Abhay and Rani Bang
Abhay Bang (Marathi: अभय बंग) (Born 1950), Rani Bang (Marathi: राणी बंग) (Born 1951) are Indian social activists working on community health in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. They have founded SEARCH (Society For Education, Action and Research In Community Health) - a non-profit organization in Gadchiroli....
He spent his childhood in Gandhi’s Sevagram Ashram at Wardha with Mahatama Gandhi’s foremost disciple Acharya Vinoba Bhave.
Rani Bang also works on health and gynecological problems of rural women. She conducts sessions on sex education for adolescent and teenagers.
In 2006, they started an initiative - NIRMAN, for identifying and nurturing social change-makers in Maharashtra.
*Maharashtra Bhushan Award
Annie Namala
Annie Namala is an Indian social activist and has been working for dalit rights.[1] She is presently head of Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion. She is a vocal voice in the fight of untouchable movement. She was appointed as a member of the National Advisory Council for the implementation of the RTE act in 2010.[2]
Annie Namala also worked with Solidarity Group for Children Against Discrimination and Exclusion (SGCADE).[3]
Anoop Kumar (activist)
Anoop Kumar (born 1977) is an Indian social activist. He is the founder of Insight Foundation, an SC/ST students organisation.
Anoop Kumar was born in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh in a dalit family.[1] He did his engineering in Kanpur and master's at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2003.
Anoop Kumar started Insight Fondation with help of some friends to help students belonging to SC/ST in providing information about different universities in North India.
Aruna Roy
Aruna Roy (born 26 May 1946) is an Indian political and social activist who founded and heads the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana ("Workers and Peasants Strength Union"). She is best known as a prominent leader of the Right to Information movement, which led to the enactment of the Right to Information Act in 2005.[1] She has also remained a member of the National Advisory Council.[2]
In 2000, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.[3]
Her father, who was a lawyer, joined the civil services and eventually retired as legal adviser to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
One of her classmates during post-graduate studies at Delhi university was Sanjit Roy, another left-wing social activist, whom she married in 1970. Before being wed, Sanjit and Aruna agreed on various conditions[4] that would govern their married life. They agreed never to be "tied down" by having children; always to be financially independent of each other; never to impose their beliefs on each other and always be individually free to "do whatever they wanted." The marriage failed within a few years and the couple were formally separated in 1983.
Aruna served as a civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service between 1968 and 1974. She then resigned to devote her time to social and political campaigns. She joined the Social Work and Research Center (SWRC) in Tilonia, Rajasthan, founded by her husband, Sanjit Roy.[5][6][7] In 1983, following the failure of her marriage, Aruna dissociated herself from the SWRC.
While working at the SWRC, Aruna had met Shanker Singh, an activist and theatre artist who uses street theatre, puppetry, song and drama to convey complex leftist ideologies to rural audiences in an idiom familiar to them. In 1987, Aruna and Shankar Singh, with a few associates, moved to Devdoongri, a village in the Rajsamand district of Rajasthan where many of Shankar's relatives live. Here in 1990, they set up the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan ("Workers and Peasants Strength Union") an organization that they described as a "non-party people's organisation".
Aruna's role was to formulate the Right to Information Act[11] which was passed by the Indian parliament in 2005. She served as a member of the National Advisory Council of India until 2006 and is part of NAC II.
In 2005, various women's organizations launched a campaign aimed at ensuring that a woman received the Nobel prize for peace. They drew up a list of 1000 women from 150 countries who they claimed were worthy of being considered for the honour. Aruna was one among these 1000 women.[12][13]
Bryan Adams
Bryan Guy Adams, OC, OBC (born November 5, 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and photographer.
Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 18 Juno Awards among 56 nominations, including wins for Best Male Artist in 2000 and Male Vocalist of the Year in 1997 and every year from 1983 to 1987, as well as Junos for Producer, Composer, and Songwriter of the Year. He has also had 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television for "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" in 1992. He has also won MTV, ASCAP, and American Music awards. In addition, he has won two Ivor Novello Awards and has been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards and three times for Academy Awards for his songwriting for films.
Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world. He is a well known photographer.[1][2]
Adams was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and in April 2006 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards.[3][4] On January 13, 2010, he received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his part in numerous charitable concerts and campaigns during his career,[5] and on 1 May 2010 was given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts.
Bunker Roy
Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy (born 2 August 1945) is an Indian social activist and educator. In 1972 he founded the Barefoot college in Tilonia, Rajasthan. The Indian non-governmental organization was registered as the Social Work and Research Centre. [1] He was selected as one of Time 100, the 100 most influential personalities in the world by TIME Magazine in 2010.[2]
In 2002 he was selected for Geneva-based Schwab Foundation's award.[3]
In 1970, Roy married his classmate Aruna Roy, then an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. Aruna was later to achieve fame as a political and social activist. Roy and Aruna had no children and are now separated. Later Aruna became a prominent leader of the Right to Information movement, and in 2000 received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.[8]
Harsh Mander
Harsh Mander (born 1956) is an Indian social activist and writer. He came into prominence after Gujarat genocide of 2002 and heads "Aman Biradari" which work for communal harmony. He became member of National Advisory Council of the UPA government in 2010 and special commissioner to the Supreme Court[1].[2] He has written a collection of essays titled Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives published by the Penguin Books (2001) and Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre (2009) [3].
Harsh Mander has worked formerly in the Indian Administrative Service in the predominantly tribal states Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh for almost two decades, mainly as the head of district governments of tribal districts. He is associated with social causes and movements, such for communal harmony, tribal, dalit, and disability rights, the right to information, custodial justice, homeless people and bonded labour. He writes and speaks regularly on issues of social justice.
He is at present convenor of Aman Biradari, a people’s campaign for secularism, peace and justice, working for Nyayagrah, for legal justice and reconciliation for the survivors of the Gujarat 2002 carnage, and Dil Se, for the rights of homeless children, youth and women. He is Special Commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court of India to advise it in the Right to Food case on hunger and state responsibility, Honorary Director of the Centre for Equity Studies (working on public policy for the poor), Visiting Professor at IIM, Ahmedabad on poverty and governance and writes a column for the Hindu.
He is a staunch supporter of Ishrat jahan and her associates. He has published multiple articles in India's national news papers about her innocence and how Narendra Modi government of Gujarat butchered another innocent Muslim for no apparent reason. However, it is interesting to see now after David Headley's revelations about her Lashkar-i-Taiba links, If he is going to stick to his stand and prove the innocence of Lashkar-i-Taiba as well.
He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for peace work, and the M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award 2002.
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay ( Kannada: ಕಮಲಾ ದೇವಿ ) (April 3, 1903 – October 29, 1988) was a Gandhian, a social reformer, a freedom fighter, and most remembered for her contribution to Indian independence movement, for being the driving force behind the renaissance of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre in post-Independence India, and for upliftment of the socio-economic standard of Indian women by pioneering the co-operative movement in India.[1]
Numerous cultural institutions in India today are a gift of her vision, starting with National School of Drama, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Central Cottage Industries Emporium, and The Crafts Council of India, to name a few.
In 1917, when was only fourteen years of age, she was married to Krishna Rao, and within two years she was widowed, while she was still at school.
Meanwhile studying at Queen Mary’s College in Chennai, she came to know with Suhasini Chattopadhyay, a fellow student and the younger sister of Sarojini Naidu, who later introduced Kamaladevi to their talented brother, Harin, by then a well-known poet-playwright-actor. It was their mutual interest in the arts, which brought them together.
Finally when she was twenty years old, Kamaladevi married Harindranath Chattopadhyay, much to the opposition of the orthodox society of the times, which was still heavily against widow marriage
While still in London, Kamaladevi came to know of Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement in 1923, and she promptly returned to India, to join the Seva Dal, a Gandhian organisation set up to promote social upliftment.
Later she was a part of the seven member lead team, announced by Mahatma Gandhi, in the famous Salt Satyagraha (1930), to prepare Salt at the Bombay beachfront, the only other woman volunteer of the team was Avantikabai Gokhale. Later in a startling move, Kamaladevi went up to a nearby High Court, and asked a magistrate present their whether he would interested in buying the 'Freedom Salt' she has just prepared.
On 26 January 1930 she captured the imagination of the entire nation when in a scuffle, she clung to the Indian tricolour to protect it.[9]
In the 1930s, she was arrested for entering the Bombay Stock Exchange to sell packets of contraband salt, and spent almost a year in prison. In 1936, she became president of the Congress Socialist Party, working alongside Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia and Minoo Masani. For her, feminism was inseparable from socialism, and where necessary she opposed her own colleagues when they ignored or infringed women’s rights.
The Government of India conferred on her the Padma Bhushan (1955) and later the second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1987, which are among the highest civilian awards of the Republic of India. She also received the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1966) for Community Leadership. She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Ratna Sadsya, the highest award of Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, given for lifetime achievement in 1974,[12].
Kiran Bedi
Kiran Bedi (Hindi: किरण बेदी) (9 June 1949) is an Indian social activist and a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. She became the first woman to join the IPS in 1972, and most recently held the post of Director General, BPR&D (Bureau of Police Research and Development), Ministry of Home Affairs. She retired from the IPS in December, 2007, after taking voluntary retirement. She was the host and TV judge of the popular TV series "Aap Ki Kachehri" (English, "Your Court"), broadcast on the Indian TV channel, Star Plus. This program feature Indian families approaching her TV court and explaining their problems to her. She then offers legal advice and monetary help to solve the problem. This program is classified as an EDUtainment program, as it attempts to simplify and explain legal procedures and Indian law to the viewers.
She has also founded two NGOs in India: Navjyoti for welfare and preventive policing in 1987[1] and the India Vision Foundation for prison reformation, drug abuse prevention and child welfare in 1994.[2]
In 2007, she was granted voluntary retirement from the IPS.[3]
Even while in active service in the IPS, she pursed her educational goals, and obtained a Law degree (LLB) in 1988 from Delhi University, Delhi. In 1993, she obtained a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Department of Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi[7], where the topic of her thesis was 'Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence'.[6]
She began her career as a Lecturer in Political Science (1970–72) at Khalsa College for Women, Amritsar. In July 1972, she joined the Indian Police Service. Bedi joined the police service "because of [her] urge to be outstanding".[8]
She is popularly referred to as Crane Bedi for towing the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's car for a parking violation,[11] during the PM's tour of United States at the time.[7]
Kiran Bedi influenced several decisions of the Indian Police Service, particularly in the areas of narcotics control, traffic management, and VIP security. During her stint as the Inspector General of Prisons, in Tihar Jail (Delhi) (1993–1995), she instituted a number of reforms in the management of the prison, and initiated a number of measures such as detoxification programs, yoga, vipassana meditation, redressing of complaints by prisoners and literacy programs.[12][13] For this she won the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award, and the 'Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship', to write about her work at Tihar Jail.[6]
Kiran Bedi married Brij Bedi in 1972,[13] the year she started her career in the Indian Police Service (IPS), and three years later, in 1975, they had daughter Saina. Among her other three siblings, Shashi is an artist settled in Canada, Reeta is a clinical psyhcologist and writer, and Anu is a lawyer.
A non fiction feature film on Dr Kiran bedi's life entitled Yes, Madam Sir has been produced by Australian film maker, Megan Doneman.
The documentary has made a clean sweep of the award categories---“Best Documentary” with a cash award of $100,000, the biggest prize for a documentary for any film festival in the US and the Social Justice Award with $2500.00 at Santa Barbara International Film Festival. ‘Yes Madam Sir’ got a unanimous vote from the jury
M. V. Mathur
Mukut Vehari Mathur (1915 – January 21, 2004) was an Indian economist, scholar and economist. He was the vice-chancellor of Rajasthan University and founder chairman of the Jaipur-based Institute of Development Studies, also known as IDS.
Born in 1915 in Alwar in Rajasthan in India, Mathur was the Vice-Chancellor of Rajasthan University from 1966 to 1968. Later he became Director General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research from 1974 to 1975, and eventually Director of the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration from 1975 to 1980 and worked for several commissions and committees. He was the first chairman of the IDS from 1981 to 1987 and was the member of the Central Government's Fourth Pay Commission, Third Finance Commission, Education Commission and the Plantation Inquiry Commission. He also headed a committee of the Rajasthan Government on reorganisation of universities in the State from 1978 to 1980.
Mathur was awarded the Padma Bhushan award in 1989&Rajasthan Ratnain 1983
Madhav Chavan
Madhav Chavan (born 1954) is an Indian social activist and co-founder of educational non-profit Pratham.[1] He also started Read India campaign, which aims to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic to underprivileged children across India.
Madhav Chavan was born in Maharastra to Yashwant Chavan, the founder of the Lenin-inspired Lal Nishan Party. He is a chemical graduate and did his post-doctorate at Ohio University..
Madhav Chavan returned to India in 1983. After producing literacy programmes for Doordarshan for a few years, he was invited to work with a Unicef project to teach in Mumbai’s slums.
He was a member of National Advisory Council from 2004 -2008.[2]
Manibhai Desai
Manibhai Bhimbhai Desai (April 27, 1920 – 1993) was an Indian social activist and pioneer of rural development.
Under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi he settled in 1947 in the backward village of Uruli Kanchan near Pune, Maharashtra to begin a programme of rural development. He later founded the Bharatiya Agro-Industries Foundation (BAIF) in 1967.
He received the 1982 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, sometimes called Asia's Nobel Prize.
Nikhil Dey
Nikhil Dey (born 1963) is an Indian social activist.[1] He works for the NGO, Suchna Evum Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan.[2] He has been actively working for Right to Food and other Human Rights organisations.
Nikhil Dey was born in Bangalore. He received his law degree from University of Delhi. He went to the US for education after his graduation.
Nikhil Dey initially worked at Khedath Mazdoor Sangathan in Madhya Pradesh.
In 1990, Nikhil Dey, along with Shankar Singh and Aruna Roy, decided to go to a village and live with the people; not to form an NGO, but have their work and their contributions be defined by the people they would be living and working with.
P. J. Sebastian
P. J. Sebastian (Pullamkalam Joseph Sebastian) Indian freedom fighter and social activist from Changanacherry, Kerala.[
Prema Gopalan
Prema Gopalan is an Indian social activist. She has founded and been Executive Director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) for over 15 years, supported poor rural women in building bridges with local government to facilitate democratic processes that are inclusive of women.[1] She is also well known for the disaster relief work after her rehabilitation work in Maharashtra.[2]
Ravi Gulati
Ravi Gulati (born 1974) is an Indian social activist.[1] He gives after school tuitions to the underprivileged in New Delhi.
Ravi Gulati was born in New Delhi to Indira, an NGO worker. He graduated with an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.
Ravi Gulati took to teaching children of drivers, barbers and maids near his home in New Delhi's Khan Market. He wanted to work in the villages but stayed back in Delhi because two poor children needed tuitions from him. While he taught them he realised what he was doing was equally important in urban India as what he would have done in rural India.
He started an NGO, Manzil, along with his mother and Dr.Geeta Chopra. The organisation has a branch at Kotla, a slum area in Delhi
Roopa Iyer
Roopa Iyer (b. 1978) is an Indian model, social activist, classical artist and Kannada actress and director.
Roopa Iyer was born in Karnataka in 1978 in a Tamil Brahmin family. She trained in Bharatanatyam and Kathak from a young age and started a dance school in Belur for young girls. After completing her masters in Commerce, Roopa entered modelling and was crowned the Best Female Model (1996) and Fair & Lovely Miss. Beautiful Skin – Miss Karnataka (1999).
She commenced a career in films and has recently ventured into film direction
Sandeep Pandey
Sandeep Pandey is an Indian social activist.[1] He co-founded Asha for Education with Deepak Gupta and V.J.P Srivatsoy while working on his Ph. D in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sandeep Pandey is an alumnus of the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India.
He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award (often termed as 'Asian Nobel prize') in 2002 for the emergent leadership category[4]. Pandey led an Indo-Pakistan peace march from New Delhi to Multan in 2005.
Saraswathi Gora
Saraswathi Gora (1912-2006) was an Indian social activist. Notable as the leader of the Atheist Centre for many years, she campaigned against untouchability and the caste system.
A political activist of India's freedom movement, she was imprisoned during the Quit India movement. She went to jail carrying her two-and-half-year old son, Niyanta.
The wedding of her eldest daughter Manorama with Arjun Rao was performed in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1960.
Sehba Hussain
Sehba Hussain is an Indian social activist.[1] She is the co-founder and honorary treasurer of Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Lucknow.[2] and founding Board member and Executive Director of Lucknow-based, BETI (Better Education Through Innovation) Foundation, established in 2000.[3]
She was a member of the National Advisory Council during the tenure of 2005-2008.[7][8]
She is also a member of the executive committee of the National Mission for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, for universalization of elementary education in India.[9][10]
Shaheen Mistry
Shaheen Mistri is an Indian social activist and founder of eduction initiative Akanksha Foundation and Teach for India.
[Mahatma Gandhi: (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) (Father of the Nation, Rashtrapita, राष्ट्रपिता) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total nonviolence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination.
for main article go to Swami Vivekanand
Swami Vivekanand: (January 12, 1863–July 4, 1902) He was the founder of Ramakrishna Mission. Vivekananda is considered to be a major force in the revival of Hinduism in modern India. He is considered a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America. He introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions at Chicago in 1893.
for main article go to Swami Dayanand Saraswati
Swami Dayanand Saraswati: (February 12, 1824 – October 31, 1883) was an important Hindu religious scholar and the founder of the Arya Samaj, "Society of Nobles", a Hindu reform movement, founded in 1875.He was the first man who gave the call for Swarajay in 1876 which was later furthered by Lokmanya Tilak.
for main article go to Raja Ram Mohan Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy: (August 14, 1774 – September 27, 1833) was a founder of the Brahma Sabha in 1828 which engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an influential Indian socio-religious reform movement. He is best known for his efforts to abolish the practice of sati, the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. It was he who first introduced the word "Hinduism" into the English language in 1816. For his diverse contributions to society, Raja Ram Mohan Roy is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Indian Renaissance. Ram Mohun Roy's impact on modern Indian history was a revival of the pure and ethical principles of the Vedanta school of philosophy as found in the Upanishads.
for main article go to Jamnalal Bajaj
Jamnalal Bajaj: (4 November 1884 – 11 February 1942) was an industrialist, a philanthropist, and Indian independence fighter. Gandhi is known to have adopted him as his son. He is known for this efforts of promoting Khadi and village Industries in India. With the intent of eradicating untouchability, he fought the non admission of Harijans into Hindu temples. He began a campaign by eating a meal with Harijans and opening public wells to them. He opened several wells in his fields and gardens. Jamanalal dedicated much of his wealth to the poor. He felt this inherited wealth was a sacred trust to be used for the benefit of the people. In honour of his social initiatives a well known national and international award called Jamnalal Bajaj Award has been instituted by the Bajaj Foundation.
for main article go to Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave: (September 11, 1895 - November 15 1982) was an Indian advocate of Nonviolence and human rights. He is considered as the spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi. Vinoba Bhave was a scholar, thinker, writer who produced numerous books, translator who made Sanskrit texts accessible to common man, orator, linguist who had excellent command of several languages (Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, English, Sanskrit), and a social reformer. He wrote brief introductions to, and criticisms of, several religious and philosophical works like the Bhagavad Gita,works of Adi Shankaracharya, the Bible and Quran. His criticism of Dnyaneshwar's poetry as also the output by other Marathi saints is quite brilliant and a testimony to the breadth of his intellect. A university named after him Vinoba Bhave University is still there in the state of Jharkhand spreading knowledge even after his death.
for main article go to Baba Amte
Baba Amte: (December 26, 1914 – February 9, 2008) was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and empowerment of poor people suffering from leprosy. He spent some time at Sevagram ashram of Mahatma Gandhi, and became a follower of Gandhism for the rest of his life. He believed in Gandhi's concept of a self-sufficient village industry that empowers seemingly helpless people, and successfully brought his ideas into practice at Anandwan. He practiced various aspects of Gandhism, including yarn spinning using a charkha and wearing khadi. Amte founded three ashrams for treatment and rehabilitation of leprosy patients, disabled people, and people from marginalized sections of the society in Maharashtra, India.
for main article go to Shriram Sharma Acharya
Shriram Sharma Acharya: (September 20, 1911 – June 2, 1990) was an Indian seer, sage, Indian social worker, a philanthropist, a visionary of the New Golden Era and the Founder of the All World Gayatri Pariwar. He devoted his life to the welfare of people and the refinement of the moral and cultural environment. He pioneered the revival of spirituality, creative integration of the modern and ancient sciences and religion relevant in the challenging circumstances of the present times. To help people, his aim was to diagnose the root cause of the ailing state of the world today and enable the upliftment of society. Acharyaji recognized the crisis of faith, people’s ignorance of the powers of the inner self, and the lack of righteous attitude and conduct. During 1984-1986, he carried out the unique spiritual experiment of sukshmikaraña, meaning sublimation of vital force and physical, mental and spiritual energies.
for main article go to Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: (1820-1891) Vidyasagar was a philosopher, academic, educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer, and philanthropist. His efforts to simplify and modernize Bangla prose were significant. He was a Bengali polymath and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. Vidyasagar championed the uplift of the status of women in India, particularly in his native Bengal. Unlike some other reformers who sought to set up alternative societies or systems, he sought, however, to transform orthodox Hindu society from within. Vidyasagar introduced the practice of widow remarriages to mainstream Hindu society. In earlier times, remarriages of widows would occur sporadically only among progressive members of the Brahmo Samāj.
for main article go to Dhondo Keshav Karve
Dhondo Keshav Karve: (April 18, 1858 - November 9, 1962) was a preeminent social reformer of his time in India in the field of women's welfare. Karve was one of the pioneers of promoting women's education and the right for widows to remarry in India. The Government of India recognized his reform work by awarding him its highest civilian award, Bhārat Ratna, in 1958 (Incidentally his centennial year). The appellation Maharshi, which the Indian public often assigned to Karve, means ”a great sage”. Those who knew Karve affectionately called him as Annā Karve. (In Marāthi-speaking community, to which Karve belonged, the appellation Annā is often used to address either one's father or an elder brother.)
for main article go to Balshastri Jambhekar
Balshastri Jambhekar: (January 6, 1812– May 18, 1846) is known as Father of Marathi journalism for his efforts in starting journalism in Marathi language with the first newspaper in the language named 'Darpan' in the early days of British Rule in India. He founded Darpan as the first Marathi newspaper. He was editor of this newspaper during the British rule in India. This turned out to be the beginning of Marathi journalism. He had mastery in many languages including Marathi, Sanskrit, English and Hindi. Apart from that he also had a good grasp of Greek, Latin, French, Gujarati and Bengali.
for main article go to Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
B. R. Ambedkar: (14 April 1891 — 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, political leader, Buddhist activist, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist, historian, orator, prolific writer, economist, scholar, editor, revolutionary and the revivalist of Buddhism in India. He was also the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Ambedkar spent his whole life fighting against social discrimination, the system of Chaturvarna — the Hindu categorization of human society into four varnas — and the Hindu caste system. He is also credited with having sparked the bloodless revolution with his most remarkable and innovative Buddhist movement. Ambedkar has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.
for main article go to Annie Besant
Annie Besant: (October 1 , 1847 – September 20, 1933) was a prominent Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule. In 1908 Annie Besant became President of the Theosophical Society and began to steer the society away from Buddhism and towards Hinduism. She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When war broke out in Europe in 1914 she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India and dominion status within the Empire which culminated in her election as president of the India National Congress in late 1917. After the war she continued to campaign for Indian independence until her death in 1933.
for main article go to Vitthal Ramji Shinde
Vitthal Ramji Shinde: (April 23, 1873 – January 2, 1944) He was a prominent campaigner on behalf of the Dalit movement in Maharashtra and established the Depressed Classes Mission to provide education to the Dalits in Maharashtra.
for main article go to Gopal Hari Deshmukh
Gopal Hari Deshmukh: (1823-1892) was a social reformer in Maharashtra. Deshmukh started writing articles aimed at social reform in Maharashtra in the weekly Prabhakarunder the pen name Lokhitwadi. In the first two years, he penned 108 articles on social reform. That group of articles has come to be known in Marathi literature as Lokhitwadinchi Shatapatre.
for main article go to Pandurang Shastri Athavale
Pandurang Shastri Athavale: (October 19, 1920–October 25, 2003) was an Indian philosopher, spiritual leader, social reformer [2] and Hinduism reformist, who founded the Swadhyay Movement and the Swadhyay Parivar organization (Swadhyay Family) in 1954 [3], a self-knowledge movement based on the Bhagavad Gita, which has spread across nearly 100,000 villages in India [4][5], with over 5 million members [6]. He was also noted for his discourses or "pravachans" on Srimad Bhagawad Gita and Upanishads.
Sunitha Krishnan
Dr. Sunitha Krishnan, born in 1969, is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, an institution that assists trafficked women and girls find shelter. The organization also helps pay for the education of five thousand children infected with HIV/AIDS in Hyderabad.[1]. Prajwala’s “second-generation” prevention program operates in 17 transition centers and has served thousands of children of prostituted mothers
Valambal
Valambal also known as Maniammal as an Indian social activist who fought against capitalism in Thanjavur district.
Valambal was born in a Brahmin family of Thanjavur district. Married at a very young age, Valambal lost her husband when young. Valambal, however, defied tradition by refusing to wear a white saree or to tonsure her head.
Valambal cut her hair short and dressed like an young man. She, then, led a peasant insurrection against oppressive landlords of the Cauvery Delta. She was also partly responsible for the impressive performance of the Communist Party of India in the Thanjavur region.
Vimala Thakar
Vimala Thakar (born 15 April 1923- died on 11 March 2009) was an Indian social activist and spiritual teacher. She was born into a middle-class Brahmin family in central India, she was interested in spiritual matters from an early age. She pursued this interest with meditation and spiritual practices through her youth.
Later she became active in the Bhoodan (Land Gift) Program. This program, led by Vinoba Bhave, persuaded landlords to give land to poor farmers. Through the 1950s, several millions of acres of farmland were so redistributed.
She died on 11 March 2009, on the day of Holi, the festival of colour in India. She was living at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India during her last years.
Pandita Ramabai
Pandita Ramabai (23 April 1858, Maharashtra- 5 April 1922) was an eminent Indian Christian social reformer and activist.
She established the Mukti Mission in 1889 as a refuge for young widows who were abused by their families. In Marathi, her native tongue, the word mukti means liberation. The Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission is still active today, providing housing, education, vocational training, and medical services, for many needy groups including widows, orphans, and the blind.
Pandita Ramabai is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on April 5
Laxman Mane
Laxman Bapu Mane (Marathi: लक्ष्मण बापू माने) (b. June 1, 1949) is a Marathi writer and a social activitist from Maharashtra, India. Mane came to sudden fame after publishing his autobiography Upara, (An Outider), in 1980. Upara was considered as a milestone is Marathi Dalit literature and received Sahitya Akademi Award in 1981.[1]
Mane converted to Buddhism along with his followers from his community.[3]
He received a Homi Bhabha Fellowship during 1986-88 for his continued social work.
Mane served for some time in the following capacities:
Sanjay Ghose
Sanjoy Ghose (Bengali: সঞ্জয় ঘোষ) (7 December 1959 - 4 July 1997) was an Indian rural development activist known for his pioneering contributions to community health and development media. He is believed to have been killed by United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants in the river island of Majuli on the Brahmaputra river around July 4 1997.
Born in Nagpur, Ghose spent his formative years and his adolescence in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Sanjoy Ghose belonged to a well known Bengali family. Bhaskar Ghose, erstwhile Director General of Doordarshan, the Indian public television network, is his uncle. His two aunts are Ruma Pal a former Supreme Court judge, and Arundhati Ghose , former diplomat and India's permanent representative to the United Nations during the 1990s. [1]
He was also active in the National Service Scheme - taking his fellow students to remote tribal villages in the hilly tracts abutting the Western Ghats in Thane district- to experience first hand the poverty and exploitation of the tribal communities. In 1980, he chose to join the then unknown Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) in its very first batch. He had confirmed admissions to all the three then existing IIMs, ( Indian Institute of Management ) - Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta. Joining the prestigious IIM opened the way to very well paying corporate careers. He chose the then unknown IRMA over the known IIMs, in keeping with his personal commitment to work for the poorest of the poor.
A newspaper article in the Deccan Herald on February 9 2009 claimed that "(Ghose) had been killed a day after he was abducted by ULFA cadres on July four, 1997, and his body, which was never found, was thrown into the swirling waters of the Brahmaputra. The killing,... was carried out by local cadre even before the top leadership could convey to them the message not to harm him to avoid possible international repercussions.
Abhay Bang (Marathi: अभय बंग) (Born 1950), Rani Bang (Marathi: राणी बंग) (Born 1951) are Indian social activists working on community health in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. They have founded SEARCH (Society For Education, Action and Research In Community Health) - a non-profit organization in Gadchiroli....
He spent his childhood in Gandhi’s Sevagram Ashram at Wardha with Mahatama Gandhi’s foremost disciple Acharya Vinoba Bhave.
Rani Bang also works on health and gynecological problems of rural women. She conducts sessions on sex education for adolescent and teenagers.
In 2006, they started an initiative - NIRMAN, for identifying and nurturing social change-makers in Maharashtra.
*Maharashtra Bhushan Award
Annie Namala
Annie Namala is an Indian social activist and has been working for dalit rights.[1] She is presently head of Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion. She is a vocal voice in the fight of untouchable movement. She was appointed as a member of the National Advisory Council for the implementation of the RTE act in 2010.[2]
Annie Namala also worked with Solidarity Group for Children Against Discrimination and Exclusion (SGCADE).[3]
Anoop Kumar (activist)
Anoop Kumar (born 1977) is an Indian social activist. He is the founder of Insight Foundation, an SC/ST students organisation.
Anoop Kumar was born in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh in a dalit family.[1] He did his engineering in Kanpur and master's at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2003.
Anoop Kumar started Insight Fondation with help of some friends to help students belonging to SC/ST in providing information about different universities in North India.
Aruna Roy
Aruna Roy (born 26 May 1946) is an Indian political and social activist who founded and heads the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana ("Workers and Peasants Strength Union"). She is best known as a prominent leader of the Right to Information movement, which led to the enactment of the Right to Information Act in 2005.[1] She has also remained a member of the National Advisory Council.[2]
In 2000, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.[3]
Her father, who was a lawyer, joined the civil services and eventually retired as legal adviser to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
One of her classmates during post-graduate studies at Delhi university was Sanjit Roy, another left-wing social activist, whom she married in 1970. Before being wed, Sanjit and Aruna agreed on various conditions[4] that would govern their married life. They agreed never to be "tied down" by having children; always to be financially independent of each other; never to impose their beliefs on each other and always be individually free to "do whatever they wanted." The marriage failed within a few years and the couple were formally separated in 1983.
Aruna served as a civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service between 1968 and 1974. She then resigned to devote her time to social and political campaigns. She joined the Social Work and Research Center (SWRC) in Tilonia, Rajasthan, founded by her husband, Sanjit Roy.[5][6][7] In 1983, following the failure of her marriage, Aruna dissociated herself from the SWRC.
While working at the SWRC, Aruna had met Shanker Singh, an activist and theatre artist who uses street theatre, puppetry, song and drama to convey complex leftist ideologies to rural audiences in an idiom familiar to them. In 1987, Aruna and Shankar Singh, with a few associates, moved to Devdoongri, a village in the Rajsamand district of Rajasthan where many of Shankar's relatives live. Here in 1990, they set up the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan ("Workers and Peasants Strength Union") an organization that they described as a "non-party people's organisation".
Aruna's role was to formulate the Right to Information Act[11] which was passed by the Indian parliament in 2005. She served as a member of the National Advisory Council of India until 2006 and is part of NAC II.
In 2005, various women's organizations launched a campaign aimed at ensuring that a woman received the Nobel prize for peace. They drew up a list of 1000 women from 150 countries who they claimed were worthy of being considered for the honour. Aruna was one among these 1000 women.[12][13]
Bryan Adams
Bryan Guy Adams, OC, OBC (born November 5, 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and photographer.
Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 18 Juno Awards among 56 nominations, including wins for Best Male Artist in 2000 and Male Vocalist of the Year in 1997 and every year from 1983 to 1987, as well as Junos for Producer, Composer, and Songwriter of the Year. He has also had 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television for "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" in 1992. He has also won MTV, ASCAP, and American Music awards. In addition, he has won two Ivor Novello Awards and has been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards and three times for Academy Awards for his songwriting for films.
Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world. He is a well known photographer.[1][2]
Adams was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and in April 2006 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards.[3][4] On January 13, 2010, he received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his part in numerous charitable concerts and campaigns during his career,[5] and on 1 May 2010 was given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts.
Bunker Roy
Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy (born 2 August 1945) is an Indian social activist and educator. In 1972 he founded the Barefoot college in Tilonia, Rajasthan. The Indian non-governmental organization was registered as the Social Work and Research Centre. [1] He was selected as one of Time 100, the 100 most influential personalities in the world by TIME Magazine in 2010.[2]
In 2002 he was selected for Geneva-based Schwab Foundation's award.[3]
In 1970, Roy married his classmate Aruna Roy, then an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. Aruna was later to achieve fame as a political and social activist. Roy and Aruna had no children and are now separated. Later Aruna became a prominent leader of the Right to Information movement, and in 2000 received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.[8]
Harsh Mander
Harsh Mander (born 1956) is an Indian social activist and writer. He came into prominence after Gujarat genocide of 2002 and heads "Aman Biradari" which work for communal harmony. He became member of National Advisory Council of the UPA government in 2010 and special commissioner to the Supreme Court[1].[2] He has written a collection of essays titled Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives published by the Penguin Books (2001) and Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre (2009) [3].
Harsh Mander has worked formerly in the Indian Administrative Service in the predominantly tribal states Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh for almost two decades, mainly as the head of district governments of tribal districts. He is associated with social causes and movements, such for communal harmony, tribal, dalit, and disability rights, the right to information, custodial justice, homeless people and bonded labour. He writes and speaks regularly on issues of social justice.
He is at present convenor of Aman Biradari, a people’s campaign for secularism, peace and justice, working for Nyayagrah, for legal justice and reconciliation for the survivors of the Gujarat 2002 carnage, and Dil Se, for the rights of homeless children, youth and women. He is Special Commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court of India to advise it in the Right to Food case on hunger and state responsibility, Honorary Director of the Centre for Equity Studies (working on public policy for the poor), Visiting Professor at IIM, Ahmedabad on poverty and governance and writes a column for the Hindu.
He is a staunch supporter of Ishrat jahan and her associates. He has published multiple articles in India's national news papers about her innocence and how Narendra Modi government of Gujarat butchered another innocent Muslim for no apparent reason. However, it is interesting to see now after David Headley's revelations about her Lashkar-i-Taiba links, If he is going to stick to his stand and prove the innocence of Lashkar-i-Taiba as well.
He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for peace work, and the M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award 2002.
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay ( Kannada: ಕಮಲಾ ದೇವಿ ) (April 3, 1903 – October 29, 1988) was a Gandhian, a social reformer, a freedom fighter, and most remembered for her contribution to Indian independence movement, for being the driving force behind the renaissance of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre in post-Independence India, and for upliftment of the socio-economic standard of Indian women by pioneering the co-operative movement in India.[1]
Numerous cultural institutions in India today are a gift of her vision, starting with National School of Drama, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Central Cottage Industries Emporium, and The Crafts Council of India, to name a few.
In 1917, when was only fourteen years of age, she was married to Krishna Rao, and within two years she was widowed, while she was still at school.
Meanwhile studying at Queen Mary’s College in Chennai, she came to know with Suhasini Chattopadhyay, a fellow student and the younger sister of Sarojini Naidu, who later introduced Kamaladevi to their talented brother, Harin, by then a well-known poet-playwright-actor. It was their mutual interest in the arts, which brought them together.
Finally when she was twenty years old, Kamaladevi married Harindranath Chattopadhyay, much to the opposition of the orthodox society of the times, which was still heavily against widow marriage
While still in London, Kamaladevi came to know of Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement in 1923, and she promptly returned to India, to join the Seva Dal, a Gandhian organisation set up to promote social upliftment.
Later she was a part of the seven member lead team, announced by Mahatma Gandhi, in the famous Salt Satyagraha (1930), to prepare Salt at the Bombay beachfront, the only other woman volunteer of the team was Avantikabai Gokhale. Later in a startling move, Kamaladevi went up to a nearby High Court, and asked a magistrate present their whether he would interested in buying the 'Freedom Salt' she has just prepared.
On 26 January 1930 she captured the imagination of the entire nation when in a scuffle, she clung to the Indian tricolour to protect it.[9]
In the 1930s, she was arrested for entering the Bombay Stock Exchange to sell packets of contraband salt, and spent almost a year in prison. In 1936, she became president of the Congress Socialist Party, working alongside Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia and Minoo Masani. For her, feminism was inseparable from socialism, and where necessary she opposed her own colleagues when they ignored or infringed women’s rights.
The Government of India conferred on her the Padma Bhushan (1955) and later the second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1987, which are among the highest civilian awards of the Republic of India. She also received the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1966) for Community Leadership. She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Ratna Sadsya, the highest award of Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, given for lifetime achievement in 1974,[12].
Kiran Bedi
Kiran Bedi (Hindi: किरण बेदी) (9 June 1949) is an Indian social activist and a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. She became the first woman to join the IPS in 1972, and most recently held the post of Director General, BPR&D (Bureau of Police Research and Development), Ministry of Home Affairs. She retired from the IPS in December, 2007, after taking voluntary retirement. She was the host and TV judge of the popular TV series "Aap Ki Kachehri" (English, "Your Court"), broadcast on the Indian TV channel, Star Plus. This program feature Indian families approaching her TV court and explaining their problems to her. She then offers legal advice and monetary help to solve the problem. This program is classified as an EDUtainment program, as it attempts to simplify and explain legal procedures and Indian law to the viewers.
She has also founded two NGOs in India: Navjyoti for welfare and preventive policing in 1987[1] and the India Vision Foundation for prison reformation, drug abuse prevention and child welfare in 1994.[2]
In 2007, she was granted voluntary retirement from the IPS.[3]
Even while in active service in the IPS, she pursed her educational goals, and obtained a Law degree (LLB) in 1988 from Delhi University, Delhi. In 1993, she obtained a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Department of Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi[7], where the topic of her thesis was 'Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence'.[6]
She began her career as a Lecturer in Political Science (1970–72) at Khalsa College for Women, Amritsar. In July 1972, she joined the Indian Police Service. Bedi joined the police service "because of [her] urge to be outstanding".[8]
She is popularly referred to as Crane Bedi for towing the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's car for a parking violation,[11] during the PM's tour of United States at the time.[7]
Kiran Bedi influenced several decisions of the Indian Police Service, particularly in the areas of narcotics control, traffic management, and VIP security. During her stint as the Inspector General of Prisons, in Tihar Jail (Delhi) (1993–1995), she instituted a number of reforms in the management of the prison, and initiated a number of measures such as detoxification programs, yoga, vipassana meditation, redressing of complaints by prisoners and literacy programs.[12][13] For this she won the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award, and the 'Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship', to write about her work at Tihar Jail.[6]
Kiran Bedi married Brij Bedi in 1972,[13] the year she started her career in the Indian Police Service (IPS), and three years later, in 1975, they had daughter Saina. Among her other three siblings, Shashi is an artist settled in Canada, Reeta is a clinical psyhcologist and writer, and Anu is a lawyer.
A non fiction feature film on Dr Kiran bedi's life entitled Yes, Madam Sir has been produced by Australian film maker, Megan Doneman.
The documentary has made a clean sweep of the award categories---“Best Documentary” with a cash award of $100,000, the biggest prize for a documentary for any film festival in the US and the Social Justice Award with $2500.00 at Santa Barbara International Film Festival. ‘Yes Madam Sir’ got a unanimous vote from the jury
M. V. Mathur
Mukut Vehari Mathur (1915 – January 21, 2004) was an Indian economist, scholar and economist. He was the vice-chancellor of Rajasthan University and founder chairman of the Jaipur-based Institute of Development Studies, also known as IDS.
Born in 1915 in Alwar in Rajasthan in India, Mathur was the Vice-Chancellor of Rajasthan University from 1966 to 1968. Later he became Director General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research from 1974 to 1975, and eventually Director of the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration from 1975 to 1980 and worked for several commissions and committees. He was the first chairman of the IDS from 1981 to 1987 and was the member of the Central Government's Fourth Pay Commission, Third Finance Commission, Education Commission and the Plantation Inquiry Commission. He also headed a committee of the Rajasthan Government on reorganisation of universities in the State from 1978 to 1980.
Mathur was awarded the Padma Bhushan award in 1989&Rajasthan Ratnain 1983
Madhav Chavan
Madhav Chavan (born 1954) is an Indian social activist and co-founder of educational non-profit Pratham.[1] He also started Read India campaign, which aims to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic to underprivileged children across India.
Madhav Chavan was born in Maharastra to Yashwant Chavan, the founder of the Lenin-inspired Lal Nishan Party. He is a chemical graduate and did his post-doctorate at Ohio University..
Madhav Chavan returned to India in 1983. After producing literacy programmes for Doordarshan for a few years, he was invited to work with a Unicef project to teach in Mumbai’s slums.
He was a member of National Advisory Council from 2004 -2008.[2]
Manibhai Desai
Manibhai Bhimbhai Desai (April 27, 1920 – 1993) was an Indian social activist and pioneer of rural development.
Under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi he settled in 1947 in the backward village of Uruli Kanchan near Pune, Maharashtra to begin a programme of rural development. He later founded the Bharatiya Agro-Industries Foundation (BAIF) in 1967.
He received the 1982 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, sometimes called Asia's Nobel Prize.
Nikhil Dey
Nikhil Dey (born 1963) is an Indian social activist.[1] He works for the NGO, Suchna Evum Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan.[2] He has been actively working for Right to Food and other Human Rights organisations.
Nikhil Dey was born in Bangalore. He received his law degree from University of Delhi. He went to the US for education after his graduation.
Nikhil Dey initially worked at Khedath Mazdoor Sangathan in Madhya Pradesh.
In 1990, Nikhil Dey, along with Shankar Singh and Aruna Roy, decided to go to a village and live with the people; not to form an NGO, but have their work and their contributions be defined by the people they would be living and working with.
P. J. Sebastian
P. J. Sebastian (Pullamkalam Joseph Sebastian) Indian freedom fighter and social activist from Changanacherry, Kerala.[
Prema Gopalan
Prema Gopalan is an Indian social activist. She has founded and been Executive Director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) for over 15 years, supported poor rural women in building bridges with local government to facilitate democratic processes that are inclusive of women.[1] She is also well known for the disaster relief work after her rehabilitation work in Maharashtra.[2]
Ravi Gulati
Ravi Gulati (born 1974) is an Indian social activist.[1] He gives after school tuitions to the underprivileged in New Delhi.
Ravi Gulati was born in New Delhi to Indira, an NGO worker. He graduated with an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.
Ravi Gulati took to teaching children of drivers, barbers and maids near his home in New Delhi's Khan Market. He wanted to work in the villages but stayed back in Delhi because two poor children needed tuitions from him. While he taught them he realised what he was doing was equally important in urban India as what he would have done in rural India.
He started an NGO, Manzil, along with his mother and Dr.Geeta Chopra. The organisation has a branch at Kotla, a slum area in Delhi
Roopa Iyer
Roopa Iyer (b. 1978) is an Indian model, social activist, classical artist and Kannada actress and director.
Roopa Iyer was born in Karnataka in 1978 in a Tamil Brahmin family. She trained in Bharatanatyam and Kathak from a young age and started a dance school in Belur for young girls. After completing her masters in Commerce, Roopa entered modelling and was crowned the Best Female Model (1996) and Fair & Lovely Miss. Beautiful Skin – Miss Karnataka (1999).
She commenced a career in films and has recently ventured into film direction
Sandeep Pandey
Sandeep Pandey is an Indian social activist.[1] He co-founded Asha for Education with Deepak Gupta and V.J.P Srivatsoy while working on his Ph. D in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sandeep Pandey is an alumnus of the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India.
He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award (often termed as 'Asian Nobel prize') in 2002 for the emergent leadership category[4]. Pandey led an Indo-Pakistan peace march from New Delhi to Multan in 2005.
Saraswathi Gora
Saraswathi Gora (1912-2006) was an Indian social activist. Notable as the leader of the Atheist Centre for many years, she campaigned against untouchability and the caste system.
A political activist of India's freedom movement, she was imprisoned during the Quit India movement. She went to jail carrying her two-and-half-year old son, Niyanta.
The wedding of her eldest daughter Manorama with Arjun Rao was performed in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1960.
Sehba Hussain
Sehba Hussain is an Indian social activist.[1] She is the co-founder and honorary treasurer of Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Lucknow.[2] and founding Board member and Executive Director of Lucknow-based, BETI (Better Education Through Innovation) Foundation, established in 2000.[3]
She was a member of the National Advisory Council during the tenure of 2005-2008.[7][8]
She is also a member of the executive committee of the National Mission for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, for universalization of elementary education in India.[9][10]
Shaheen Mistry
Shaheen Mistri is an Indian social activist and founder of eduction initiative Akanksha Foundation and Teach for India.
[Mahatma Gandhi: (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) (Father of the Nation, Rashtrapita, राष्ट्रपिता) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total nonviolence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination.
for main article go to Swami Vivekanand
Swami Vivekanand: (January 12, 1863–July 4, 1902) He was the founder of Ramakrishna Mission. Vivekananda is considered to be a major force in the revival of Hinduism in modern India. He is considered a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America. He introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions at Chicago in 1893.
for main article go to Swami Dayanand Saraswati
Swami Dayanand Saraswati: (February 12, 1824 – October 31, 1883) was an important Hindu religious scholar and the founder of the Arya Samaj, "Society of Nobles", a Hindu reform movement, founded in 1875.He was the first man who gave the call for Swarajay in 1876 which was later furthered by Lokmanya Tilak.
for main article go to Raja Ram Mohan Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy: (August 14, 1774 – September 27, 1833) was a founder of the Brahma Sabha in 1828 which engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an influential Indian socio-religious reform movement. He is best known for his efforts to abolish the practice of sati, the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. It was he who first introduced the word "Hinduism" into the English language in 1816. For his diverse contributions to society, Raja Ram Mohan Roy is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Indian Renaissance. Ram Mohun Roy's impact on modern Indian history was a revival of the pure and ethical principles of the Vedanta school of philosophy as found in the Upanishads.
for main article go to Jamnalal Bajaj
Jamnalal Bajaj: (4 November 1884 – 11 February 1942) was an industrialist, a philanthropist, and Indian independence fighter. Gandhi is known to have adopted him as his son. He is known for this efforts of promoting Khadi and village Industries in India. With the intent of eradicating untouchability, he fought the non admission of Harijans into Hindu temples. He began a campaign by eating a meal with Harijans and opening public wells to them. He opened several wells in his fields and gardens. Jamanalal dedicated much of his wealth to the poor. He felt this inherited wealth was a sacred trust to be used for the benefit of the people. In honour of his social initiatives a well known national and international award called Jamnalal Bajaj Award has been instituted by the Bajaj Foundation.
for main article go to Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave: (September 11, 1895 - November 15 1982) was an Indian advocate of Nonviolence and human rights. He is considered as the spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi. Vinoba Bhave was a scholar, thinker, writer who produced numerous books, translator who made Sanskrit texts accessible to common man, orator, linguist who had excellent command of several languages (Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, English, Sanskrit), and a social reformer. He wrote brief introductions to, and criticisms of, several religious and philosophical works like the Bhagavad Gita,works of Adi Shankaracharya, the Bible and Quran. His criticism of Dnyaneshwar's poetry as also the output by other Marathi saints is quite brilliant and a testimony to the breadth of his intellect. A university named after him Vinoba Bhave University is still there in the state of Jharkhand spreading knowledge even after his death.
for main article go to Baba Amte
Baba Amte: (December 26, 1914 – February 9, 2008) was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and empowerment of poor people suffering from leprosy. He spent some time at Sevagram ashram of Mahatma Gandhi, and became a follower of Gandhism for the rest of his life. He believed in Gandhi's concept of a self-sufficient village industry that empowers seemingly helpless people, and successfully brought his ideas into practice at Anandwan. He practiced various aspects of Gandhism, including yarn spinning using a charkha and wearing khadi. Amte founded three ashrams for treatment and rehabilitation of leprosy patients, disabled people, and people from marginalized sections of the society in Maharashtra, India.
for main article go to Shriram Sharma Acharya
Shriram Sharma Acharya: (September 20, 1911 – June 2, 1990) was an Indian seer, sage, Indian social worker, a philanthropist, a visionary of the New Golden Era and the Founder of the All World Gayatri Pariwar. He devoted his life to the welfare of people and the refinement of the moral and cultural environment. He pioneered the revival of spirituality, creative integration of the modern and ancient sciences and religion relevant in the challenging circumstances of the present times. To help people, his aim was to diagnose the root cause of the ailing state of the world today and enable the upliftment of society. Acharyaji recognized the crisis of faith, people’s ignorance of the powers of the inner self, and the lack of righteous attitude and conduct. During 1984-1986, he carried out the unique spiritual experiment of sukshmikaraña, meaning sublimation of vital force and physical, mental and spiritual energies.
for main article go to Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: (1820-1891) Vidyasagar was a philosopher, academic, educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer, and philanthropist. His efforts to simplify and modernize Bangla prose were significant. He was a Bengali polymath and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. Vidyasagar championed the uplift of the status of women in India, particularly in his native Bengal. Unlike some other reformers who sought to set up alternative societies or systems, he sought, however, to transform orthodox Hindu society from within. Vidyasagar introduced the practice of widow remarriages to mainstream Hindu society. In earlier times, remarriages of widows would occur sporadically only among progressive members of the Brahmo Samāj.
for main article go to Dhondo Keshav Karve
Dhondo Keshav Karve: (April 18, 1858 - November 9, 1962) was a preeminent social reformer of his time in India in the field of women's welfare. Karve was one of the pioneers of promoting women's education and the right for widows to remarry in India. The Government of India recognized his reform work by awarding him its highest civilian award, Bhārat Ratna, in 1958 (Incidentally his centennial year). The appellation Maharshi, which the Indian public often assigned to Karve, means ”a great sage”. Those who knew Karve affectionately called him as Annā Karve. (In Marāthi-speaking community, to which Karve belonged, the appellation Annā is often used to address either one's father or an elder brother.)
for main article go to Balshastri Jambhekar
Balshastri Jambhekar: (January 6, 1812– May 18, 1846) is known as Father of Marathi journalism for his efforts in starting journalism in Marathi language with the first newspaper in the language named 'Darpan' in the early days of British Rule in India. He founded Darpan as the first Marathi newspaper. He was editor of this newspaper during the British rule in India. This turned out to be the beginning of Marathi journalism. He had mastery in many languages including Marathi, Sanskrit, English and Hindi. Apart from that he also had a good grasp of Greek, Latin, French, Gujarati and Bengali.
for main article go to Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
B. R. Ambedkar: (14 April 1891 — 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, political leader, Buddhist activist, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist, historian, orator, prolific writer, economist, scholar, editor, revolutionary and the revivalist of Buddhism in India. He was also the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Ambedkar spent his whole life fighting against social discrimination, the system of Chaturvarna — the Hindu categorization of human society into four varnas — and the Hindu caste system. He is also credited with having sparked the bloodless revolution with his most remarkable and innovative Buddhist movement. Ambedkar has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.
for main article go to Annie Besant
Annie Besant: (October 1 , 1847 – September 20, 1933) was a prominent Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule. In 1908 Annie Besant became President of the Theosophical Society and began to steer the society away from Buddhism and towards Hinduism. She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When war broke out in Europe in 1914 she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India and dominion status within the Empire which culminated in her election as president of the India National Congress in late 1917. After the war she continued to campaign for Indian independence until her death in 1933.
for main article go to Vitthal Ramji Shinde
Vitthal Ramji Shinde: (April 23, 1873 – January 2, 1944) He was a prominent campaigner on behalf of the Dalit movement in Maharashtra and established the Depressed Classes Mission to provide education to the Dalits in Maharashtra.
for main article go to Gopal Hari Deshmukh
Gopal Hari Deshmukh: (1823-1892) was a social reformer in Maharashtra. Deshmukh started writing articles aimed at social reform in Maharashtra in the weekly Prabhakarunder the pen name Lokhitwadi. In the first two years, he penned 108 articles on social reform. That group of articles has come to be known in Marathi literature as Lokhitwadinchi Shatapatre.
for main article go to Pandurang Shastri Athavale
Pandurang Shastri Athavale: (October 19, 1920–October 25, 2003) was an Indian philosopher, spiritual leader, social reformer [2] and Hinduism reformist, who founded the Swadhyay Movement and the Swadhyay Parivar organization (Swadhyay Family) in 1954 [3], a self-knowledge movement based on the Bhagavad Gita, which has spread across nearly 100,000 villages in India [4][5], with over 5 million members [6]. He was also noted for his discourses or "pravachans" on Srimad Bhagawad Gita and Upanishads.
Sunitha Krishnan
Dr. Sunitha Krishnan, born in 1969, is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, an institution that assists trafficked women and girls find shelter. The organization also helps pay for the education of five thousand children infected with HIV/AIDS in Hyderabad.[1]. Prajwala’s “second-generation” prevention program operates in 17 transition centers and has served thousands of children of prostituted mothers
Valambal
Valambal also known as Maniammal as an Indian social activist who fought against capitalism in Thanjavur district.
Valambal was born in a Brahmin family of Thanjavur district. Married at a very young age, Valambal lost her husband when young. Valambal, however, defied tradition by refusing to wear a white saree or to tonsure her head.
Valambal cut her hair short and dressed like an young man. She, then, led a peasant insurrection against oppressive landlords of the Cauvery Delta. She was also partly responsible for the impressive performance of the Communist Party of India in the Thanjavur region.
Vimala Thakar
Vimala Thakar (born 15 April 1923- died on 11 March 2009) was an Indian social activist and spiritual teacher. She was born into a middle-class Brahmin family in central India, she was interested in spiritual matters from an early age. She pursued this interest with meditation and spiritual practices through her youth.
Later she became active in the Bhoodan (Land Gift) Program. This program, led by Vinoba Bhave, persuaded landlords to give land to poor farmers. Through the 1950s, several millions of acres of farmland were so redistributed.
She died on 11 March 2009, on the day of Holi, the festival of colour in India. She was living at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India during her last years.
Pandita Ramabai
Pandita Ramabai (23 April 1858, Maharashtra- 5 April 1922) was an eminent Indian Christian social reformer and activist.
She established the Mukti Mission in 1889 as a refuge for young widows who were abused by their families. In Marathi, her native tongue, the word mukti means liberation. The Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission is still active today, providing housing, education, vocational training, and medical services, for many needy groups including widows, orphans, and the blind.
Pandita Ramabai is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on April 5
Laxman Mane
Laxman Bapu Mane (Marathi: लक्ष्मण बापू माने) (b. June 1, 1949) is a Marathi writer and a social activitist from Maharashtra, India. Mane came to sudden fame after publishing his autobiography Upara, (An Outider), in 1980. Upara was considered as a milestone is Marathi Dalit literature and received Sahitya Akademi Award in 1981.[1]
Mane converted to Buddhism along with his followers from his community.[3]
He received a Homi Bhabha Fellowship during 1986-88 for his continued social work.
Mane served for some time in the following capacities:
- Acting president of the Indian Institute for research in the developmental problems of nomadic and denotified communities, Satara
- Secretary of Ekata Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha, Satara
- General secretary of Mahatma Jyotirao Phyle Samata Prathistan
- A senator of Shivaji University's administration.
Sanjay Ghose
Sanjoy Ghose (Bengali: সঞ্জয় ঘোষ) (7 December 1959 - 4 July 1997) was an Indian rural development activist known for his pioneering contributions to community health and development media. He is believed to have been killed by United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants in the river island of Majuli on the Brahmaputra river around July 4 1997.
Born in Nagpur, Ghose spent his formative years and his adolescence in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Sanjoy Ghose belonged to a well known Bengali family. Bhaskar Ghose, erstwhile Director General of Doordarshan, the Indian public television network, is his uncle. His two aunts are Ruma Pal a former Supreme Court judge, and Arundhati Ghose , former diplomat and India's permanent representative to the United Nations during the 1990s. [1]
He was also active in the National Service Scheme - taking his fellow students to remote tribal villages in the hilly tracts abutting the Western Ghats in Thane district- to experience first hand the poverty and exploitation of the tribal communities. In 1980, he chose to join the then unknown Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) in its very first batch. He had confirmed admissions to all the three then existing IIMs, ( Indian Institute of Management ) - Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta. Joining the prestigious IIM opened the way to very well paying corporate careers. He chose the then unknown IRMA over the known IIMs, in keeping with his personal commitment to work for the poorest of the poor.
A newspaper article in the Deccan Herald on February 9 2009 claimed that "(Ghose) had been killed a day after he was abducted by ULFA cadres on July four, 1997, and his body, which was never found, was thrown into the swirling waters of the Brahmaputra. The killing,... was carried out by local cadre even before the top leadership could convey to them the message not to harm him to avoid possible international repercussions.
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