Great Indian Personalities who make you feel proud to be an Indian. It is an attempt on the part of Bangalinet to help you know these great personalities. The rest is on you to explore their life and works, to imbibe the best in your life. .
Dwijendralal Roy
Dwijendralal Roy, (1863-1913) was a writer, dramatist and lyricist, was born on 19 July 1863 at Krishnanagar in Nadia. His father was Kartikeya Chandra Roy, mother was Prasannamayee Devi.Dwijendralal passed the graduation from Hoogli College in 1883 and achieved his MA degree from Presidency College. Then he went to London and achieved FRAS in farming and the MRAC and MRAS from the Royal Agriculture College and Agricultural Society. Coming back to India he was selected as a deputy magistrate in Dinajpur.
In 1905 Dwijendralal founded a literary society, named Purnima Milon, in Kolkata. He was the editor of the journal BHARATVARSA in 1913. Aryagatha (part 2, 1894), Hasir Gan (1900), Mandra (1902), Alekhya (1907), and Triveni (1912) are his famous collections of work of poems and songs. His drawings and satires comprise Ekghare (1889), Samaj Bibhrat O Kalki Avatar (1895), Tryahasparsha (1900), Prayashchitta (1902), and Punarjanma (1911).
He was also a playwright and amongst his mythological dramas are Pasani (1900), Sita (1908) and Visma (1914). His societal theaters are Parapare (1912) and Banganari (1916) and chronological plays: Tarabai (1903), Rana Pratapsingh (1905), Mebar Patan (1908), Nurjahan (1908), Sajahan (1909) and Chandragupta (1911). He was also a renowned creator of modern songs; which is known as Dwijendragiti.
Dwijendragiti consists of five hundred songs on various themes. The anti-British movement motivated him to compose patriotic songs for his native land. Two of his most famous songs, enthused by nationalism are ‘Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhara’ and ‘Banga Amar Janani Amar’. Dwijendralal's songs, exemplified by reality, splendor and joyfulness, have turn into an essential ingredient of the Bengali custom.
Dwijendralal has been considered as one of the prominent litterateurs and renowned Indian playwright of India. This great personality had died on17 May 1913 in Kolkata, but still now admired and respected for his sheer dedication to the Bengali literature and indirect participation in the freedom movement.
Pritilata Waddedar
Pritilata Waddedar was an anti-British pro-India revolutionary in East Bengal, (then part of region of Bengal in pre-independence India), presently in Bangladesh. Pritilata was born to a humble family. Her father was a clerk in the Chittagong Municipality. She was an intelligent student at the Khastagir High School of Chittagong and passed the matriculated in first division in the year 1927. She continued her learning in EDEN COLLEGE, Dhaka and in 1929 passed the Intermediate examinations securing the first place amongst the candidates from Dhaka Board. Two years afterward, Pritilata graduated in Philosophy with distinction from Bethune College of Kolkata.
Pritilata had partaken in 'activities subversive to the state' since her studies in Eden College. She became an associate of Sree Sangha in the Dipali Sangha led by Lila Nag. In Calcutta she was an associate of the Chhatri Sangha led by Kalayani Das. After graduation she returned to Chittagong and took up the profession of the headmistress of a neighboring English medium.
secondary school named Nandankanan Aparnacharan School. In the 1930s, there were a lot of radical groups all over Bengal and Chittagong. Members of these groups thought that India's liberty could be achieved only through armed struggle. Pritilata believed that time had come for women to take an important responsibility in the armed fight against the British. They needed to surrender their lives if essential, and tackle all risks, dangers and troubles, on similar foothold as their male comrades. She was involved in operations for demolition of the Telephone & Telegraph workplace and the capture of the reserve police line. She took part in the Jalalabad battle, in which her liability was to provide explosives.
In one of the missions in 1930, Pritilata was sent to Alipur Central Jail of Calcutta to meet up Ram Krishna, who was a political captive, sentenced to death and was behind the bars under firm surveillance and in absolute privacy. Pritilata went to Dhalghat to meet her mentor 'Mastarda' at his hiding place on 13 June 1932. The location was enclosed by a police throng and there was a fight in which some revolutionaries lost their lives. Mastarda and Pritilata were able to flee. Immediatedly her name was enlisted in the 'most wanted'police list.
In 1932, Surya Sen designed an assault on the Pahartali European Club, which bore the disreputable sign 'Dogs and Indians not allowed'. He assigned Pritilata to lead an aggressive team that would demonstrate their protest in the Club on 23 September 1932. Members of the team were instructed to take potassium cyanide with them so that in case they were trapped by police they could consume if caught. The attack was victorious but Pritilata, dressed as a man was trapped without a way to escape on that crucial night. She committed suicide by swallowing the cyanide. She was only 21 when she died. Her martyrdom provided an enormous stir and acted as a motivation for revolutionaries in Bengal and India.
Swami Vivekananda
"When this quite unknown young man of thirty appeared in Chicago at the inaugural meeting of the Parliament of Religions, opened in September 1893, by Cardinal Gibbons, all his fellow members were forgotten in his commanding presence. His strength and beauty, the grace and dignity of his bearing, the dark light of his eyes, his imposing appearance and from the moment he began to speak, the splendid music of his rich voice enthralled the vast audience of American Anglo-Saxons, previously prejudiced against him on account of his colour. The thoughts of this warrior prophet of India left a deep mark upon the United states". ROMAIN ROLLAND.
Swami Vivekananda was born Narendranath Dutta, son of a well known lawyer of Calcutta, Biswanath Dutta, and a very intelligent and pious lady, Bhuvaneshwari Devi, in the year 1863. Naren learnt the epics and Puranas from his mother. Naren was an all rounder. He could sing, was good at sports, had a ready wit, his range of knowledge was extensive, had a rational frame of mind and he loved to help people.
He was a natural leader. He was a student of philosophy and the story of God very much haunted his mind. It was in Sri Ramakrishna he found his guru. Vivekananda travelled extensively through India. He was shocked to see the conditions of rural India- people ignorant, superstitious, half-starved, and victims of caste-tyranny. It pained Swamiji to see Indians imitating western ways and mannerisms. Later he would call out to the nation and say,
'Feel proud that you are Indians even if you're wearing a loin-cloth.'
He was not opposed to learning from the West, for he knew the Western people had some great qualities and it was because of those qualities that they had become so rich and powerful. He wanted India to learn science and technology from the West and its power to organize and its practical sense, but, at the same time retain its high moral and spiritual idealism.When he went to Madras, young people gathered round him drawn by his bright looks and inspiring talks. They begged him to go to the USA to attend the forthcoming parliament of Religions in Chicago to represent Hinduism. Swamiji made a tremendous impression, first in the USA and then in England.
The press paid him the highest tributes as an exponent of India's age old values; overnight he became a great national hero in India. Suddenly it was brought home to the Indians that there must be something in Indian thought that Western intelligentsia feel compelled to admire. For the first time, they awoke to the richness of their heritage.
This was the starting point of Indian renaissance one hears about. It is in London in 1895 Swamiji met Margaret Elizabeth Noble, who later became Sister Nivedita. Swamiji saw in Margaret a great future in the work for India. What we wanted was 'not a man, but a woman, a real lioness' to work for the Indian women.
He described India's neglect of the masses as a national sin. Next to this was the sin of neglecting the womanhood. Caste, was yet another sin. India's ethnic and religious pluralism did not worry him, for India had always sought her unity in love and respect for different sects and communities. It was Swamiji's hope that India would create a new social order and a new civilization by combining her best spiritual traditions with the latest advancement in science and technology. She would be rich both materially and spiritually.
He knew affluence was not enough, man had to be human too. He wanted India to set an example in this. Swamiji preached that "jiva is Shiva" i.e. every being is a part of God. He inspired Indians to "Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached". He worked for the suffering masses of India till his end. Swamiji left his body at an young age of 39 on the 4th of July 1902.
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