joined Jugantar a party of revolutionary activists.
He and Praful Chaki were selected by the party to assassinate the Chief Presidency Magistrate Kingsford who was known to make brutal and blatant
judgments against freedom fighters.
5. However, they were not successful and killed the family of barrister Kennedy instead.
6. Khudiram was arrested on the charges of bomb attack and was sentenced to death on August 11, 1908.

Surya Sen
Important Points to Remember
1. He was well-known for the Chittagong Armoury Raid in 1930.
2. He hoisted the Indian National Flag at the Chittagong armoury and proclaimed a Provisional Revolutionary Government.
3. He was arrested and hanged by the British in 02 Jan 1934.

Lala Hardayal
Important Points to Remember
1. Most well-known for forming the Ghadar Party in America in 1913.
2. The Ghadar Party is well-known for the Ghadar Conspiracy under which Indian soldiers were to be instigated to start rebellion against the British during
World War I. The plan was however foiled by the British.
3. He had spurned a career in ICS to joing the freedom movement.
4. He was associated with Madame Bhikaji Cama and Veer Savarkar.

Madame Bhikaji Cama

Important Points to Remember
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Well known for unfurling the first Indian National Flag in the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart (Germany) in 1907.
After Stuttgart, Madame Cama went to the United States and was known as "Mother India's first cultural representative to the United States".
She published revolutionary magazines Vande Mataram and Madan's Talwar which were banned by the British.
She urged people to "March forward! We are for India. India is for Indians!"
She also co-founded the Paris Indian Society in Paris in 1905.
6. She also served as a private secretary to Dadabhai Naoroji.

Madan Lal Dhingra

Important Points to Remember
1. Well-known for the assassination of Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie in London on 01 Jul 1909.
2. He was a keen follower of Vinayak Savarkar.
3. He was tried and hanged in London on 17 August 1909.

Udham Singh
Important Points to Remember
1. Well-known for the assassination of Michael O'Dwyer in March 1940 to avenge the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre.
2. Udham Singh changed his name to Ram Mohammad Singh Azad, symbolising the unity of three religions in India.
3. Udham Singh was an active member of the Ghadar Party in America.
4. He was hanged in Pentonville Prison, London on 31 July 1940.

Rash Behari Bose

Important Points to Remember
1. Well-known for the assassination bid on the life of Lord Hardinge in Delhi in 1912.
2. He formed the Indian National Army with the help of Captain Mohan Singh and Sardar Pritam Singh on September 1, 1942.
3. Rash Behari was an active member of the Ghadar Conspiracy in America.

Jatin Das
Important Points to Remember