42. Aruna Asafali (1909 - 1996)

Aruna Asaf Ali (visit video above) was a prominent freedom fighter and social activist and became famous for hoisting the Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India Movement in 1942. She was born Aruna Ganguly in a Bengali Brahmin family, grew up in Nainital and was educated at Lahore.
Her father Upendranath Ganguly hailed from Barisal district of Eastern Bengal but settled in the United Province. He was a restaurant owner and a very adventurous man. Mother Ambalika Devi was the daughter of Trailokyanath Sanyal, a renowned Brahmo leader who wrote many beautiful Brahmo hymns. Dhirendranath Ganguly (D G) was one of the earliest film directors. Another brother Nagendranath, a soil biologist was married to Rabindranath Tagore's youngest daughter Mira Devi ( 1984-1969) though they got separated after sometime. (visit; http://sesquicentinnial.blogspot.com)

Upendranath Ganguly's younger brother
 Refusing to hear of her parents’ plans of marriage for her, she took up a job teaching at the Gokhale Memorial School for Girls in Kolkata. Shortly afterwards she met Asaf Ali, a Muslim barrister from Delhi some 20 years her senior, and married him against her parents’ wishes in 1927. Since her husband was involved in politics she too was drawn into the movement and came under the influence of Jai Prakash Narayan, Achyut Patwardan and Ram Manohar Lohia.
She became an active member of Congress Party after marrying Asaf Ali and participated in public processions during the Salt Satyagraha. She was arrested on the charge that she was a vagrant and hence not released in 1931 under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact which stipulated release of all political prisoners. Other women co-prisoners refused to leave the premises unless she was also released and gave in only after Mohandas K. Gandhi intervened. A public agitation secured her release.
In 1932, she was held prisoner at the Tihar Jail where she protested the indifferent treatment of political prisoners by launching a hunger strike. Her efforts resulted in an improvement of conditions in the Tihar Jail but she was moved to Ambala and was subjected to solitary confinement. She was politically not very active after her release.

Though she did not hold a university degree, she was a voracious reader and studied politics, economics and Marxist literature. She became a radical nationalist and an advocate of uncompromising struggle against British Rule. She participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement in the 1930s and went to jail. On August 8, 1942, the All India Congress Committee passed the Quit India resolution at the Bombay session. The government responded by arresting the major leaders and all members of the Congress Working Committee and thus tried to pre-empt the movement from success. A young Aruna Asaf Ali presided over the remainder of the session on 9 August and hoisted the Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan. This marked the commencement of the movement. The police fired upon the assembly at the session. Aruna was dubbed the Heroine of the 1942 movement for her bravery in the face of danger and was called Grand Old Lady of the Independence movement in her later years. Despite absence of direct leadership, spontaneous protests and demonstrations were held all over the country, as an expression of desire of India’s youth to achieve independence.An arrest warrant was issued in her name but she went underground to evade the arrest and started underground movement in year 1942 . Her property was seized and sold. In the meanwhile, she also edited Inquilab, a monthly magazine of the Congress Party, along with Ram Manohar Lohia. In a 1944 issue, she exhorted youth to action by asking them to forget futile discussions about violence and non-violence and join the revolution. Leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali were described as "the Political children of Gandhi but recent students of Karl Marx." The government announced a reward of Rs. 5,000/- for her capture. She fell ill and was for a period hiding in Dr Joshi's Hospital in Karol Bagh in Delhi. Mahatma Gandhi sent her a hand-written note to her to come out of hiding and surrender herself – as her mission was accomplished and as she could utilize the reward amount for the Harijan cause. However, she came out of hiding only after the warrant against her was withdrawn in 1946. She treasured the note from the Mahatma and it adorned her drawing room. However, she also faced criticism from Gandhi for her support of the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny, a movement she saw as the single greatest unifying factor of Hindus and Muslims at a time that was the peak of the movement for Pakistan
. Subsequently she went underground with her socialist friends in 1943, hoping to organise the fury of angry mobs into a disciplined resistance to the British and dislocate the war effort. In her book The Resurgence (the title is an echo of Garibaldi’s ‘Risorgimento’) Aruna said: ‘Telegraph wires are cut, fishplates on railway lines are removed, bridges are dynamited, industrial plants are put out of order, petrol tanks set on fire, police stations burnt down, official records destroyed—they are all acts of dislocation. But a bomb thrown at a marketplace or a school or a dharmashala [a shelter for pilgrims] is not dislocation. It is either the work of agents provocateurs or misdirected energy.’ Gandhi disagreed with Aruna’s tactics though he had great respect for her personal bravery. In 1947 she came out of hiding and was elected President of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee.
She joined Congress Socialist Party and became a member of the Congress Socialist Party, a caucus within the Congress Party for activists with socialist leanings. Disillusioned with the progress of the Congress Party on socialism she joined a new party, Socialist Party in 1948. She however left that party along with Edatata Narayanan and they visited Moscow along with Rajani Palme Dutt. Both of them joined the Communist Party of India in the early 1950s. On domestic front, she was bereaved when Asaf Ali died in 1953.
In 1954, she helped form the National Federation of Indian Women, the women's wing of CPI but left the party in 1956 following Nikita Khrushchev's disowning of Stalin. In 1958, she was elected the first Mayor of Delhi. She was closely associated with social activists and secularists of her era like Krishna Menon, Vimla Kapoor, Guru Radha Kishan, Premsagar Gupta, Rajani Palme joti, Sarla Sharma and Subhadra Joshi for social welfare and development in Delhi. She was the first elected Mayor of Delhi.
She and Narayanan started Link publishing house and published a daily newspaper, Patriot and a weekly, Link the same year. The publications became prestigious due to patronage of leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Krishna Menon and Biju Patnaik. Later she moved out of the publishing house due to internal politics, stunned by greed taking over the creed of her comrades. In 1964, she rejoined the Congress Party but stopped taking part in active politics. Despite reservations about the emergency, she remained close to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi

She was elected the first Mayor of Delhi in 1958. Innumerable honours, both national and international were bestowed on her, including the Lenin Prize and the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration. She was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously
Aruna Asaf Ali was awarded International Lenin Peace Prize for the year 1964 and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1991. She was awarded India’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan in her lifetime in 1992, and finally the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously in 1997. In 1998, a stamp commemorating her was issued. Aruna Asaf Ali marg in New Delhi was named in her honour. All India Minorities Front distributes the Dr Aruna Asaf Ali Sadbhawana Award annually.
Aruna Asaf Ali was well known for her Spartan lifestyle – she used public transport. In her eighties, once she was travelling in a crowded bus in Delhi and no seat was vacant. A fashionable young lady also boarded the bus and a gentleman trying to impress her, vacated his seat. This lady, in turn, offered the seat to Aruna Asaf Ali who accepted it. At this, that man protested, saying to the lady, "I vacated that seat for your sake, sister." Aruna Asaf Ali retorted with her quick wit, "Never mind, mother always comes before sister."

41.Arun Guha (1892-1983)

Arun Chandra guha was born in Barisal but his ancestral house was at Dacca. He was arevolutionaryand a leader of the Organisation Jugantar, He was a Journalist and one of the founder of Saraswati Press. He went underground to avoid arrest because he was acquitted of being associated in the conspiracy of collection of arms in from Germany to India. He surrendered himself in 1916. He was confined to jail for two years under Regulation Three  As per decision of Jugantar Dal he joined Congress. He was again confined to Jail from 1923 to 1928 under defence of India Rule
he was again confined to Jail from 1930 to 1938. He was elected a member of Congress Working committee. After release he was elected as a member of AICC. He secured the provincial Presidential Chair in 1940.. During WW II , he was detained till 1941. After being he was elected a member of Constituent assembly.
After partition he was elected as a member of Parliament for 1957, 1962, fron Barasat. he became a deputy minister in the dept of    1953.
His written works are "First Spark of revolution from 1900 - 1920". , India's struggle of a country

40.Aurobindo Ghosh (contd- 1)

In Baroda, Aurobindo joined the state service, working first in the Survey and Settlements department, later moving to the Department of Revenue and then to the Secretariat, and many miscellaneous works like teaching grammar and assisted in writing speeches for the maharaja of Gaekwad. During his work in Baroda he started working as a part-time French teacher at Baroda college, he was later promoted to the post of Vice-Principal Aurobindo Ghose, returned to India, and became the Vice-principal of the State college in Baroda. He drew a salary of Rs.750/-.  and subsequently became the Principal of the College.. At Baroda, Aurobindo self studied Sanskrit and Bengali.
During his stay at Baroda he contributed to many articles to Indu prakash and spoke as a chairman of the Baroda college board. He published the first of his collections of poetry, The Rishi from Baroda. He also started taking active interest in the politics of India's freedom struggle against British rule, working behind the scenes as his position at the Baroda State barred him from overt political activity.
Here he came in contact with the leader of the Secret organisation, Thakur Saheb and and was initiated by him. He ecame the President of the Secret Organisation.
He linked up with resistance groups in Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, while travelling to these states. He established contact with Lokmanya Tilak and Sister Nivedita. He also arranged for the military training of Jatindra Nath Banerjee (Niralamba Swami) in the Baroda army and then dispatched him to organise the resistance groups in Bengal.
Aurobindo repeatedly visited Bengal, at first in a bid to re-establish links with his parents' families and his other Bengali relatives, including his cousin Sarojini and brother Barin, and later increasingly in a bid to establish resistance groups across Bengal. During his visit to Calcutta. In 1901 he married Mrinalini, daughter of Bhupal Chandra Bose, a senior official in Government service. Aurobindo Ghose was then 28; the bride Mrinalini, 14. Marrying off daughters at a young age was common in 19th century Bengali families. His brother Barindranath attended school in Deoghar, and after passing the entrance examination in 1901, joined Patna College. He received military training in Baroda. During this time, (late 19th century – early 20th century) Barin was influenced by Aurobindo and drawn towards the revolutionary movement. Barin came back to Kolkata in 1902 and started organizing several revolutionary groups in Bengal with the help of Jatindranath Mukherjee. In 1906, he started publishing Jugantar, a Bengali weekly and a revolutionary organization named Jugantar soon followed. Jugantar was formed from the inner circle of Anushilan Samiti and it started revolutionary activities.
Aurobindo formally shifted to Calcutta (now Kolkata) only in 1906 after the announcement of Partition of Bengal.
 In 1906, in the wake of partition of Bengal, resigned his job and joined the Bengal National College on a salary of Rs.150/-. He plunged headlong into the revolutionary movement. Aurobindo Ghose played a leading role in India’s freedom struggle from 1908. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh was one of the pioneers of political awakening in India. He edited the English daily Bande Mataram and wrote fearless and pointed editorials. He openly advocated the boycott of British goods, British courts and everything British. He asked the people to prepare themselves for passive resistance.
The famous Alipore Bomb Case proved to be a turning point in Sri Aurobindo Ghosh’s life. For a year Aurobindo was an undertrial prisoner in solitary confinement in the Alipore Central Jail. It was in a dingy cell of the Alipore Jail that he dreamt the dream of his future life, the divine mission ordained for him by God. He utilized this period of incarceration for an intense study and practice of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Chittaranjan Das defended Sri Aurobindo, who was acquitted after a memorable trial.
During his time in prison, Aurobindo Ghosh, had developed interest in yoga and meditation. After his release he started practicing pranayama and meditation. Sri Aurobindo Ghose migrated from Calcutta to Pondicherry in 1910. At Pondicherry, he stayed at a friend’s place. At first, he lived there with four or five companions. Gradually the number of members increased and an Ashram was founded.

In 1914 after four years of concentrated yoga at Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo launched Arya, a 64 page monthly review. For the next six and a half years this became the vehicle for most of his most important writings, which appeared in serialised form. These included Essays on The Gita, The Secret of The Veda, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Upanishads, The Foundations of Indian Culture, War and Self-determination, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, and The Future Poetry. In 1926, Sri Aurobindo Ghose retired from public life.

Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy is based on facts, experience and personal realisations and on having the vision of a seer or Rishi. Aurobindo’s spirituality was inseparably united with reason. The goal of Sri Aurobindo was not merely the liberation of the individual from the chain that fetters him and realization of the self, but to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down the divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity.

Sri Aurobindo passed away on December 5, 1950 at Pondicherry at the age of 78.

40.Aurobindo Ghosh (1872 - 1950)

Sri Aurobindo Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose (15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950),  was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet.
Aurobindo Ghosh was born in a Bengali Hindu family in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India on 15 August 1872. His father, Krishna Dhan Ghosh, was District Surgeon of Rangapur, Bengal. His mother, Swarnalata Devi, was the daughter of Brahmo religious and social reformer, Rajnarayan Basu.

Birth and Parentage

On Thursday, the 15th August, 1871, at about 5 a.m., Sri Aurobindo was born of Sri Krishnadhan and Swamalata, at Calcutta, in Bengal, in a reputed Ghosh family of Konnagar. Sri Krishnadhan went to England and returned an M.D., full of honours.

Raj Narayan Bose, an acknowledged leader in Bengali literature, a writer in the "Modern Review" and the grandfather of Indian nationalism was Sri Aurobindo’s maternal grandfather. Aurobindo owes not only his rich spiritual nature, but even his very superior literary capacity, to his mother’s line.

An Accomplished Scholar

Aurobindo was sent to the Loretto Convent School at Darjeeling when he was four years old. As a boy, Aurobindo received his early education in a public school in England.

The old headmaster of the school observed, "Of all the boys who passed through my hands during the last 25 or 30 years, Aurobindo was by far the most richly endowed with intellectual capacity".

From school Aurobindo went to King’s College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself as a student of European classics

 In 1877, Aurobindo and two elder siblings  Manmohan Ghose and Benoybhusan Ghose were send to the Loreto Convent school in Darjeeling. His father was posted at various positions at the Government hospitals in Bengal during this time. His father was believed to be an atheist (denying existence of God) Indian civil service in England.
according to Aurobindo and wanted his sons to study ICS .

(Sri Aurobindo's home in St Stephen's Avenue, London 1884-1887, with English Heritage blue plaque)

 Educational career in England
In 1879, Aurobindo and his two elder brothers were taken to Manchester, England for a European education. The brothers were placed in the care of the Reverend W.H. Drewett and his wife in London. Drewett was an Anglican priest whom Ghose knew through his British friends at Rangapur. The Drewetts tutored the Ghose brothers privately; they were asked to keep the tuition completely secular and to make no mention of India or its culture.
Between 1880 and 1884, while his brothers where studying at Manchester Grammar School, Drewett coached Aurobindo in Latin and his wife coached him in French, geography and arithmetic until he joined St Paul's School. Here he learnt Greek, spending the last three years reading literature and English poetry. He also acquired some familiarity with German and Italian. K.D. Ghosh wanted his sons to pass the prestigious Indian Civil Service examination, but in 1889 it appeared that of the three brothers, only young Aurobindo had a chance of fulfilling his father's aspirations, his brothers having already decided their future careers. To become an ICS official, students were required to pass the competitive examination, as well as to study at an English university for two years under probation. Aurobindo secured a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, coming first in the examination. He also passed the written examination of the Indian Civil Service after a few months, where he was ranked 11th out of 250 competitors. He spent the next two years at King's College.
By the end of two years of probation, Aurobindo had no interest in ICS exam and came late to the horse riding exam purposefully to get himself disqualified for the service.

In 1892 he passed tripos from Cambridge University.

At this time, the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, was travelling in England. James Cotton, brother of Sir Henry Cotton, for some time Lieutenant Governor of Bengal and Secretary of the South Kensington Liberal Club, knew Aurobindo and his father secured for him a place in Baroda State Service and arranged for him to meet the prince. He left England for India, arriving there in February, 1893. In India Aurobindo's father who was waiting to receive his son was misinformed by his agents from Bombay (now Mumbai) that the ship on which Aurobindo had been travelling had sunk off the coast of Portugal. Ghose who was by this time frail due to ill-health could not bear this shock and died..

39. Ambica Charan Majumdar (1851-1922)

Ambica Charan Mazumdar (1850–1922) was an Bengali Indian politician who served as the president of the Indian National Congress.

Indian national evolution: A brief survey of the origin and progress of the Indian National Congress and the growth of Indian nationalism (1917) is a historical and semi-biographical work by Indian leader Ambica Charan Mazumdar that recounts and analyses the events of the growth of Indian Nationalism.

Ambica Charan was born in Faridpur in 1851. Born in East Bengal, Mazumdar graduated from the Scottish Church College as a graduating student of the University of Calcutta.

He presided over the 1899 Bengal Provincial Conference at Burdwan as well as the 1910 Conference in Calcutta. He had served as the president of the 31st session of the Indian National Congress in 1916.

.

Past Presidents

Ambica Charan Mazumdar Ambica Charan Mazumdar (1850 - 1922) President-Lucknow, 1916 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ambica Charan Mazumdar was born at Sandiya, Faridpur district in East Bengal, in 1850. His father, Radha Madhab Mazumdar, was a zamindar and thus Ambica Charan Mazumdar had a rich aristocratic background. While studying in Calcutta he met Surendranath Banerjea in 1875 at the Metropolitan Institute and became interested in politics. In 1886 he attended the second session of the Indian National Congress held in Calcutta. But it was from 1899 that he became one of the leaders of Bengal in the Nationalist Movement, when he presided over the Bengal Provincial Conference at Burdwan. In 1905 Ambica Charan Mazumdar plunged into the partition agitation along with Aswini Kumar Datta, Bhupendra Nath Basu and Surendranath Banerjea and organised meetings, protesting against the partition of Bengal, Lord Curzon and Sir Bampfylde Fuller. In 1908 at the Madras Session of the Indian National Congress, he welcomed the long-expected reform scheme. In 1910, he again presided over the Bengal Provincial Conference held in Calcutta. In 1915 he published a book, 'Indian National Evolution', which was a brief survey of the origin and progress of the Indian National Congress In 1916, as a culmination of his political career, he became the President of the 31st Session of the Indian National Congress in Lucknow and in his presidential speech stated: "Call it Home Rule, call it selfrule, call it Swaraj . . . it is representative government." He retired from active politics in 1918 after helping to form the Liberal Federation. A close friend of Gokhale and Sir Henry Cotton, a follower of constitutional means in the nationalist movement, Ambica Charan remained a moderate in his political views to the end. He was one of the great leaders of Bengal in the Nationalist Movement. Sir John Woodburn, Lt.-Governor of Bengal, called him "The Grand Old Man of Faridpur". An orator and a lawyer, he was one of the stoutest advocates of constitutional development of India. - Pansy Chhaya Ghosh -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are our demands which, God willing, are bound to be fulfilled at no distant date. India must cease to be a dependency and be raised to the status of a self-governing state as an equal partner with equal rights and responsibilities as an independent unit of the Empire. In any scheme of readjustment after the war, India should have a fair representation in the Federal Council like the colonies of the Empire. India must be governed from Delhi and Simla, and not from Whitehall or Downing Street. The Council of the Secretary of State should be either abolished or its constitution so modified as to admit of substantial Indian representation on it. Of the two Under-Secretaries of State for India one should be an Indian and the salaries of the Secretary of State should be placed on the British estimates as in the case of the Secretary for the Colonies. The Secretary of State for India should, however, have no more powers over the Government of India than those exercised by the Secretary of State for the Colonies in the case of the Dominions. India must have complete autonomy, financial, legislative as well as administrative. The Government of India is the most vital point in the proposed reforms. It is the fountain head of all local administrations and unless we can ensure its progressive character any effective reform of the local Governments would be impossible. For this the services must be completely separated from the State and no member of any service should be a member of Government. From the Presidential Address- Ambica Charan Mazumdar I.N.C. Session, 1916, Lucknow. Ambica Charan was Closely associated with Surendranath Banerjee. he wrote " Indian National Evolution."{.

38. Ambika Chakrabarty (1892 - 1962)

Ambika Chakrabarty (Bengali: অম্বিকা চক্রবর্তী) (1892 – 6 March 1962) was a Bengali Indian independence movement activist and revolutionary. Later, he was a leader of the Communist Party of India and a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

Ambika Chakrabarty was born in Chattagang in 1892. His   father's name was Nanda Kumar Chakarabarty. He was a member  of Chittagong Jugantar party.

Ambika took part in the Chittagong armoury raid led by Surya Sen.At the end of the WWI Ambika Chakrabarty was arrested in 1916 on the charge of participating revolutiomary work and was released in 1918. After his release along with Surya sen formed a secret revolutionary organisation. But he was again arrested in 1924 along with other revolutionaries and was released in 1928 On 18 April 1930, he led a group of revolutionaries, who destroyed the entire communication system in Chittagong. On 22 April 1930, he was seriously injured in the gunfight with the British army in Jalalabad. But he was able to escape. After a few months, he was arrested by the police from his hideout and sentenced to death. However, the sentence was later changed to transportation for life to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair..

.Being rekeased from the Cellular Jail in 1946, he joined the Communist Party of India.He remained underground when Communist Party was declared illegal in 1948. He was elected to the Bengal Provincial Legislative Assembly in the same year. In 1952, he was elected to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Tollygunge (South) constituency as a Communist Party of India candidate. He died in a road accident in Calcutta in 1962.

36. Rajkumari Amrita Kaur (1889-1964)

She was born on the February 2, 1889 in Lucknow to a princely family of Kapurthala, a part of undivided India. She was the first Indian woman to hold the position of cabinet minister. Well, we are talking about the well known freedom fighter Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, who was an eminent Gandhian and a great social reformer.

Amrit Kaur gave away all the worldly pleasures and focused her attention on serving the society. Throughout the freedom struggle of India, she worked in close association with other freedom fighters. After independence, she became the health minister of India. She was actively involved in activities undertaken for the welfare of society. To know the complete life history of Rajkumari Amritkaur, read on.

Early life
She came from a royal family background. She was the only daughter of her parents, Raja Harnam Singh and Rani Harnam Singh. She had seven brothers. She did her schooling from England at the school at Sherborne, Dorsetshire. She graduated from Oxford University. She was a fabulous tennis player. She even won a number of prizes for her excellent performance.

Coming from such a noble family, she could have led a very luxurious life. But, when she came to India, she left all her comforts and got involved in the social welfare activities. She was instrumental in the India's Independence Movement and played a vital role as a social reformer.

Raja Harnam Singh was a very pious and pure hearted person, who was frequently visited by prominent leaders of the Indian National Congress party like Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Amritkaur started developing interest in the freedom struggle and also became more aware about the activities that are undertaken by the freedom fighters. She was highly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.

The ruthless killings that took place in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919 motivated her to join the freedom struggle. Eventually, she worked together with Mahatma Gandhi. She went far away from materialist life and began leading the life of an ascetic. She came to live in Mahatma Gandhi's Ashram in the year 1934. She also raised her voice against inhuman acts like ill treatment of Harijans.

As a Gandhian
She became an active member of Indian National Congress. She was involved in almost all the activities and movements that were launched by Gandhiji for the wellbeing of people. She became one of the most dedicated disciples of Mahatma Gandhi. She sincerely followed the teachings and principles of Bapu. This explains the reason why she was also addressed as a Gandhian. During the Dandi March, she was along with Gandhiji. It is during this movement that, she was imprisoned by the British Raj authorities.

Post-independence
After the Independence of India, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur joined the Jawaharlal Nehru's first Cabinet. She was the first woman to hold a cabinet position. She was made the incharge of Ministry of Health. She was the only Christian in the cabinet of India. In the year 1950, she was elected for the post of President of the World Health Assembly.

She played a pivotal role in the task of conceptualizing and laying the foundation for the establishment of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. For this, she secured aid from different countries like New Zealand, West Germany etc. She also provided assistance to a rehabilitation centre. She and her brother even donated their ancestral property that was made the holiday home for the staff of the institute.

She served as the Chairperson of the Indian Red Cross society for a long period of fourteen years. She made an immense contribution towards the development of the tribal groups of India. She held the position of health minister till 1957. Thereafter, she took retirement from the ministerial activities, but still remained a part of the Rajya Sabha. Till she was alive, she held the presidency position of AIMS and the Tuberculosis Association. She also served as the chairperson of St. John's Ambulance Corps. This great soul departed for heaven on the 2nd October in the year 1964

34.Amalendu Dasgupta (1903 -1955), 35. Amulya Chandra Adhikari ( 1901-1951)

Amalendu was born in Faridpur ( at present Bangla Desh) in 1903. He joined the non-cooperation movement when he was a student. He was arrested a few days after his B.A. examination and was confined to jail for 8 years. He had to move to different jails during his detention. After his release he became the Editor of "NabaYug" patrika. He was assisted by Kazi Nazrul Islam. He was again arrested on the charge of participating in the dismantling the Hall Well Monument in 1940. He was released on 1946. He then confined his attention in Journalism. His important works are Baka Camp, Bandir Bandana, Detinie etc.

Amulya Chandra Adhikari wa born in Dacca in 1901.
From his early days he came in contact with the revolutionaries. The police kept him interned for two years in 1917. He used to help the revolutionaries gone underground in different ways. He was engaged in preparing plans for collecting funds by robbery. He was also engaged in procuring illegal arms. He was confined in jail during 1924-1928 and 1930 - 1938. He was one of the organizer of Revolutionary Socialist Party (R.S.P.)  

32. Amarendralal Nandi ( ? - 1930). 33. Amalendu Ghosh (1926-1947)

Amarendralal was born in Chatagung. While he was a student, he joined Surya Sen's Revolutionary party and participated in the raid of armoury of Chittagang on 18.4.1930. He faced a direct battle with British Soldiers from Jalalabad hill. But after some time when he was escaping, he was alienated from the main body. After two days, he was hiding himself under a Calvert, he was chased by the police and he was found dead after exchange of fire. On medical examination , it was revealed that he died due to suicidal action. 

Amalendu Ghosh (19.12.1926- 22.1.1947)

When Vietnam was attacked by the French Imperialist power, he participated in the students movement of Maymensingh. He died in the police firing on the students on 22.1.1947. 

30. Amar Raha (1915 - 1986), 31. Amarendanath Chattopadhyay ( 1880-1957)

Amar Raha was a trade union leader. While reading in St. Paul's College he joined the Communist Party of India in 1935. After some time he came in contact with Soumendranath Thakur and joined in Revolutionary communist party of India. He worked with farmers in Dinajpur in the thirtees and with workers in Asansol minning area. He participated in Quit India  movement of 1942 and was arrested in Bihar. He was confined to British jail for 6 years and 14 years in independent India. He was an advocate of Calcutta High Court.
(Amarendranath Chatterjee)
Amarendranath Chatterjee (Bengali: অমরেন্দ্রনাথ চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (1 July 1880 – 4 September 1957) was an Indian independence movement activist. In charge of raising funds for theJugantar movement, his activities largely covered revolutionary centres in Bihar, Odisha and the United Provinces.
Early life
Born 1 July 1879 at Uttarpara, in the Hooghly district, near Kolkata, Amarendra was the son of Upendranath Chatterjee. On completing his primary education at Uttarpara and secondary at Bhagalpur, Amarendra joined the well-respected Duff College (now Scottish Church College) at Kolkata, where his classmates included Upendranath Banerjee andHrishikesh Kanjilal, future revolutionary colleagues. After graduation, he and his friends accompanied Surendranath Banerjee in his lecture tours throughout India and, under the latter’s influence, opened centres of social service. During the anti-Partition agitations, identifying with the programme of boycotting British goods, Amarendra led the National Volunteer Movemen.
Initiation in Revolutionary Work

Sponsored by Raja Pyarimohan and his son Rajendranath Mukherjee (‘Misri Babu’), he established the Uttarpara Shilpa-samiti, installed a carpentry, bought six handlooms and began selling homespun textile. Very soon he looked after the Poragacha unit in Nadia, giving assistance to Jatindra Nath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin or Jatin Mukherjee). They collaborated in the formation of the Chhatra Bhandar (“Students’ Emporium”), which would be transformed later into the Shramajibi Samabaya (“Workers’ Cooperative”).

While Jatin Mukherjee “worked directly under the orders of Aurobindo Ghose” since 1903, Amarendra met Sri Aurobindo in 1907 and received initiation with these words: “Surrender yourself to God and in the name of the Divine Mother get along with the service of India. That is my diksha to you.” He was further told by Sri Aurobindo: “If we want to secure the freedom of the country, we have to sacrifice everything for it, and we should be ready to give up even our life for it. If we want to free the country, we shall have to conquer the fear of death.”^[2] Encouraged by Sri Aurobindo to collect funds for the Extremists’ movement, he came closer to Jatin Mukherjee. Behind their commercial activities, their centres sheltered militants from regional units, as well as provided meeting places for Jatin and other Jugantar leaders.

In Jugantar 

Jatin’s elderly revolutionary associate Preonath Karar (Sri Yukteswar Giri) of Serampore – friend of Hrishikesh Kanjilal and of the restless Vedic Pandit Mokshada Samadhyayi – had founded an Ashram at Puri in 1900; it had been in connection with Lokamanya Tilak’s initiative to turn Benares and other Hindu shrines into seats of Extremist politics. Long before the hatching of the daily Jugantarat Benares, Puri instituted a religious procession in celebration of the advent of a New Era (yuga+antar). Sealy in his Report admits : “It would be extremely rash to argue that the place has not been freely used by the anarchist for sealing the compact of many a vow against the Government or that it has not been a recognised place of refuge for the fugitive from justice or surveillance by the police.”

A few months before the Surat Congress, Suranath Bhaduri of Benares, on reaching Calcutta after travelling all over Bengal, “formed a central committee at the Sandhya office, with the help of Jatin Banerji (alias Niralamba Swami) and with Kartik Dutta; Mukhada Samadhyayi, Shyamsundar Chakravarti, Arabindo Ghose, Tarakhepa, Annada Charan Kaviraj and others as members(…) Measures are being devised for freeing India and for proclaiming the divine commands which have been received in the matter (…) After this Suranath went to Puri with Preo Nath Karar alias Sri Yukteswar Giri (…) Attempts are being made to get hold of such of the ruling Chiefs as are patrons of the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal. Raja Sasisekhareswar of Tahirpur … is being fully converted to this creed.”  The Maharaj of Darbhanga was the General President of the Mahamandal; Suranath’s father, Somnath Bhaduri, was the Maharaja’s Private Secretary; Amarendra Chatterjee’s father-in-law, Preonath Banerjee, was the Manager of the Darbhanga Raj; the link was further close because one of Preonath Banerjee’s nephews, Natbihari Chatterjee (son-in-law of the great Surendranath Banerjee), was munsif at Cuttack; another nephew, Dhiren Mukherjee, taught at the Ravenshaw Collegeate School. Amarendra had a free access not only to these patriots but, also, to the headmaster of this School (later Principal of the Ravenshaw College), Khirodchandra Ray Chaudhuri, who edited and published the “scurrilous” (to quote Sealy) daily, Star of Utkal.

Khirodchandra’s son, Sukumar, practised as a barrister at Cuttack and had married a daughter of Dr Aghore Nath Chatterjee “who was deported by the Nizam of Hyderabad for intriguing against the British Government.” The most illustrious of Aghore Nath’s children wasVirendranath Chattopadhyay (“Chatto”, the revolutionary of international reputation); among the others was the patriotic Mrinalini Chatterjee who formed a trio with Kumudini Mitra and Sarojini Ghose (respectively cousin and sister of Sri Aurobindo). The poet Harin and the politician Sarojini Naidu were two other of Aghore Nath’s children. Another member of this circle was the pleader Bishwanath Kar of Cuttack who enjoyed a close friendship with eminent national leaders such as Dr Sundari Mohan Das, Surendranath Banerjeeand Bepin Chandra Pal.

These leaders had also been mentors for the significant revolutionary Bairagi Tripathi of Patia (district Cuttack) who was personally helped in his education by Madhusudan Das and the Raja of Kanika; on reaching Calcutta, Bairagi had become – in imitation of the Hyde Park spirit in London - “a troublesome agitator and lecturer of the Calcutta open air platform. His first appearance was at a meeting presided over by Amarendra Chatterjee and after Liaqat Hossain was served with an order under the Calcutta Police Act, Bairagi became very vehement at meetings organised by Liaqat and himself on almost all political questions (…) Bairagi himself was evicted from Bengal and was eventually interned at Cuttack.”

The Ramakrishna Mission had a branch at Puri, known as the Sashi Niketan and, according to the Police reports, this place had always been visited by “suspicious strangers”, including Jatin Mukherjee and Amarendra Chatterjee. According to Sealy’s Report, in 1910, the latter made a determined effort to establish an Ashram at Puri, in a building near the Jagannath Temple, called Srikshetra Sevashram, ostensibly for philanthropic purposes but, in reality, for the education and training of political missionaries. This institution, too, was under the patronage of the Raja of Tahirpur. In addition to Basanta Biswas, Amarendra was helped by Sushil and Sushen, brothers of Satish Mukherjee (who had been sentenced in 1908 in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case, and came to be known as Swami Muktananda) : all of them served as links with the Benares unit. During the ratha-yatra festival, Amarendra and his associates wore red crosses and distributed medicines to pilgrims. The Temple Manager wrote to the District Magistrate in 1911 that he had “noticed signs of attempts by Bengali agitators to turn the temple into a centre for the Swadeshi movement and political agitation.” This letter rejoiced the divide and rule policy of the English, while Amarendra had to abandon the idea.

Indo-German Conspiracy

Since Sri Aurobindo’s retiring to Pondicherry in 1910, Amarendra closely associated with Jatin’s followers such as Atulkrishna Ghose,Naren Bhattacharya alias M.N. Roy and Bepin Ganguli, and served as intermediary between Jatin Mukherjee and Rasbehari Bose, becoming a key-figure in the Indo-German Conspiracy under Jatin during World War I. Two of his faithful lieutenants — Basanta and Manmatha Biswas went to North India to assist Rasbehari in an attempt to murder Lord Hardinge; immediately after Basanta’s capital punishment in this connection, Amarendra was blacklisted by the Police.

Bholanath Chatterjee and Parikhit Mukherjee had been working with Naren Bhattacharya under Jatin Mukherjee’s direct leadership. Since March 1915, they were “sent off to Sambalpur side, to prospect establishing connection along the Bombay line to Nagpur connected up with Nilgiri and Mayurbhanj.” At Chakradharpur they received hospitality from Ashu Kundu of Kumarkhali (Nadia) and stayed in Manoharpur, hired a house at Kalunga in August, went to Banposh, Bisra, Mohanpur and Sonua, where they stayed with Girindra Mukherjee who had visited Shyamji Krishna Varma in Europe and Myron Phelps in the U.S.A., and had been in correspondence with them. Reminding that one of the addresses to which money from the Far East could reach the revolutionaries was Sonua Stone & Lime Co. with its office at 101/1 Clive Street, Calcutta, Sealy points out how its owner, Sudhangshu Mukherjee — one of the directors of the Shramajibi Samabaya — was “a puppet in Amarendra Chatterji’s hands.”

In 1909, Amarendra brought out a Bengali edition of Sri Aurobindo’s Karmayogin; the paper collapsed in 1910 after having published a violent letter. He adopted the guise of a monk. Amarendra’s next enterprise was the above-mentioned “Labour League” (Shramajibi Samabaya), a flourishing Limited Liability Company, with the real object of defraying the expenses of preaching Nationalism. In 1911, at Puri, he became the leader of a “gang of sannyasis” banded together with the object of disseminating sedition. He was found selling a book entitled The Life of Arabindo Ghose. In “A Note on the Ramakrishna Mission”, Charles Tegart recognised that the flood relief in 1913 in the districts of Burdwan, Hooghly and Midnapore “was eagerly seized upon by the revolutionary parties, both of the Eastern and Western Bengal, who (…) doubtless utilised the opportunity thus afforded to map out their future plan of campaign.” Describing Amarendra “to be an exceedingly active and dangerous conspirator at the present time,” Tegart proved how the Mission financed him for these relief operations.

Denham, in 1914, kept under observation for a considerable time Naren Bhattacharya’s mess at 133 Lower Circular Road in Calcutta, which was visited by Amarendra and Makhan Sen to see and confer with Jatin Mukherjee. In the same Report, dated 22 April 1914, Tegart states that even up to date, the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur and its recognised branches were not entirely free from objectionable features: “For instance, on the seventy-ninth birthday anniversary of Ramakrishna, which was celebrated at Belur on the 1st of March last, in the presence of a very large gathering, it is reported that Amarendra Nath Chatterjee and Makhan Sen (…), Jatindra Nath Mukherjee and other prominent members of the revolutionary party, were noticed feeding the poor and generally assisting the authorities of the Math in attending to the welfare of their visitors.”

In April, 1915, Jatin Mukherjee agreed to leave Calcutta for Balasore: having supervised the expedition, Amarendra and Ramchandra Majumdar reminded the escorts: “Never forget that the Soul of Bengal is entrusted to you.”^[13] After spending a few days with the regional leader Atul Sen, Headmaster of the local school, the party left with Pandit Hem Mukherjee to his village Kumar-Ada near Mahishadal. Then, via Balasore and Nilgiri, they reached Kaptipoda.

At this juncture, before setting out for the Far East, Naren Bhattacharya — after having brought to his colleagues at Calcutta the good news of Jatin Mukherjee’s convenient settling at Kaptipoda and the exact modes of getting orders from Balasore for the route to Kaptipoda — returned there to receive blessings from his Guru, Jatin. With a passport issued in the name of C.A. Martin, he arrived at Batavia (Djakarta) on 30 April, and was welcomed by Erich Windels, the German Consul, who presented him also to the brothers Helfferich, Theodor and Emil, officially designated by the German Government to deal with the Maverick project. In addition to their family plantations, the Helfferichs looked after a flourishing business there; as manager of the Behn Meyers Company, Theodor took down from Naren detailed instructions sent by Jatin Mukherjee concerning the delivery of the Maverick consignment. He noted also the addresses of Harry & Sons (Harikumar Chakravarti) and of Shramajibi Samabaya (Amarendra Chatterjee) at Calcutta for all urgent communications.

Satisfied with his trip to Batavia, on 15 May 1915, Naren sent a telegram to Harikumar from Weltevreden, Java: "Sugar business helpful. Martin.” Having probably made a detour by China, on 29 May he sent another message to Calcutta: "Back here ; business good; sugar contracted; shipment after 2 weeks; anxious for affairs there. Wire. Martin.” Having received from the Helfferichs a first remittance of 43.000 rupees, Naren worked out with Abdur Salam — a Kashmiri Muslim actively involved in the Extremists’ project — to transfer a great portion of this money to Harry & Sons through the intermediary of the firm Chotirmull & Co, belonging to Indian tradesmen from the Sindh, having its dynamic branch offices in the Far East..

In Underground

At the top of a period of hectic preparations from the revolutionaries’ side, when on 7 August 1915, Denham searched the Harry & Sons and the Shramajibi Samabaya, he had no warrant for arresting Amarendra, but warned the latter: “You are a fish of the deep water!”That was the last contact the police had with Amarendra, just before he absconded. Sealy’s Report desperately added: “In 1915 his very important share in the gun-running conspiracy [under Jatin Mukherjee] and its ramifications came to light but he disappeared and has completely baffled all efforts to trace him.”

While absconding in Chandernagore after Jatin Mukherjee’s heroic self-undoing in 1915, Amarendra narrowly escaped in the teeth of an armed Police cordon, travelled through Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, received initiation as a Sikh monk, tirelessly visiting pilgrimages all over India, under the identity of the Punjabi Sadhu (“Hermit”). After the War, on learning about the amnesty during a lecture tour in the South, still disguised as a sannyasi, he paid a visit to Sri Aurobindo, who received heartily the old disciple.

Later Life

On returning to Bengal, Amarendra took up the Cherry Press to issue the Atmashakti, offering to Deshabandhu Chitta Ranjan Das the full sympathy of his Jugantar fellows within the framework of the Swarajya Party. On serving a short term prison, he was released in 1923 and was appointed by Suresh Majumdar (Bagha Jatin’s follower) as the President of the Karmi Sangha (“Community of Workers”). In the early 1920s, Suresh is said to have received considerable help from Amarendra in financing and founding the Anandabazar group of papers. Elected to the Assembly in 1929, he joined the Dundee March in 1930 and spent a year in the prison. As a member of theCentral Legislative Assembly, representing Madan Mohan Malaviya’s Congress Jatiya Dal (1937-1945), he preferred the programme of his revolutionary associate M.N. Roy (Naren Bhattacharya) and joined the Radical Democratic Party in 1945. He died in Uttarpara in 1957..