Freedom fighters of Gujarat

There are many freedom fighters campaigned against foreign domination and helped in getting the India freed from British, French and Portuguese rule. These are 8 brave freedom fighters of all time to whom we owe this independent nation we are currently living in.
I proud that they were from Gujarat.
   
 * Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

known as ‘Father of the Nation’ was one of the charismatic Indian leaders who fought for the freedom of the country. This great leader was born in Porbandar, Gujarat on Oct 2, 1869. He was the youngest of the three sons of Putlibai and Karamchand Gandhi. He completed his primary studies in Rajkot and was married to Kasturba at the age of 13.

   



 * Dayanand Saraswati

Founder of the Arya Samaj, Dayanand Saraswati preached egalitarianism as opposed to the widespread casteism prevalent in the society during his lifetime. Born as Mool Shankar Tiwari in 1824 in Tankara, Gujarat, he was brought up in a conservative household. Once his father had taken him to a temple to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva. When Dayanand saw a rat nibbling at the offerings made to Lord Shiva, he was flummoxed and wondered as to why the Lord Almighty could not defend himself from am ordinary mice. This incident was to shake Daya Nand Saraswati's faith in idol worship and religious rites.

   * Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

 Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the great social leaders of India. He played a crucial role during the freedom struggle of India and was instrumental in the integration of over 500 princely states into the Indian Union. Despite the choice of the people, on the request of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel stepped down from the candidacy of Congress president. The election on that occasion eventually meant for the election of the first Prime Minister of independent India.

 



  * Ravi Shankar Vyas

 Ravishankar Vyas, affectionately called as the Maharaj in Gujarat and all over India, was a true Gandhian, a leading freedom fighter and a humble servant of the people.

Born on February 25, 1884, Mahashivaratri Day, to a rural-based peasant Brahmin family of Radhu Village of Kaira District, Gujarat, Ravishankar dropped out of school just after the sixth standard and engaged himself to assist the parents, Nathiba and Pitamber Shivram Vyas in agriculture work.

   * Jivatram Kripalani

Jivatram Kripalani, also referred to with the prefix Acharya (Teacher), was an Indian freedom fighter, who became a nationwide leader of the Janata Party revolt against the Indian Emergency. Jivatram (also spelled Jiwatram) Bhagwandas Kripalani was born in current-day Gujarat in 1888. He was of Sindhi and Gujarati roots. He received college education, and was a learned and scholarly young man when he became a member of the Indian National Congress. He was a school teacher when he soon became a disciple of rising nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi, and adopted his teachings and leadership. Kripalani was involved in the Non-Cooperation Movement of the early 1920s, and worked in Gandhi's ashrams in Gujarat and Maharashtra on tasks of social reform and education, and later left for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in northern India to teach and organize new ashrams.

    * Mahadev Desai

 Mahadev Desai was born on 1 January 1892 in the village of Saras in Surat district of Gujarat. His father Haribhai Desai was a teacher in the primary school of Saras. Mahadev's mother Jamnabehn belonged to Dihen, the ancestral place of this Desai clan. She was sharp in intelligence as well as in her nature. The village-folk respected her. Mahadev resembled his father in build and his mother in appearance. He was only seven years old when his mother expired in 1899.

  

 



 * Abbas Tyabji

Abbas Tyabji (died June 9, 1936) was an Indian freedom fighter from Gujarat, who had served as the Chief Justice of the Baroda High Court. He was a key ally and supporter of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel during the 1918 Kheda Satyagraha, and the 1928 Bardoli Satyagraha. He was also a close supporter of Mohandas Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. In 1919-20, Abbas Tyabji was one of the members of the Committee appointed by the Indian National Congress to review the charges against General Reginald Dyer for the Amritsar Massacre, which occurred during the fight for independence from the British. Tyabji became the national leader after leading major protests against the arrest of Mohandas Gandhi in May 1930. He died in Mussoorie (now in Uttaranchal) on June 9, 1936.

    * Vithalbhai Patel

 Vithalbhai Patel was an Indian legislator and political leader, and co-founder of the Swaraj Party. Born in Nadiad, in the Indian state of Gujarat, Vithalbhai Jhaverbhai Patel was the third of five Patel brothers, four years elder to Vallabhbhai Patel, raised in the village of Karamsad. Vithalbhai educated himself in Nadiad and in Bombay, and worked as a pleader (a junior lawyer) in the courts of Godhra and Borsad. At a very young age, he was married to a girl from another village, Diwaliba. His younger brother Vallabhbhai Patel had similarly studied by himself and worked as a pleader. Studying in England was a dream to both men, although they did not know this. Vallabhbhai had saved enough money and ordered his passport and travel tickets, when the postman delivered them to Vithalbhai, on account that it was addressed to a Mr. V.J. Patel, Pleader. Vithalbhai insisted on traveling on those documents actually meant for Vallabhbhai, pointing out that it would be socially criticized that an older brother followed the lead of the younger.