Rajmohan Gandhi | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha [1] | |
In office 1990-92 | |
Constituency | Uttar Pradesh |
Personal details | |
Born | [2] New Delhi,British India | 7 August 1935
Political party | Aam Aadmi Party |
Other political affiliations | Janata Dal |
Spouse | Usha Gandhi |
Children | 2 |
Parent(s) | Devdas Gandhi Lakshmi ( née Rajagopalachari) Gandhi |
Relatives | Mahatma Gandhi (grandfather) Kasturba Gandhi (grandmother) |
Occupation | Biographer,journalist,politician |
Awards | International Humanitarian Award (human rights) |
Website | Official website |
Rajmohan Gandhi (born 7 August 1935) [2] is an Indian biographer,historian,politician and research professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,US. His paternal grandfather is Mahatma Gandhi,and his maternal grandfather is Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari. He is also a scholar in residence at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar.
In 1989,he joined Janata Dal and unsuccessfully contested against Rajiv Gandhi. [3] In 2014,he joined the Aam Aadmi Party. [4] He contested from the East Delhi constituency and lost. [5]
Rajmohan Gandhi was born 7 August 1935 in New Delhi,to Devdas and Lakshmi Gandhi. His father was the managing editor of the Hindustan Times . Rajmohan Gandhi attended St. Stephen's College. His maternal grandfather was C. Rajagopalachari,the last Governor General of India (succeeding Lord Louis Mountbatten),who was one of the foremost associates of Mahatma Gandhi.
In the 1960s and early 1970s,Gandhi played a leading role in establishing Asia Plateau,the conference centre of Initiatives of Change in Panchgani,in the mountains of western India. [6]
In 2002,Gandhi received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Rajaji:A Life,a Biography of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878–1972),about his maternal grandfather,a leading figure in India's independence movement. [7]
His other works include Ghaffar Khan:Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns (Penguin 2004);Revenge &Reconciliation:Understanding South Asian History (Penguin,1999);Patel:A Life,a Biography of Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950),Deputy Prime Minister of India,1947-50 (Navajivan,Ahmedabad,1990);and Eight Lives:A Study of the Hindu-Muslim Encounter (SUNY,1987). One of his earlier books,The Good Boatman:A Portrait of Gandhi,was published in 2009 in a Chinese translation in Beijing. Most recently,Gandhi has published a book titled,Punjab (Aleph Book Company 2013),which is a historical account of undivided Punjab,from the death of Aurangzeb to the Partition. [8]
Before teaching at the University of Illinois,he served as a research professor with the New Delhi think-tank,Centre for Policy Research. From 1985 to 1987,he edited the daily Indian Express in Madras (now Chennai). In 2004. he received the International Humanitarian Award (Human Rights) from the city of Champaign,Illinois,and in 1997,he was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Calgary,and an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Obirin University,Tokyo. He currently serves as a Jury Member for the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award and co-chair of the Centre for Dialogue &Reconciliation in Gurgaon. [7] In 2019 he was a contributor to A New Divan:A Lyrical Dialogue Between East and West (Gingko Library).
"To welcome Partition is to imply that people with different backgrounds and different blood-lines cannot live together in one nation, a regressive suggestion."
Rajmohan Gandhi,2018
In 2018, he opposed the partition of the British India at the Oxford Union and said, “To welcome Partition is to imply that people with different backgrounds and different blood-lines cannot live together in one nation. A regressive suggestion.” [9] He opined that "The corollary that those possessing a common religion or common race enjoy blissful companionship in their homes, nations or regions is, well, hilarious." [10] He holds that "tyranny was multiplied by partition". [9] Gandhi further believes that "India belongs to all who live in it." [11]
In 1989, Gandhi unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Janata Dal against Rajiv Gandhi in Amethi. [3] He served (1990–92) in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament) and led the Indian delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva in 1990. In the Indian Parliament he was the convener of the all-party joint committee of both houses addressing the condition of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
On 21 February 2014, he joined the Aam Aadmi Party. [4] He contested the 2014 general election from the East Delhi constituency and lost. [12] [5]
Rajmohan Gandhi is married to Usha. They have two children, Supriya and Devadatta. [13]
Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, commonly known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was an Indian independence activist and barrister who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India from 1947 to 1950. He was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, who played a significant role in the Indian independence movement and India's political integration. In India and elsewhere, he was often called Sardar, meaning "Chief" in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Persian. He acted as the Home Minister during the political integration of India and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari BR, popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji, was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence activist. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, as when India became a republic in 1950 the office was abolished. He was also the only Indian-born Governor-General, as all previous holders of the post were British nationals. He also served as leader of the Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state. Rajagopalachari founded the Swatantra Party and was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. He vehemently opposed the use of nuclear weapons and was a proponent of world peace and disarmament. During his lifetime, he also acquired the nickname 'Mango of Salem'.
Devdas Mohandas Gandhi was the fourth and youngest son of Mahatma Gandhi. He was born in the Colony of Natal and came to India with his parents as a grown man. He became active in his father's movement, spending many terms in jail. He also became a prominent journalist, serving as editor of Hindustan Times. He was also the first pracharak of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS), established by Mohandas Gandhi in Tamil Nadu in 1918. The purpose of the Sabha was to propagate Hindi in southern India.
Gopalkrishna Devadas Gandhi is a former administrator and diplomat who served as the 22nd Governor of West Bengal serving from 2004 to 2009. He is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). As a former IAS officer he served as Secretary to the President of India and as High Commissioner to South Africa and Sri Lanka, among other administrative and diplomatic posts. He was the United Progressive Alliance nominee for Vice President of India 2017 elections and lost with 244 votes against NDA candidate Venkaiah Naidu, who got 516 votes.
Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel CIE was an Indian civil servant who played a major role in the issues regarding internal and national security in the first years after the independence of India. From 1977 to 1979, he served as the Finance Minister and later Home Minister of India. He was also the chairman of the Charutar Vidya Mandal, which founded Vallabh Vidyapith that was later on named as Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari Narasimhan (1909–1989) was an Indian politician, freedom-fighter and member of the Indian Parliament from 1952 to 1962. He was the son of Indian statesman Chakravarti Rajagopalachari.
Sanjay Singh is an Indian politician, activist, national spokesman for Aam Aadmi Party, a member of the Rajya Sabha from Delhi. He was convicted in a 2001 protest case and was later given bail. In October 2023, he was arrested by Enforcement Directorate for his role in the Delhi Liquor Scam. After 6 months of custody, he was released on bail by Supreme Court.
The Aam Aadmi Party is a political party in India. It was founded on 26 November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions, following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement against then Indian government of Indian National Congress. AAP is currently the governing party in the Indian state of Punjab and the union territory of Delhi. On 10 April 2023, AAP was officially granted the status of National party by ECI. The party's election symbol is a broom. The party is currently part of the coalition I.N.D.I.A. Alliance.
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The Gandhi family is the family of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi; Mahatma meaning "high souled" or "venerable" in Sanskrit; the particular term 'Mahatma' was accorded Mohandas Gandhi for the first time while he was still in South Africa, and not commonly heard as titular for any other civil figure even of similarly rarefied stature or living or posthumous presence.
The Aam Aadmi Party Punjab or AAP Punjab is the Punjab state wing of Aam Aadmi Party and a recognised State party in Punjab. Currently, it is the governing party in the Punjab Legislative Assembly and has significant representation of the state in Rajya Sabha.
Sandeep Kumar Pathak is an Indian politician from Aam Aadmi Party and Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab since April 2022. He is a former assistant professor of IIT Delhi, former research associate at University of Oxford and MIT. He is also currently Aam Aadmi Party's Incharge in Gujarat & Co-incharge in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh
Aam Aadmi Party Delhi or AAP Delhi is a state wing of Aam Aadmi Party. AAP became a state party in Delhi in 2013. The party contested its first election in Delhi in 2013 and was successful in winning 28 seats in a hung assembly. It got outside support from Indian National Congress and Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi but he resigned after 49 days due to differences with INC. In the following 2015 elections, AAP won 67 of the 70 seats in the assembly, limiting BJP at just 3 seats and INC with none and Kejriwal was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Delhi. AAP formed the government again in the subsequent 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly election, winning 62 seats.
He went on to say, 'To welcome Partition is to imply that people with different backgrounds and different blood-lines cannot live together in one nation. A regressive suggestion.' He lamented that the 'Muslim majorities who got Pakistan did not need it; Muslim minorities remaining in India who needed security became more insecure.' 'If tyranny had ended with partition, I would have welcomed division. In fact, however, tyranny was multiplied by partition.'