Annie
Besant
(1847 - 1933)
Annie Besant was born in London to Irish parents.
In 1893, she left for India having been influenced
by the Indian culture and civilization. She was famous
as a social worker, educationalist and journalist.
She
became a staunch supporter of Indian Independence
Movement and her contribution to India's freedom struggle
was remarkable. She founded the Home-Rule League.
She revived the Theosophical Society. In 1915, she
chaired the Calcutta session of the Indian National
Congress. She also edited 'New India'. She established
Indian Boy Scouts Association. She received a prestigious
award for her work for scouts. She also studied Hinduism.
India is indebted to Annie Besant for her immeasurable
work for freedom struggle, educational advancements
and social reforms. She died at the age of 86.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy:
(1772 - 1833)
Raja
Ram Mohan Roy was a zealous Social reformer holding
modern and progressive views. He was born in 1772,
in a prosperous and orthodox Brahmin family at Hoogly
in West Bengal.
He
stood firmly against all sort of social bigotry, conservatism
and superstitions and advocated English and western
education for his countrymen. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was
a great scholar too. He made a wide study of different
religions of the world including Christianity and
Islam. He also knew many languages like English, Persian,
Arabic, Latin, French and Hebrew. He was also a great
scholar of Bangla and translated Vedas and Upnishads
into Bengali.
He was honoured the title 'Raja' by the Moghul Emperor.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy believed in the fundamental unity
of all religions. In 1814, he founded, 'Atmiya Samaj'
and in 1828, the 'Brahma Samaj'. Through these organisations
he wanted to expose the religious hypocrisies and
to check the growing influence of Christianity on
the Hindu society.
By
far, the greatest achievement of Raja Ram Mohan Roy
as a social reformer was the abolition of 'Sati' in
1829, child marriage and 'Pardha'. He was been rightly
called the 'Father of Indian Nationalism'. He died
on 27th September 1833, in England.
Mother Teresa
(1920 - 1997)
Mother Teresa was born on 27th August 1910 in Spoje
(Yugoslavia). Her real name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhin.
After becoming a nun of the Roman Catholic church,
her name was changed to Mother Teresa. She came to
India on January 6, 1929 and was moved at the sight
of the crippled and helpless people on the pavements.
She became an Indian citizen in 1962.
She was the founder of 'Missionaries of Charity',
devoted to the working for the destitutes. There are
thousands of members working in the missionary organisations
established by her all over the country and abroad.
Calcutta was the center of her humanitarian activities.
She also started 'Nirmal Hriday' homes for the sick
and the dying and ' Shishu Bhavan' for the disabled
and mentally retarded children.
Mother Teresa received many national and international
awards in recognition of her noble work for humanity.
Some of them are: Nobel Peace Prize (1979), Bharat
Ratna (1980), Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International
peace (1972), Magsaysay Award (1962), Pope John XXIII
Peace Prize (1971), Good Samaritan Award (1971), John
. F. Kennedy International Award (1971), Rajiv Gandhi
Sadbhavana Award (1993) etc.
Baba Amte
(1914 - )
Baba Amte is a legend in a self-centred nation. With
Charity Destroys, Work Builds as his talisman, he
has given dignity to thousands of Indians afflicted
by leprosy, brought hope against exploitation to many
thousands of tribals and provided a way of life to
thousands abandoned by an uncaring society. For more
than half-a-century, Murlidhar Devidas Amte has fought
for forgotten causes, given voice to the voiceless.
Lepers eaten by maggots, tribals alien to civilisation,
orphans dying of malnutrition , the uncared for aged,
the neglected handicapped... he's taken them all and
given them a way of life in a singular message: 'Charity
destroys, work builds.' The motto on which was built
Anandwan, the sprawling home for leprosy patients
near Chandrapur in Maharashtra.
"Compassion
has no utopia, party or ideology," says
Baba Amte
Kiran Bedi
(1949 - )
Kiran Bedi was born on June 9, 1949. Her
father Prakash Lal Peshawaria, a landlord in Punjab
was determined to educate his four daughters at a
time when women were largely limited to doing household
tasks. Kiran Bedi was the first woman police officer
of the Indian Police Service. Spectators at the 1973
Republic Day Parade were amazed to see a lady at the
head of the Police Contingent. The then Prime Minister,
Mrs. lndira Gandhi was so impressed that she invited
Kiran for breakfast with her the very next day.
Anna
Hazare 
(1938
- )
Anna
Hazare was born at Bhingar on 15th June, 1938. He
was the eldest grandchild in the family and had his
primary school education at Bhingar. During the 1962
Chinese Aggression, Anna responded to a call to join
the army. Anna signed up and after due training was
assigned to the army supply corps as a driver of a
supplies truck. It was between 1962 and the Indo-Pakistan
war of 1965 that Anna Hazare was overcome by the urge
to seek meaning in life. Not finding an answer he
was driven to despondary and was consumed by a desire
to commit suicide. So strong was this urge, that he
went to Delhi and to the great Railway Station there
with the intension of committing suicide on the Railway
tracks. It was on the platform bookstall that his
imagination was captured by a book on Swami Vivekanand.
Purchasing and on begining to read it, he was increasingly
drawn to the philosophy with a simple message "A
Temple cannot be one if God does not reside within
; A Man's Life cannot be called a life if it is totally
bereft of service to humanity" In 1965, while
on active duty reading supplies to the front during
the war near Khemkaran in the Lahore sector, the supplies
convoy Hon. Anna Hazare was with, was attacked by
a couple of enemy salore Jets leaving most people
dead or grievously injured. The vehicle being driven
by Hon. Anna Hazare was severely hit, the Jawan (soldier)
sitting next to him had his legs blown off. Apart
from a sharpnel piece grazing his forehead, Anna Hazare
was miraculously unharmed. On thinking about this
incident a while later he took this incident to mean
that he had been given a new lease of life to spend
it in the service of the Country's poor. He made it
his life's mission to follow this tenet lucidly expounded
by Swami Vivekanand.
Anna opted for voluntry retirement, and armed with
a modest pension returned to his native Ralegan Siddhi
to serve his community. He resolved not to marry and
would start a family for that would have only bound
him to family responsibilities of keeping the Kitchen
fires well tended to. But he was never able to rid
himself of family bonds. Instead of the couple of
children his family would have been limited to he
was now responsible for the whole community his true
family. It was in 1965, during the Indo-Pak war that
he had a close brush with death, in the enemy attack.
All his colleagues were killed, He considered it to
be a virtual rebirth for himself, in a sense, the
previous life was over and a new life to begin. He
decided to devote rest of his life to social work.
When he returned to Ralegan in August 1975, he found
that there were 35-40 illicit liquor stills operating
in the village . Because of little rain, agriculture
output was low and hence some people per force turned
to this business. He began his activities with the
rehabilitation of this structure out of his own provident
fund and the gratuity receipts amounting to about
Rs.20,000. He knew that a Mandir is always regarded
as a sacred place by the villagers and it would be
the right place to bring the people together.
