50 Captivating Lives

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People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things. -Edmund Hillary.

This anthology is more than just a compilation of different biographies. It is a peek into the very story of a country-the world's largest democracy, India. The real identity of a nation lies within the stories of its people, especially of those gleaming jewels who have impacted it for the better and whose influence lingers in the masses for centuries.

India is sea of countless life stories trickling into one another-a lush forest of various lives that have planted the seeds of revolution, dissent and creativity in the souls of millions. If you want to know your country, culture and background well, reading these biographies in this book might just do the trick, as these people were crucial in shaping our nation's identity and progress.

India's past brims with people who fascinate, move and inspire us. B.R. Ambedkar, for instance, started a powerful movement against Dalit exploitation in India, despite having been born in an ordinary middle-class Dalit family with no socio-political backing. His extraordinary legacy continues to impact our modern- day educational as well as socio-economic policies, as well as inspires the desire for an egalitarian, caste-free society. We can also remember Subhas Chandra Bose, one of the most prominent leaders of the Indian freedom struggle, in this context. His ideologies were completely contradictory to that of Mahatma Gandhi, who was highly popular among masses during the freedom struggle. Nonetheless, Bose's stance remained firm as a rock, as he stood for self-governance or swaraj, even if it meant using force and violent retaliation against the British.

Let us also not forget about individuals like Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, an Anglo-Indian poet, who had an intense passion for teaching and imparted knowledge among the young people of Bengal in the early nineteenth century. Annie Besant was a British activist and writer, who was a staunch supporter of the demand for swaraj and became one of the most prominent leaders for the Indian independence struggle. This book also provides a detailed account of of Lord Louis Mountbatten, a member of the British Royal Family who was the first governor-general of India. He was sent to India to oversee the plans for the transfer of power from the British crown to the Indians. Going against the oppressive conventions of the Empire they belonged to, these people found an intellectual and spiritual sanctuary in India and did all they could to nourish it. This book commemorates them and their contributions to India.

Thus, etched within collective history and kept alive by personal memory, these figures are not just the heroes of a wonderful past but continue to be the drivers of change in our present-day lives. As Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has rightly said, 'One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives. These victors are the ones who set the stage for those who came after them and continue their great legacies. As knowledge bearers, political leaders, artists, thinkers or daring renegades, they towered against the coarse rigidities of their times with the power of ideas, conviction and utmost faith in themselves and their nation.