MEN AND WOMEN WHO MADE HISTORY

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Once, the British Empire stretched all around the world. It was
said that the Sun never sets in the British Empire. It was true. The
British Empire had England itself in the west; it had United States of
America to its east and undivided India in the West with East Asian
countries and Australia further west. All large empires must come to an
end one day. The Byzantine Empire lasted for a very long time, but
disintegrated in course of time. The British Empire also disintegrated in
course of time and there remains nothing except the mainland England
now with its former colonies constituting honorary Commonwealth of
countries.

The United States of America was a part of the larger British

Empire. The United States of America got its freedom from the British
Empire under Mr. George Washington, a very brave and noble leader,
who led his country to victory over the British. A gentle man to the
core, he was known for his firm decisions. A very determined man as
he was, “Freedom or Death” was his life motto, and he was ready to
sacrifice his life for the freedom of the people of his country. Such was
the man who brought freedom to the sole superpower of the present
world.

MOTHER TERESA

Very few people show pity for poor, weak and sickly people.
Mother Teresa is one of the few people who showed it to the
unfortunate lot of the humanity. She even helped and cared for the
people who had dangerous and highly contagious diseases. She really
is love and kindness personified in human form.

A Catholic nun named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in 1910

in Skopje, now in Yugoslavia. She studied in Ireland and went to teach
in Kolkata in India. When she was travelling on a train one night, she
heard a soft voice telling her to leave the convent and help the poor
people who have no one to help them. This entirely changed her life.

She wore a sari and went barefoot to the poorest slums of

Kolkata to serve the poorest of the poor. In 1948, the Church let her
set up a new order of Nuns, called the Missionaries of Charity. Since
then, Mother Teresa and her nuns of the Missionaries of Charity have
saved babies left on the wastages on the roadsides, looked after lepers
and cared for the old, sick and dying. Her Order had more than 300
branches throughout the world by the time of her death in 1998. She
was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for her great service for the
humanity and the greatest Indian award, the Bharata Ratna, in
recognition of her service to India. The angel of the human kind died in
1998 just before she reached the age of eighty-nine.

It is because of her love, kindness and service that many

suffering people found hope and light in their life. Her simple love
and service for humanity raises her to the level of godliness. Yes,
her death gave a lot of grief to the poor people and the entire
humanity, but they still have hope because of her.

THE LEGACY OF LEE KUAN YEW

 Lee Kuan Yew or Harry Lee Kuan Yew was the first Prime Minister
of the sovereign Republic of Singapore for twenty-five years from 1965
to 1990 and the first Prime Minister of the state of Singapore under the
Federation of Malaysia for six years from 1959 to 1965. He is a fourth
generation Chinese Singaporean and an ardent champion of merger of
Singapore with the federation of Malaysia till its Prime Minister Tunku
Abdul Rehman following riots between Muslim majority Malay and
Chinese majority Singapore unceremoniously threw Singapore out of
the Federation in 1965. Lee Kuan Yew as the first Prime Minister of the
Republic of Singapore is credited to transform a volatile,
underdeveloped colonial outpost with no natural resources into a
stable, First World Asian Tiger Singapore from a very weak and poor,
volatile, underdeveloped colony of severe shortage of natural
resources and water to one of the World Asian Tigers along with Hong
Kong, South Korea and Taiwan and one of the most stable and richest
countries of the world.

Lee Kuan Yew has climbed very great heights in his quest to
transform Singapore to an economic power of Asia and became a
leader the world adores as a capable administrator and respected
statesman. He raised Singapore from the lowest depths of instability
and resources to the heights of an economic power. In recognition
of his great contribution to the Republic of Singapore, he was
honoured by retaining him in the Cabinet as Senior Minister in
advisory capacity after he stepped down from the post of Prime
Minister in 1990 with the distinction of being the longest serving
Prime Minister of the world after holding it to then unprecedented
long tenure of twenty-five years. The next Government of
Singapore that came to power under his son in 2004 honoured him
by retaining in the Cabinet as the Minister Mentor.
HELEN KELLER

Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia in America. Severe

brain fever rendered her blind, dumb and deaf before she was even
two years old. But, the handicap did not take away her determination
to lead a successful life. Actually, it added to her inner strength and
resolves to reach higher and accomplish great things. She learnt to talk
and write by herself and mastered Braille language meant for blind.

A lady by name Anmam Field Salivan who was dedicated to the

service of blind found Helen Keller and helped her to read and write.
She used to keep a doll in Helen’s hand and lead Helen’s fingers to
write the word doll on a sheet of paper. Thus, the first word learnt by
Helen was doll. Later, Helen learnt to talk in a school for the deaf.
Soon, she developed a sense for recognizing everything. She also
wrote many books and became very famous.

Helen Keller lived for 88 years and died in 1968.

CAPTAIN B.M.BHATRA

This is from the memoir of Captain B.M Bathra when he was an

officer of the Indian forces during the Second World War when he was
stationed in Tehran in Iran. At that time, Iran was divided into two
parts. They were the partly controlled by Britain and partly by Soviet
Union. Mr. B.M. Bathra was the second ranking officer of the Indian
army present at British Iran at that time. The United States of America
at that time did not have any influence in Iran and was not at all in the
scene in Iran. The big three of the Allies of that time i.e. Churchill of
Britain, Stalin of Russia and Theodore Roosevelt of the United States of
America came to Iran to overview the security arrangements there and
also to brief officers about their part on the D-Day. Mr. B.M. Bathra was
in charge of a birthday party for Churchill. However, he had to take a
lot of precautions to ensure that the Germans would not know of the
event for security reasons. In the party, Mr. B.M. Bathra noted that
Churchill was all rosy and happy. But, Roosevelt looked pale and
withdrawn. Mr. B.M. Bathra thought that Roosevelt may not live long
and actually, Roosevelt died the following year. However, unlike those
two, Stalin was the model of quietness and Mr. B.M. Bathra notes that
when Stalin saw him, his look was so cold that he felt shivers run down
his spine.

GENERAL DYER

Over fifty years ago, the British ruled India. The British ruled
India very badly and people complained about the British. However,
the British did not hear the complaints of the people. Even when the
Indian representatives complained about the British, they were not
heard. The people were very unhappy, but they could not do a thing as
the British were ruling India and the representatives were not ruling
India. They tried to improve the life of the Indian people, but the
people were disappointed, as the British did not hear their pleadings.
They did not do of course. Finally, India got its independence. It was a
long fight and many things spurred the people of India. The ignorance
of the British towards Indian affairs was one. Many other things also
affected India’s independence. The British did many bad things to
India. The bad things included the Amritsar massacre among other
things. The Amritsar Massacre was the result of the British firing about
a thousand rounds of bullets to an Indian crowd. The regiment who did
this was under General Dyer. General Dyer will always be notorious
because of this in India at least. Many people were killed in this
Massacre and it brought worldwide condemnation upon the British.
This was finally to spur the Indians to their independence. General
Dyer’s deeds were very bad indeed and as a result, the British Empire
finally crumbled away. The people always looked and craved for
independence after this.

Brigadier-General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer CB (October 9,

1864 – July 23, 1927) was a British Indian Army officer responsible for
the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Dyer was born in Murree, in British India, now in Pakistan. He

spent his childhood in Shimla and received his early education at the
Bishop Cotton School in Shimla. He attended Midleton College, Co.
Cork between 1875 and 1881. In 1885, following attendance at the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst he was commissioned into the
Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) as a Lieutenant, and served in
riot control duties in Belfast (1886) and the Third Burmese War (1886–
87). He was then transferred to the Indian Army, initially joining the
Bengal Staff Corps as a Lieutenant in 1887 and being attached to the
39th Bengal Infantry, later transferring to 29th Punjabis. He served in
the latter in the Black Mountain campaign (1888), the relief of Chitral
(1895) (being promoted Captain in 1896) and the Mahsud blockade
(1901–02). In 1901 he was appointed a Deputy Assistant Adjutant
General. He was then transferred to 25th Punjabis where he served in
the Zakha Khel Expedition (1908). He commanded the 25th Punjabis in
India and Hong Kong and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1910.
During World War I (1914–18), he commanded the Seistan Force, for
which he was Mentioned in Despatches and made a Companion of the
Bath (CB). He was promoted Colonel in 1915, and was made a
temporary Brigadier-General in 1916. In 1919, about a month after the
Amritsar incident, in the Third Anglo-Afghan War, his Brigade relieved
the garrison of Thal, for which he was again mentioned in dispatches.
5th Brigade at Jamrud was his last command posting for a few months
in 1919. He retired on 17 July 1920, retaining the rank of Colonel.

The white population in Punjab in 1919 feared a plot to

overthrow British rule. There was talk of mutiny and of death threats to
Europeans. Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab,
decided to deport leading agitators from the province. One person who
was targeted was Dr. Satyapal, who was in the Army Medical Services
during World War I. He advocated non-violent civil disobedience and
was prevented from speaking in public. Another person was Dr.
Kitchlew, a Muslim barrister who wanted political change and was non-
violent. The Deputy Commissioner, Miles Irving, did not know the
background of these two people and suspected some deeper
conspiracy resulting in the arrest of the two men. This event led to a
burst of events in Punjab. Crowds gathered in all public places
demanding a release of the two men. The troops panicked and opened
fire on a bridge across a railway line, causing several deaths. This
resulted in a mob which returned to the city centre. Reinforcements
were brought in for the army.

The mobs sought out Europeans in the city. On April 9, 1919,

Miss Marcella Sherwood, who supervised the Mission Day School for
Girls was bicycling round the city to close her schools when she was
assaulted by the mob in a narrow street, the Kucha Kurrichhan, was
beaten and left wounded. She was rescued by local Indians who hid her
from the mob and moved her to the fort. This attack on a lady
incensed Dyer, who was the commandant of the infantry brigade in
Jullundur, who instructed the troops of the garrison regarding reprisals
against Indians.
 Brigadier Dyer is infamous for the orders which he gave on April
13, 1919 in Amritsar. It was under his command that 90 troops,
including 25 Gurkhas of 1st/9th Gurkha Rifles, 25 Pathans and Baluch
of 54th Sikhs and 59th Sindh Rifles, all armed with .303 Lee-Enfield
rifles (and the Gurkhas additionally armed with khukris) opened fire on
a gathering of unarmed civilians, including women and children
gathered at the Jallianwalla Bagh in what came to be later known as
the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The civilians had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh to participate in

the annual Baisakhi celebrations which are both a religious as well as a
cultural festival of the Punjabis. The Bagh-space was comprised of 6 to
7 acres (28,000 m2) and was walled on all sides except for five
entrances. Four of these entrances were very narrow, admitting only a
few people at a time. The fifth entrance was blocked by the armed
soldiers, as well as by two armoured cars armed with machine guns.
(These vehicles were unable to pass through the entrance.) Upon
entering the park, the General ordered the troops to fire directly into
the assembled gathering. Firing continued until his troops' supply of
1650 rounds of ammunition was exhausted. The firing continued
unabated for about 10 minutes.

From time to time, Dyer "checked his fire and directed it upon
places where the crowd was thickest"; he did this not because the
crowd was slow to disperse, but because he (the General) "had made
up his mind to punish them for having assembled there." Some of the
soldiers initially fired in the air, at which General Dyer shouted: "Fire
low. What have you been brought here for?" Later, Dyer's own
testimony revealed that the crowd was not given any warning to
disperse and he felt no remorse for having ordered his troops to fire.
 On the day following the massacre, Mr. Kitchin, the
Commissioner of Lahore as well as General Dyer, both used
threatening language. The following is the English translation of Dyer's
Urdu Statement directed at the local residents of Amritsar on the
afternoon of April 14, 1919, a day after the Amritsar massacre:

"You people know well that I am a Sepoy and soldier. Do you

want war or peace? If you wish for a war, the Government is prepared
for it, and if you want peace, then obey my orders and open all your
shops; else I will shoot. For me the battle-field of France or Amritsar is
the same. I am a military man and I will go straight. Neither shall I
move to the right nor to the left. Speak up, if you want war? In case
there is to be peace, my order is to open all shops at once. You people
talk against the Government and persons educated in Germany and
Bengal talk sedition. I shall report all these. Obey my orders. I do not
wish to have anything else. I have served in the military for over 30
years. I understand the Indian Sepoy and Sikh people very well. You
will have to obey my orders and observe peace. Otherwise the shops
will be opened by force and Rifles. You will have to report to me of the
Badmash. I will shoot them. Obey my orders and open shops. Speak up
if you want war? You have committed a bad act in killing the English.
The revenge will be taken upon you and upon your children."

Brigadier Dyer designated the spot where Miss Marcella

Sherwood was assaulted sacred and daytime pickets were placed at
either end of the street. Anyone wishing to proceed in the street
between 6am and 8pm was made to crawl the 150 yards (140 m) on all
fours, lying flat on their bellies. The order was not required at night due
to a curfew. The humiliation of the order struck the Indians deeply.
Most importantly, the order effectively closed the street. The houses
had no back doors and the inhabitants could not go out without
climbing down from their roofs. This order was in effect from April 19
until April 25, 1919. No doctor or supplier was allowed in, resulting in
the sick being untended.

After the Amritsar massacre, Dyer's health failed and in 1921 he

was stricken with paralysis. He never recovered. He died at Long
Ashton, near Bristol, on July 23, 1927 of Atherosclerosis and cerebral
haemorrhage. In the final moments of his life, he is reported to have
murmured: "but I don’t want to get better. Some say I did right, while
others say I did wrong. I only want to die... and know of my maker
whether I did right or wrong."

The Morning Post remembered him in articles titled, "The Man

Who Saved India" and "He did his Duty". The Westminster Gazette
wrote a contrary opinion, "No British action, during the whole course of
our history in India, has struck a severer blow to Indian faith in British
justice than the massacre at Amritsar, and the attitude of official
Anglo-India to it."

NANDAN NILEKANI

Nandan Nilekani is an Indian software entrepreneur. He is

currently the Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd, of which he is
also a co-founder, along with N. R. Narayana Murthy and others.

Nilekani is the second-youngest son of Durga and Mohan Rao

Nilekani, a manager in Minerva Mills. He was born in Sirsi, a small town
in Karnataka, and spent his first 12 years in Bangalore. Nilekani moved
in with his uncle's family in Dharwad for his education, studying at
Bishop Cotton Boys School, Bangalore, and attending the Indian
Institute of Technology, Bombay from 1973.
 In 1978, Nilekani joined Patni Computer Systems where his
colleague was N. R. Narayana Murthy. Three years later in 1981,
Nilekani and six other enthusiasts, led by Murthy, decided to start their
own company, InfoSys (later renamed Infosys).

Nilekani became the Chief Executive Officer of Infosys in March

2002, taking over from Murthy. Nilekani served as CEO and MD of the
company from March 2002 to April 2007, when he relinquished his
position to his colleague Kris Gopalakrishnan, becoming Co-Chairman.
He has since mentioned that he will still function in an executive
capacity within the company by "focussing on key client relationships,
being a brand ambassador for the company, and working on
transformational initiatives". Nilekani has an estimated net worth of
US$1.3billion.

In 2004, Nilekani was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-

highest Indian civilian decoration. In January 2006, he became one of
the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the World
Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board.

Nilekani was named one of "Asia's Power 25 – The Most Powerful

People in Business in Asia" by Fortune magazine, 2004. He was
regarded by TIME magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People
in the World" in May 2006, and by Forbes Asia as "Business Leader of
the Year" 2006.

Nilekani is a co-founder of India's National Association of

Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM). He is also the
chairperson of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF). His book,
Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century was launched on November
24, 2008.In the book, Nandan discusses a host of ideas ranging from
the impact ideas such as democracy, globalization and demography
have had on India's growth and development, to its slow progress in
the areas of infrastructure and the provision of primary education to
all, to the ideological deadlock when it comes to politics, higher
education and labor reforms. He also addresses a few ideas that are
vital to cementing India's position as a global power - that of its social
security provisions, its policies on clean energy and the environment,
as well as its ability to deal with lifestyle-related diseases and ailments.

In this book, Nandan discusses on topics such as the future of

India, its recent history,the ideas and attitudes that evolved with the
times and contributed to the country’s progress,India’s early socialist
policies,its young population,Information Technology, caste politics,
labour reform, infrastructure, higher education, the English language in
India among others.

Nandan Nilekani was appointed as the chairperson of the newly

created Unique Identification Authority of India by the central
government in 2009 in the rank of a cabinet minister. He accepted the
challenge and assumed the responsibility after resigning to the Infosys.

MOHAMMED ALI JINNAH

British ruled India till 1947. Independence cost India the division
of the subcontinent into two nations – India and Pakistan. The division
of the country was caused because of the religious divide in the
country between the majority Hindus and the minority Muslims.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah led Muslims to agitation for a separate homeland
for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. Mahatma Gandhi, who was
leading the struggle for independence foresaw that such a partition
would certainly lead to a lot of bloodshed. But, Mohammed Ali Jinnah
was adamant in his demand for the partition. He called Jawaharlal
Nehru as an impetuous pundit. He is also believed to have condemned
many of the mainstream freedom fighters.

Distaste for Mohammed Ali Jinnah in India is so wide spread that

the praise of Mohammed Ali Jinnah by BJP supremo, L.K.Advani, during
his Pakistan raised such a storm in India that he fell into the bad books
of his own party.

PERVEZ MUSHARAFF

Pervez Musharaff is the former President of Pakistan. He is one of

the strongest personalities in the world politics and well known in India
for two reasons, that he was born and spent his childhood in India till
his father with his family migrated to newly formed Pakistan during the
Great Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, and that the Kargil
War was his making while he was the Commander in Chief of the
Pakistan armed Forces.

Pakistan army overthrew the Government of Prime Minister

Nawab Sheriff after its defeat in Kargil War and Musharaff became the
head of the Government as well as the head of the State later. Post-
9/11 American aggressive policy brought President Musharaff to the
knees to reluctantly submit to the American needs to ally with the
NATO forces against his Taliban friends in Afghanistan. He had no
option but to militarily support the NATO forces to overthrow the
Taliban Government and later pursue both Taliban and Al-Qaeda
terrorists from Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
 He lost power after elected government came to power in
Pakistan.

JACK SLIPPER AND THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY

Jack Slipper was a renowned and efficient detective of the

Scotland Yard. In the Great Train Robbery in Britain of 1963 wherein a
train carrying mail from Glasgow to London was robbed of two million
pound worth of goods, perhaps the most well known and the biggest
robbery in the world, Jack Slipper was invested with the investigation of
the case on behalf of the Scotland Yard as its most efficient and
capable investigator. He successfully detected the case and arrested
all those involved in the case except for one known as Ronnie Biggs
who evaded Jack Slipper’s attempts to catch him, the only black spot in
the otherwise illustrious career of this detective. As a splendid
detective, he was compared as an equal to legendary and fictional
Sherlock Holmes.

Ronnie Biggs was at large till 2001 when he gave himself up.
Actually, Jack Slipper traced Ronnie at Brazil in 1974, but Brazil denied
extradition of Ronnie Biggs, as there was no extradition treaty between
Brazil and Britain.

THE END OF AZAHARI

Azahari bin Husin was a terrorist who lived in Indonesia. He lived

a charmed life hiding from the police and other security personnel of
Indonesia after committing terrorist crimes and escaped all attempts of
the police and security forces to catch him. He was a very lucky person
as often he was leaving his hiding place barely minutes before the
police reached there. At last, his time ran out as for all outlaws. He
came face to face with the police and security forces searching for him
and fought till the end of his life. He was found on an assignment to
burst a bomb-vest at a populated area when police shot him and thus
avoided more casualties.

The events that led to the deadly encounter make interesting

reading. The police of Indonesia were trying to trace the bombers of
the 30th August Bali bomb attack. They started finding the people
whom the terrorists had met just before they set off their bombs in
Bali. One of the persons was found to be a suspected terrorist. Police
followed him for some time trying to find out his move and activities.
When they were trying to do so, the man found out that he was being
followed and tried to set-off his bomb-vest. But, before he succeeded
in his efforts, police captured him and interrogated. They found out
from him through interrogation that he was a sort of messenger
between Azahari bin Husin and his assistant who was till then
unknown. The ‘messenger’ then told the police that Azahari bin Husin
was hiding in a particular hotel room. The police went there and shot
him dead while he resisted capture and tried to blow his bomb-vest.

RATAN TATA

The economics of India has got only a few well-known names.

They include Ratan Tata, the Ambani brothers and also many more
people. However, the most important of these names is Ratan Tata. He
is a very famous person in India and is responsible for the meteoric rise
of the Tata group to fame. He is a very shy person and is often
underestimated by his opponents. The Tata group is now gone
International and is trying to catch up with its main rivals. They include
the United States of America based General Electric and Wal-Mart.
However, it will be a long time before it catches up with these
companies as these companies are established firmly in the
International scene.