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many from Bihar had joined this
prestigious institution before him. In 1904 he
contested to the post of secretary of the
college union against a senior student
belonging to a rich aristocratic family and
won. He secured a first in MA and a first in
Master of Law. He set himself up as a legal
practitioner in Calcutta in 1911 and also
joined the Indian National Congress. In 1916
Rajendra Prasad shifted to Patna on the
establishment of the High Court ofBihar and
Orissa. In the April 1917 AICC session held in
Calcutta Mahatma Gandhi and Rajendra
Prasad met each other. He was in jail on
January 15,1934 when the devastating Bihar
earthquake occurred. Released two days later
he set about organising relief and raising
funds. His Presidentship of the Constituent
Assembly was exemplary. He guided its
deliberations with great skill and tact. His
elevation to the Presidentship of India in 1950
came as a matter of course. He was President
for 10 years after which he retired to the
Sadaquat Ashram in Patna. His wife Rajbanshi
Devi passed away on September 1962.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
(1886-1975)
Born at Tiruttani, near Tirupati, both fa-
mous as pilgrim centres, to Sarvepalli Vu-
raswami, a subordinate revenue official in the
court of a local Zamindar. He had his early
education at Tiruttani and later at Tirupati.
After passing the matriculation examination
he joined the Voorhee's College at Vellore
with a scholarship. He was awarded a schol-
arship to study at the Madras Christian Col-
lege for the B.A. He was more interested in
the physical sciences but chose philosophy as
he got the textbooks free from a cousin who
had just graduated in philosophy. After ob-
taining his B.A degree in 1906 with first class
honours, he wanted to study law but since he
could not support himself in the law college,
he accepted a scholarship of Rs 25 per month
and joined the Philosophy Department of the
Madras Presidency College as a teacher. He
was appointed Professor of Philosophy in
Mysore University in 1918. When the King
George V Professorship of Mental and Moral
Sciences in Calcutta University fell vacant in
1920
the Vice-Chancellor, Sir. Ashutosh
Mukherjee, invited Radhakrishnan to apply
for the chair. In 1927 represented Calcutta
University at the Congress of Universities of
the British Empire in London and delivered
the Upton Lectures on Hindu Philosophy.
Later going to the United States he delivered
the Haskell Lectures at Chicago and attended
the International Congress of Philosophy at
Harvard where he spoke on the role of Phi-
losophy in the history of civilisation. In 1931
he became the Vice-Chancellor of the Andhra
University at Waltair. During 1936-1939 he
was the Spalding Professor of Eastern Relig-
ions at Oxford. He delivered the British Acad-
emy's Master Mind lecture on Buddha in
1937. After his return to India at the outbreak
of World War II he was appointed Vice-
Chancellor of Benares University. After India
became independent, he was appointed to a
number of prestigious positions. He prepared
a report on the Indian Universities as Chair-
man of the Universities Commission. In 1949
he became Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Elected Vice-President of India in 1952, the
Bharat Ratna was conferred on him in 1954-.
He became President of India in 1962.
Radhakrishnan's mastery of English made him
a brilliant and effective interpreter of
Philosophy, Eastern religions and Western
thought. He was described as "a liaison officer
between the East and West."
K.M. Munshi
(1887-1971)
Bom in Broach, Gujarat, he got his school
education in his home town. In college he was
so much influenced by Sri Aurobindo Ghose
that he joined the Congress, took part in Salt
Satyagraha in 1930. In 1937 became the Home
Minister of Bombay. As a lawyer he fought
many cases for Indians jailed in Quit India
movement. After Independence he became the
Agent-General in Hyderabad, Served the
country as a Food Minister in 1952 and
Governor of Uttar Pradesh (1953-58). Joined
the Swatantra Party in 1960. Munshi's love for
Vedic classical Sanskrit literature made him
start the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan.
Madan Lai Dingra
(1887-1909)
Born in the Amritsar District of Punjab, he
belonged to a highly respectable family. His
father was a well-known medical practitioner
and his brother a barrister. Madan Lai passed
his BA examination from the Punjab
University and sailed for England in
1906
for higher studies and joined a course in
engineering. In England he came in contact
with Savarkar who gave him his first lesson in
terrorism. When his revolutionary activities
became known to his parents, his brother
wrote to Sir. Curzon Wylie, who was an
adviser to the Secretary of State for India, to
dissuade him from taking part in nationalistic
activities. He made up his mind "to shed
English blood as an humble protest against the
inhuman transportation and hanging of
the Indian youths" and on July 1, 1909 shot
Sir Curzon Wylie at the annual meeting, of the
Indian National Association in the Jehangir
House of the Imperial Institute. When the
death sentence was passed on him in his trial
at the Old Bailey he said: "Thank you, my
lord, for my country, I thank you. I am proud
to have the honour of laying down my humble
life for my country. Poor in wealth and
intellect, a son like myself has nothing else to
offer to the mother but his own blood and so I
have sacrificed the same on her altar. The only
lesson required in India at present is to learn
how to die and the only way to teach it is by
dying ourselves. Therefore I die and glory in
my martyrdom". He was hanged on August 7,
1909.
Manabendra Nath Roy
(1887-1954)
A Communist he slipped out of India in
1915
to make contact in Java with German
agents bringing arms for an Indian
insurrection. This plot having failed he settled
in Mexico under the name of Manabendra
Nath Roy. (His original name was
Narendranath Bhatta Charya). When news of
the Bolshevik Revolution reached him he first
helped found the Mexican Communist Party
and then hurried to Moscow. There he made a
favourable impression on Lenin and was put
on the Executive Committee of the newly
formed Communist International. Severing his
connection with the Bolsheviks in 1929 after
the victory of Stalin over Trotsky, Roy
returned incognito to India but was arrested by
the British authorities and jailed for six years.
After Independence he abandoned Marxism
and founded the Radical Humanist group.
Srinivasa Ramanujan
(1887-1920)
One of the greatest mathematicians India has
produced, he was born in a South Indian
Iyengar Brahmin family at Erode. His father
was an accountant to a cloth merchant at
Kumbakonam. He joined the Town High
School at Kumbakonam where he enjoyed a
free studentship. He possessed an uncanny
memory and could give the values of various
mathematical entities to any number of
decimal places. He passed the matriculation
examination in 1904 and won a scholarship.
He joined the Government College at
Kumbakonam but because of his sole interest
in mathematics he neglected his other
subjects, especially English and therefore
failed to get promotion to the second year. In
1909 he got married at the age of 22 and it
became