Chattrapati Shahu Maharaj: Champion of the Backward Classes

It is interesting to know that one of the most revolutionary reforms for the uplift of the backward classes was initiated by a ruler of a princely state in the British India. Chattrapati Shahu Maharaj, the ruler of Kolhapur, was the earliest Indian ruling prince to have launched the social and religious reforms for the lower classes. He championed the cause of the non-Brahmins.

Also known as Rajarshi Shahu, Chattrapati Shahu was born in 1874. A follower of Arya Samaj, he tried his honest best to free the society from the shackles of the caste system and had the courage to ban untouchability in his state. He opened the gates of education and public offices to all irrespective of caste discriminations. He advocated widow remarriage and discouraged child marriage.  

A follower of Arya Samaj, Chattrapati Shahu is mainly remembered for his work in the field of education. He voiced his support for western liberal education. With a view to providing free education and residence to the children of the poor he started a number of hostels.  

Chattrapati Shahu died in 1922.

Dr. Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya: Official Historian of the Congress

Born in Andhra Pradesh in 1880 in a poor family, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya was a nationalist and important leader of freedom struggle.  He is famous for his defeat by Subhash Chandra Bose in 1939 he lost the Congress presidential election which was termed by Mahatma Gandhi as his own defeat. Subhash Chandra Bose was later expelled from the Congress Party.

A doctor by profession, he chose politics as his profession and was a member of All India Congress Committee and Congress Working Committee. In August, 1942, he was arrested during Quit India Movement and kept in prison for three years.  

In 1935 he wrote History of the Indian National Congress which was the official history of the party.

Sitaramayya was elected President of the  Indian National Congress in 1948. He served as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh in Independent India. He passed away in 1959.

Amritlal Vithaldas Thakkar (Thakkar Bapa ): Friend of Tribal People

Born in Gujarat in 1869, Amritlal Vithaldas Thakkar (A V Thakkar), affectionately known as Thakkar Bapa, was a leading Gandhian social reformer whose work in the field of uplift of   tribal people is immense. He was a devout member of the Servants of India Society which was founded in 1905 by Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
 

Though he never joined Congress, he was made a general Secretary of the Harijan Sevak Sangh, founded by Mahatma Gandhi. During 1934-35, he undertook a harijan tour accompanied by Gandhi. He was the founder of Bhil Seva Mandal and Gond Seva Sangh. Gond Seva Sangh was started in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh. It is now known as Vanavasi Seva Mandal.

Amritlal Vithaldas Thakkar had written the book ‘Tribes of India’ that was published in 1950.

Thakkar Bapa died in 1951.

Amir Khusrau: Sufi Mystic and Poet

Yaminuddin Abul Hasan Ameer Khusro or Amir Khusrau, as he is popularly known in the Indian sub-continent, is a great name in literature and music. Born in 1252 in a Turkish family at Patiyali in the Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh, Amir Khusrau was a man of culture who was witness to the reigns of six Sultans of Delhi Sultanate spanning different dynasties: Slave, Khilji and Tughlaq.  

Amir Khusrau mixed spiritual and mundane with ease. One the one hand, he has a liking for mysticism and became a disciple of the famous Sufi Chisti saint Nizamuddin Auliya, on the other, he used to accompany the Sultanate army in their military expeditions. He was captured by the Mongols during the fight which claimed the life of Prince Muhammad, son of Slave Sultan Balban, in 1286. However, he managed to escape.  

An academic genius, Amir Khusrau was a prolific writer. 

Composed in 1289, Qiran-us-sadin is the first historical masnavi of Amir Khusrau. Written in verse, it describes the meeting between Kaiqubad, the Sultan of Delhi, and his father Bughra Khan, the governor of Bengal and son of Balban. 

His Khazain ul Futuh, also known as Tarikh-i-Alai, deals with the first fifteen years of the reign of 'Ala-ud-din Khalji.

Nuh Siphr (the nine skies), another historical  masnavi described the reign of Mubarak Khilji.

In 1291 Amir Khusrau wrote Miftah-ul-Futh where he deals with the military campaigns of Jalaluddin khilji, the founder of the Khilji dynasty. It contains the account of the suppression of the rebellion by Malik Chajju.

Milinda-panha - Questions of Menander

Milinda-panha ("Questions of Milinda) is a Buddhist text dealing with a series of dialogues between King Menander, the most famous Indo-Greek ruler and a Buddhist philosopher called Nagasena. It is written in Pali. 

Menander ruled from c 150 to 135 BC one of the Indo-Greek kingdoms that had arisen in the north-west India as a consequence of the Alexander’s conquests two centuries earlier. His dominion extended from Kabul in the north to Yamuna in the south.

At the end of Milinda-panha, Nagasena was able to convince Menander the persuasiveness of the Buddha's teachings and the king became a Buddhist monk and abdicated the throne in his son’s favour.

Menander was immensely popular. This can be gauged from the legend that has it that after his death, there was a scramble among the cities of north-west for his ashes on which monuments could be built.

Ralph Fitch: European traveller to the Mughal Court

Ralph Fitch, who has left an eyewitness account of the social life and economic condition of the Mughal India, was a European traveller and trader. He was one of the first Englishmen to visit India. During the course of his journey which he undertook in a ship named Tiger he was arrested at Hormuz from where he was taken to Goa then under the control of the Portuguese.

After being released on bail he left Goa and in 1585 he reached the Mughal court of Akbat at Fatehpur Sikri, the new capital built by the emperor near Agra.

From Fatehpur Sikri, Fitch proceeded to the eastern part of India including Bengal.

Sikandar Shah of Ilyas Shahi dynasty of Bengal

Sikandar Shah was the second ruler of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty, an independent Muslim kingdom of Bengal founded by his father Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah in about AD 1345. He ascended the throne after the death of his father in 1357 and ruled Bengal for thirty-three years. During his reign he was able to ensure peace and prosperity in his kingdom which is attested by the richness of his coins. 

Soon after his accession, Sikandar Shah has to face a military campaign of the Tughlaq Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq who had earlier made an expedition to Bengal in 1353 during the rule of Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah. However like the first expedition, the second one also proved to be a failure for the Tughlaq ruler. 

Last years of Sikandar Shah were rendered unhappy by the rebellion of his son Ghiyas-ud-din Azam who killed him in 1390 in a battle at Goalpara near Pandua.

The long and prosperous rule of Sikandar Shah provided him ample opportunity to build some magnificent mosques and buildings. Chief among them is renowned Adina Mosque at Pandua (presently in Maldah district of West Bengal). Consisting of four hundred domes, this imposing mosque was built in A.D. 1368. The pillars of the mosque were taken from Hindu temples and palaces in Lakhnauti.