Rajmohan Gandhi | |
---|---|
![]() Gandhi in 1960 | |
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.
Associated from 1956 with Initiatives of Change (formerly known as Moral Re-Armament),Rajmohan Gandhi has been engaged for half a century in efforts for trust-building,reconciliation and democracy and in battles against corruption and inequalities.[ citation needed ]
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] Asia Plateau has been recognized in the Indian subcontinent for its ecological contribution. During the 1975–1977 Emergency in India,he was active for democratic rights personally and through his weekly journal,Himmat,published in Bombay from 1964 to 1981.[ citation needed ]
His book,A Tale of Two Revolts:India 1857 &the American Civil War (New Delhi:Penguin India,December 2009),studies two 19th-century wars occurring in opposite parts of the world at almost the same time. His previous book,a biography of his grandfather Mahatma Gandhi,Mohandas:A True Story of a Man,His People and an Empire,received the Biennial Award from the Indian History Congress in 2007.[ citation needed ] It has since been published in several countries.[ citation needed ]
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).
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. [9] [5]
"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
Rajmohan Gandhi is critical of the partition of India. At the Oxford Union in 2018, Rajmohan Gandhi stated that “To welcome Partition is to imply that people with different backgrounds and different blood-lines cannot live together in one nation. A regressive suggestion.” [10] Gandhi 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." [11] He holds that "tyranny was multiplied by partition". [10]
Gandhi holds that "India belongs to all who live in it." [12]
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.
Nathuram Vinayak Godse was a Hindu nationalist who on 30 January 1948 assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. Godse was a member of the political party, the Hindu Mahasabha; and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu paramilitary volunteer organisation; and a populariser of the work of his mentor Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who had created the ideology of Hindutva.
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'.
Abdul Ghaffār Khān, also known as Bacha Khan or Badshah Khan was an Afghan Pashtun independence activist, and founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar resistance movement against British colonial rule in India.
Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad ; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following India's independence, he became the First Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning 'Our Master' and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as National Education Day across India.
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.
The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly socialist and statist outlook.
Jairam Ramesh is an Indian politician belonging to Indian National Congress. He is a Member of Parliament representing Karnataka state in the Rajya Sabha. In July 2011, Jairam was elevated to the Union Council of Ministers of India and appointed Minister of Rural Development and Minister of the new Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. However, in the cabinet reshuffle in October 2012, he was divested of the portfolio of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. He was previously the Indian Minister of State at the Ministry of Environment and Forests from May 2009 to July 2011.
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
The Indian National Congress was established when 72 representatives from all over the country met at Bombay in 1885. Prominent delegates included Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, W. C. Banerjee, S. Ramaswami Mudaliar, S. Subramania Iyer, and Romesh Chunder Dutt. The Englishman Allan Octavian Hume, a former British civil servant, was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress.
Paramasivan Subbarayan was an Indian politician, freedom fighter and diplomat and was the First Minister of Madras Presidency, India's ambassador to Indonesia and Union Minister of Transport and Communications in Jawaharlal Nehru's government. He was the father of General P. P. Kumaramangalam, who served as India's Chief of Army staff, and of politician Mohan Kumaramangalam. He was also the grandfather of INC and BJP politician and Union Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam.
Ahmedbhai Muhamedbhai Patel, also known as Ahmed Patel, was an Indian politician and Member of Parliament from the Indian National Congress. He was the political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Kumaraswami Kamaraj, popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras from 13 April 1954 to 2 October 1963. He also served as the president of the Indian National Congress between 1964–1967 and was responsible for the elevation of Lal Bahadur Shastri and later Indira Gandhi to the position of Prime Minister of India, because of which he was widely acknowledged as the "Kingmaker" in Indian politics during the 1960s. Later, he was the founder and president of the Indian National Congress (O).
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.
The second legislative assembly election for the Madras Presidency after the establishment of a bicameral legislature by the Government of India Act of 1935 was held in 1946. The election was held after 6 years of Governor's rule starting from 1939, when the Indian National Congress government of C. Rajagopalachari resigned protesting Indian involvement in World War II. This was the last election held in the presidency - after Indian independence in 1947, the presidency became the Madras state. The election was held simultaneously with that of the Legislative Council. The Congress swept the polls by winning 163 out of 215 seats. The years after this election saw factionalism in Madras Congress party with divisions across regional and communal lines. Competition among T. Prakasam, C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj resulted in the election of Prakasam as the prime minister initially. But he was later defeated by Omandur Ramaswamy Reddiar with Kamaraj's support. In turn, Reddiar himself was ousted to make way for P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja with the support of Kamaraj.
The Vedaranyam March was a framework of the nonviolent civil disobedience movement in British India. Modeled on the lines of Dandi March, which was led by Mahatma Gandhi on the western coast of India the month before, it was organised to protest the salt tax imposed by the British Raj in the colonial India.
Samvidhaan: The Making of the Constitution of India is a ten-part television mini-series based on the making of the Constitution of India, directed by Shyam Benegal. The show premiered on 2 March 2014 on Rajya Sabha TV, with an episode scheduled to air every Sunday morning. The series can be viewed on YouTube on Rajya Sabha TV's channel.
Raghav Chadha is an Indian politician and a member of the Aam Aadmi Party. He is the youngest Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Punjab constituency. He was the former Vice Chairman of the Delhi Jal Board and MLA from the Rajendra Nagar assembly constituency in Delhi till 2022. Chadha has been elected as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He is also a practising chartered accountant.
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.
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."