Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, commonly known as Sardar, was an Indian lawyer, influential political leader, barrister and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India from 1947 to 1950. He was a barrister and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, who played a leading role in the country's struggle for independence, guiding its integration into a united, independent nation. 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.
Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and military failure. The honorific Netaji was first applied to Bose in Germany in early 1942—by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin. It is now used throughout India.
Kalahandi is a district of Odisha in India. Archaeological evidence of Stone Age and Iron Age human settlement has been recovered from the region. Asurgarh offered an advanced, well civilised, cultured and urban human settlement about 2000 years ago in the region. In South Asia it is believed that the lands of Kalahandi district and Koraput district were the ancient places where people started cultivation of paddy. In ancient time it was known as Mahakantara and Karunda Mandal, which means treasure of precious stones like karandam (corundum/manik), garnet, beruz, neelam, and alexandrite, etc. Manikeswari is the clan deity of Kalahandi may also signify its historical name.
Bhawanipatna is a city and headquarters of the Kalahandi district, in the Indian state of Odisha. Bhawanipatna has numerous temples dedicated to different deities of the Hindu pantheon. It is named after the presiding deity, Bhawani-Shankar and Patna which means "place" in Odia like "Padaa". Bhawanipatna municipality is the administrative head of the city, which is divided into twenty wards with different sub-areas called pada. Originally, these padaas were inhabited by people of different communities, but over the last few decades, these padaas have become homogeneous. Bhawanipatna has more than forty padaas.
Surajit Chandra Sinha was an Indian anthropologist.
Harekrushna Mahatab was the leader of the Indian National Congress, a notable figure in the Indian independence movement and the Chief Minister of Odisha from 1946 to 1950 and again from 1956 to 1961. He was popularly known by the sobriquet "Utkal Keshari".
Bhubaneswar Behera was an engineer, writer and scholar from the Kalahandi district of Odisha.
Nirmal Kumar Bose was a leading Indian anthropologist, who played a formative role in "building an Indian Tradition in Anthropology". A humanist scholar with a broad range of interests, he was also a leading sociologist, urbanist, Gandhian, and educationist. Also active in the Indian freedom struggle with Mahatma Gandhi, he was imprisoned in 1931 during the Salt Satyagraha.
The history of Kalahandi goes back to the primitive period where a well-civilized, urbanized, and cultured people inhabited this land mass around 2000 years ago. The world's largest celt of Stone Age and the largest cemetery of the megalithic age have been discovered in Kalahandi. This shows the region had a civilized culture since the pre-historic era. Asurgarh near Narla in Kalahandi was one of the oldest metropolises in Odisha whereas the other one was Sisupalgarh near Bhubaneswar. Some other historical forts in the region includes Budhigarh, Amthagarh, Belkhandi and Dadpur-Jajjaldeypur. This land was unconquered by the great Ashoka, who fought the great Kalinga War, as per Ashokan record. In medieval period the region had played a prominent role to link South India, Eastern India and Central India region and witnessed the battle ground for Somavamsi, Chola, Kalachuris of Kalyani and Eastern Ganga dynasty. Kalahandi region was the main route for Chola to attack Subarnapur.
Prem Ram Dubey was an Indian lawyer and politician. He was the founding father of the Kosal State Movement, which campaigns for statehood for Western Odisha.
Bhawanipatna is classified as one of the major tourist destinations by the tourism Department of Government of Odisha. All the tourist attraction in Kalahandi region comes under Bhawanipatna jurisdiction. Though tourist potential of Kalahandi has not been exploited optimally due to poor marketing, political negligence and infrastructure development, the land is very rich in terms of water fall, forest and wild life, natural and scenic beauty, tribal life, mountains, agriculture field, historical sites and handicrafts. The best time to visit Kalahandi region is from October to March. April–June is hard Summer and the mercury may rise to 45 degree C and June to August is the Monsoon Season. It occasionally rains in September, but do not miss the great festival like Nuakhai in September and Dassara in end of September or early October. Beginning of Dessara marks the pleasant weather condition till the celebration of Chaitra in February/March.
Prem Kishan Khanna was an active member of the Hindustan Republican Association from Shahjahanpur U.P. Khanna was a contractor for Indian Railways. He was a close associate of noted revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil.
Bhakta Charan Das is an Indian politician. He was a member of the Indian Parliament and represented the Kalahandi constituency in the 15th Lok Sabha.
Dr. Radhanath Rath was a newspaper editor, freedom fighter, Social worker and politician from Odisha. He edited The Samaja, one of the leading newspapers of Odisha.
Binod Kanungo (1912–1990) was an Odia author, freedom fighter, Gandhian, educator, social reformer and compiler of the Gyana Mandala, which is the greatest encyclopaedia in the Odia language. He also won the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award for his travelogue Runa Parishodha (1983). He was also a veteran freedom fighter and notable educationist. He was awarded with India's fourth highest civilian honour "Padmashree". He died on 22 June 1990.
Digambara Patra is a Professor of Chemistry at the American University of Beirut.
Umesh Chandra Patra, also known as Dr. U. C. Patra was a zoologist, intellectual, scholar, professor and administrator from the state of Orissa, India. He was head of the Department of Zoology at Ravenshaw University. He started his teaching career as a lecturer in Zoology at Shri Krushna Chandra Gajapati College, Paralakhemundi and after a long stint at various government colleges, he retired from Ravenshaw University in 2001. He was a valuable member of the Zoological Society of Odisha State.
Maharaja Pratap Keshari Deo was the last ruler of Kalahandi State 1939-1947 and an Indian politician in post-independence India. He was elected from the Kalahandi in Odisha to the Lower House of the Indian Parliament the Lok Sabha. He was deputy Leader of the Opposition, Orissa Legislative Assembly, 1952—1956.
Sayeed Mohammed was an Indian Odia educationist, freedom fighter and philanthropist. In 1913, he founded the Moslem Seminary at Cuttack, which is regarded as the second nationalist school of Odisha. Sayeed is known for his activism against the British in the early 1900s. He was one of the prominent members of the Utkal Sammilani. In 1922, Sayeed along with Ekram Rasul co-founded the All Odisha Khilafat Committee, in the wake of the Non cooperation movement in India.
