Today In Indian History (22nd February)

1892 - Birth of Indulal Yajnik on 22 February 1892. Born at Nadiad in the present-day Kheda district of Gujarat, Indulal Yajnik was a freedom fighter and one of the finest editors. A social worker and peasant leader from Gujarat he was a gifted journalist.

He was associated with the home rule movement started by Annie Besant. Yajnik actively participated in the Kheda Satyagraha organized by Gandhi to secure exemption for the peasants from payment of land tax for the crops that had failed. He launched two Gujarati monthlies – Navjivan Ame Saty and Yugadharm and a daily Nutan Gujarat.

Indulal Yajnik established schools for the Bhil children and was the secretary of the Antyaj Seva Mandal, with Thakkar Bapa as its president. He was actively associated with the Kisan Sabha work and organsied the cooperative movement among the peasants of Gujarat. In 1942 he presided over the annual session of Akhil Hind Kisan Sabha. He was a founder of the Gujarat Vidyapeeth. In 1956 he took lead in the Maha Gujarat Movement for a separate state and became founder president of the Maha Gujarat Janta Parishad.

1958 - Death of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, an important Indian leader. He was the first Education Minister in Independent India. Born in Mecca (now in Saudi Arabia) in 1888 on 22 February, Abul Kalam Azad was an Islamic theologian and a great scholar of Arabic, Persian and Urdu. He adopted the pen-name of Azad at the age of 16. He published a number of papers such as Al-Nadwah, the Vakil, Al-Hilal (“The Crescent”) and Al-Balagh. 

He was 35 when he was elected President of the Indian National Congress in its Delhi session in 1923, becoming the youngest to hold that office. He was again elected to the presidentship of Congress in 1940 and continued to hold that position until 1946.

After Indian independence in 1947, he became the Education Minister in Jawahar Lal Nehru’s cabinet. He had written autobiographical narrative, 'India Wins Freedom' which holds that religion politics was responsible for the partition of the country. Ghubar-e-Khatir is his another important work. 

Azad died in 1958. In 1992, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.

  

Today In Indian History (21st February)

1685- On 21st February in 1685 a Maratha contingent under Shambhaji's lieutenant Melgiri Pandit reached Bijapur to give a helping hand to the Sikandar Adil Shah, the last sultan of the Bijapur sultanate, against the Mughals under Aurangzeb.  

Today In Indian History (20th February)

1948 - Clement Attlee, the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announced on 20 February 1947 that the British Government would grant full self-government to British India by 3 June 1948 at the latest. 

Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, thought that waiting until June 1948 might be too late. So he moved the date for India's independence to August 1947. 

Today In Indian History (19th February)

1630 - Birth of Shivaji. Founder of the Maratha kingdom in 17th-century, Shivaji was born in the hill-fort of Shivneri near Junnar (in the Pune district of Maharashtra) on February 19, 1630. However, according to one school of thought, he was born in 1627.

1915 - Death of Gopal Krishna Gokhale on 19 February in 1915. Born on 9 May in 1866, Gopal Krishna Gokhale was an Indian freedom fighter and political guru of Mahatma Gandhi. He was the president of the Benares session of Indian National Congress in 1905. In that year he had founded Servants of India Society.

Ridiculing the idea of Swaraj in 1903, Gopal Krishna Gokhale had said "Only mad men outside lunatic asylums could think or talk of independence"

In 1907, the Congress had been divided into two factions in the Surat session. While the moderate faction was headed by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the leader of the extremist group.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale was also a mentor to Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Gokhale had described Jinnah as "an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity". Once Jinnah had expressed the desire to become "the Muslim Gokhale".

Today In Indian History (18th February)

1486 - Birth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu  on 18th February in 1486. Considered to be one the greatest saints of Bhakti Movement, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born on 18th February in 1486 in Navadwip (Nadia) in a Brahmin family in West Bengal. Nimai and Gauranga were his other names. 

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave great impetus to Vaishnavism in Bengal. This greatest religious reformer  laid the foundation of the Gaudiya sect of Vaishnavs. He was an exponent of a new style of Bhajan singing. 

1905- Foundation of the Indian Home Rule Society (IHRS) in 1905. The Indian Home Rule Society (IHRS) was an Indian organisation founded on 18 February in London in 1905 that sought to promote the cause of self-rule in British India. It was founded by Indian revolutionary leader Shyamji Krishna Varma.  

Today In Indian History (17th February)

1792- Birth of Budhu Bhagat on 17 February, 1792 in Jharkhand.    

Budhu Bhagat was the leader of Kol rebellion and Larka rebellion in 1831—32 in Chhotanagpur. Born on 17 February 1792 into an Oraon farmer family, Budhu Bhagat had employed tactic of guerrilla warfare against the British.

His resistance to the British forces ended when he was killed on 13 February 1832 by them . 

The Unmissable 2025 Kumbh Fair in Pictures

 

This year Prayagraj is playing host to the unmissable fair of Kumbh Mela (festival of the Sacred Pitcher), the largest congregation of humanity anywhere in the world. 

Prayagraj is at its exuberant best when the Kumbh Mela, one of the largest religious congregations in the world, is being held here

Legend has it that Prayagraj was one of the four sites where a drop of Amrita (nectar) from the Kumbh (pot), carried by Gods, fell. It is therefore one of the four venues where the Kumbh Mela is held every 12 years. Haridwar, Nasik and Ujjain are the other three. 

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The Kumbh Mela is a riot of religious activities, worship, faith, rituals, colours and celebration, attracts millions of pilgrims who dip themselves in the waters to purify themselves of the sins.