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Icons of Bhārat
The freedom fighters, scientists, poets, saints, kings, artists, and champions who shaped Bhārat — from the heroes of the epics to the father of the nation. Meet the people who made the story of Bhārat.
31 icons in Social Reformers
Social Reformers
31 iconsAlasinga Perumal
அலசிங்க பெருமாள்
Alasinga Perumal was the devoted friend and disciple who made it possible for Swami Vivekananda to travel to America — the poor schoolteacher of Madras who collected the funds and urged the Master to carry the message of Bhārat to the world. A loyal devotee and a worker for the nation's cause, he is remembered as the man behind the great journey.
Ammembal Subba Rao Pai
ಅಮ್ಮೆಂಬಳ ಸುಬ್ಬರಾವ್ ಪೈ
Ammembal Subba Rao Pai was one of the greatest benefactors of the Karnataka coast — the founder of the Canara Bank, which grew into one of the great banks of the nation, and a philanthropist who gave his wealth to education and the welfare of the people. His life was a model of the union of enterprise and generosity.
Attimabbe
अत्तिमब्बे
Attimabbe was the queen of the Chalukya age of Karnataka whose charity became legendary — the patron who gave away her gold for the Jain faith, commissioning a thousand copies of the sacred text and feeding thousands daily. She is honoured in the inscriptions of her age as the model of generosity.
Baba Amte
बाबा आमटे
Baba Amte was one of the greatest servants of humanity in the modern world — a lawyer who gave up his career to serve the lepers, whom society had cast out, and who built the Anandwan community where thousands of the discarded found a home, a craft, and a dignity. He was honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Padma Vibhushan, and the Gandhi Peace Prize.
Basaveshwara
ಬಸವೇಶ್ವರ
Basaveshwara — Basavanna — was the great reformer of twelfth-century Karnataka, the founder of the Lingayat movement that swept away caste and ritual. A prime minister who preached that work is worship, that all are equal, and that God is within every person, he created a social revolution eight centuries before the modern reformers.
Dattopant Thengadi
दत्तोपंत ठेंगडी
Dattopant Thengadi was one of the great thinkers and organisers of modern Bhārat — the philosopher of integral humanism, the third way beyond capitalism and communism, and the founder of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, one of the largest workers' organisations of the world. His thought shaped the economic and political vision of the modern nationalist movement.
Deputy Chennabasappa
ಡೆಪ್ಯುಟಿ ಚೆನ್ನಬಸಪ್ಪ
Deputy Chennabasappa was a legislator and social reformer of Karnataka who served the people through public life and social work for half a century. He worked for the reform of society, the uplift of the villages, and the cause of the nation, and his life is remembered in the history of the Karnataka country.
Dhondo Keshav Karve
धोंडो केशव कर्वे
Dhondo Keshav Karve — Maharshi Karve — devoted his life to the uplift of women of Bhārat: he founded the first university for women in Bhārat, championed widow remarriage by marrying a widow himself, and built the institutions of the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University. He was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1958.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
डॉ. भीमराव आंबेडकर
Born into a family considered 'untouchable', Bhimrao Ambedkar rose to become the chief architect of Bhārat's Constitution — and spent his life tearing down the walls of caste. His achievement is written in the fundamental rights every citizen enjoys today of Bhārat.
Dr. T.M.A. Pai
ಡಾ. ಟಿ.ಎಂ.ಎ. ಪೈ
Dr. T.M.A. Pai was the founder of Manipal — the doctor and educationist who built a small temple town of the Karnataka coast into one of the greatest centres of education in the world. His Manipal institutions — the medical and engineering colleges, the university, and the hospitals — have educated students from across the globe, and his name is honoured as one of the great builders of modern education in Bhārat.
Eknath Ranade
एकनाथ रानडे
Eknath Ranade was a devoted worker of the nation — the man who built the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari, one of the great monuments of modern Bhārat. A lifelong worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and of the cause of national character, he gave the nation a monument of its own greatness through years of tireless effort.
Gopal Krishna Devadhar
गोपाल कृष्ण देवधर
Gopal Krishna Devadhar was one of the greatest workers of the Servants of India Society — the disciple of Gopal Krishna Gokhale who devoted his life to the service of the poor and the reform of society. He worked in the famine relief of the land, in the uplift of the depressed classes, and in every cause of the nation's welfare.
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
ईश्वर चंद्र विद्यासागर
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar — the ocean of learning — was the giant of the Bengal Renaissance: the scholar who simplified the Bengali alphabet, opened the first schools for girls, and fought for the right of widows to remarry. His campaign against the cruel fate of widows led to the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856 — the first great social reform law of modern Bhārat.
Kasinathuni Nageswara Rao
కాశీనాథుని నాగేశ్వరరావు
Kasinathuni Nageswara Rao was the builder of the modern Telugu press — the founder of the Andhra Patrika, the great newspaper of the language, and one of the pioneers of the industry of Andhra. His work for the language, the press, and the national movement made him one of the most influential figures of the Telugu land.
Kudmul Ranga Rao
ಕುದ್ಮುಲ್ ರಂಗರಾವ್
Kudmul Ranga Rao was a pioneer social reformer of the Karnataka coast — one of the first crusaders against untouchability in the region. A generation before Gandhi made the cause national, he worked for the uplift of the depressed classes, for their education, and for the end of the caste barriers that divided the land.
Kusuma Sorab
ಕುಸುಮಾ ಸೊರಬ್
Kusuma Sorab was a physician and environmentalist of the Western Ghats — a doctor who served the people of the Uttara Kannada forests and became one of the first champions of the region's environment. Her work for the health of the people and the protection of the forests made her a pioneer of the environmental movement of Karnataka.
Madhukar Dattatreya Devaras
ಮಧುಕರ ದತ್ತಾತ್ರೇಯ ದೇವರಸ್
Madhukar Dattatreya Devaras was a devoted worker of the national awakening — a man of Karnataka who gave his life to the service of the nation through the movement of national character and service. His life, told in the Bharata Bharati series, is the story of the quiet worker on whom the nation's building rested.
Mahadev Govind Ranade
महादेव गोविंद रानडे
Mahadev Govind Ranade was the father of the Indian renaissance — a judge of the Bombay High Court, a scholar, and the greatest social reformer of the age. He founded the Prarthana Samaj, championed the rights of women, and argued that the progress of the nation must begin with the reform of its society.
Manjaya Heggade
ಮಂಜಯ್ಯ ಹೆಗ್ಗಡೆ
Manjaya Heggade was the Dharmadhikari — the administrator of charity — of the great temple of Dharmasthala, one of the most sacred and charitable institutions of the South. Under his stewardship the temple's vast charity served the poor, the sick, and the students of the land, and his name is honoured as the model of the servant of the people's trust.
Muthulakshmi Reddy
முத்துலட்சுமி ரெட்டி
Muthulakshmi Reddy was a pioneer of modern Bhārat — one of the first women doctors of the land, a legislator, and a lifelong champion of women's rights. She fought against the evil of the devadasi system, worked for the education and health of women, and founded the Avvai Home for the care of the abandoned.
Narayana Guru
नारायण गुरु
Narayana Guru was the saint who transformed Kerala — a mystic who taught that all human beings are equal and that knowledge is the true liberation. He consecrated temples open to all castes, built schools for the oppressed, and his movement — the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana — lifted an entire community from untouchability to dignity.
P. Kodanda Rao
ಪಿ. ಕೋದಂಡ ರಾವ್
P. Kodanda Rao was a devoted worker of the Servants of India Society — the organisation of Gopal Krishna Gokhale — who served the people of Bhārat for a lifetime. He worked both in Bhārat and abroad for the welfare of the nation's people, and he was known for the fearlessness and balance of his opinions.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy
राजा राममोहन राय
Two centuries ago, when superstition ruled, Raja Ram Mohan Roy lit the lamp of reason. He fought the practice of sati, championed education for girls, founded the Brahmo Samaj, and is rightly called the Father of the Renaissance of Bhārat.
Sane Guruji
साने गुरुजी
Sane Guruji was one of the most loved teachers and writers of Maharashtra — a Gandhian whose love for children, the poor, and the whole of humanity made him a legend. His Shyamchi Aai, the story of a mother's love, is among the most beloved books of the Marathi language, and his life of service made him the Gandhi of the children of the land.
Siddavanahalli Krishna Sharma
ಸಿದ್ದವನಹಳ್ಳಿ ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಶರ್ಮ
Siddavanahalli Krishna Sharma was a freedom fighter, journalist, and writer who played a heroic role in the awakening of the Hyderabad state — the man who worked to stir the people against the oppressive rule of the Nizam. A brilliant orator and one of the architects of modern Kannada prose, he gave his life to the service of the nation.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati
स्वामी दयानंद सरस्वती
Swami Dayananda Saraswati was the founder of the Arya Samaj — the reformer who preached 'Back to the Vedas', rejected idol worship and superstition, and fought caste and child marriage with the authority of the scriptures themselves. His movement reformed millions of lives and gave the freedom struggle some of its fiercest leaders.
Swami Shraddhananda
स्वामी श्रद्धानंद
Swami Shraddhananda was the Arya Samaj leader who gave up his career for reform, worked for the untouchables and the orphans, and was assassinated in 1926 by a fanatic for his campaign to bring communities together. His death shocked the nation and made him a martyr of unity of Bhārat.
Thakkar Bapa
ठक्कर बापा
Thakkar Bapa was the father of the tribal people of Bhārat — the servant of Gandhi who devoted his life to the uplift of the adivasis, the tribal peoples of the hills and forests. For fifty years he lived among them, served them, and fought for their rights, and he is honoured as the greatest friend the tribal people of the land have had.
Vinoba Bhave
विनोबा भावे
Vinoba Bhave was the spiritual heir of Gandhi — the saint of the land who carried the Mahatma's message of non-violence and service into the years after independence. His Bhoodan movement — the appeal to landlords to give land to the landless — walked across Bhārat and collected millions of acres, making him one of the most remarkable figures of the modern world.
Viresalingam Pantulu
వీరేశలింగం పంతులు
Viresalingam Pantulu was the father of the Andhra renaissance — the reformer, writer, and educator who transformed the society of the Telugu land. He fought against child marriage and the misery of widows, championed widow remarriage, and created the modern prose and literature of Telugu, becoming one of the greatest reformers of the age.
Zakir Husain
ज़ाकिर हुसैन
Zakir Husain was the educationist who became Bhārat's third President — a scholar who was imprisoned in the freedom struggle, who founded the Jamia Millia Islamia university, and who served as the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and the Governor of Bihar. His life joined education, freedom, and the highest office of the republic.
One land. Endless wonders.
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