Gujarati Freedom Fighters
Gujarat has contributed a lot to the Indian Independence movement. Many Gujaratis had devoted their lives for this cause. A brief information is given here for some of them.
Kasturba Gandhi
Kasturba Mohandas Gandhi(11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was the wife of Mahatma Gandhi. Working closely with her husband, Kasturba Gandhi became a political activist fighting for civil rights and Indian independence from the British. After Gandhiji moved to South Africa to practice law, she went there in 1897 to be with her husband. From 1904 to 1914, she was active in the Phonexi Settlement. During the 1913 protest against working conditions for Indians in South Africa, Kasturba was arrested and sentenced to three months in a hard labor prison. Later, in India, she sometimes took her husband's place when he was under arrest. In 1915, when Gandhi returned to India to support indigo planters, Kasturba accompanied him. She taught hygiene, discipline, health, reading, and writing. She played a very active role during Gandhiji's “Styagrah activities” at Sabarmati Ashram Ahmedabad.
Vithalbhai Patel
Vithalbhai Patel (1873 – 22 October 1933) was an Indian legislator and political leader, and co-founder of the Swaraj Party. He entered politics before his more renowned brother Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. In 1922, he left the Congress to form the Swaraj Party with Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru (father of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister), which would seek to foil the Raj by sabotaging the government after gaining entry in the councils. In 1923 he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly, a chamber of elected and appointed Indian and British representatives with limited legislative powers, and in 1925 became the Assembly's president, or speaker. In the later years of Independence movement, he became a fierce critic of Gandhi and a strong ally of Subhas Chandra Bose.
Maniben Patel
Maniben Patel (1903-1990) was a Freedom fighter and a Member of the Indian parliament after independence. She was the daughter of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Educated in Bombay, Maniben adopted the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and started working regularly at Sabarmati Ashram Ahmedabad.
She participated in the Non Cooperation movement and the Salt Satyagraha and was arrested for long periods. In the 1930s she became her father's personal aide, also caring for his personal needs. But she again participated in the Quit India movement and was imprisoned from 1942 to 1945 in Yerwada Central Jail. Maniben Patel served her father closely until his death in 1950. After moving to Bombay, she worked for the rest of her life with numerous charitable organizations and for the Sardar Patel Memorial Trust, and wrote her memoirs on the freedom struggle and her father's life. She was connected with several educational institutions including the Gujarat Vidyapith, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Bardoli Swaraj Ashram and Navjivan Trust prior to her death in 1990.
Bhikaiji Rustom Cama
Bhikaiji Rustom Cama (24 September 1861 – 13 August 1936) was a prominent figure in the Indian Independence movement. After coming in contacts with Shyamji Krishna Varma and Dadabhai Naoroji, she became active in Varma's Indian Home Rule Society. On 22 August 1907, Cama attended the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart, Germany. She unfurled there what she called the "Flag of Indian Independence. This was the first Indian flag raised even before independence.
Shyamji Krishna Varma
Shyamaji Krishna Varma was born on October 4, 1857 in Mandvi, Kutch. He became a disciple of Swami Dayanand Saraswati who had founded Arya Samaj. It was upon Dayanand's inspiration, he set up a base in England at India House where were produced many revolutionaries like Madam Cama, Veer Savarkar, Lala Hardyal, Madan Lal Dhingra, Bhagat Singh etc. Shyamji made his debut in Indian politics by publishing the first issue of his English monthly, “The Indian Sociologist”, an organ of freedom and of political, social and religious reform. On 18 February 1905 Shyamji inaugurated a new organisation called “The Indian Home Rule Society”.As many Indian students faced racist attitudes when seeking accommodations, he founded India House as a hostel for Indian students. Many Indian revolutionaries like Bhikaiji Cama, S.R.Rana, Vir Savarkar, Virendra Chattopadhyay, Lala Hardayal were associated with India House.
Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917), known as the Grand Old Man of India. In 1867 Dadabhai Naoroji helped to establish the East India Association, one of the predecessor organizations of the Indian National Congress with the aim of putting across the Indian point of view before the British public.
Other Gujarati Freedom fighters are: Ravishankar Maharaj, Narhari Parikh, Mahadev Desai (personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi), Manilal Pandya, Mohanlal Pandya, Abbas Tyabji, Mridula Sarabhai, Bhulabhai Desai, Morarji Desai (he became India's Prime Minister in 1977 – first Gujarati to get this honor for Gujaratis), Jhaverchand Meghani (a National Poet), Kanniyalal Munshi, Indulal Yagnik (Induchacha), Usha Mehta (Remembered for organizing the Congress Radio, also called the Secret Congress Radio, an underground radio station, which functioned for few months during the Quit India Movement of 1942), Shamaldas Gandhi.
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