Bharat Rakshak

Since the old thread has disappeared, here's to a new beginning. I have no archives of this thread so if people have indivudually saved their posts then please post them again or we would just need to start over.

This thread is to discuss and recognize men and women whose contribution to India and its affairs in any of these spheres - political, economic or social - has been a source of inspiration for you and why. People we discuss on this can range from national leaders to people who are known only in a small region but have made important contributions nevertheless. In case of regional personalities, please post a brief profile of the person so that others on BR, who may not be familiar, may also gain knowledge regarding that person.

Recently I have been inspired by the social development work of, well, not one person but a volunteer group. Check out the web site of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation,
Ekal Vidyalaya--One Teacher School

krish,
did you have any personal contact with these people? In other words, can you vouch for it's authenticity?

Please Send me an e-mail at kautilaya2002@yahoo.com

Thanks

Kautilaya, check your e-mail.

On another note, so many people/groups inspire me everyday!

Krishna...(of course!!--after Bush Jr. telling a journo that his inspiration is Jesus!)

But more seriously...Ammachi. Heck, even Dr. Kalam seems to be her disciple. She has rebuilt entire villages in Gujarat post-earthquake, runs a charity hospital in Kerala, and does a lot of other 'motherly' work. She's a living saint!!

www.ammachi.org

Reposting the post on Sardar Patel:

Sardar Patel was quite content operating his flourishing law practice and leading an anglicized life before he was influenced by Gandhiji and became part of the civil disobedience movement. He became a part of the freedom movement only in his forties. He was devoted to Gandhiji right to the end but this did not stop him from disagreeing with him on some issues. He also had differences with Pandit Nehru on several issues including the dragging of the Kashmir problem to the UN.

As a freedom fighter and later as India’s first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, there are many hard and creative decisions to his credit including leading the Bardoli Satyagraha, handling the administrative details of the partition of India, dealing with the refugee crisis post partition, rebuilding the Somnath temple, organizing the cooperative dairy movement in Gujarat and so forth.

But by far and above all, is the inestimable contribution of Sardar Patel in creating a unified sovereign India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. His handling of the integration of 562 princely states into the union, particularly when dealing with the Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir situations shows a person of vision and guts, a person who realized that a fragmented India would not survive for very long and who through sheer determination convinced and in some cases coerced the various rajas, maharajas and nizams of princely states to integrate with the Indian union. The iron man of India truly dealt with an iron hand where and when it mattered most and that alone, if nothing else, makes him one of the greatest leaders of India.

Here is a brief biography of Sardar Patel:
Sardar Patel's Biography

And a nice anecdote:

INS Delhi, Goa and Sardar Patel

Thanks for pointing it out. I found this and other articles by the writer, Hiro Shroff,quite interesting.

Watch out!!! though they hide it very well, it is a VHP front organization

K. Kamaraj, A True Native Genius. Salt of the Indian Earth.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1917/19170840.htm

As long as their work is genuinely good they can be anyone's front org. So Relax!

Have you noticed the news reports from gujarat of tribals participating in violence for the first time ever? lets see if you can put 2 and 2 together.

Susmito,
Sorry, wrong thread! I repeat, judge the institution by how its run and the quality of the people it churns out. We are better off keeping politics out of this thread atleast.
Thank you.

Watch out!!! though they hide it very well, it is a VHP front organization

They dont hide it at all. As for being VHP front men so are the DPM and the PM both of whom have strong links to the VHP, as does almost everybody in the BJP. They neither flaunt nor hide these connections.

http://www.vhp.org/englishsite/d.Dimensions_of_VHP/

kaushal

As long as you are aware about it and comfortable with its its your choice of course.

And Kaushal, try looking at their brochures and try talking to their volunteers, atleast the ones I have met go to great lengths to hide the connection.

AID (Association for India's Development) is a truly inspiring organization. From humble beginnings (I was at UMCP when the organization started with just a few people)this organization has consistently grown in the scope of the projects - from just funding good organizations such as Udahavum KarangaL to taking up entire projects in several areas.

http://www.aidindia.org/hq/

And Kaushal, try looking at their brochures and try talking to their volunteers, atleast the ones I have met go to great lengths to hide the connection.

Clearly you havent fallen for it, if they are trying to hide something, and neither has anybody i know, not to mention that the site i posted clearly states that EV is one of their programs of which they are quite proud.

OTOH, if you have proof that one of the graduates of the EV was involved in WTC or sept 11 or dec.13, then i would be wary.

kaushal

Kaushal, thanks for your support.

Susmito, Ekal Vidyalaya has as its goal reaching the tribals who have not been helped by 55 years of Indian democracy. From what I know, tribals make up a large proportion of India's population. And of the 120,000 tribal villages, only about 10% have any schools. About 7% of tribal girls are literate.

Ekal Vidyalaya clearly states that its schools teach not only the ABC and 123, but also the local traditions, culture...the 'sanskaars'; its an informal start to education.

I have been upfront to kautilaya in my e-mail to him and he can vouch for that.

Why are people scared by Hindus' outreach of tribals?

In any case, this thread is for giving info on orgs./people who inspire you, not a thread for mudslinging. If that were the case, I could easily give the link to Varsha Bhosle's newest columns about how 'Hindutva at least has an imagination of India; Communism wishes its annihilation.'

Let's keep this civil; Susmito, nobody stops you from proclaiming Mao or Stalin to be the people who inspire you!

methinks, people reach conclusions about other people a bit too fast on this board. Yes, I am suspicious of the VHP's agenda in promoting primary education in tribal areas. If this equates to worshipping at the feet of Mao in your mind, so be it.

My involvement with Ekal Vidyalaya was about 2 years ago when they requested funding from an organization I am involved with, on which occasion it took me a significant amount of time to discover the VHP connection. I again interacted with some volunteers at the recent Independence day festivities, where again the said volunteers vehemently denied any link (they were just kids, so honestly I think they were unaware themselves). Even now looking at their website I see no mention of the VHP (I was unaware of the VHP website till Kaushal pointed it out).

All I intended was that potential donors be aware of the link.

shouldnt this thread be locked?

Susmito,
I don't see why this thread should be locked, unless ofcourse it goes way off course.
You are welcome to have your reservations about Ekal Vidyalaya and its reasons to target tribals of India. I gave the facts on it already.

I just don't get it as to when christian missionaries go to the tribals and set up a hospital or a school, it makes headlines, all positive...christians being a saviors of India's downtrodden. When a Hindu-based organization goes about serving the same constituency, they are somehow to be kept at arms length, not be funded, and perhaps even hamper their work if at all in any way possible!

I think Kaushal said it best. None of the tribals taught in Ekal Vidyalayas are about to proclaim a jihad on India, that everyone can be rest assured of!

My family for several generations have been supporters of Ramakrishna mission and I personally have no problem with Hindu proselytization (sp?) even forms like the Hare Krishna movement.

My problem with the VHP is only with its rationalization of violence, with its wings like the Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini. Or is it just because of my macalyite-nehruist-mao-loving-pinkoo views, you seem to have made the decision already.

On the one hand it is okay for a person to be suspicious of the intentions of VHP in educating tribals in India. OTOH, people in BR are judged to be quick on the trigger if they are suspicious of folks suddenly putting a politiocal spin with such juicy adjectives as "Watch!" and "Front organization". Double standards rule in India now - free speech only if what you say bashes a Hindu/Hindu organization/anything sponsored by a Hindu organization.

Ok, I agree that my opposition was not initially stated in a civil fashion, I apologise for the same.

Susmito, sorry for jumping on the gun on my part as well.
Let's just put this behind.

I assume on your part, you would say Ram Krishna Mission to be very inspiring. If so, I would join you in that.

Okay - I am sorry to label you a pinko w/o proof. Just got the B/P higher when I saw some of those adjectives.

---
To get back to the topic, "Arivoli Iyakkam" which espouses literacy and tries to educate the poor masses in and around Madras is one of my favourite inspiring organizations - They had people from IIT (M) (and other colleges), go interact with Taramani village residents and try to teach Math, English and other subjects. It was fun and useful. They also had reading sessions at the nearby Adyar School for the Blind where students of all ages were preparing for examinations.

How about the women from Kandivili who started "Lijjat Papad"

http://www.punelive.com/business/women/lijjat.php3

I will vouch for that.

I will say Swami Vivekanada, and Vedanta mission's Swami Ranganathananda have had the most inspiring influence on me.

Lay off people. This thread was about inspiring personalities. No need for political lecture. In the last version, I had taken pains to post a long thread on personalities from the SOuth spread over several ages, religions and fields. I am sad that the thread is gone. Now the attempt to resurrect a positive thread is being thrashed by the usual diatribes.

At least as a gesture of courtesy and civility, can those of you who want to bash VHP/BJP/RSS/Hinduism/Comunism/Congress/Christianity/Islam start a great thread and pour your great wisdom and speeches there. Is that too muchto ask?

Why should every thread be stretched to launch the same old well chronicled rants and prejudice.
Please by all means advocate your cause of demolishing "villains" as you see them by starting separate threads. But not in every thread. Spare a thought for those of us who do want a few threads to contribute to and learn from. Is that too much to ask and expect?

Narayan_L:
If everyone sticks to the topic, this thread has meaning. If everyone offers that civility and courtesy this forum has a meaning to all.

All that is asked is the above. Nothing more nothing less. There is no need to show who is a "better" Indian. First let us try and be good Indians, where the views of everyone are allowed to be expressed. I need no one's certificate to prove that I am a true Indian nor do I -edited by Rajaram-. I know what I am. I need no labels. I too am not interested in mindless tripe passing off as exercise of great intellectual defense against dangerous "isms". Whatever they may be.

I am sure you too will understand that as a sane person, I too have a right to seek a polemic free thread. -edited by Rajaram-. I only wanted to save this thread. Not enter into a debate on secularism or fundamentalism.

-edited by Rajaram-
If you can't contribute to the subject of the thread, please do not at least disrupt. That is the only fair deal that I am willing to accept.

Madame Cama and the National Flag

One of the two posts i had posted on the old thread was on Madame Bhikhaji Cama. It is not widely known that the forerunner of the Indian national flag was designed by Madame Cama and that the present flag is closely patterned after the flag that she unfurled in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/itihas/cama.htm

<img src="http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/itihas/kamaflag.jpg" alt="" />

"The tricolor-flag Madam Cama unfurled had green, saffron, and red stripes. Red represented strength, saffron victory, and green stood for boldness and enthusiasm. there were 8 lotuses representing 8 provinces and flowers represented princely states. "Vande Mataram" in Devanagari adorned central saffron stripe which meant "salutation to Mother India." The sun and the moon indicated Hindu and Muslim faiths. The flag was designed by Veer Savarkar with the help of other revolutionaries. After Stuttgart, Madam went to United States. She traveled a lot and informed Americans about Indians struggling for Independence. She told about British efforts to smother the voice of educated Indians who protested against tyranny and despotism of British who always boasted themselves as "mother of parliamentary democracy" over the world! She could be called "Mother India's first cultural representative to USA.""

http://www.tiranga.net/madamcama.htm

"In the history of the India's National Flag, the name of Madame Bhikhaji Rustom Cama is inscribed in gold. She was one of those soldiers of our fight for freedom who strengthened the movement from abroad. She was the first Indian to have raised an Indian flag on foreign soil and announced to the world of our political flight with the British for the country's Independence. She was the first Indian Lady who unfurled the tricolour flag of green on the top,sacred to the Muslims, golden saffron, the sacred colour of both the Buddhists and the Sikhs and red was at the bottom, sacred to Hindus with eight lotuses in a line representing the eight provinces of British India and Vande Mataram on the golden band with the sun towards the fly and a crescent towards the hoist of the flag at international forum on August 22, 1907 and said....

" This flag is of Indian Independence. Behold, it is born. It is already sanctioned by the blood of martyred Indian youths. I call upon you gentlemen, to rise and salute this flag of Indian Independence. In the name of this flag, I appeal to lovers of freedom all over the world to cooperate with this flag in freeing one-fifth of the human race. "

Madame Cama's Flag was carefully planned and in all probability, it was jointly designed by her and her close associates, Veer Savarkar and Shyamji Krishna Varma. At her behest it was prepared by Hem Chandra Das (Kanungo), a young revolutionery from Bengal, who was later convicted and jailed in the Andamans.

Our tribute to Madame Cama in the evolution of the Indian National - Flag would be incomplete without tracing the subsequent history of the original flag unfurled by Madame Cama at Stuttgart. According to the facts available, Madame Cama before finally returning to India in December 1935 had an attack of paralysis. Even her eyesight was fading, she knew her end but the flag had to be kept flying - the struggle must go on. She handed over the precious flag to one of its associate, called Madhav Rao and returned to India in December 1935 and on August 16, 1936 she quietly died in Bombay, unwept and unsung.

The Berlin Committe Flag :

The story of the Indian National - Flag abroad does not end with Madame Cama. The Indian committee, which was set up by the Indian Revolutionaries in Berlin (better known as the Berlin Committe), soon after the outbreak of World War I, adopted Madame Cama's tricolour as their flag with some modification. This flag, however, was not freely used in public at that time in Germany. But, it was open in Mesopotamia by the volunteer force organised by the Berlin Committee the help of Indian prisoners and deserters from the British Indian Army along with some Ghader revolutionaries.

The Ghader Party - Flag :

The Ghader Party, which was formed in the U.S.A., along adopted the tricolour as the National - Flag. It had stripes in the order of green, yellow and red with an emblem of crossed swords in the centre. In the early years of our freedom struggle the tricolour was widely used by Indian revolutionaries in the U.S.A., Germany and Mesopotamia. "

Well, not sure if this thread was meant to be for personal choices.

Growing up, the people who inspired me
1. Chatrapati Shivaji
2. Kapil Dev
3. Abdul Kalam

mostly for their passion towards India, and their quest to win and succed. well, they do not require any intoduction and me glad for couple of them are in news recently.

Narayan_L:

Thank you for the gesture. Restores my faith in the basic sense of civility in this forum. I have edited certain references as well.

-edited- by Rajaram

It's a reasonable request, and I support it wholly.

Without trying to start another pointless war, let me just say that the request amuses me as it's normally the "nationalists" who are eager to portray themselves as "better indians" As N_L would say "giggle, giggle".

I am fundamentally of the belief that all Indians are good Indians, although I will disingenuously argue otherwise to score points

Be it as it may, let me restate my greatest Indian inspirational personality: Mahatma Gandhi. As Einstein said, future generations will wonder that such a man as he walked the face of this earth. Of course, Gandhi was only mortal and he had his foibles. Everything that he said does not necessarily apply in the modern world. For instance, I do not wear khadar, although I do own a few khadar kurtas which are great in the northern california summer

If only more people chose the Gandhian approach to agitation, we'd have a saner world. Actually, a Gandhian Palestine movement would be well nigh unstoppable as would a Gandhian Kashmir movement. However, Gandhian movements require courage - they take lots and lots of time, and come with their sacrifices, but they are eventually successful.

Actually I believe that the overall sacrifices, both in terms of human life and local economy are much less with a Gandhian agitation than with a violent uprising.

The proponents of a violent uprising make one crucial mistake. They assume that since their cause is just, if they have infinite patience, with enough time on their side, they will win out. What they miss, is that their opponents generally think their cause is just as well, and with infinite patience they will win out !!

This is what makes Gandhi's movement such an amazing political masterstroke and leaves me amazed everytime I think about it.

Advani's UK visit sparks dispute over Sardar Patel

This is painful to read. I am not a fan of L K Advani and will not defend him but why do groups like the Council of Indian Muslims have to sully the name of national leaders like Sardar Patel using religion? What is there amongst his deeds that can be construed as promoting Hindutva? If it were not for him, God knows what the map of India would look like today. I am fed up of such groups living in foreign countries which seem to exist only to sling mud at anything and anybody solely on the basis of religion.

If it were not for him, God knows what the map of India would look like today. I am fed up of such groups living in foreign countries which seem to exist only to sling mud at anything and anybody solely on the basis of religion.

It is no use being fed up. It is important to realize that certain groups are actively but covertly working for the break up of India.(Even paranoids have enemies). The first point is to be aware that this is happening and the second is to actively refute and expose these groups as being anti-Indian. By the definitions of such groups any individual who has done something to preserve the territorial integrity of India is automatically suspect as an exponent of Hindutva.

It should be clear to all by now that had it not been for the great Sardar, there would be no India as we know it today. The first to be astonished at the resulting map were the British and it is no secret that even the suave and charming Mountbatten cordially disliked Sardar Patel for the efficacy with which he integrated the Princely states (with a lot of help from the wily old coot VP Menon).

Kaushal

Back to Inspirational Indian Personalities - if I had to choose just one person, it would undoubtedly be SN Goenka, the chief teacher of Vipassana school of meditation.

If I had to choose more than one, it would be very very difficult.

BABA OF THE LEPERS

web page


A more detailed profile is available at :

BABA AMTE : WARRIOR OF PEACE AND NONVIOLENT ACTION

Incidentally, he is a staunch supporter of the controversial NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan). Irrespective of whether one agrees with his stand or not on this issue, his life has been a boon to humanity, especially for leprosy patients. Besides serving the most neglected and discarded section of human beings, Baba Amte launched two marches called the Knit India Cycle March from Kanyakumari to Kashmir (1984) and from Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat (1988) carrying the message of peace and harmony, leading a couple of hundred youths, both girls and boys.

BABA AMTE'S VANAPRASTHA

Bhai Puran Singh ji in undoubtly the single Sikh Hero of this century who worked totally selflessly all his life to provide the last hope to the mentally and terminally ill
patients. Whenever he use to see a deserted dead body (human or animal) immediately he would prepare (by his own hand) a grave and him human/animal a deserving respect of death.

Against the backdrop of violence and poverty in 1947 he established a premier institute which
takes care of sick, disabled and forlorn
persons. Whatever money and financial resources
he could gathered he used it to establish this institute. It is also believed that he was almost nominated to receive Nobel Peace Prize in 1990
but by not giving him prize it was the loss of sick and disabled persons as well as nobel Prize
committee. His life story is a saga of grit, determination, faith in the almighty and unending
love for the suffering humanity. A very brief
sketch of Bhagat Ji's life is given below

http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/personalities/puransingh.html

Here are some achievements of Bhagat Puran Singh.

1. Self educated (without getting degrees) that he wrote hundreds of books.

2. Conservationist, he had his own shop to print literature on the paper collected out of street., use to say that each of us should plant the three trees of "Peepal","Neem","Bohar (Bargad)". The three core "Indian" trees.

3. Without any money or property and with not a single penny in his pocket he created an institute that now runs all over North India and takes care of "lepers","forlorn","orphan children" and other people who need help.

"There was hardly anything Chanakya would have refrained from doing to achieve his purpose.. he was unscrupulous enough, yet he was also wise enough to know that this very purpose might be defeated by means unsuited to the end. Long before Clausewitz, he is reported to have said that war is only a continuance of state policy by other means. But he adds, war must always serve the larger ends of policy and not become an end in itself. The statesman's objective must always be the betterment of the State as a result of war and not the mere defeat and destruction of the enemy."

web page

Portrait of Chanakya

His biography and discussion of his famous work – Arthshastra is presented on this site:

Biography - Chanakya and Arthshastra

Another excellent reference is the television serial called “Chanakya” directed by Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi who also played the title role in the serial.

Kautilya has always been my Hero.. perhaps since I read the "Chanakya comic" by Amar Chitra Katha when I was 7 years old.. and later a movie called "Chanakya Chandragupta" by NTR and ANR (Of Telugu film fame) built my view of the world.

Chanakya By rar is my hero in the Strategic arena followed by Sun zi of China.

Not until I read <B>The Arthashastra. [/b] did I realize the power of Strategic intelligence of this puny little brahmin

Here is my list of Inspiring Personalities..

1) RAMA of Ayodhya (Every child's rolemodel.)
2) Hanuman/Garuda and Bhima for inspiration and power.
3) Krishna and Arjuna for the nuggets of Bhagavad Geetha.
4) Vikramadithya.
5) Shankaracharya - No other human being can do - to me - what Adi Shankaracharya had done.. I owe my existance to him - (or perhaps not.)
6) Chanakya & Chandragupta.
7) Chatrapathi Shivaji, Kattabomman, Rana Pratap, Rani of Jhansi.

Last but not the least.. the Editor of Amar Chitra Katha - Sri ANANT PAI - for bringing to life all the personalities who I would otherwise may not have known.

As is clear from my login name, kautilaya has always been an inspirational personality for me. He was a genius the likes of which have never been seen. He was also a staunch nationalist and patriotic, who wanted and to create a united India from Hamalyas to the oceans in the south.

As, for the Chanakya serial, its an absolute masterpeice. When I watched it first on DD being very young at that time I lost interest half way through. But, now that I watched it on DVD again, I am totally impressed by the amount of effort that has gone in depicting the lifestyle etc. of the people of that time.

Another inspirational personality for me is Bhagat Singh. I just watched the Legend of Bhagat Singh , and was totally impressed by the guy. We were never told in our history books about the amount of contibutions he made to the freedom struggle, and that too in such a short span of 23 years(his age when he was hanged). For e.g. I never knew that at one time his popularity rivalled that of Gandhiji. He also had the foresight to predict that if the govt. was handed over to people like those in the congress, it would simply result in the "Gora Sahib" being replaced by the "Brown sahib" and it would turn into a corrupt and fractious society, which is exactly what happened in the congress raj.

Added later ----
Watch Legend of Bhagat Singh, I loved the movie. But, don't watch the other Bhagat Singh movies that came out at the same time.