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give his children an English education. They
were sent to the Loreto convent school in
Darjeeling and in 1879 Aurobindo was along
with his two elder brothers, Benoy Bhushan
Ghose and Manmohan Ghose and younger
sister, Sarojini, taken to England by their
parents for education. Aurobindo who was
then seven was entrusted to the care of a
Protestant clergyman and his wife. In 1884 he
was entered at the St Paul's School in London
where he impressed his teachers by mastering
English, Latin and Greek. In 1889, at the age
of 17 he secured a scholarship for entry to
King's College, Cambridge. He passed with a
first class distinction the First Part of the
Tripos and then passed the open competition
for the Indian Civil Service. But he
deliberately did not take the compulsory
riding test and thus disqualified himself for an
IC S career on which his father was keen.
Paradoxically his father's letters from India in
which he complained about the injustices and
heartlessness of British rule may have played
a part in Aurobindo's decision not to take up a
career in the IC S. For though Dr. Krishna
Dhan was an admirer of the English way of
life he was not an admirer of the British Raj.
Aurobindo became a member of the "Lotus
and Dagger", a secret group that met in
London and whose members took a pledge to
adopt some measure that would help in
ending foreign rule in India. After completing
his University studies Aurobindo arrived in
Bombay in February 1893. His father had
passed away a few weeks earlier as he had
been informed by mistake by his London
bankers that the ship by which Aurobindo had
left London had sunk off Lisbon. While in
England he met Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of
Baroda who invited him to join the Baroda
State Service. He joined the Secretariat but
soon gravitated towards educational work. He
became a Lecturer in French but was soon
appointed Professor of English and then Vice-
President of Baroda College. In Baroda he
began learning Indian languages - Sanskrit,
Gujarati, Marathi and Bengali, his mother-
tongue with which he was only slightly
acquainted. He began contributing articles to
the "Indu Prakash" of Bombay in which he
attacked the moderate leadership then
obtaining in the Indian National Congress.
While in Baroda he married Mrinalini Devi in
1901. The agitation that followed the partition
of Bengal saw Aurobindo leave Baroda for
Calcutta where he joined the Bengal National
College as Professor of English on a salary of
Rs 150 p.m. one-fifth of whathe had been
getting in Baroda. He began writing articles
without
however using his name in
"Yugantar"
a
revolutionary Bengali weekly started by his
younger brother Barindra, and Bipin Chandra
Pal's English weekly
"Bande Matharam".
He
was prosecuted for the Bande Matharam
articles because even though his name did not
appear the government suspected that he was
the author. However he was acquitted by
magistrate Mr. Kingsford declaring that the
general tone of the articles was not seditious.
In May 1908 he was arrested in connection
with a bomb throwing incident in
Muzzaffaipur in Bihar. Two Bengal boys threw
a bomb at what they thought was the carriage
of Kingsford who was then the District Judge
of Muzzaffarpur. The victims were Mrs
Pringle- Kennedy and her daughter who had
nothing to do with politics. The police arrested
Barindra, Aurobindo's brother, who was
thought to be the brain behind the plot.
Aurobindo was released in April 1909 after
being declared not guilty. In jail he had a
mystic experience in which he had a vision of
Krishna. In July 1909 he received information
that he would again be arrested and this time
deported. Following an inner voice in February
1910 he left for Chandranagore in French
territory. Not finding the place convenient he
went to Pondicherry arriving there on the 4th
of April 1910. He remained there for the next
40 years. He completely withdrew from all
political activities. Devoting himself to
literature and philosophy, Aurobindo gave a
new interpretation of the
Vedas
and the
Vedanta.
In his commentary on the
Gita
he
expounded what he called "the integral way of
life". He wrote his prose poem
"Savitri"
based
on the ancient Hindu legend. He expounded his
philosophy in"
The Life Divine".
Inhiswork he
received the co-operation of a French couple
Paul Richard and his wife (later to become
famous as the Mother) who came to
Pondicherry on the eve of the First World War.
An ashram named after Aurobindo grew up in
Pondicherry.
Kumaran Asan
(1873-1924)
Poet, scholar and a social reformer, he was
born in a small village, Keyikeara, in
Trivandrum District. In school he studied both
Sanskrit and Malayalam. At the age of fourteen
he became a teacher and taught Sanskrit to the
local people and came to be known as
"Asan"
or preceptor. He started his campaign against
the caste system. Because of the discrimination
he had experienced as a member of the Ezhava
community, he got many temples opened in
Kerala. He wrote many powerful poems like-
"
Duravastha".
He wrote poems like
"Bharatamayuram"
and "
Swetantragath"
which expressed his nationalistic feelings and
was awarded the title "
Maha Kavi".
Died in a
boat accident.
Muhammad Iqbal
(1873-1938)
He was born at Sialkot in Punjab. His
parents, devout and pious Muslims, inculcated
in him the teachings of Islam. Was sent to the
Government College, Lahore where he
graduated in 1899 and was appointed lecturer
in philosophy. Went to study philosophy in
Cambridge and also qualified as a barrister.
Started practising law at Lahore but gave it up
and began writing. It was not long before he
was recognised as a thinker of importance and
the greatest Urdu poet of his time. He is
considered next only to Ghalib (1796- 1869).
He was knighted in 1922 in recognition of his
greatness as a poet. Temperamentally he was
unsuited to politics and his only real
contribution in this field was made as
president of the All India Muslim League
session in
1930
when he said: "I would like to see the
Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind
and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single
state. Self-government within the British
Empire or without the British Empire, the
formation of a consolidated North-West
Indian Muslim State appears to me the final
destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-
West India". This was the first time that the
idea of a separate state for the Muslims had
been put forward on the platform of a political
party. Pakistan recognises him as its national
poet.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
(1875-1950)
He wass born in a middle class peasant
family at Nadi ad. He was not very good in
studies, took to law and was successful as a
criminal lawyer. Went to England for his Bar-
at-law. On his return to India in 1913 he set
up practice in Ahmedabad, defending those
who had fallen foul of British officialdom. So
impressed he was by Mahatma Gandhi that he
joined politics. He came very close to
Gandhiji during the "Kheda satyagraha" in
1918, which was started to get exemption
from land revenue since the crops failed that
year. In 1928, the government decided to
increase the land tax by 50% to 60%.
Vallabhbhai Patel, along with Gandhiji, Nehru
and many others started the successful Bardoli
satyagraha.
From that time he was known as
"Sardar".
He went to jail many times and took
part in the boycott of the Simon Commission,
Salt
Satyagraha
and