Author: Anant Pai
Publisher: India Book House
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788184822441
Description
This collection includes 10 illustrated children books.
1. Jamsetji Tata:
Can you think of a man who has two sons and adopts a research institute as his third? That was Jamsetji Tata, the greatest Indian industrialist ever!
A man who thought big but also cared for the small, A man who provided generous scholarships to nurture the talent of tomorrow and made an endowment in his will for building India’s first institute of advanced scientific education – the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
When he establishment his steel plant, he made a quantum shift in the nature of his business. From a country of traders, India stepped into a world of industrialization. No wonder many assert that Jamsetji is the father of modern Indian industry.
2. Chandra Shekhar Azad:
Chandra Shekhar Azad was a great revolutionary who lived and died for the Motherland. Together with his band of dedicated young men, he fought to liberate India from the foreign rulers.
The activities of Azad and his associates contributed in no small measure to the awakening of the Indian masses – a task which the national leaders of the day were trying to achieve through peaceful means.
3. Subramania Bharati:
Subramania Bharati, the famous Tamil poet, writer and patriot, loved all people and cultures, and nourished a strong desire for freedom. He loved India with all his heart and suffered because he was a patriot. He was a true poet of freedom, and his fiery verses are sung to this day. He wrote prose too, which was widely regarded.
Bharati died when he was only 39.
4. Jayaprakash Narayan:
Jayaprakash was an avid reader and his wide reading was an important factor in shaping his intellect. He was an excellent student and did very well at both school and college.
When he was still a schoolboy, Jayaprakash committed his first act of rebellion – he disobeyed a rule because he considered it to be unjust – and he willingly paid the price of rebellion. To fight against injustice without considerations of personal safety, was hence forth to be the guiding principle of his life. During the struggle against the British, he told the judge who tried him for treason, that he would not accept “certain laws of a foreign government established by force in this country.”
5. Babasaheb Ambedkar:
Babasaheb Ambedkar was born in a Mahar family. Though the Mahars formed a leading community among the depressed classes, they were not spared by the caste Hindus. In his childhood, Ambedkar noticed how people of his community were contemptuously branded as untouchables, how they were ill-treated, humiliated and exploited.
Babasaheb refused to accept meekly this unjust treatment. He wanted his people to be aware of their rights and fight for their honour. United under his dynamic leadership, they realized that no one could help them gain their rightful place in society except themselves. As he told them, rights are to be earned, not given.
Ambedkar made the untouchables politically conscious. He also realised the importance of making the practice of any form of untouchability an offence under the law. It is only in the fitness of things that the practice of untouchability should have been abolished by the constitution of India, which Ambedkar helped to frame. Babasaheb devoted the rest of his life to secure for the depressed classes what had been guaranteed by the constitution but denied by society.
6. Jagdis Chandra Bose :
Jagdis Chandra Bose (1858-1937) was the first Indian scientist in modern times to have won international recognition. Gifted with a mind that was at once inquisitive and discerning. Bose wondered about the how and why of things from a very young age.
All along, he kept himself abreast of scientific and technological developments in the West. With Marconi who at about the same time worked independently half-way across the globe – he laid the foundations of radio broadcasting.
Though he began with Experimental Physics, his innate interest in living beings veered him towards the science of Biophysics. He invented extremely sensitive instruments that could detect and measure the responses of living organisms to external stimuli.
His contribution to the world of science was invaluable. As the 1945 edition of ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ wrote: “His work was so much in advance of his time that its precise evolution was not possible.”
7. Lokamanya Tilak:
The 1857 War of Independence ended in disaster. The British succeeded in putting down the uprising and the people of India accepted British rule as a fact of life.
While on the one he and, the erstwhile Hindu and Muslim rulers, feudal landowners, the peasantry and the working classes were crushed by the imperialistic British administration, on the other, a large section of the intelligentsia was so awed by the transformation wrought by the railways and the posts and telegraphs that began to consider the alien rule as a blessing.
It was at this critical juncture that Lokamanya Tilak dedicated himself to the cause of the nation with avowed object of throwing off the British yoke.
“Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it” – this was the inspiring message Tilak gave to his countrymen.
His denigrators labeled him as the leader of the lowly classes, whereas the British called him “the Father of Indian unrest”. In the end however, the brickbats became bouquets and he was hailed as the uncrowned king of India.
8. Mangal Pande:
India did not win her freedom from the British without courageously fighting for it. Almost the entire period of colonial rule, from as far back as 1757 till the beginning of the great revolt of 1857, was punctuated by a series of struggles for independence.
9. Ramanuja:
Ramanuja (1017-1137) the great Vaishnava saint-philosopher, upheld bhakti as the sole path to the realization of God.
He wrote commentaries on the Brahmasutras, the Upanishads and the Bhagwad Gita. It was his view that these three philosophical texts proclaim bhakti as the chief means of realsing God.
In his life and teachings, Ramanuja upheld that all humans are born equal and that caste or social status has no role-indetermining one’s relationship with god. He accepted Kanchi Purna, who was not a Brahmin, as his guru. One of his most worthy disciples, Dhanurdasa, was a non-Brahmin from a lower caste. For Ramanuja, a Vaishnava is worthy of respect; but he defined as a true Vaishnava only one who has abundant love for God.
10. Zarathushtra:
Zarathushtra is the name of the prophet of the Parsis as it appears in the Avesta, their oldest scriptural text. In later writings, the name appears as ‘Zartusht, Zardosht’. In the ancient Greek writings, the name of the prophet appears in various forms, but the most common form is ‘Zoroaster’, which is generally used in English and other European languages.
Zarathushtra lived and preached his religion in antiquity, in pre-historic times. His life-history, therefore, is not adequately known. But tradition has preserved the prophet’s life-story as recorded in the late writings of the 9th century. These writings are evidently based on older sources. The life-story of the prophet given in this booklet is taken from the said traditional account.
The religion preached by Zarathushtra is based on the principle of Avesta Arta – which signifies ‘truth, law, divine cosmic law’. It is explained and expounded in simple language: humata hukhta hvarshta – ‘good thought’. ‘good word’, good deed. The principle of divine justice is: BAD UNTO THE DOERS OF BAD, GOOD BLESSING UNTO DOERS OF GOOD.
The Zoroastrians once numbered millions, during the time of their expires (about 6th century B.C. to 7th century A.D.). After the downfall of the empire of the Sansanians about the middle of the 7th century, their numbers dwindled in Iran. Then some of them left Iran and migrated to India. At present the world population of the Parsis may be estimated at 130.00 souls – about 101,000 in India, about 18,000 in Iran, about 6,000 in Pakistan and about 5,000 in Europe, America and other places of the world.
Contents
1. Jamsetji Tata
2. Chandra Shekhar Azad
3. Subramania Bharati
4. Jayaprakash Narayan
5. Babasaheb Ambedkar
6. Jagadis Chandra Bose
7. Lokmanya Tilak
8. Mangal Pande
9. Ramanuja
10. Zarathushtra