Biography

Raman At Tata Institute, Effect On Brain Drain and Encouraging Original Thinker

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The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

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Raman At Tata Institute, Effect On Brain Drain and Encouraging Original Thinker

Raman At Tata Institute

Dr. Raman came to Bangalore as the Director of the Tata Institute (the Indian Institute of Science) in 1933. The Tata Institute soon became famous for the study of crystals. The diffraction of light (the very slight bending of light around comers) by ultrasonic waves (high-frequency sound waves which we cannot hear) in a liquid was elegantly explained by Raman and Nagendranath. This became known as the ‘Raman-Nath Theory’.

Raman was an early riser and used to take morning walks regularly. The sight of tall trees against the sky at dawn delighted him. By six in the morning, he would be in the chamber where he worked. Up to 9 a.m., he would devote his time to discussing with students who were experimenting and to the study of research papers. At 10 o’clock he would be in the Director’s office. He would complete the office work and return to the laboratory. He would be immersed in research till 8.30 p.m. He used to arrange two or three seminars every week. At these seminars all the workers would come together to discuss various problems of their research.

Raman Effect On Brain Drain

One event shows the extra-ordinary pride Raman felt as an Indian. Very many years later, when Raman had received worldwide recognition, there was an event. This was around 1933, when Raman was in Bangalore as the Director of what is now the Indian Institute of Science, then known as the Tata Institute. At that time, several German Physicists were fleeing their country to escape the atrocities committed by Hitler. Raman, who was opposed to young Indians going abroad for education, rather believed in getting great international stalwarts here. So he approached several of the German Physicists who were fleeing Germany and tried to attract them to take up permanent jobs in India.

Amongst the persons he approached are distinguished Physicists like Erwin Schrodinger and Max Bom, both Nobel laureates. Unfortunately, as Schrodinger himself wrote in a letter, he had already accepted a job at Dublin when Raman’s invitation reached him. Schrodinger also wrote in that letter, that he regretted that he could not settle in India, the land of the Upanishads.

Encouraging Science & Research

After retirement from the Indian Institute of Science in 1948 he started an Institute of his own with the sponsorship of the Indian Academy of Sciences which he had founded in 1935, in the hope that it would “become an international cultural center that would shown India’s greatness in the field of exact sciences.” The Raman Institue, besides being well equipped for research in the fields of spectroscopy, optics, X-rays, crystal physics and mineralogy, houses an outstanding museum attached to the Institute containing a magnificent collection of rocks and minerals, and possibly the largest collection in the world today of diamonds for experimental investigations.

The Government of Mysore granted 24 acres of land to promote the activities of the Academy. It was his earnest desire ‘to bring into existence a centre of scientific research worthy of our ancient country, where the keenest intellectuals of our land can probe into the mysteries of the Universe’. He fulfilled his wish by establishing a Research Institute at Hebbal, Bangalore. He did not seek help from the Government but gave away all his property to the Institute. The Executive Committee of the Academy named the centre ‘Raman Research Institute’.

In 1948, this great scientist entered on one more active phase of life when he became the Director of the Raman Research Institute. The Institute became the centre of all his activities. A garden and tall eucalyptus trees surrounded it. He used to say, “A Hindu is required to go to the forest in old age, but instead of going to the forest, I made the forest come to me.” At the Institute he could concentrate on things that interested him. He was alone with his work and was happy.

He did research on sound, light, rocks, gems, birds, insects, butterflies, sea shells, trees, flowers, atmosphere, weather and physiology of vision and hearing. His study covered such different fields of science as Physics, Geology, Biology and Physiology. Among them sound and colours particularly attracted him. Once he even went round shops to select sarees of different colour designs.

His interests in later years were mainly focused on finding a satisfactory explanation of the floral colours and the physiology of human vision. For his continued and relentless pursuit of science, honours continued to pour in. In 1941 he was awarded the Franklin medal, the title ‘Bharat Ratna’, the highest honour by India is 1954, the Lenin Prize in 1957, elected as an honorary fellow of the Optical Society of America, foreign Associate of the French Academy, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Pointificial Academy of Sciences by the Pope in 1961, fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, and memberships in numerous other scientific societies throughout the world.

Raman : Original Thinker & Reader

Dr. C.V. Raman was one of the world renowned scientists of India. He was a brilliant, industrious and disciplined student. He was also an original thinker. During his youth, India was not a free country, and there were hardly any institutions or libraries to encourage for higher education. Despite these hurdles, Raman was able to contribute so greatly to Indian science. It was possible only because of his deep and genuine passion for physics and his commitment to finding answers to questions that puzzled him.

Raman was an intelligent and voracious reader and pored eagerly over all the books in his father’s collection. Some among those were the original writings of the outstanding scientists. He once said, “out of this welter of subjects and books, can I pick anything really mould my mental and spiritual outlook and determine my chosen path? Yes, I can and shall mention three books.”

“They are Edwin Arnold’s ‘Light of Asia’ which is the life story of Lord Gautama Buddha. Second is ‘The Elements of Euclid’, is a treatise on Classical Geometry. ‘The Sensations of Tone’ is the last one and is authored by German scientist Helmholtz, on the properties of sound waves.”

Introduction and Family History of Dr. C.V. Raman

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Introduction and Family History of Dr. C.V. Raman

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Introduction and Family History of Dr. C.V. Raman

Introduction

Introduction and Family History of Dr. C.V. Raman 1
“I am a man of Science.”

C.V. Raman is one of the most renowned scientists, produced by India. His full name was Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. For his pioneering work on the scattering of light, C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Tiruchirapalli in Southern India on November 7. 1888. His father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics so from the very beginning, he was immersed in an academic atmosphere. C.V. Raman entered the Presidency College, Madras, in 1902, and in 1904 passed his Bachelors examination, winning the first place and the gold medal in Physics. In 1907, he gained his Master’s degree, obtaining the highest distinctions.

His earliest researches in optics and acoustics, the two fields of investigation to which he has dedicated his entire career, were carried out while he was a student.

Raman wanted to go to England for further studies but he was declared physically unfit to go to England by the Civil Surgeon of Madras. Raman then joined the Indian Finance Department in 1907 after topping the Financial Civil Services (FCS) examination. Though the duties of his office took most of his time, Raman found opportunities for carrying on experimental research in the laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science at Calcutta (Kolkata) of which he became the Honorary Secretary in 1919.

In 1917, he was offered the newly endowed Palit Chair of Physics at Kolkata University, and decided to accept it. After 15 years at Calcutta, he became Professor at the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore (1933-1948). Raman also founded the Indian Journal of Physics in 1926, of which he was the Editor. He sponsored the establishment of the Indian Academy of Sciences and served as president since its inception. He also initiated the proceedings of that academy, in which much of his work has been published.

In 1922, Raman published his work on the “Molecular Diffraction of Light”, the first of a series of investigations with his collaborators which ultimately led to his discovery of the radiation effect on February 28, 1928 and gained him the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Other investigations carried out by Raman were his experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published in 1934-1942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light.

In 1948, Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, approached in a new manner the fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. His laboratory had been dealing with the structure and properties of diamond, the structure and optical behaviour of numerous iridescent substances. Among his other interests had been the optics of colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and the physiology of human vision.

Raman has been honoured with a large number of honorary doctorates and memberships of scientific societies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society early in his career (1924), and was knighted in 1929. Dr. C.V. Raman died on November 21, 1970, at the age of eighty two.

Introduction of Dr. C.V. Raman

Family History

Tiruchirapalli is a town on the banks of the river Cauvery. R. Chandrasekhara Iyer was a teacher in a school there. He was a scholar in Physics and Mathematics. He loved music. His wife was Parvathi Ammal. Their second son was bom on 7th November 1888. They named the boy Venkata Raman. He was also called Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman or C.V. Raman.
Introduction and Family History of Dr. C.V. Raman 2
Raman was three years old when his father joined the A.V.N. College at Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, as lecturer in Mathematics and Physics. He had procured an excellent collection of books on Physics, Mathematics and Philosophy. Chandrasekhara Iyer was a great lover of music and played violin extremely well.

Raman looked very ordinary and quite unimpressive in his childhood but he had the brain of a genius.

Some Selected Works of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

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Some Selected Works of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Some Selected Works of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

Some Selected Works

What right has an English King to the wealth of our land?

In 19th century India – when the country was still under the British reign after having been ruled by the Mughals for a few centuries – a strong voice had emerged championing the cause of Hindu nationalism – the voice that believed answers to many of the inconvenient questions the country was asking then lay in India’s Hindu heritage.

His epic Anandamath—set in the background of the Sanyasi Rebellion (late 18th century), when Bengal was facing a famine too – made Bankim Chandra Chatterjee an influential figure on the Bengali renaissance who kept the people of Bengal intellectually stimulated through his literary campaign. The novel became synonymous with India’s struggle for freedom from the British – who banned it. India got its national song, Vande Mataram, from Anandamath.

Though Bankim remained in government service for long, he found his calling in writing – much like his elder brother Sanjeebchandra. He had studied Sanskrit and was very interested in the subject, but later took on the responsibility to make Bengali the language of the masses. Interestingly, however, his first published work – a novel – was in English.

Bankim Chandra also founded a monthly literary magazine, Banga Darshan, in 1872, through which Bankim is credited with influencing the emergence of a Bengali identity and nationalism. Many of his novels were published in this magazine in the form of serials. Besides, it had works by scholars, literary critics and other intellectuals. There were articles on the Puranas and the Vedas – exhorting the intellectual community to stay rooted while embracing the ideas of modernity.

Bankim Chandra wanted the magazine to work as the medium of communication between the educated and the uneducated classes at a time English had become the language of communication between the educated class, widening the gulf between the higher and lower ranks of society.

The magazine carried fiction too, and his serialized novels were a hit with the readers – especially the literate women. Almost all of Bankim’s novels were published in it.

The legendary Rabindranath Tagore was an 11-year-old bright boy when Banga Darshan was launched. He would read the magazine with great enthusiasm, as he later wrote in his recollections of childhood, “It was bad enough to have to wait till the next monthly number was out, but to be kept waiting further till my elders had done with it was simply intolerable.”

The magazine stopped publication in the late 1880s, but was resurrected in 1901 with Tagore himself as its editor. While it carried Tagore’s writings – including his first full- length novel ChokherBali – the ‘new’ Banga Darshan retained its original philosophy, nurturing the nationalistic spirit. During the Partition of Bengal (1905), the magazine played a vital role in giving an outlet to the voices of protest and dissent. Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla – the national anthem of Bangladesh now – was first published in Banga Darshan.

Nationalistic writings apart, Bankim Chandra was gifted as a storyteller too. While he wrote several novels, here is a look at five of his most popular works of fiction.

Rajmohan’s Wife: Bankim Chandra’s debut work, Rajmohan’s Wife, is said to be the first published novel in English by an Indian. Serialised in Bangadarshan, the book has plots and characters symbolically mapping the birth of modern India and the emergence of the modern Indian woman in the 19th century. The novel has protagonist Matangini – a beautiful woman married to a brutal man – in love with her sister’s husband.

It depicts the strength of her character who remains strong discharging her duties and living up to the expectations of middle-class society. The story shows Matangini as a woman who is not scared to break rules and face consequences, as she sets out in the middle of the night to foil her husband’s plot to harm her sister and her husband. The book portrays a realistic picture of a 19th- century Bengal village, its people and landscape.

Debi Choudhurani: After Anandamath, Bankim Chandra continued his call for a resurgent India that fights against oppression with strength from within, steeped in traditional Indian values. The story fuelled the patriotic struggle for Independence and the British government banned it. The ban was lifted post-1947. In this novel, Bankim Chandra showed the armed face-to-face conflict with the British Army being led by a woman. The character, Prafulla, is married but is shunned by her wealthy in-laws right after the wedding rituals get over. As the heartbroken father dies soon after and the family is left in penury, Prafulla flees in the middle of the night one day, only to end up as a dacoit fighting the British. The ending, where she asks for forgiveness from her father-in-law and requests to be taken back as her daughter-in-law, though disappoints many, is seen as a compromise Bankim Chandra might have had to make for his story to be accepted by the then conservative society. The novel was later adapted into a film in 1974, starring Suchitra Sen in the lead role.

Kapalkundala : Published in 1866, Kapalkundala is the story of another woman with grit. Forest-dwelling girl Kapalkundala falls in love and marries an urban Nabakumar, but finds it difficult to fit into a city life, which she abandons. One of his finest works of fiction, Kapalkundala has been translated into several Indian and foreign languages.

Vishvriksha : This book (1873) too has a young and beautiful widow and the married male protagonist falling for her. The tragic tale of love also deals with the social issue of widow remarriage. Bankim Chandra was well ahead of his times when dealing with women’s issues. Vishavriksha shows women-even the caring wife being cheated by her husband-as liberal enough to live life on their own terms.

Krishnakanter Will : The popular novel – first published in 1878 – is the story of a love triangle involving a couple and a young widow. The very contemporary plot has made it a subject for several TV serials and movies till date.

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

Bankim’s Last Days

When Bankim Chandra retired he was eager to write many books. But he was not able to devote many years to writing on a large scale.

The study of the Bhagavad Gita gradually changed his very temperament itself. He gave up writing novels. Philosophy and thoughts of God filled his writing. He wrote ‘Krishna Charitra’, and books on religion. He began the translation of the Gita and the Vedas. But he died before he could complete the translation of the Vedas.

Towards his end, he grew very philosophical. He lost all interest in worldly pleasure. Though he was ailing for quite sometime he refused medicine. His health soon declined and he died when he was only fifty-six.

Bankim Chandra died on April 8, 1894. In his lifetime, he wrote numerous novels, stories and essays and his works were translated into several languages. Anandamath was later published in English as The Abbey of Bliss.

Bankim’s Last Days

Major Works

Poetry Collection

  • Lauta O Manas (1858)

Fiction

  • Durgeshnandini (March 1865)
  • Kapalkundala (1866)
  • Mrinalini (1869)
  • Vishavriksha (The Poison Tree, 1873)
  • Indira (1873, revised 1893)
  • Jugalanguriya (1874)
  • Radharani (1876, enlarged 1893)
  • Chandrasekhar (1877)
  • Kamalakanter Daptar (From the Desk of Kamlakanta, 1875)
  • Rajni (1877)
  • Krishnakanter Wil (Krishnakanta’s Will, 1878)
  • Rajsimha (1882)
  • Anandamath (1882)
  • Devi Chaudhuranj (1884)
  • Kamalakanta (1885)
  • Sitaram (March 1887)
  • Muchiram Gurer Jivancharita (The Life of Muchiram Gur)

Essays

  • Lok Rahasya (Essays on Society, 1874, enlarged 1888)
  • Bijnan Rahasya (Essays on Science, 1875)
  • Bichitra Prabandha (Assorted Essays), Vol 1 (1876) and Vol 2 (1892)
  • Samya (Equality, 1879)

Religious Commentaries

  • Krishna Charitra (History of Krishna, 1886)
  • Dharmatattva (Principles of Religion, 1888)
  • Devatattva (Principles of Divinity, Published Posthumously)
  • Srimadvagavat Gita, a Comm¬entary on the Bhagavad Gita (1902-Published Posthumously)

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s first novel was an English one and he also started writing his religious and philosophical essays in English.

Timeline

1838: Born on 26 June in Kanthalpara village of West Bengal
1858 : Graduated with a Degree in Arts
1859: Became Deputy Collector in Indian Civil Service, by British Government
1859 : First wife died, second marriage after sometime
1860-61 : Wrote his first English novel ‘Rajmohan’s Wife
1865 : First Bengali Novel ‘Durgeshnandini’ published
1869: Obtained a Degree in Law
1872 : Brought out monthly magazine ‘Banga Darshan
1882 : Famous Novel ‘Anandamath’ published
1891 : Retired from Government Service
1892 : Honoured with title of ‘Roy Bahadur’
1894 : Became Companion, Order of the Indian Empire (C3E) 4
1894 : Passed away on 8th April

Biography of Famous Personalities of India | Famous Indian Personalities and Their Autobiographies

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Biography of Famous Personalities of India

Famous Indian Personalities | Great Personalities of India

Biography of Acharya Vinoba Bhave

Biography of Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Biography of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

Biography of Dr. C.V. Raman

Biography of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

Biography of Jawaharlal Nehru

Biography of Lal Bahadur Shastri (Former Prime Minister of India)

Biography of Lala Lajapat Rai

Biography of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan

Biography of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Biography of Munshi Premchand

Biography of Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya

Biography of Rabindranath Tagore

Biography of Raj Kapoor (the Great Showman)

Biography of Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Biography of Shaheed Bhagat Singh

Biography of Subhash Chandra Bose

Biographys of Indira Gandhi

Raj Kapoor’s Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career

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Raj Kapoor’s Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Raj Kapoor’s Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career

Early Life and Family Background

A woman always has her man, but the man unconsciously leans on his roots, his heritage. He feels like an orphan without his parents.

Born Ranbir Raj Kapoor on 14 December 1924 at the Kapoor Haveli near Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar, into a Punjabi Hindu family to thespian Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarni Devi Kapoor. Prithviraj was the son of Dewan Basheshwar Nath Kapoor and grandson of Dewan Keshavmal Kapoor. Prithviraj had three sons and one daughter.
Raj Kapoor's Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career 1
Kapoors later on moved from Peshawar into present-day India for residence and for education. As Prithviraj Kapoor moved from city to city early in his career during the 1930s, the family had to move too. The constant move meant Raj Kapoor attended several different schools in cities like Dehradun, Calcutta and Mumbai. Prithviraj acted both in films and theatre,

Raj Kapoor had failed in his matriculation examination. Drawn towards cinema, he started working as an assistant on the sets of Dilip Kumar’s first film, Bombay Talkies’ Jwar Bhata.
Raj Kapoor's Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career 2
Raj Kapoor’s younger brothers are the actors late Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor. He also had a sister by name Urmila Sial.

Shammi Kapoor used to refer to himself as the first Kapoor born on Indian soil. He was born in 1931 and forayed into films in 1952. He had moderate success till 1961, when Junglee released and turned him into a sensation.
Raj Kapoor's Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career 3
The youngest of Prithviraj’s ciildren, Shashi Kapoor was born in Calcutta. His childhood was spent in the backstage of Prithvi Theatre, the travelling theatre group that used to tour eight months every year all over India. He started off as a child artiste in RK films like Aog and Awara. He made his lead debut in 1961 with Dharmputra.

Famous film personalities Boney Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor are also somewhat related to the Kapoor family as they are the sons of Prithviraj Kapoor’s cousin Surinder Kapoor.

Personal Life

Remembering the old days sometimes is very good For health.

In 1946, at 22, Raj Kapoor married Krishna Malhotra belonging to Jabalpur, in a traditional family-arranged wedding. Krishna was a distant relative, his father’s maternal uncle’s daughter.
Raj Kapoor's Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career 4
In the June edition of the year 1946 of Film India which was a cine-magazine, the news of this epic marriage was revealed along with a caption of “versatile son of Prithviraj Kapoor ended his career of wild oats”.

Their marriage was a arranged marriage and after marriage Kapoors wanted Krishna Malhotra to become a daughter-in-law, wife and mother in a traditional mould and she proved herself to be that.

Rajendra Nath, Prem Nath and Narendra Nath are Krishna’s brothers who later became film actors while her sister Uma was married to Prem Chopra who is a famous film villain.

Raj Kapoor and Krishna’s eldest son Randhir Kapoor was born in 1947, followed by their elder daughter Ritu the year after, in 1948. The second son, Rishi Kapoor was born in 1952, and second daughter Reema in 1956. Their youngest son, Rajiv Kapoor was born in 1962. Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and Rajiv Kapoor have all been associated with Bollywood as actors, directors or producers.

Raj Kapoor is also known to have had a longtime romantic relationship with the renowned actress Nargis during the 1950s. The couple starred in several films together, including Awara and Shree 420. He is also alleged to have had an affair with Vyjayantimala, his co-star in Sangam.

His grand daughters are Bollywood actress, Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor, the daughters of his eldest son Randhir Kapoor by his wife Babita.
In Ranbir Kapoor, the son of Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, his family has found another Kapoor scion to join the ranks of the Hindi Film Industry.

Raj Kapoor Family Tree

Raj Kapoor's Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career 5
Raj Kapoor's Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career 6

Film Career

If you cry, cry on a Friend’s shoulder. If you die, go on a Friend’s shoulder.

Raj Kapoor began his career as a clapper boy assisting Kedar Sharma at a film studio. At age eleven, he appeared in films for the first time, in the 1935 film Inquilab. After acting in several other films for the next 12 years, Raj Kapoor’s big break came with the lead role in Neel Kamal (1947) opposite Madhubala who too was in her first role as a leading lady in the film.
Raj Kapoor's Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career 7
In 1948, at the age of twenty-four, he established his own studio, RK Films, and became the youngest film director of his time. His first movie as a producer, director and star was the 1948 film Aag which was also the first of his many films with actress Nargis. However the film failed to do well at the box office.
Raj Kapoor's Early Life, Family, Personal life and Film Career 8
In 1949 he once again starred alongside Nargis and Dilip Kumar in Mehboob Khan’s classic blockbuster Andaz which was his first major success as an actor.

He went on to produce, direct and star in many box office hits such as Barsaat (1949), Awora (1951), Shree 420 (1955), Chori Chori (1956) and Jis Desh Men Gango Behti Hai (1960). These films established his screen image as The Tramp modeled on Charlie Chaplin’s most famous screen persona.

In 1964 he produced, directed and starred in Sangam which was his first film in colour. This was his last major success as a leading actor. He moved onto directing and starring in his ambitious 1970 fiim, Mera Naam Joker, which took more than six years to complete. The film was said to be loosely based on his own life. When released in 1970, it was however a box office disaster putting him into a financial crisis. Despite this setback, the film was much later acknowledged as a misunderstood classic and Raj Kapoor himself regarded this film as his favourite.

Raj Kapoor bounced back in 1971 when he co-starred with his eldest son Randhir Kapoor in Randhir’s acting and directorial debut Kal Aaj Aur Kal which also starred Raj’s father Prithviraj Kapoor as well as Randhir’s wife to be Babita. From then on he acted in films as a character actor and focused on producing and directing films.

He launched his second eldest son Rishi Kapoor’s career when he produced and directed Bobby (1973) which was not only a huge box office success but also introduced actress Dimple Kapadia, later a very popular actress, and was the first of a new generation of teen romances. Dimple wore bikinis in the film which was quite unique for Indian films then.

In the later half of the 1970s and early 1980s he produced and directed films which focused on the female protagonists: Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978) with Zeenat Aman, Prem Rog (1982) with Padmini Kolhapure and Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) which introduced Mandakini.

Raj Kapoor’s last major film appearance was in Vakil Babu (1982). His last acting role was a cameo appearance in a 1984 released British made-for-television film titled Kim.

Raj Kapoor continued to make films of varying critical and popular success up until his death in 1988, and apparently considered Mera Naam Joker his personal favourite. He is still a well-known name not only in India, but in the Middle East, SE Asia, and Eastern Europe. His descendants have attempted to continue the RK Films banner.

Family History of Rabindranath Tagore

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Family History of Rabindranath Tagore

The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Family History of Rabindranath Tagore

Family History

Rabindranath Tagore was born on May 7, 1861 into the rich Tagore family of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in West Bengal.

His grandfather, Dwarakanath Tagore was an entrepreneur and the founder of the great Tagore family of Jorasanko. The contemporaries called him a prince as he had been to Britain where he was first described as a prince by the people coming in contact with him and also because his lifestyle in Calcutta (now Kolkata) was marked by princely grandeur and influence.

Dwarkanath was one of those agents and officers of European traders who made the first generation of the Bengali entrepreneurs and socio-political activists.

Like most other successful Brahmin families of Bengal, the Thakurs also claim their ancestry from those pure Brahmins believed to have been invited by King Adisura from Kanauj.

However, the founding member of the modem Tagore family was Joyram, an amin of the 24-Parganas. Joyram had four sons; one of whom was Nilmani, who served as a Serestadar in Chittagong district during British period.

Nilmani’s son, Ramlochan, a rich banian and businessman had adopted Dwarkanath. The family name Thakur (lord) is said to have been conferred by the people of the fishing village Govindpur, who felt to have been privileged by being served by the Pirali Brahmins ritually.

However, the members of the Thakur family proved to be immensely entrepreneurial. Such a trait was attributed by Dwarkanath Tagore to a sense of injury resulting from the indignity that other superior Brahmins had inflicted on them. No member of the Thakur family including even Rabindranath could set up any matrimonial connection with the superior Brahmin families due to alleged caste inferiority.

Tagore was born the youngest of fourteen children in the Jorasanko mansion of parents Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. After undergoing his rite at age eleven, Tagore and his father left Calcutta (now Kolkata) on February 14, 1873 to tour India for several months, visiting his father’s Shantiniketan estate and Amritsar before reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie.

Dwarkanath was one of those agents and officers of European traders who made the first generation of the Bengali entrepreneurs and socio-political activists. The first person of the Thakurs to leave their parental home in Jessore and join the rank of banians to the Europeans was one Panchanan, who worked with the French as a banian in the late 17th century.

Dwarkanath learnt, as an apprentice, the laws of the Permanent Settlement and also the laws and procedures of the Supreme Court of Calcutta, sadr and zila courts and started his legal career very successfully in 1815. Soon he started expanding the modest zamindari estate that he inherited from his father, Ramlochan.

In 1830, Dwarkanath bought in auction Kaligram zamindari in Rajshahi district and in 1834, Shahazadpur in Pabna district. His zamindari had many partners and co-purchasers. But Dwarkanath held four large estates— Berhampur, Pandua, Kaligram and Shahazadpur without partners and he placed them in trust for his sons and their descendants in 1840.

The unique aspect of Dwarkanath’s zamindari management was that he looked at it entrepreneurially, not feudally, as was the normal habit of his contemporary counterparts. He engaged several European experts to manage his estates.

Dwarkanath made his early fortune from his lucrative service as a Serestadar and later diwan, under the Board of Customs, Salt and Opium. He served for twelve years as a diwan.

Alongside his service, he joined credit market as a moneylender to salt manufacture and others, a practice that was interpreted by his colleagues and contemporaries as sheer bribe in disguise. Incidentally, once he was accused officially of the alleged traffic, but in the absence of concrete evidence, the court acquitted him with honour. In addition to moneylending, he had laid out capital in export trade with a famous form, Mackintosh & Company. He had shares in Union Bank, when it was established in 1829. All these including zamindari control were pursued alongside his service with the Company’s commercial department.

In 1835, the government honoured Dwarkanath with the post of Justice of the Peace, an honourary position newly opened to Indians.

By 1840, he stood at the summit of his entrepreneurial life. He had investments in shipping, export trade, insurance, banking, coal mine, indigo, urban real estates and in zamindari estates. He engaged several European managers to look after his concerns.

Influenced by his European friends, Dwarkanath Tagore resolved to visit Britain like his friend and philosopher Raja Rammohan Roy. On January 9, 1842, he boarded his own steamer, The India, for Suez. His European physician Dr MacGowan, his nephew Chandra Mohan Chatterjee, his aide-de-camp Paramananda Moitra, three Hindu servants, and a Muslim cook accompanied him.

In London, the British Prime Minister Robert Peel; President of Board of Control Lord Fitzgerald; Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, and Queen Victoria received him.

He spent June 23 with the Queen, reviewing troops. On July 8, he was invited to a dinner with the Queen. The Queen noted in her diary, ‘The Brahmin speaks English remarkably well, and is a very intelligent, interesting man’.

Same year Dwarkanath left England for Paris, where he was received by the French king Louis-Philippe at St. Cloud on October 28.

He returned to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in December 1842. The business recession of the early 1840s and his newly acquired princely lifestyle led to the collapse of his business empire and made him a debtor to many people and companies. The debts accumulated until his death were so huge that it took his son, Devendranath Thakur, almost all his life to make the family free from encumbrances. It was not only Dwarkanath, whose businesses went red in the hard days of early 1840s, but also many others like him were ruined due to the depression.

Rabindranath’s father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore was born on May 15, 1817 at the Tagore family of Jor&sanko in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Debendranath studied at home from 1823 to 1825. In 1827, he got admitted to Anglo-Hindu College, established by Raja Rammohun Roy.

After studying there for some time in Anglo-Hindu college, he began looking after his father’s property and business as well as cultivating philosophy and religion. The death of his grandmother in 1938 brought about a psychological change in him. He became attracted to religion and began studying Mahabharat, Upanisads, eastern and western philosophies and many other subjects.

He soon lost interest in worldly affairs and started to seek God. He set up ‘Tattvaranjani (Tattvabodhini) Sabha’ in 1839 to facilitate discussions on different philosophies; this was later renamed as ‘Tattvabodhini Sabha’. At this time he published a Bangla translation of Kathopanisad.

In 1842, Debendranath headed the Tattvabodhini Sabha and Brahmo Samaj. The next year Tattvabodhini Patrika appeared with his financial support and under Hhe editorship of Akshay Kumar Datta.The journal started publishing the Upanisads alongwith Debendranath’s Bangla translation. It was at his initiative that the Vedas started being read at open meetings.

In 1844, Debendranath introduced the forms of Brahmo worship and from 1845 the Brahmo Samaj began using them. Long years of exercise with the scriptures convinced him that it was not possible to base the Brahmo religion only on the Upanisads. So in 1848, he started serialising the Bangla translation of Rig Veda in the Tattvabodhini Patrika. This was published as Brahmadharma in 1869. Debendranath’s other book, Atmatattvavidya, was published in 1850. In 1853 he was made secretary of the Tattvabodhini Sabha and in 1859, he established a Brahmo school.

Debendranath stopped Hindu puja ceremonies and introduced ‘Magh festival’, ‘Nababarsa’, ‘Diksa Din’ and similar festivals. In 1867, he bought a vast tract of land called Bhubandanga in Birbhum district of West Bengal and set up a hermitage in it. This hermitage is famous now as Shantiniketan.

He was also a founder of the Bethune Society of the Hindu Charitable Institution. Debendranath was involved in active politics for some time. He was made secretary of the British Indian Association when it was set up on October 31, 1851. He made relentless efforts to remit for the poor village people the chowkidari tax and sent to the British parliament a representation demanding autonomy for India.

Debendranath was a great supporter of Hindu widows remarriage but opposed child marriage and polygamy. He made a significant contribution in spreading education in his country.

In 1867, Radhakanta Deb called him a ‘protector of the national religion’ and the Brahmo Samaj gave him the title of ‘Maharshi’ for having preventing Indian youths from coming under the influence of Christianity. He died in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on January 19, 1905.

Rabindranath Tagore Family History

Indira’s Contributions To The People of India and Love For Nature

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The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Indira’s Contributions To The People of India and Love For Nature

Indira’s Contributions To The People of India

Although reserved and aloof since childhood, Indira Gandhi always mingled with common people with ease. Her shy nature never came in the way of her rapport with the masses. She inherited, from her father, the confidence in the people of India. She wanted to create an atmosphere where each and every person had self-respect and could live with dignity.

Indira loved many communities of India as she believed in secularism. She was always with minorities and urged people to feel responsible for the well-being of the weaker sections.

Indira believed that India’s future depended much on Indian women as women had a very important role to play and a country’s progress could be measured by the progress of its womenfolk. She, like Gandhi, was of the opinion that, if you educate a man, you educate an individual and if you educate a woman, you educate an entire family. Indira laid emphasis on the status of women by introducing a chapter on women’s development in the Sixth Five-Year Plan. She directed the Ministry concerned to chalk out programmes for the upliftment of women.
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Indira wanted every girl in the country to be educated. She took many measures to keep women abreast of men and ahead. She gave much importance to family welfare planning programmes, child health and improvement of female nutrition.

She encouraged women organisations and social welfare institutions to spread civic sense and teach people about cleanliness. For the younger generation, she set an example by her tireless efforts. She, like her father, was very fond of children and she received many letters from children from all over the world.

She found time to respond to these letters and answered their simple questions.

Thus she did a lot for the people of India-especially the women. An intense feeling and love for the people of India always remained deep down in her mind and heart.

Her Personality And Love For Nature

Indira was beautiful, vivacious, energetic and charming lady who lived with the demands of time. There was lightness in her gait and her bright eyes were very observant that missed nothing.

She possessed a tremendous courage and fearlessness which enabled her to face criticism without faltering and as a woman of dynamic personality, she did what she believed to be right. She had unlimited energy and strong willpower and there was urgency in her nature to achieve any goal. As a child, she was afraid of dark but when she grew up, she learnt not to disclose her fears, and her confidence and moral strength overshadowed her fear. Failure or success never bothered her and she went on doing her work with dedication and devotion.
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She lived only for her country and its people always fascinated her. Not only sophisticated classes were impressed by her personality but the masses were also touched by her simplicity and humility. Though she belonged to affluent family, she could adjust herself to any situation. She was never fussy. May be it was because of the days she spent in jail that strengthened her as a person. She was always dressed in a dignified manner. She used to dress according to situation and was even sporting enough to wear a tribal costume to please tribal people.
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Indira had soft heart for the people who worked for her. She showed concern for her staff and colleagues. She deeply belied in the Indian philosophy of life and she was proud to be an Indian as she believed in secularism and “Secularism is the foundation of Indian unity.”

Like jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi loved nature and she was influenced by her father in her love for the environment from a young age. She was fascinated by the mountains and ever-changing beauty of nature. She told people that, “Every citizen should consider conserving nature as a social and moral responsibility.”

Such was the lady who ruled the country and guided the destiny of India’s millions and tried to lead them to a better life.

Indira Gandhi’s Last Journey

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The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Indira Gandhi’s Last Journey

Her Last Journey

In the beginning of 1984, though she was successfully running the country and was famous among world leaders for her efforts, she had to face some internal problems at home front. Congress-I lost elections in two southern state of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which was quite unexpected.

The agitation in Assam gathered momentum and the agitators demanded that the illegal immigrants should be ousted from the state. Along with these disturbances, Indira Gandhi also faced a wave of terrorism in Punjab in the beginning of 1984.
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Sikhs were demanding separate province and the Golden Temple at Amritsar gave shelter to terrorists who were responsible for the killings in Punjab. Finally, to curb terrorism, Indira Gandhi ordered the troops to enter the Golden Temple. The Sikhs got upset as this move had hurt their sentiments. They were of the view that due to the entering of troops in the Temple, the sacred place had become impure. The Sikhs revolted against Indira Gandhi. This was the burning issue that could not be resolved.

It was the morning of Oct. 31, when Indira Gandhi stepped out of her official residence and walked riskily towards her office to give a T.V. interview to filmmaker Peter Ustinov when suddenly two of her personal guards shot at her and she breathed her last.

The glorious life that had ruled India for nearly two decades came to an end and India lost one of the greatest stateswomen of the twentieth century. The funeral took place on Nov. 3, when several world leaders paid homage to Indira Gandhi. The whole nation was in grief. She had given up her life while serving her country. She would always be remembered for her courage, inner strength and will to overcome obstacles.

Her ultimate triumph was that many observers seemed to think “India” was “Indira”. She epitomized her country, India. The journey of her life was not an easy one and she had to cross political and intellectual maze with many criticisms and obstacles. But she came out the winner in the end.

She feared no one and did not give any attention to critics as she felt that what she did was for her country’s good. The homage paid to her by common people throws light on her character as one cucumber-seller said on her death, “The poor have been orphaned, she was mother for all of us. The house I have was due to her “ashirwad”.

She was so much popular among world leaders that after her death Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom said that, “I shall feel greatly the loss of a wise colleague and a personal friend.” Ronald Reagan, President of the United States paid her homage by saying that, “Mrs. Gandhi was a source of global leadership. Her determined efforts to promote peace, security and economic development throughout the world will serve as a constant reminder of Mrs. Gandhi’s commitment to protect the shared values of democratic nations.”

Indira’s Last Term As Prime Minister and World Figure

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The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

Indira’s Last Term As Prime Minister and World Figure

Indira’s Last Term As Prime Minister

Back in power, Indira started working with fresh zeal. This brief interruption in her career had profound meaning for Indira as she again started shaping politics according to the style of her own. With a comfortable majority in Parliament, she took the task left unfinished by Janata Party boldly and confidently.
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When she became Prime Minister for the fourth time, everything in the country was topsy turvy as there was inflation, no law and order was there and there was the scarcity of commodities. Indira promoted the Green Revolution, which was to help farmers in many ways. She helped agriculture with many inputs.

These included modern agricultural machinery tested scientific techniques of farming, better seeds, and better high yielding crops, improved irrigation practices, etc. This helped in increasing the production of food grains which kept steadily rising and reached well over 130 million tonnes in 1984.

The growth of the small industries became sixfold due to the efforts of the Prime Minister that in turn increased the exports. The industries also provided employment on a large scale.

But suddenly Indira faced a great blow when she lost her favourite son Sanjay in a plane crash on June 23, 1980. She was shattered but it never reflected on her face. She embraced this tragedy with incredible calm. She directed her elder son Rajiv Gandhi who was a pilot in Indian Airlines, to quit the job and help her in politics.

Rajiv Gandhi was married to Sonia Gandhi who was reluctant to come to India and let Rajiv enter the politics. But due to sense of duty towards his mother, Rajiv Gandhi entered politics which gave strength to Indira Gandhi and she reverted to her work.

To encourage the feeling of oneness and friendship not only amongst her countrymen but all people of the world, Indira hosted the Ninth Asian Games in New Delhi in November, 1982. Although being criticized by opposition for wasting money, organising of Asian Games was crowned with success and brought fame to India.

Indira As A World Figure

Although Indira Gandhi was wholly Indian, but like Jawaharlal, her heart reached out to the world. Indira’s thoughts were influenced by the teachings of her father who was one of the founders of the world peace movement. She travelled extensively attending world meetings and represented the spirit of tolerance, moderation and understanding for human development.
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She was in the favour of the working of UNO and attended its meetings. In Sept. 1970, Indira was one of the speakers at the Silver Jubilee session of the UNO. She also visited U.S.A. who was inclined towards Pakistan and she made her position clear to U.S.A by confirming that she was not in favour of war but earnestly desired peace.

On June 14, 1972 Indira attended the plenary session of the UN Conference on Human Environment where she stressed that life was one and the world was one. The environmental problems were interlinked and she wanted to tackle these problems with the help of other countries.

She was concerned about population growth not just for India but for the world. At the World Health Assemble on May 6, 1981, she appealed to all governments of the world to take serious measures for checking population growth and providing basic health care to the people.

She wanted to be in contact with other countries not just politically but culturally. She always sent cards on the National Days of the small countries as a friendly gesture. She became an integral part of the organisations such as FAO, WHO, NAM and she worked for the downtrodden people.

She had a vision that, “I wish that the world would regard itself as one and not be divided into one, two, three, four.” She knew that the major threat to human race was the global war that could destroy the entire human race so she undertook the task of bringing together all those nations which were in favour of peace.

The non-aligned countries had much faith in Indira and she, on her part, struggled for a better future for people by linking herself to the drive against poverty, hunger and inequality. As long as she lived, she continued struggling for the cause of peace. She considered the non-aligned movement to be history’s greatest peace movement.

She was truly a world figure as she always said that, “No country can afford to take a narrow view of its own interest as it has to live in a world that is closely interlinked.”

In March, 1983, the Seventh Non-Aligned Summit was held in New Delhi and at the concluding session, she said, “Born for the universe, we cannot narrow our loyalties. Belonging to human kind, nothing human can be alien to us.”

On March 7, she was nominated the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Meet. She succeeded President Fidel Castro of Cuba.

She severely criticised the tension created by the superpowers. She told the developed countries that they should remember that they had to depend on the smaller countries for necessary products, so it was better to solve the problems by negotiations rather than by conflicts. She clarified that India’s foreign policy laid stress on the importance of unity.

India’s policy was not rigid but flexible and aimed at world peace and unity. Indira always fought for freedom and human dignity and she strongly condemned the South African government policy which had no regard for human rights. She was in support of the struggle of Namibian people to achieve freedom. Thus Indira was respected by all the other peace-loving nations and she was the embodiment of peace and stability.

1977 Elections And Indira Gandhi’s Defeat

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The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.

1977 Elections And Indira Gandhi’s Defeat

1977 Elections And Her Defeat

Suddenly on Jan. 18, 1977, after the advice of her close associates, Indira Gandhi released the opposition leaders and announced fresh polls to be held on March 19, 1977. This move increased people’s anxiety and they had doubts if fair polling would be there. As emergency was still prevalent, the press is censored, the truth couldn’t be found and the nation was in a state of confusion.
1977 Elections And Indira Gandhi's Defeat 1
There was visible inclination towards the opposition and the state of Indira Gandhi was quite pathetic. Although Indira Gandhi toiled hard for the upliftment of Indian women but the same women, rural women in particular, turned against her because of forcible sterilizations of their men done during Emergency. So as a result, in the general elections to Parliament, the ruling Congress was impressively defeated by the Janata Party which combined many opposition parties.

A Janata Party Government under Morarji Desai came into office. Indira Gandhi resigned, as Prime Minister, on March 22, 1977. In ten years of her Prime Ministership, since 1 966, Indira Gandhi had proved her worth and an intense feeling for her country and its people always remained deep down in her mind but after defeat she became withdrawn and an aloof person but not for long.

Politics grew within her and she couldn’t live without it. She matured with experience.” An intense love for her country and people always urged her to go on doing something for the country. Someone analysed her:” Her capacity to delink herself from even the most tension-fraught moments is what gave her the tremendous energy she possessed.” And with this renewed energy and enthusiasm she again started visiting people as she knew that the Janata Party had won because the sentiments of people were hurt due to wrongs done during Emergency.

In order to rectify her deeds, she again started establishing contacts with the masses. In the meantime, the constituents of the Janata Party developed internal conflicts. The Party also did a great blunder in arresting Indira on charges of the misuse of power but soon she was released abruptly as the charges couldn’t be proved. This move tarnished the image of the Janata Government and people started becoming sympathetic towards Indira.

As luck would have it, the Shah Commission of Enquiry against her also had bad effect on the image of the Janata Party. She was even imprisoned in 1978 and was taken to Tihar Jail but she never lost her fighting spirit and after every crisis, she emerged stronger than before.

As was evident, because of internal fights, the Janata government fell. Morarji Desai resigned and a “Caretaker” government under Chaudhary Charan Singh functioned until the country went to the polls again for elections to Parliament in January, 1980 in which Indira Gandhi won with an overwhelming majority. These elections again proved the abiding faith of people in Indira Gandhi.