livestudybooks

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

2011-06-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

This article is about the former President of India. For the freedom fighter, see Abu Kalama Azad.

Bharat Ratna Arul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalama pronunciation (help info) usually referred to as A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was the 11th President of India who served from 2002 to 2007.[1] During his term as President, he was popularly known as the People's President.[2][3]

Before his term as India's president, he worked as an aeronautical engineer with DRDO and ISRO. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology.[4] Kalam played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.[5]

He is currently the chancellor of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, a professor at Anna University (Chennai), a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad, Indian Institute of Management Indore, and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.

Early life and education

Abdul Kalam graduated in physics from St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli. After which he went to graduate with a diploma in Aeronautical Engineering in the mid-1950s from the Madras Institute of Technology.[7] As the Project Director, he was heavily involved in the development of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-II).
Career

After graduation from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT - Chennai) he was the Project Director, he was heavily involved in the development of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III). As Chief Executive of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (I.G.M.D.P), he played a major part in developing many missiles in India including Agni and Prithvi although the entire project has been criticised for being overrun and mismanaged.[8] He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of Defence Research and Development Organisation from July 1992 to December 1999. Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period and have been associated with Kalam although he was not directly involved with the nuclear program at the time.
Issues held
Future India: 2020

In his book India 2020, Abdul Kalam strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a knowledge superpower and a developed nation by the year 2020. He regards his work on India's nuclear weapons program as a way to assert India's place as a future superpower.

It has been reported that there is a considerable demand in South Korea for translated versions of books authored by him.

Kalam continues to take an active interest in other developments in the field of science and technology. He has proposed a research program for developing bio-implants. He is a supporter of Open Source over proprietary solutions and believes that the use of free software on a large scale will bring the benefits of information technology to more people.

Awards and honoursYear of Award or Honor Name of Award or Honor Awarding Organization
2009 Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) Anna University of Technology.
2009 Hoover Medal ASME Foundation, USA
2009 International von Kármán Wings Award California Institute of Technology,
2008 Doctor of Engineering (Honoris Causa) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
1997 Bharat Ratna President of India.
1990 Padma Vibhushan President of India.
1981 Padma Bhutan President of India

Books and documentaries
Kalam's writings
• Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam by A. P. J Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari; by K. Bhushan, G. Katyal; A. P. J. Pub. Corp, 2002.
• Scientist to President by Abdul A. P. J. Kalam; Gyan Publishing House, 2003.
• Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Penguin Books, 2003.
• India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Y.S. Rajan; Penguin Books India, 2003.
• India-my-dream by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Excel Books, 2004.
• Envisioning an Empowered Nation: Technology for Societal Transformation by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; TATA McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd, 2004.
• Guiding Souls: Dialogues on the Purpose of Life by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Arun K Tiwari; Ocean Books, 2005.
• Children Ask Kalam by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Pearson Education, ISBN 81-7758-245-3
• Indomitable Spirit by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, 2006
• The Scientific Indian: A Twenty-first Century Guide to the World around Us by APJ Abdul Kalam and YS Rajan
• My Journey by APJ Abdul Kalam , Published By: V Suryanarayana Murthy
Biographies
• Eternal Quest: Life and Times of Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam by S. Chandra; Pentagon Publishers, 2002.
• President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam by R. K. Pruthi; Anmol Publications, 2002.
• P. J. Abdul Kalam: The Visionary of India by K. Bhushan, G. Katyal; A.P.H. Pub. Corp, 2002.
• A Little Dream (documentary film) by P. Dhanapal; Minveli Media Works Private Limited, 2008.[14]
• The Kalam Effect: My Years with the President by P.M. Nair; Harper Collins, 2008.
• My Days With Mahatma Abdul Kalam by Fr.A.K. George; ISBN No: 978-8190452953; Publisher: Novel Corporation, 2009

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

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English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences. A text that contains more than one sentence is no longer in the realm of grammar but of discourse
The grammar of a language is approached in two ways: descriptive grammar is based on analysis of text corpora and describes grammatical structures thereof, whereas prescriptive grammar attempts to use the identified rules of a given language as a tool to govern the linguistic behaviour of speakers. This article predominantly concerns itself with descriptive grammar.

There are historical, social and regional variations of English. Divergences from the grammar described here occur in some dialects of English. This article describes a generalized present-day Standard English, the form of speech found in types of public discourse including broadcasting, education, entertainment, government, and news reporting, including both formal and informal speech. Although British English, American English and Australian English have several lexical differences, the grammatical differences are not as conspicuous, and will be mentioned only when appropriate.

Grammar is divided into morphology, which describes the formation of words, and syntax, which describes the construction of meaningful phrases, clauses, and sentences out of words.

Word classes and phrase classes

Eight major word classes are described here. These are: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and determiner. The first seven are traditionally referred to as "parts of speech". There are minor word classes, such as interjections, but these do not fit into the clause and sentence structure of English.
Open and closed classes

Open word classes allow new members; closed word classes seldom do.[2] Nouns such as "celebutante", (a celebrity who frequents the fashion circles)" and "mentee," (a person advised by a mentor) and adverbs such as "24/7" ("I am working on it 24/7") are relatively new words; nouns and adverbs are therefore open classes.[2] However, the pronoun, "their," as a gender-neutral singular replacement for the "his or her" (as in: "Each new arrival should check in their luggage.") has not gained complete acceptance in the more than forty years of its use; pronouns, in consequence, form a closed class.[2]
Word classes and grammatical forms

A word can sometimes belong to several word classes. The class version of a word is called a "lexeme".[3] For example, the word "run" is usually a verb, but it can also be a noun ("It is a ten mile run to Tipperary."); these are two different lexemes.[3] Further, the same lexeme may be inflected to express different grammatical categories: for example, as a verb lexeme, "run" has several forms such as "runs," "ran," and "running."[3] Words in one class can sometimes be derived from those in another and new words be created. The noun "aerobics," for example, has recently given rise to the adjective "aerobicized" ("the aerobicized bodies of Beverly Hills celebutantes."[3])
Phrase classes

Words combine to form phrases which themselves can take on the attributes of a word class. These classes are called phrase classes.The phrase: "The ancient pulse of germ and birth" functions as a noun in the sentence: "The ancient pulse of germ and birth was shrunken hard and dry." (Thomas Hardy, the Darkling Thrush) It is therefore a noun phrase. Other phrase classes are: verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, and determiner phrases.
Nouns

Nouns form the largest word class. According to Carter and McCarthy, they denote "classes and categories of things in the world, including people, animals, inanimate things, places, events, qualities and states."[3] Consequently, the words "Mandela," "jaguar," "mansion," "volcano," "Timbuktoo," "blockade," "mercy," and "liquid" are all nouns. Nouns are not commonly identified by their form; however, some common suffixes such as "-age" ("shrinkage"), "-hood" ("sisterhood"), "-ism" ("journalism"), "-ist" ("lyricist"), "-ment" ("adornment"), "-ship" ("companionship"), "-tude" ("latitude"), and so forth, are usually identifiers of nouns.[3] There are exceptions, of course: "assuage" and "disparage" are verbs; "augment" is a verb, "lament" and "worship" can be verbs. Nouns can also be created by conversion of verbs or adjectives. Examples include the nouns in: "a boring talk," "a five-week run," "the long caress," "the utter disdain," and so forth.
Number, gender, type, and syntactic features

Nouns have singular and plural forms.[4] Many plural forms have -s or -es endings (dog/dogs, referee/referees, bush/bushes), but by no means all (woman/women, axis/axes, medium/media). Unlike some other languages, in English, nouns do not have grammatical gender.[4] However, many nouns can refer to masculine or feminine animate objects (mother/father, tiger/tigress, alumnus/alumna, male/female).[4] Nouns can be classified semantically, i.e. by their meanings: common nouns ("sugar," "maple," "syrup," "wood"), proper nouns ("Cyrus," "China"), concrete nouns ("book," "laptop"), and abstract nouns ("heat," "prejudice").[4] Alternatively, they can be distinguished grammatically: count nouns ("clock," "city," "colour") and non-count nouns ("milk," "decor," "foliage").[5]
[edit]
Noun phrases
Main article: English noun phrase

Noun phrases are phrases that function grammatically as nouns within sentences. Nouns serve as "heads," or main words of noun phrases.[5] Nouns have several syntactic features that can aid in their identification.[5] Nouns (example: common noun "cat") may be
modified by adjectives ("the beautiful Angora cat"),
preceded by determiners ("the beautiful Angora cat"), or
pre-modified by other nouns ("the beautiful Angora cat").[5]

Within the noun phrase, determiners occur at the far left edge of the noun phrase before the noun head and before any other modifiers:
Determiner + Other modifiers + Noun

The head can have modifiers, a complement, or both.

Modifiers which occur before the head are called '"pre-modifiers", and those which occur after the head ("who know what fighting means") are called "post-modifiers".[5] Pre-modifiers can be determiners ("The"), adjectives ("rough", "seamy-faced", "real raw-knuckle", or "burnt-out"), or other nouns ("College").

Complements occur after the head like post-modifiers, but are essential for completing the meaning of the noun phrase in a way that modifiers are not.

Examples of modifiers (heads are in boldface, modifiers are italicized) include:
"The burnt-out ends of smoky days."[7]
"The rough, seamy-faced, raw-boned College Servitor ...
"The real raw-knuckle boys who know what fighting means,

Examples of complements (heads are in boldface, complements are italicized) include:
"The burnt-out ends of smoky days."[10]
"The suggestion that Mr. Touchett should invite me appeared to have come from Miss Stackpole."[11]
"The ancient pulse of germ and birth was shrunken hard and dry."[12]

Within a sentence, a noun phrase can function as the grammatical subject or the object, as well as other uses.[6] Examples (the noun phrase is italicized, and the head boldfaced):
Subject: "Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest."[13]
Object: "Dr. Pavlov ... delivered many long propaganda harangues ..."[14])

Noun phrases can be constructed with the determiner "the" and an adjective. Some examples are:
"The great and the good were present."
"Give to the poor."

Noun phrases can be compound:
"The idle spear and shield ..."[15]

More examples of noun phrases are: the balloon
det noun
Many balloons
det noun
All balloons
Det noun
The big red balloon
Det adj adj noun
Many big red balloons
Det add adj noun
All big red balloons
Det adj adj noun
postdeterminers many and seven can occur in the following
many smart children
seven smart children
the many smart children
the seven smart children

but both many and seven cannot occur in postdeterminer position rendering the following noun phrases ungrammatical: *many seven smart children, *seven many smart children, *the many seven smart children, *the seven many smart children. Additionally, there are often other lexical restrictions. For example, the predeterminer all can occur alone (as the sole determiner) or before a central determiner (e.g., all children, all the children, all these children, all my children); however, the predeterminer such can only occur alone or before central determiner a (e.g., such nuisance!, such a nuisance!).

Predeterminers include words eg all, both, half, double, twice, three times, one-third, one-fifth, three-quarters, such, exclamative what. Examples with predeterminers preceding a central determiner:
all the big balloons
Both his nice parents
Half a minute
Double the risk
Twice my age
Three times my salary
One-third the cost
One-fifth the rate
Three-quarters the diameter
Such a big boy
What a clever suggestion

Central determiners include words eg the, a/an, this, that, these, those, every, each, enough, much, more, most, less, no, some, either, neither, which, what.

Examples of central determiners preceding adjectival modified noun heads:
The big balloon
A big balloon
This big balloon
That big balloon
These big balloons
Those big balloons
Every big balloon
Each big balloon
No big balloon
Some big balloons
Either big balloon

In addition to the above determiners, noun phrases with a genitive enclitic -'s can have a determinative function like genitive determiners his, her, its, their. These genitive determinative nouns occur in the central determiner position:
[my stepmother’s ] friendly children
Both [ my stepmother’s ] friendly children
[my stepmother’s ] many friendly children
All [my stepmother’s ] many friendly children
Determiners

Determiners constitute a small class of words, including "that", "the", "a", "some", number words like "two" or "three", "some", and "various". They occur in noun phrases.
[edit]
Pronouns

Pronouns are a small class of words which function as noun phrases. They include personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns and relative pronouns.
Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns of English are the following: Nominative Objective Reflexive Genitive (attributive) Genitive (predicative)
I me myself my mine1
You2 you yourself, yourselves your yours
She, he, it her, him, it herself, himself, itself her, his, its hers, his3
We us ourselves our ours
They4 them themselves their theirs

Verbs
Main article: English verbs

Verbs form the second largest word class after nouns. According to Carter and McCarthy, verbs denote "actions, events, processes, and states."[16] Consequently, "smile," "stab," "climb," "confront," "liquefy," "wake," "reflect" are all verbs.

Verbs have the following features which aid in their recognition:
• They usually follow the (grammatical) subject noun phrase (in italics): "The real raw-knuckle boys who know what fighting means enter the arena without fanfare."
• They agree with the subject noun phrase in number: "The real raw-knuckle boy / boys who knows / know what fighting means enters / enter the arena without fanfare."
• They agree with the subject noun phrase in person: "I / He, the real raw-knuckle boy who knows what fighting means, enter / enters the arena without fanfare", and
• They can express tense:"The boys entered the arena without fanfare."
• Regular and irregular lexical verbs

Verbs are divided into lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs. Lexical verbs form an open class which includes most verbs. For example, "dive," "soar," "swoon," "revive," "breathe," "choke," "lament," "celebrate," "consider," "ignore" are all lexical verbs.[17]

• A lexical verb is said to be regular if its base form does not change when inflections are added to create new forms. An example is:
• Base form: climb
• Present form: climb
• -s form: climbs
• Present participle: climbing
• Past form: climbed
Past/passive participle: climbed.

Irregular verbs are ones in which the base form changes; the endings corresponding to each form are not always unique. Examples are
1. Base form: catch
2. Present form: catch
3. -s form: catches
4. Present participle: catching
5. Past form: caught
6. Past/passive participle: caught

And
• Base form: choose
• Present form: choose
• -s form: chooses
• Present participle: choosing
• Past form: chose
• Past/passive participle: chosen.

The verb "be" is the only verb in English which has distinct inflectional forms for each of the categories of grammatical forms, with even the present form differing from the base form:
 Base form: be
 Present form: am, are
 -s form: is
 Present participle: being
 Past form: was, were
 Past/passive participle: been

Auxiliary verbs
Auxiliary verbs constitute a closed class and their purpose is to add information to other lexical verbs, such as (a) aspect (progressive, perfect, habitual), (b) passive voice, (c) clause type (interrogative, negative), and (d) modality.

The auxiliary verbs "be" and "have" are used to form the perfect, progressive and passive constructions in English: see #Verb phrases below. Examples (the auxiliary is in boldface and the lexical verb is italicized):
Aspect (progressive): "'She is breathing Granny; we've got to make her keep it up, that’s all—just keeps her breathing.
Aspect (perfect): "'Yes, I want a coach,' said Maurice, and bade the coachman draw up to the stone where the poor man who had swooned was sitting.
Passive voice: "When she was admitted into the house Beautiful, care was taken to inquire into the religious knowledge of her children.

The auxiliary verb "do" is used in interrogative and negative clauses when no other auxiliary verb is present:
Clause type (interrogative): (Old joke) Boy: "Excuse me sir, How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" Man on street: "Practice, Practice, Practice."
Clause type (negative): "The loud noise did not surprise her."

For some but not all sources, "used (to)" is an auxiliary verb:
Aspect (habitual): "We used to go there often."

Modal verbs form a closed sub-class of the auxiliary verbs, consisting of the core modals ("can," "could," "shall," "should," "will," "would," "may," "might," "must") and semi-modals ("had better", "ought to", "dare", "need").[17] Modals add information to lexical verbs about (a) degrees of possibility or necessity (b) permission or (c) ability.[17] Examples:
Ability: "Before the snow could melt for good, an ice storm covered the lowcountry and we learned the deeper treachery of ice."[24]
Certainty: "Eat your eggs in Lent and the snow will melt. That's what I say to our people when they get noisy over their cups at San Gallo ..."[25]
Expressing necessity: "But I should think there must be some stream somewhere about. The snow must melt; besides, these great herds of deer must drink somewhere."[26]

Modal verbs do not inflect for person or number.[17] Examples:
Person: "I/you/she might consider it." "He dare not go." "He need not go."
Number: "I/we/she/they might consider it"
[edit]
History of English verbs

Some examples of suffixes that have been used to form verbs include "-ate" ("formulate"), "-iate" ("inebriate"), "-ify" ("electrify"), and "-isle" ("realize").[16] These suffixes are not a certain indicator that a given word is a verb: "chocolate" is a noun, "immediate" is an adjective, "prize" can be a noun, and "maize" is a noun. Prefixes can also be used to create new verbs. Some examples are: "un-" ("unmask"), "out-" ("outlast"), "over-" ("overtake"), and "under-" ("undervalue").[16] Just as nouns can be formed from verbs by conversion, the reverse is also possible:
"so are the sons of men snared in an evil time"
"[a national convention] nosed parliament in the very seat of its authority"

 Verbs can also be formed from adjectives:
 "To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs."
 "Time's glory is to calm contending kings"
Adjectives

According to Carter and McCarthy, "Adjectives describe properties, qualities, and states attributed to a noun or a pronoun."[30] As was the case with nouns and verbs, the class of adjectives cannot be identified by the forms of its constituents.[30] However, adjectives are commonly formed by adding the some suffixes to nouns.[30] Examples: "-al" ("habitual," "multidimensional," "visceral"), "-ful" ("blissful," "pitiful," "woeful"), "-ic" ("atomic," "gigantic," "pedantic"), "-ish" ("impish," "peckish," "youngish"), "-oust" ("fabulous," "hazardous"). As with nouns and verbs, there are exceptions: "homosexual" can be a noun, "earful" is a noun, "anesthetic" can be a noun, "brandish" is a verb. Adjectives can also be formed from other adjectives through the addition of a suffix or more commonly a prefix:weakfish, implacable, disloyal, irredeemable, unforeseen. A number of adjectives are formed by adding "a" as a prefix to a verb: "adrift," "astride," "awry."
Grad ability

Adjectives come in two varieties: gradable and non-gradable.[31] In a gradable adjective, the properties or qualities associated with it, exist along a scale.[31] In the case of the adjective "hot," for example, we can speak of: not at all hot, ever so slightly hot, only just hot, quite hot, very hot, extremely hot, dangerously hot, and so forth. Consequently, "hot" is a gradable adjective. Gradable adjectives usually have antonyms: hot/cold, hard/soft, smart/dumb, light/heavy.[31] Some adjectives do not have room for qualification or modification. These are the non-gradable adjectives, such as: pregnant, married, incarcerated, condemned, adolescent (as adjective), dead, and so forth.

In figurative or literary language, a non-gradable adjective can sometimes be treated as gradable, especially in order to emphasize some aspect:
"When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with a forward child, understanding, it strikes a man deader than a great reckoning in a little room."

A non-gradable adjective might have another connotation in which it is gradable. For example, "dead" when applied to sounds can mean dull, or not vibrant. In this meaning, it has been used as a gradable adjective:
"... the bell seemed to sound more dead than it did when just before it sounded in open air."

Gradable adjectives can occur in comparative and superlative forms.For many common adjectives, these are formed by adding "-era" and "-est." to the base form:[31] cold, colder, coldest; hot, hotter, hottest; dry, drier, driest, and so forth; however, for other adjectives, "more" and "most" are needed to provide the necessary qualification: more apparent, most apparent; more iconic, most iconic; more hazardous, most hazardous. Some gradable adjectives change forms atypically:good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; little, less, least; some/many, more, most.
Adjective phrases
Forms

An adjective phrase may consist of just one adjective, or a single adjective which has been modified or complemented.[34]

Adjectives are usually modified by adverb phrases (adverb in boldface; adjective in italics):[34]
"... Placing himself in a dignified and truly imposing attitude, began to draw from his mouth yard after yard of red tape ..."
"Families did certainly come, beguiled by representations of impossibly cheap provisions, though the place was in reality very expensive, for every tradesman was a monopolist at heart."[36]
"... of anger frequent but generally silent,”

An adjective phrase can also consist of an adjective followed by a complement, usually a prepositional phrase, or by a "that" clause.[34] Different adjectives require different patterns of complementation (adjective in italics; complement in bold face):[34]
"... during that brief time I was proud of myself, and I grew to love the heave and roll of the Ghost ..."[38]
"... her bosom angry at his intrusion, ..."
"Dr. Drew is especially keen on good congregational singing."

Examples of "that" clause in the adjective phrase (adjective in italics; clause in boldface):
"Was sure that the shrill voice was that of a man—a Frenchman."
"The longest day that ever was; so she raves, restless and impatient."

An adjective phrase can combine pre-modification by an adverb phrase and post-modification by a complement, as in (adjective in italics; adverb phrase and complement in boldface):
"Few people were ever more proud of civic honors than the Thane of Fife."
Attributive and predicative

An adjective phrase is attributive when it modifies a noun or a pronoun (adjective phrase in boldface; noun in italics):
"Truly selfish genes do arise, in the sense that they reproduce themselves at a cost to the other genes in the genome.
"Luisa Rosado: a woman proud of being a midwife"

An adjective phrase is predicative when it occurs in the predicate of a sentence (adjective phrase in boldface)
"No, no, I didn't really think so," returned Dora; "but I am a little tired, and it made me silly for a moment ..."
"She was ill at ease, and looked more than usually stern and forbidding as she entered the Hales' little drawing room."
Adverbs
Main article: English adverbs

Adverbs typically modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They perform a wide range of functions and are especially important for indicating "time, manner, place, degree, and frequency of an event, action, or process. Adjectives and adverbs are often derived from the same word, the majority being formed by adding the "-lye" ending to the corresponding adjective form. Recall the adjectives, "habitual", "pitiful", "impish", we can use them to form the adverbs:
"Habitually": "... shining out of the New England reserve with which Holgrave habitually masked whatever lay near his heart."
"Pitifully": "The lamb tottered along far behind, near exhaustion, bleating pitifully."
"Impishly": "Well and he grinned impishly, "it was one doggone good party while it lasted!"

Some suffixes that are commonly found in adverbs are "-ward(s)" and "-wise":
"Homeward": "The plougman homeward plods his weary way."
"Downward": "In tumbling turning, clustering loops, straight downward falling,”
"Lengthwise": "2 to 3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1-inch pieces."

Some adverbs have the same form as the adjectives:
"Outside":
Adverb: "'You'd best begin, or you'll be sorry—it's raining outside."
Adjective: "It would be possible to winter the colonies in the barn if each colony is provided with a separate outside entrance; ..."
"Straight"
Adverb: "Five cigars, very dry, smoked straight except where wrapper loosened, as it did in two cases."
Adjective: "Numbering among the ranks of the "young and evil" in this text are ... straight women who fall in love with gay men,”

Some adverbs are not related to adjectives:
"Quite": "Mr. Bingley was obliged to be in town the following day, and ... Mrs. Bennet was quite disconcerted."[59]
"Too": "... like a child that, having devoured its plum cake too hastily, sits sucking its fingers,
"So": "... oh! ... Would she heave one little sigh to see a bright young life so rudely blighted,

 Some adverbs inflect for comparative and superlative forms:
 "soon"
 "O error, soon conceived, Thou never comets unto a happy birth, ..."
 "Merissa: 'superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer."
 "'Least said, soonest mended!' "[64]
 "well"
 "Valdosta well deserved its name, for in that climate of perpetual summer roses blossomed everywhere."
"'I'm afraid your appearance in the Physiological Quarterly was better deserved,' said Mrs. Arkwright, without removing her eyes from the microscope ..."
"Who among the typical Victorians best deserved his hate?"

new technology

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Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University

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The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) is a university, primarily focused on engineering, located in Hyderabad, India, with satellite campuses in Kakinada and Anantapur. It also offers a school of business. Founded in 1965 as the Nagarjuna Sagar Engineering College, the school was renamed in 1972.

JNTU Hyderabad

JNTU is situated in the heart of the city at Kukatpally. The university has ‘A’ Grade accreditation by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council).Has an intake of about 1000 students.
Administration

This university has been deemed an autonomous one after Act No 30 of the approval of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature known as the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Universities Act, 2008 which came into force on 18th August, 2008. It is a teaching cum research oriented university consisting of the constituent and affiliated colleges. The main officers and councils of the university are Chancellor, Vice-chancellor, Rector, Executive council and Academic Senate. The Governor of Andhra Pradesh is the Chancellor of the university. The first Vice-Chancellor of the university is Dr.D.N.Reddy.

An institution with academic and research -oriented courses, the B.Tech programs (undergraduate programs) are about 25. Major branches among them are Aeronautical Engineering, Automobile, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Electronics, Electrical, Instrumentation and Control, Metallurgy, Mechanical, Bio-medical, and Civil. A few courses are also offered through the correspondence cum contact mode. The postgraduate programs number 77, namely M.Tech, MSIT, MBA, MCA and MSc. The major branches are Bio-Technology, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Remote-Sensing and GIS, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Water Resources, Mechanical Engineering, Nano-Technology, Energy Systems, Environmental Studies, Microbiology, Food-Technology, Management, Computer Applications, and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

JNTU-HYDERABAD

2011-06-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

JNTU UPDATES

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The Old Story Book

2011-06-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

This time, Father said he wanted to read the same old story book. The three children (five-year old Reggie, seven-year old Monica, and eight-year old William) looked at the bookcase, which was so full of children’s books of every color and size that the volumes were stacked two deep in some places and spilled off the lower shelves and onto the floor like snowdrifts in others. This was only the bookcase in the boys’ room. The one in Monica’s room was just as full to overflowing, though the books in that bookcase were bound mostly in pink and yellow covers, instead of the blue and red covers here in this room. The bookshelves downstairs, a row of them that filled the longest wall of the playroom, were likewise piled high and, in addition, had easily-toppled columns of books leaning against them. If the children or one of their friends weren’t so careful with a Barbie horse or a Hot Wheels car or a Star Wars spaceship, then one of the book piles would come toppling down and, no doubt, scatter the Life or Scrabble game saved for later or completely obliterate (which means destroy) the Lego castle or block tower that serves as mission control for the tan or green army man army.

The three children oftentimes wanted their Father to read the same story they had read only the last night or just a few days ago and he would wave his hands at the nearest pile of books and say, “With all these books you want to read the same old story book?” He would grab one at random, usually the largest, heaviest one he could find, and declare excitedly, without so much as looking at the cover, “Herein lies dragons and knights and maidens in need of rescue or is it knights and maidens and dragons in need of rescue?” He would flip open the book and say, “Page twenty-three. A sword fight between a giraffe and a monkey!” He’d flip some more pages. “Page seventy-one. The pirate captain discovers a new island with rubies, diamonds, and emeralds as far as his one good eye can see and a light buffet just in case he gets a little hungry.” Father would then look at the three children as if they had just asked to have ketchup on their cake and say, “And you want to read the same old story book?” Flip. “Page one hundred twenty four, paragraph seven, column three. An evil, alien, insectoid race, each with twelve legs, two tails, three heads and an electromagnetic blaster is outwitted by a baby Pegasus!” Flip. “Page quirtle, paragraph smimnot. A Gleep and a Ffrap, the brownish kind, meet the North Wind who blows them across the desert, or is it dessert?, to a place no Gleep or Ffrap has gone before.” He would decry like this for a few minutes until one of them, usually Monica, laughing so hard, had to run hurry to the bathroom lest the pee escape.

The children knew they had plenty to read. And would, every now and then, make piles of books they had read (or had had read to them) and wonder how it was that they managed to read (or be read) so many pages of so many books. They would also look at the remaining books and wonder if anyone could ever read that many books even if they lived to be two hundred years old. But they also very much enjoyed re-reading a favorite book, one they knew they liked, or a story they had just heard recently and not have to risk listening to something that didn’t turn out to be as good as they had hoped or was, even worse, one of those stories with a lesson in it. Usually, their Father would ignore their pleas to re-read a story and start them off on, in his words, “an uncharted literary adventure.”

But tonight, it was their Father, glasses readied for reading, pillow propped behind his head in reading position, holding a book none of them had ever before seen and saying, for the first time that they could remember, “Tonight, I think we ought to read the same old story book.”

Oh, his mouth did say those words! And the three children did hear them! But his tone of voice was mischievous and the children knew that, tonight, they were in for something special.

But their Father said nothing more. He simply held the book none of them had ever seen before in his lap and smiled at them.

The three children looked at each other and then at their Father, who still said nothing, and then back at each other until, without one word being said between them, the three children elected eight-year old William as the one who would learn the cause of their Father’s odd behavior.

William thought of many things he might say or do or ask to draw his Father out, but, having learned many times from his Father that if you want a direct answer, ask a direct question, he asked, “What about that book?” He looked at the book in Father’s lap. William added, “I mean, what is that book about and can you, please, read it to us tonight?”

The two other children (five-year old Reggie and seven-year old Monica), again without words, let William know that he had asked the correct question and they, too, sat eyeing the book in Father’s lap.

With the same mischievous expression and tone, Father asked, “This book? T his story book?” He held up the dark blue book for the three children to see. On the cover was a square, black ink, line drawing of an old woman in a rocking chair reading a book that looked very much like the book Father was holding. Above the picture was the title.

William and Monica read the title to themselves. Reggie, however, who was certainly a good reader for his age, but was still only five (five and three quarters if you asked him) read the title aloud, slowly, “The Same Old Story Book.”

Not one of the three children laughed or so much as smiled. They looked from the book to their Father’s eyes. He looked at them in turn, from youngest to oldest, seeming to be either very proud of them or very proud of himself – or maybe it was the story book of which he was so proud? – the children couldn’t tell.

William, again elected as the one who had to shake Father from his revery, asked more than said, “The Same Old Story Book?”

Father nodded.

William, now not sure he wanted to have his Father read from this book which didn’t seem very good judging either by its cover or by its title, did not know what to ask or say next.

Monica, with her sweet, soft, yet oddly riveting voice came to William’s rescue. “What is it about?” she asked.

To the three children’s relief, Father leaned back against the pillow, adjusted his glasses, opened the cover, and said, “Let’s see.”

Even though not one of the three children expected the dull-looking and dull-sounding book to be anything worth hearing, they leaned more closely to their Father and watched carefully as he flipped the cover to reveal the first page.

There were a few words written on the first page, the same as on most every other book: the name of the book again, the name of the author again, and lots of other words and numbers that had nothing to do with the story, but, as Father explained, everything to do with the book itself and its publisher.

The next page was empty. And the next page was– but Father closed the book so quickly that none of the three children saw what was there.

“I think, tonight,” said Father matter-of-factly, “Reggie will read us the story.”

Father looked directly at Monica and said in the same tone as she just used, “I am quite aware of that fact.”

“But he doesn’t read so well yet,” she explained.

“I can assure you Miss Monica,” Father said, “that not only do I appreciate just how good of a reader Reggie is, but that he is fully able to read this story book.”

Monica was at a loss for words, but William came to her rescue and explained what she had on her mind. “Reggie reads too slowly.”

Monica added, “It’s no fun to hear stories when he reads them.”

By now Reggie seemed unhappy, but was also nodding his head up and down not completely agreeing with his sister and brother, but fairly sure that he did not want the pressure of having to practice reading during story time.

Father, again, looked at all three children in turn. “I feel certain that our little Reggie, beginning reader that he is, is more than capable of reading this story at a speed that will entertain us all.”

Monica thought she understood. She announced it as if it were a certainty. “I know! It’s a picture book!”

Father looked at her with pride, smiled, then said, “It is not a picture book. But that was an excellent guess.” Then he said, “We can either spend the rest of story time discussing what may or may not be inside this story book and Reggie’s ability or lack of ability to read it to our satisfaction, or we can hand Reggie the book (Which he did. Reggie took it as though it were a slightly dangerous animal.), lean back (Which he did, fluffing the pillow behind his head.), and have him read us a story.” Father closed his eyes and let his face fall into a peaceful, relaxed state.

After a few seconds and a gentle poke in the shoulder from Monica, Reggie opened the story book slowly.

wly turned the next page and, as before, it was empty.

He turned to the third page and both the other children groaned.

“Not that story, again!” they both said at once. Monica turned towards her Father. “We’ve heard that one plenty of times.”

William agreed, “I am sick of it, too.”

“Is that so?” asked Father. Then he opened his eyes, looked directly at Reggie and said, softly but firmly, “Please read the story.”

There was no disobeying this tone of voice so Reggie began to read. He read clearly and with no hesitation, “Once upon a time, there was a Prince who-”

“That’s not the way it goes!” declared Monica. “He’s not reading it correctly,” she said to her Father.

“Sounds like he’s doing a fine job to me,” said Father. “Please continue, Reggie.”

Reggie continued, “- a Prince who could see into the future. He had this magic crystal marble that -”

“Dad!” yelled Monica. “That is not the story! He’s making it up!”

“I am not so making it up!” pouted Reggie. “I am reading it.”

Father, unexpectedly, asked, “What do you think William? Do you think he’s making it up and, if so, what should he be reading?”

Father’s eyes were still closed, but both of the other children were looking at William, hoping he, their eldest sibling, took their side.

“He is making it up,” said William with certainty. All three children looked at their Father whose eyes were still peacefully closed.

if, so, what should he be reading?’”

“He should be reading Hansel and Gretel,” said William. “Not a story about a Prince who could see into the future.”

Monica accused, “William! You’re not telling the truth! Now, you’re making up stuff.”

Father asked gently, “What do you think he should be reading, Monica Mouse?”

“It’s Cinderella.” She pointed her finger at the picture on the first page. “See? That’s Cinderella with the broom and her wicked stepmother in the fancy dress.”

“Is not!” said William, thumping the page with his index finger. “It’s Hansel and Gretel and their little cottage.” The two elder children glared at each other.

“And what do you see in the picture, Reggie?” asked Father calmly. Reggie shrugged. Father, whose eyes were closed, could not see the shrug, so he prodded, “I didn’t hear your answer.”

Reggie shrugged again and said, meekly, “It’s a Prince with marble with a castle in it. Isn’t it?”

“It’s Cinderella!” said Monica.

“Hansel and Gretel!” said William.

“Cinderella!”

“Hansel and Gretel!”

They both looked, more like glared, at Reggie who shrugged and said nothing, so they looked, and again it was more like a glare, at Father whose eyes were still closed. But Father could tell they were looking at him, or at least knew that he needed to take one of their sides in the argument, so he said, still very calmly and reasonably, “Since no one present wants to hear either Cinderella or Hansel and Gretel, I suggest we listen to Reggie’s story. And I think,” said Father with his soft, yet firm voice, “that if we listen very closely and pay careful attention we might just see that Reggie is reading the correct story. Agreed?” he asked.

Reggie?”

“Agreed,” said Reggie quickly.

Father laughed. “I meant please continue reading, Reggie.”

Reggie continued reading about the Prince who could see the future and he had just gotten to the part about meeting the witch’s pet Dragon, when Monica said, “Hey!”

Reggie stopped reading.

“Hey?” asked Father, eyes still closed.

“The picture changed!”

“What do you see now?” asked Father.

Monica, a little unsurely, said, “I see Puss in Boots.”

“Hmm,” said Father, “perhaps we need to pay just a little closer attention and listen just a little more intently to Reggie’s story. And I must add, Reggie, that you are doing a great job reading. Not at all stuttery.”

Reggie said brightly, “Thanks,”

So Reggie continued reading and turned the page and continued reading some more even though William said, softly and disappointedly, “It still looks like Hansel and Gretel to me.”

The Prince who could see the future had no trouble avoiding the Witch, since he could tell where she was about to be and not be there himself, but when he carelessly lost the marble and of course the Witch ended up with it, he was just about to walk into her trap, when Monica yelled, “There’s the Prince!”

Again, Monica’s excitement caused Reggie to stop reading at which point she said, “Hey!”

“Again with the ‘Hey?’” asked Father.

“Keep reading!” she told Reggie. “The Prince went away.”
And even though William said somewhat sadly, “I still see Hansel and Gretel,” Reggie continued the story.

The Witch did manage to trap the Prince and left him there so that she could capture the King and Queen and take over the kingdom. The witch’s legion (which means a very large group) of human-sized snakes were just about to attack the castle-

“I see it now!” said William. “There’s the legion of snakes and there’s the castle and what’s that behind the castle?”

“I think it’s the pet Dragon,” said Monica.

Reggie nodded and said, “It is. He’s going to help the King and Queen.”

“How do you know?” asked Monica.

Reggie shrugged and said, “I just do.”

“What’s the Dragon going to do?” asked William.

Before Reggie could say anything, Father interrupted, “Maybe if we listened we’d find out.”

This time Reggie didn’t need to be prompted to continue the story and, as it turned out, he was right about the Dragon. The pet Dragon did save the King and Queen by snatching them away from the snakes just in the nick of time. Even though the Witch could see that her pet Dragon was planning to save the King and Queen, there was very little she could do about it. Without her broom she was unable to fly and the snakes, of course, couldn’t fly, so she and her snakes could only watch as the pet Dragon flew away, her two captives in his grasp.

Soon enough the Dragon also rescued the Prince and the four of them (Dragon, Prince, King, and Queen) came up with a plan to steal back the marble and even though it was little complicated and didn’t make much sense to either Monica or William, the pictures that accompanied it were quite beautiful and all in all “The Prince Who Could See The Future” turned out to be such an exciting story that when Reggie finished and turned the last page to reveal that it was over, both William and Monica said, “Awww!”

But Father didn’t say “Aww!” He said, “That was nice, Reggie. Thank you.”

At which both William and Monica quickly said, “Thanks, Reggie.” And William added, “You did read it very nicely.” And Monica agreed, “He did.”

Father stood up, stretched, yawned and said, “Well, that’s story time for this evening. Time for bed.” But not one of the children moved. Father reached his hand out for the story book, but Reggie was still staring at the last page where the large words read very clearly “The End.” and didn’t see that Father wanted the book.

“Dad?” asked Monica.

“Yes, sweetie?”

But Monica didn’t quite know what question to ask so she looked at William who shrugged, just as Reggie closed the book, looked at the book’s cover and gasped.

“What?!?” exclaimed Monica and William together. They, too, looked at the book and saw that, on the cover, there was now a beautiful, full-color picture of the Prince holding the marble riding the Dragon, above which was the title, reading, “The Prince Who Could See The Future.”

Looking up at Father, William asked, “How did that happen?”

Father shrugged and did not look at all concerned. “Why shouldn’t that be the cover?” he asked. “That’s the story inside.”

“But, it wasn’t when we began,” explained Monica. “When we began, it was called ‘The Same Old Story Book’ and there was a boring old drawing of an old woman sitting in a rocking chair reading.”

“Good memory, Monica,” said Father. “But now it’s not. Now it’s the book that Reggie read.”

The three kids sat on the sofa looking at the cover of the book for a while. Finally, Reggie yawned and handed the book to Father. Then the three children, dreamily, started making going to bed movements and Father, after a few minutes, tucked the two boys in their beds and led Monica into her room.

“Dad?” asked Monica.

“Yes?”

“Is that story book going to something different every time?”

“It could be,” Father said. “But it could also be the same old story, if that’s what you want.” Father gently placed Monica in bed and tucked her in.

“Father?” asked Monica.

“Yes?” he responded.

“That’s cool.”

Father chuckled lightly. “Yes,” said Father, “it is.” He kissed his daughter gently on the cheek, ruffled her hair just a little, and said, “Goodnight, sweetie. Sweet dreams.”

But Monica was already asleep, dreaming, one would expect, of Princes and Dragons and Witches or, perhaps, of something else.

The End

adsence

2011-06-10T01:54:00.000-07:00

it is absence information

Sam Pitroda

2011-06-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Sam Pitroda (born 4 May 1942, in Titlagarh, Orissa) (Real name Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda) is an inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker. Currently Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations, he is also widely considered to have been responsible for India’s communications revolution.[1] As Advisor, he will be looking into creating information infrastructure for enhancing delivery of services to the citizens in various areas and will also be working on creating a roadmap for a ‘Decade of Innovation’ in India.

He has served as Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (2005–2008), a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, set up to give policy recommendations for improving knowledge related institutions and infrastructure in the country. During its term, the National Knowledge Commission submitted around 300 recommendations on 27 focus areas covering a range of aspects of the knowledge paradigm. Mr. Pitroda holds around 100 key technology patents, has been involved in several start ups, and lectures extensively around the world.

He is also the founder & CEO of C-SAM, Inc. The company maintains its headquarters in Chicago with offices in London, Tokyo , Mumbai and Vadodara. Following the development of core technologies in the U.S. and Europe, C-SAM's development centers in India now focus on innovation, customization and cost effective deployment for its customers.

He has also served as an advisor to the United Nations and in 1992, his biography Sam Pitroda: A Biography was published and became the bestseller on the The Economic Times list for five weeks.

As technology Advisor to the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi in the 1984s, Mr. Pitroda not only heralded the telecom revolution in India, but also made a strong case for using technology for the benefit and betterment of society through several missions on telecommunications, literacy, dairy, water, immunization, oilseeds etc.. He has continued to redefine the role technology can play in a society like India by linking it to better delivery of services for the underprivileged in the country.

Mr Pitroda has lived mainly in Chicago, Illinois since 1964 with his wife and two children
Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition
Sam Pitroda

Born 4 May 1942 (age 69)
Titlagarh, Orissa, India
Residence Delhi, India
Nationality Indian
Education Maharaja Sayajirao University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Occupation Telecom engineer, inventor, development guru, entrepreneur
Employer Advisor to the Prime Minister
Known for Communication revolution
Title Innovator
Religion Hinduism
Children 2

Early life

Born in Titlagarh, Orissa, India. His parents hailed from Gujarat and migrated to Orissa. They were deeply influenced by Gandhi and his philosophy and consequently, he and his brother were sent to Gujarat to imbibe Gandhian philosophy. He completed his schooling from Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat and completed his Masters in Physics and Electronics from Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara . After completing his Masters in Physics he went to the US and obtained a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. In 2010, he received an Honorary degree from University of Illinois at Chicago.

Career
Early career

Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s Sam Pitroda was involved in cutting edge technology research work in telecommunications and hand-held computing. He is widely regarded as one of the earliest pioneers of hand-held computing because of his invention of the Electronic Diary in 1975.

In 1974, Sam Pitroda founded a company, Wescom Switching which was one of the first digital switching companies in the world. He developed a revolutionary new system called 580 DSS switch, which he spent nearly four years perfecting. Thus, in 1978, it was released to the world and it became an instant hit becoming one of the most successful systems in the market. Wescom was eventually acquired by Rockwell International, where Pitroda became the Vice President. During his four decades as an engineer, Mr. Pitroda has filed scores of patents in telecommunications. The latest set of patents relate to mobile phone based transaction technology [3][4] which cover the entire spectrum of transactions, both financial and non-financial, via mobile phones.

In 1983, he also designed his own computer-themed card game called Compucards which used binary numbers instead of decimal (1, 2, 4, 8...) had a computer bug as the joker. The equivalent of a king in a regular deck of cards was the 'Programmer' that bore an uncanny resemblance to Pitroda himself. Through the 1990s Mr. Pitroda explored the world of mobile phone transaction technology and telecom developments in emerging markets.

A widely traveled man, Mr. Pitroda is a much sought after speaker at top international events. Mr. Pitroda divides his time between Chicago and Delhi..
[Edit]
Government service

In 1984, Mr. Pitroda was invited to return to India by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. On his return, he started the Center for Development of Telematics C-DOT, an autonomous telecom R&D organization. He had previously become a naturalized US citizen, and renounced his US citizenship to take Indian citizenship again in order to work in the Government. [2] In 1987, he became advisor to Mrs. Gandhi's successor, Rajiv Gandhi and was responsible for shaping India's foreign and domestic telecommunications policies.

In 1987 during his tenure as advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Mr. Pitroda headed six technology missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy and oilseeds. He is also the founder and first chairman of India’s Telecom Commission.

Mr Pitroda has been responsible for shaping India’s foreign and domestic telecommunications policies. He is largely considered to be responsible for the telecommunication revolution in India and specifically, the ubiquitous, yellow-signed Public Call Offices (PCO) that quickly brought cheap and easy domestic and international public telephones all over the country.

In the 1990s Sam Pitroda returned to Chicago to manage his business interests. When the United Progressive Alliance government came to power following the 2004 General Elections, the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh invited him to head the National Knowledge Commission of India.

In July 2009, the Government of India invited Mr. Sam Pitroda to head an expert committee on ICT in Railways. In October 2009, Sam Pitroda was appointed as Advisor to PM of India (Dr. Manmohan Singh) on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations with the rank of Cabinet Minister.

In August 2010 , Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the setting up of a National Innovation Council,[5] headed by Sam Pitroda, with special focus on micro, small and medium enterprises for 2010-20.[6]

nternational Telecommunication Union (ITU) conferred the World Telecommunication and Information Society Award to Mr. Sam Pitroda in Geneva on 17th May 2011. He was awarded in recognition of his dedication to promoting Information, communication and technology as a means of providing a better life for humanity and social and economic empowerment. He is the first Indian to receive this prestigious award.

Sambalpur University honored Mr. Pitroda with D.Sc. on its 23rd convocation on 14 July 2010.

Mr. Pitroda received the Rajiv Gandhi "Global Indian" award in 2009.

Mr. Pitroda was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2009 by the Government of India for his contribution to Science and Engineering.

Mr. Pitroda was awarded the Skoch Challenger Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 for ushering in the telecom and IT revolution in India.

Andhra University honored Mr. Pitroda with D.Sc in 2008.

Mr. Pitroda was awarded the Dataquest IT Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

Felicitations

He was also felicitated on 31 March 2009 by Akhila Bharatiya Viswakarma Mahasabha (ABVM) for service to the viswakarma community, in the presence of Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt. Shiela Dixit, and President of ABVM, Chedilal Sharma. In 2008, Pitroda was elected as World Prominent Leader by the World Network of Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs
Other contributions

In 1993, Mr. Pitroda helped establish
[7] The Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition
[8] Near Bangalore in India. At present, he is a Governing Council Member. The aim of the foundation is to make full use of India's rich and diverse traditional medicinal knowledge. Pitroda also serves on the IIT International Board of Overseers.

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the Government. In most systems, the prime minister is the presiding member and chairman of the cabinet. In a minority of systems, notably in semi-presidential systems of government, a prime minister is the official who is appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of the head of state.

In parliamentary systems fashioned after the Westminster system, the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of the government and head of the executive branch. In such systems, the head of state or the head of state's official representative (i.e. the monarch, president, or governor-general) usually holds a largely ceremonial position, although often with reserve powers. The prime minister is often, but not always, a member of parliament and is expected with other ministers to ensure the passage of bills through the legislature. In some monarchies the monarch may also exercise executive powers (known as the royal prerogative) which are constitutionally vested in the crown and can be exercised without the approval of parliament.

As well as being head of government, a prime minister may have other roles or titles—the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, for example, is also First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service.[1] Prime ministers may take other ministerial posts—for example during the Second World War Winston Churchill was also Minister of Defence (although there was then no Ministry of Defence). The Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam, was famous for forming his cabinet entirely of himself and his deputy as soon as the overall result of the 1972 federal election was beyond doubt

History

The prime ministers of five members of the Commonwealth of Nations at the 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference.

The first actual usage of the term prime minister or Premier Ministre was used by Cardinal Richelieu when in 1625 he was named to head the royal council as prime minister of France. Louis XIV and his descendants generally attempted to avoid giving this title to their chief ministers. The term prime minister in the sense that we know it originated in the 18th century in the United Kingdom.[citation needed] Since medieval times monarchs of England and the United Kingdom had ministers in whom they placed special trust and who were regarded as the head of the government. Examples were Thomas Cromwell under Henry VIII; William Cecil, Lord Burghley under Elizabeth I; Clarendon under Charles II and Godolphin under Queen Anne. These ministers held a variety of formal posts, but were commonly known as "the minister", the "chief minister", the "first minister" and finally the "prime minister".

The power of these ministers depended entirely on the personal favour of the monarch. Although managing the parliament was among the necessary skills of holding high office, they did not depend on a parliamentary majority for their power. Although there was a cabinet, it was appointed entirely by the monarch, and the monarch usually presided over its meetings. When the monarch grew tired of a first minister, he or she could be dismissed, or worse: Cromwell was executed and Clarendon driven into exile when they lost favour. Kings sometimes divided power equally between two or more ministers to prevent one minister becoming too powerful. Late in Anne's reign, for example, the Tory ministers Harley and St John shared power.

In the mid 17th century, after the English Civil War and the Protectorate, Parliament had strengthened its position and it emerged even more powerful after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The monarch could not establish any law or impose any tax without its permission. Thus it has been said that the House of Commons became a part of the government and it has been only a further step of this development that a new kind of prime minister should emerge. This turning point in the evolution of the prime ministership came with the death of Anne in 1714 and the accession of George I. George spoke no English, spent much of his time at his home in Hanover, and had neither knowledge of nor interest in the details of English government. In these circumstances it was inevitable that the king's first minister would become the de facto head of the government. From 1721 this was the Whig politician Robert Walpole, who held office for twenty-one years. Walpole chaired cabinet meetings, appointed all the other ministers, dispensed the royal patronage and packed the House of Commons with his supporters. Under Walpole, the doctrine of cabinet solidarity developed. Walpole required that no minister other than himself have private dealings with the king, and also that when the cabinet had agreed on a policy, all ministers must defend it in public or resign. As a later prime minister, Lord Melbourne, said: "It matters not what we say, gentlemen, so long as we all say the same thing."

Walpole always denied that he was "prime minister", and throughout the 18th century parliamentarians and legal scholars continued to deny that any such position was known to the Constitution. The title was first referred to on government documents during the administration of Benjamin Disraeli but did not appear in the formal British Order of precedence until 1905. George II and George III made strenuous efforts to reclaim the personal power of the monarch, but the increasing complexity and expense of government meant that a minister who could command the loyalty of the Commons was increasingly necessary. The long tenure of the wartime Prime Minister Pitt the Younger (1783–1801), combined with the mental illness of George III, consolidated the power of the post.

The prestige of British institutions in the 19th century and the growth of the British Empire saw the British model of cabinet government, headed by a prime minister, widely copied, both in other European countries and in British colonial territories as they developed self-government. In some places alternative titles such as "premier", "chief minister", "first minister of state", "president of the council" or "chancellor" were adopted, but the essentials of the office were the same. By the late 20th century the majority of the world's countries had a prime minister or equivalent minister, holding office under either a constitutional monarchy or a ceremonial president. The main exceptions to this system have been the United States and the presidential republics in Latin America, modelled on the U.S. system, in which the president directly exercises executive authority.

Bahrain's Prime Minister, Sheikh Khalifah bin Sulman Al Khalifah has been in the post since 1971, making him the longest serving non-elected Prime Minister.

Prime ministers in republics and in monarchies

The post of prime minister may be encountered both in constitutional monarchies (such as Belgium, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Malaysia, Spain,[2] Sweden, Thailand , Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), and in republics in which the head of state is an elected official (such as Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Ireland, Pakistan, Portugal, Montenegro, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Turkey). This contrasts with the presidential system, in which the president (or equivalent) is both the head of state and the head of the government. See also "First Minister", "Premier", "Chief Minister", "Chancellor", "Taoiseach" and "Secretary of State": alternative titles usually equivalent in meaning to, or translated as, "prime minister". The head of government of the People's Republic of China is referred to as the Premier.

In some presidential or semi-presidential systems, such as those of France, Russia or South Korea, the prime minister is an official generally appointed by the president but usually approved by the legislature and responsible for carrying out the directives of the president and managing the civil service. (The premier of the Republic of China is also appointed by the president, but requires no approval by the legislature. Appointment of the prime minister of France requires no approval by the parliament either, but the parliament can force the resignation of the government.) In these systems, it is possible for the president and the prime minister to be from different political parties if the legislature is controlled by a party different from that of the president. When it arises, such a state of affairs is usually referred to as (political) cohabitation.

Entry into office
In parliamentary systems a prime minister can enter into office by several means.

By appointment by the head of state, without reference to parliament: While in practice most prime ministers under the Westminster system (including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, India and the United Kingdom) are the leaders of the largest party in parliament, technically the appointment of the prime minister is a royal prerogative exercised by the monarch or the governor-general. In India, the Prime Ministerial candidate must be a member of parliament either Lok Sabha (Lower House) or Rajya Sabha (Upper House). No parliamentary vote takes place on who is forming a government. However as the government will have to outline its legislative programme to parliament in, for example, the Speech from the Throne, the speech is sometimes used to test parliamentary support. A defeat of the Speech is taken to mean a loss of confidence and so requires either a new draft (a humiliating act no government would contemplate), resignation, or a request for a dissolution of parliament. Until the early 20th century governments when defeated in a general election remained in power until their Speech from the Throne was defeated and then resigned. No government has done so for one hundred years, though Edward Heath in 1974 did delay his resignation while he explored whether he could form a government with Liberal party support.

In such systems unwritten (and unenforceable) constitutional conventions often outline the order in which people are asked to form a government. If the prime minister resigns after a general election, the monarch usually asks the leader of the opposition to form a government. Where however a resignation occurs during a parliament session (unless the government has itself collapsed) the monarch will ask another member of the government to form a government. While previously the monarch had some leeway in whom to ask, all British political parties now elect their leaders (until 1965 the Conservatives chose their leader by informal consultation). The last time the monarch had a choice over the appointment occurred in 1963 when the Earl of Home was asked to become Prime Minister ahead of Rab Butler

During the period between the times it is clear that the incumbent government has been defeated at a general election and the actual swearing-in of the new prime minister by the monarch or governor-general, that person is variously referred to as the "prime minister-elect", "...-designate" etc. Neither term is strictly correct from a constitutional point of view, but they have wide acceptance. In a situation in which a ruling party elects or appoints a new leader, the incoming leader will usually be referred as "prime minister-in-waiting". An example of this situation was in 2003 in Canada when Paul Martin was elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada while Jean Chrétien was still prime minister.

Appointment by the head of state after parliament nominates a candidate: Example: The Republic of Ireland where the President of Ireland appoints the Taoiseach on the nomination of the Dáil Éireann.
The head of state nominates a candidate for prime minister who is then submitted to parliament for approval before appointment as prime minister: Example: Spain, where the King sends a nomination to parliament for approval. Also Germany where under the German Basic Law (constitution) the Bundestag votes on a candidate nominated by the federal president. In these cases, parliament can choose another candidate who then would be appointed by the head of state.
The head of state appoints a prime minister who has a set timescale within which s/he must gain a vote of confidence: (Example: Italy, Romania, and Thailand)
The head of state appoints the leader of the political party with the majority of the votes in the Parliament as Prime Minister: (Example: Greece)

Direct election by parliament: (Example: Japan, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan.)
Direct election by popular vote: (Example: Israel, 1996–2001, where the prime minister was elected in a general election, with no regard to political affiliation.)
Nomination by a state office holder other than the head of state or his/her representative: (Example: Under the modern Swedish Instrument of Government, the power to appoint someone to form a government has been moved from the monarch to the Speaker of Parliament and the parliament itself. The speaker nominates a candidate, who is then elected to prime minister (statsminister) by the parliament if an absolute majority of the members of parliament does not vote no (i.e. he can be elected even if more MP:s vote no than yes).

Prime ministers and constitutions
The position, power and status of prime ministers differ depending on the age of the constitution.

Australia's constitution makes no mention of a Prime Minister of Australia.

The People's Republic of China constitution set a premier just one place below the president of the PRC. While the president deals with international problems, the premier deals with national problems. For example, the earth quake in 2008, the premier will be the first to arrive, and then the president arrived after to just examine the situation. Premier read as in Chinese.

Canada's constitution, being a 'mixed' or hybrid constitution (a constitution that is partly formally codified and partly uncodified) originally did not make any reference whatsoever to a prime minister, with her or his specific duties and method of appointment instead dictated by "convention". In the Constitution Act, 1982, passing reference to a "Prime Minister of Canada" is added, though only regarding the composition of conferences of federal and provincial first ministers.

Germany's Basic Law (1949) lists the powers, functions and duties of the federal chancellor.

Greece's constitution (1975) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Greece.

India's constitution (1950) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of India.

Ireland's constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann (1937), provides for the office of Taoiseach in detail, listing powers, functions and duties.

Italy's constitution (1948) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Italy.

Japan's constitution (1946) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Japan.

Malta's constitution (1964) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Malta.

Malaysia's constitution (1957) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Pakistan's constitution (1973) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Spain's constitution (1978) regulates the appointment, dismissal, powers, functions and duties of the President of the Government.

Thailand's constitution (1932) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Thailand.

The United Kingdom's constitution, being uncodified and largely unwritten, makes no mention of a prime minister. Though it had de facto existed for centuries, its first mention in official state documents did not occur until the first decade of the twentieth century. Accordingly, it is often said "not to exist", indeed there are several instances of parliament declaring this to be the case. The prime minister sits in the cabinet solely by virtue of occupying another office, either First Lord of the Treasury (office in commission), or more rarely Chancellor of the Exchequer (the last of whom was Balfour in 1905).
Exit from office

Most prime ministers in parliamentary systems are not appointed for a specific term in office and in effect may remain in power through a number of elections and parliaments. For example, Margaret Thatcher was only ever appointed prime minister on one occasion, in 1979. She remained continuously in power until 1990, though she used the assembly of each House of Commons after a general election to reshuffle her cabinet. Some states, however, do have a term of office of the prime minister linked to the period in office of the parliament. Hence the Irish Taoiseach is formally 'renominated' after every general election. (Some constitutional experts have questioned whether this process is actually in keeping with the provisions of the Irish constitution, which appear to suggest that a taoiseach should remain in office, without the requirement of a renomination, unless s/he has clearly lost the general election.) The position of prime minister is normally chosen from the political party that commands majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.

In parliamentary systems, governments are generally required to have the confidence of the lower house of parliament (though a small minority of parliaments, by giving a right to block supply to upper houses, in effect make the cabinet responsible to both houses, though in reality upper houses, even when they have the power, rarely exercise it). Where they lose a vote of confidence, have a motion of no confidence passed against them, or where they lose supply, most constitutional systems require either:

a) a letter of resignation or

b) a request for parliamentary dissolution.

The latter in effect allows the government to appeal the opposition of parliament to the electorate. However in many jurisdictions a head of state may refuse a parliamentary dissolution, requiring the resignation of the prime minister and his or her government. In most modern parliamentary systems, the prime minister is the person who decides when to request a parliamentary dissolution. Older constitutions often vest this power in the cabinet. (In the United Kingdom, for example, the tradition whereby it is the prime minister who requests a dissolution of parliament dates back to 1918. Prior to then, it was the entire government that made the request. Similarly, though the modern 1937 Irish constitution grants to the Taoiseach the right to make the request, the earlier 1922 Irish Free State Constitution vested the power in the Executive Council (the then name for the Irish cabinet).
Titles

Different terms are used to describe prime ministers. In Germany and Austria the prime minister is actually titled Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler). In the Russian constitution the prime minister is actually titled Chairman of the government while the Irish prime minister is called the Taoiseach (which is rendered into English as prime minister), and in Israel he is 'Rosh HaMemshalah' meaning head of government. In many cases, though commonly used, "prime minister" is not the official title of the office-holder; the Spanish prime minister is the President of the Government (Presidente del Gobierno). Other common forms include president of the council of ministers (for example in Italy, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), President of the Executive Council, or Minister-President. In the Scandinavian countries the prime minister is called statsminister in the native languages (i.e. minister of state). In federations, the head of government of subnational entities such as provinces is most commonly known as the premier, chief minister, governor or minister-president.

In non-Commonwealth countries the prime minister may be entitled to the style of Excellency like a president. In some Commonwealth countries prime ministers and former prime ministers are styled Right Honourable due to their position, for example in the Prime Minister of Canada. In the United Kingdom the prime minister and former prime ministers may appear to also be styled Right Honourable, however this is not due to their position as head of government but as a privilege of being current members of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.[3]

In the UK where devolved government is in place, the leaders of the Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh Governments are styled First Minister.

In Pakistan, the prime minister is referred to as "Wazir-e-Azam", meaning "Grand Vizier".
Description of the role

Wilfried Martens, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium, described his role as follows:
First of all [the Prime Minister] must listen a lot, and when deep disagreements occur, he must suggest a solution to the matter. This can be done in different ways. Sometimes during the discussion, I note the elements of the problem and think of a proposal I can formulate to the Council (cabinet), the Secretary taking notes. The Ministers then insist on changing commas and full stops. The Prime Minister can also make a proposal which leaves enough room for amendments in order to keep the current discussion on the right tracks. When a solution must be found in order to reach a consensus, he can force one or two Ministers to join or resign.

shown Term given by shown shown
years or dates Incumbent years or dates years or dates
Abkhazia 1995 - dates Sergei Shamba Abkhazia Abkhazia
Afghanistan 1927 - years (Post abolished) Afghanistan Afghanistan
Albania (List) 1912 - years Sali Berisha Albania (List) Albania (List)
Algeria 1962 yes years Ahmed Ouyahia Algeria Algeria
Andorra 1982 - years Jaume Bartumeu Andorra Andorra
Angola 1975 - dates (Post abolished) Angola Angola
Anguilla 1976 yes dates Hubert Hughes Anguilla Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda 1981 - years Baldwin Spencer Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia 1918 yes dates Tigran Sargsyan Armenia Armenia
Aruba 1986 - dates Mike Eman Aruba Aruba
Australia (List) 1901 yes dates Julia Gillard Australia (List) Australia (List)
Austria 1918 yes years Werner Faymann Austria Austria
Azerbaijan 1918 yes dates Artur Rasizade Azerbaijan Azerbaijan
Bahamas 1967 - dates Hubert Ingraham Bahamas Bahamas
Bahrain 1970 - years Sheikh Khalifah bin Sulman Al Khalifah Bahrain Bahrain
Bangladesh 1971 yes dates Sheikh Hasina Bangladesh Bangladesh
Barbados 1954 yes dates David Thompson Barbados Barbados
Belarus 1919 - dates Sergey Sidorsky Belarus Belarus
Belgium 1831 yes dates Yves Leterme Belgium Belgium
Belize 1973 yes years Dean Barrow Belize Belize
Benin 1957 yes dates (Post abolished) Benin Benin
Bermuda 1968 yes dates Ewart Brown Bermuda Bermuda
Bhutan 1952 - dates Jigme Thinley Bhutan Bhutan
Bosnia and Herzegovina 1943 - dates Nikola Špirić Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana 1965 yes dates (Post abolished) Botswana Botswana
Brazil 1847 yes dates (Post abolished) Brazil Brazil
British Virgin Islands 1967 yes dates Ralph T. O'Neal British Virgin Islands British Virgin Islands
Bulgaria 1879 yes dates Boyko Borisov Bulgaria Bulgaria
Burkina Faso 1971 - dates Tertius Zongo Burkina Faso Burkina Faso
Burundi 1961 yes dates (Post abolished) Burundi Burundi
Cambodia 1996 - years Hun Sen Cambodia Cambodia
Cameroon 1960 - dates Philémon Yang Cameroon Cameroon
Canada (List) 1867 yes dates Stephen Harper Canada (List) Canada (List)
Cape Verde 1975 - dates José Maria Neves Cape Verde Cape Verde
Cayman Islands 1992 yes dates McKeeva Bush Cayman Islands Cayman Islands
Central African Republic 1958 - dates Faustin-Archange Touadéra Central African Republic Central African Republic
Chad 1978 - dates Emmanuel Nadingar Chad Chad
People's Republic of China (List) 1949 - dates Wen Jiabao People's Republic of China (List) People's Republic of China (List)
Comoros 1957 yes dates (Post abolished) Comoros Comoros
Congo (Brazzaville) 1957 yes dates (Post abolished) Congo (Brazzaville) Congo (Brazzaville)
Congo (Kinshasa) (List) 1960 yes dates Adolphe Muzito Congo (Kinshasa) (List) Congo (Kinshasa) (List)
Cook Islands 1965 yes dates Henry Puna Cook Islands Cook Islands
Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) 1957 yes dates Guillaume Soro Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Croatia 1939 - dates Jadranka Kosor Croatia Croatia
Cuba 1940 - dates Raúl Castro Cuba Cuba
Curaçao 2010 - dates Gerrit Schotte Curaçao Curaçao
Northern Cyprus 1983 yes dates Derviş Eroğlu Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus
Czech Republic 1993 - years Petr Nečas Czech Republic Czech Republic
Denmark (List) 1848 - years Lars Løkke Rasmussen Denmark (List) Denmark (List)
Djibouti 1977 - dates Dileita Mohamed Dileita Djibouti Djibouti
Dominica 1960 - dates Roosevelt Skerrit Dominica Dominica
East Timor 2002 - dates Xanana Gusmão East Timor East Timor
Egypt (List) 1878 - years Essam Sharaf Egypt (List) Egypt (List)
Equatorial Guinea 1963 - dates Ignacio Milam Tang Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea
Estonia 1918 - dates Andrus Ansip Estonia Estonia
Ethiopia 1942 yes dates Meles Zenawi Ethiopia Ethiopia
Faroe Islands 1946 - years Kaj Leo Johannesen Faroe Islands Faroe Islands
Fiji 1966 - dates Frank Bainimarama (interim) Fiji Fiji
Finland 1917 yes years Mari Kiviniemi Finland Finland
France (List) 1589 - years François Fillon France (List) France (List)
Gabon 1957 yes dates Paul Biyoghé Mba Gabon Gabon
The Gambia 1961 - dates (Post abolished) The Gambia The Gambia
Ghana 1957 - dates (Post abolished) Ghana Ghana
Georgia 1918 yes dates Nikoloz Gilauri Georgia Georgia
Germany (List) 1871/1949 yes dates Angela Merkel Germany (List) Germany (List)
Gibraltar 1964 yes dates Peter Caruana Gibraltar Gibraltar
Greece (List) 1833 - dates George Papandreou Greece (List) Greece (List)
Greenland 1979 - years Kuupik Kleist Greenland Greenland
Grenada 1954 - years Tillman Thomas Grenada Grenada
Guernsey 2007 - dates Lyndon Trott Guernsey Guernsey
Guinea 1972 - dates Jean-Marie Doré Guinea Guinea
Guinea-Bissau 1973 - dates Carlos Gomes Júnior Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau
Guyana 1953 - dates Sam Hinds Guyana Guyana
Haiti 1988 - dates Jean-Max Bellerive Haiti Haiti
Hungary 1848 - dates Viktor Orbán Hungary Hungary
Hyderabad State 1724 - mixture (Post abolished) Hyderabad State Hyderabad State
Iceland 1904 - dates Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir Iceland Iceland
India (List) 1947 yes dates Manmohan Singh India (List) India (List)
Indonesia 1945 yes dates (Post abolished) Indonesia Indonesia
Iran (List) 1824 - years (Post abolished) Iran (List) Iran (List)
Iraq 1920 - years Nouri al-Maliki Iraq Iraq
Ireland 1937 yes dates Enda Kenny Ireland Ireland
Israel (List) 1948 - years Benjamin Netanyahu Israel (List) Israel (List)
Italy (List) 1861 - years Silvio Berlusconi Italy (List) Italy (List)
Jamaica 1959 - years Bruce Golding Jamaica Jamaica
Japan (List) 1885 - dates Naoto Kan Japan (List) Japan (List)
Jersey 2005 - dates Terry Le Sueur Jersey Jersey
Jordan 1944 - dates Samir Rifai Jordan Jordan
Kazakhstan 1920 - years Karim Massimov Kazakhstan Kazakhstan
Kenya 1963 - dates Raila Odinga Kenya Kenya
North Korea 1948 - years Choe Yong-rim North Korea North Korea
South Korea (List) 1948 - years Kim Hwang-sik South Korea (List) South Korea (List)
Kosovo 1945 yes dates Hashim Thaçi Kosovo Kosovo
Kuwait 1962 - dates Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah Kuwait Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan 1924 - dates Daniar Usenov Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan
Laos 1941 - years Bouasone Bouphavanh Laos Laos
Latvia 1918 yes dates Valdis Dombrovskis Latvia Latvia
Lebanon 1926 - dates Saad Hariri Lebanon Lebanon
Lesotho 1965 yes dates Pakalitha Mosisili Lesotho Lesotho
Libya 1951 - dates Baghdadi Mahmudi Libya Libya
Liechtenstein 1921 yes dates Klaus Tschütscher Liechtenstein Liechtenstein
Lithuania 1918 yes dates Andrius Kubilius Lithuania Lithuania
Luxembourg 1959 - years Jean-Claude Juncker Luxembourg Luxembourg
Macedonia 1943 yes dates Nikola Gruevski Macedonia Macedonia
Madagascar 1833 - dates Albert Camille Vital Madagascar Madagascar
Malawi 1963 yes dates (Post abolished) Malawi Malawi
Malaysia 1957 yes years Najib Tun Razak Malaysia Malaysia
Mali 1957 yes dates Modibo Sidibé Mali Mali
Malta 1921 yes years Lawrence Gonzi Malta Malta
Isle of Man 1986 - years Tony Brown Isle of Man Isle of Man
Mauritania 1957 yes dates Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf Mauritania Mauritania
Mauritius 1961 yes dates Navin Ramgoolam Mauritius Mauritius
Moldova 1990 - dates Vlad Filat Moldova Moldova
Monaco 1911 n/a dates Michel Roger Monaco Monaco
Mongolia 1912 yes dates Sükhbaataryn Batbold Mongolia Mongolia
Montenegro 1879 yes dates Milo Đukanović Montenegro Montenegro
Montserrat 1960 yes dates Reuben Meade Montserrat Montserrat
Morocco 1955 yes years Abbas El Fassi Morocco Morocco
Mozambique 1974 yes dates Aires Ali Mozambique Mozambique
Myanmar (Burma) 1948 yes dates (Post abolished) Myanmar (Burma) Myanmar (Burma)
Nagorno-Karabakh 1992 no dates Arayik Harutyunyan Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh
Namibia 1990 yes dates Nahas Angula Namibia Namibia
Nepal 1953 - dates Madhav Kumar Nepal Nepal Nepal
Netherlands (List) 1848 yes dates Mark Rutte Netherlands (List) Netherlands (List)
New Zealand (List) 1856 yes dates John Key New Zealand (List) New Zealand (List)
Newfoundland 1855 yes dates (Post abolished) Newfoundland Newfoundland
Niger 1958 yes dates Mahamadou Danda Niger Niger
Niue 1974 - dates Toke Talagi Niue Niue
Norfolk Island 1896 - dates Andre Nobbs Norfolk Island Norfolk Island
Norway 1814 yes years Jens Stoltenberg Norway Norway
Pakistan (List) 1947 - dates Yousaf Raza Gillani Pakistan (List) Pakistan (List)
Palestinian National Authority 2003 yes dates Salam Fayyad Palestinian National Authority Palestinian National Authority
Papua New Guinea 1975 yes years Sir Michael Somare Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea
Peru 1975 yes dates Rosario Fernández Peru Peru
Philippines 1899 yes dates (Post abolished) Philippines Philippines
Poland (List) 1917 - dates Donald Tusk Poland (List) Poland (List)
Portugal (List) 1834 yes dates José Sócrates Portugal (List) Portugal (List)
Qatar 1970 - dates Hamad ibn Jassim ibn Jabr Al Thani Qatar Qatar
Romania 1862 - years Emil Boc Romania Romania
Russia (List) 1864/1905 yes dates Vladimir Putin Russia (List) Russia (List)
Rwanda 1960 yes dates Bernard Makuza Rwanda Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis 1960 - dates Denzil Douglas Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia 1960 - dates Stephenson King Saint Lucia Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1956 - dates Ralph Gonsalves Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa 1875 yes dates Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi Samoa Samoa
São Tomé and Principe 1974 yes dates Joaquim Rafael Branco São Tomé and Principe São Tomé and Principe
Saudi Arabia 1953 no dates King Abdullah Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia
Senegal 1957 yes dates Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye Senegal Senegal
Serbia 1805 yes years Mirko Cvetković Serbia Serbia
Seychelles 1970 yes years (Post abolished) Seychelles Seychelles
Sierra Leone 1954 yes dates (Post abolished) Sierra Leone Sierra Leone
Singapore 1959 - dates Lee Hsien Loong Singapore Singapore
Sint Maarten 2010 - dates Sarah Wescot-Williams Sint Maarten Sint Maarten
Slovakia (List) 1918 - dates Iveta Radičová Slovakia (List) Slovakia (List)
Slovenia 1943 yes years Borut Pahor Slovenia Slovenia
Solomon Islands 1949 yes dates Danny Philip Solomon Islands Solomon Islands
Somalia 1949 yes dates Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Somalia Somalia
South Africa 1910 - dates (Post abolished) South Africa South Africa
South Ossetia 1991 - dates Vadim Brovtsev South Ossetia South Ossetia
Spain (List) 1705 yes years José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Spain (List) Spain (List)
Sri Lanka (List) 1948 - dates D. M. Jayaratne Sri Lanka (List) Sri Lanka (List)
Sudan 1952 yes dates (Post abolished) Sudan Sudan
Suriname 1949 yes dates (Post abolished) Suriname Suriname
Swaziland 1967 - years Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini Swaziland Swaziland
Sweden (List) 1876 yes years Fredrik Reinfeldt Sweden (List) Sweden (List)
Syria 1920 - dates Mohamed Al-Otari Syria Syria
Taiwan (Republic of China) (List) 1911 - dates Wu Den-yih Taiwan (Republic of China) (List) Taiwan (Republic of China) (List)
Tajikistan 1924 - dates Okil Okilov Tajikistan Tajikistan
Tanzania 1960 yes dates Mizengo Pinda Tanzania Tanzania
Thailand (List) 1932 - dates Abhisit Vejjajiva Thailand (List) Thailand (List)
Togo 1956 yes dates Gilbert Houngbo Togo Togo
Tokelau 1992 - dates Kuresa Nasau Tokelau Tokelau
Tonga 1876 - years Feleti Sevele Tonga Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago 1956 - dates Kamla Persad-Bissessar Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia 1969 - dates Mohamed Ghannouchi Tunisia Tunisia
Turkmenistan 1924 - dates (Post abolished) Turkmenistan Turkmenistan
Turkey 1920 yes dates Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Turkey Turkey
Turks and Caicos Islands 1976 yes dates vacant Turks and Caicos Islands Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu 1975 n/a dates Apisai Ielemia Tuvalu Tuvalu
Uganda 1961 yes dates Apolo Nsibambi Uganda Uganda
Ukraine (List) 1917 - dates Mykola Azarov Ukraine (List) Ukraine (List)
United Arab Emirates 1971 - years Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom (List) 1721 yes dates David Cameron United Kingdom (List) United Kingdom (List)
Uzbekistan 1924 - dates Shavkat Mirziyoyev Uzbekistan Uzbekistan
Vanuatu 1980 yes dates Edward Natapei Vanuatu Vanuatu
Vatican 1644 - years Tarcisio Bertone Vatican Vatican
Vietnam 1976 yes dates Nguyễn Tấn Dũng Vietnam Vietnam
Yemen 1990 yes years Ali Muhammad Mujawar Yemen Yemen
Western Sahara 1976 no years Abdelkader Taleb Oumar Western Sahara Western Sahara
Zambia 1964 yes dates (Post abolished) Zambia Zambia
Zimbabwe 1923 - dates Morgan Tsvangirai Zimbabwe Zimbabwe

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi story

2011-05-27T02:02:00.000-07:00

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Gandhi" redirects here. For other uses, see Gandhi (disambiguation).
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Born 2 October 1869
Porbandar, Bombay Presidency, British India
Died 30 January 1948 (aged 78)
New Delhi, Union of India
Cause of death Assassination (three bullets in the chest)
Resting place Rajghat, New Delhi, India
Nationality Indian
Other names Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu
Alma mater University College London, University of London
Known for Prominent figure of Indian independence movement
Propounding the philosophy of Satyagraha and Ahimsa
Religion Hinduism
Spouse Kasturba Gandhi
Children Harilal
Manilal
Ramdas
Devdas
Parents Putlibai Gandhi (Mother)
Karamchand Gandhi (Father)
Signature

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati; Hindi: मोहनदास pronounced ( listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He pioneered satyagraha. This is defined as resistance to tyranny through mass civil resistance - a term which Gandhi used in many of his statements and writings.[1] His philosophy was firmly founded upon ahimsa (nonviolence). His philosophy and leadership helped India gain independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma ([məɦaːt̪maː]; Sanskrit: महात्मा mahātmā or "Great Soul" (magnanimous), an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore).[2] In India he is also called Bapu (Gujarati: બાપુ, bāpu or "Father") and officially honored in India as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse.

Gandhi first employed civil disobedience while an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, during the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he organized protests by peasants, farmers, and urban laborers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led his followers in the Non-cooperation movement that protested the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (240 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930. He launched the Quit India Movement in 1942, demanding immediate independence for India. Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India.

As a practitioner of ahimsa, Gandhi swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven from yarn that he had spun by hand himself. He ate simple vegetarian food, experimented for a time with a fruitarian diet, and undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.Contents [hide]
1 Early life and background
2 Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)
2.1 Racism and controversy
2.2 Role in Zulu War of 1906
3 Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–1945)
3.1 Role in World War I
3.2 Champaran and Kheda
3.3 Non-cooperation
3.4 Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
3.5 World War II and Quit India
4 Partition of India
5 Assassination
6 Principles, practices and beliefs
6.1 Truth & Satyagraha
6.2 Nonviolence
6.3 Vegetarianism
6.4 Nai Talim, Basic Education
6.5 Brahmacharya, Sexuality
6.6 Simplicity
6.7 Faith
6.8 Swaraj, Self-Rule
7 Literary works
8 Legacy and depictions in popular culture
8.1 Followers and international influence
8.2 Global holidays
8.3 Awards
8.4 Film and literature
8.5 Current impact within India
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links

Early life and background
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[3] was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town which was then part of the Bombay Presidency, British India. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), who belonged to the Hindu Modh community, served as the diwan (a high official) of Porbander state, a small princely state in the Kathiawar Agency of British India.[4] His grandfather was Uttamchand Gandhi, fondly called Utta Gandhi. His mother, Putlibai, who came from the Hindu Pranami Vaishnava community, was Karamchand's fourth wife, the first three wives having apparently died in childbirth.[5] Growing up with a devout mother and the Jain traditions of the region, the young Mohandas absorbed early the influences that would play an important role in his adult life; these included compassion for sentient beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance among individuals of different creeds.[6]

The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and Maharaja Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. Gandhi, in his autobiography, admits that it left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with Truth and Love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters.[7][8]

In May 1883, the 13-year old Mohandas was married to 14-year old Kasturbai Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionately to "Ba") in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region.[9] Recalling the day of their marriage he once said, "As we didn't know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives." However, as was also the custom of the region, the adolescent bride was to spend

much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband.[10] In 1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple's first child was born, but survived only a few days, and Gandhi's father, Karamchand Gandhi, had died earlier that year.[11] Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900. At his middle school in Porbandar and high school in Rajkot, Gandhi remained an average student. He passed the matriculation exam for Samaldas College at Bhavnagar, Gujarat with some difficulty. While there, he was unhappy, in part because his family wanted him to become a barrister.

Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (1902)

On 4 September 1888, Gandhi travelled to London, England, to study law at University College London and to train as a barrister. His time in London, the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he had made to his mother in the presence of the Jain monk Becharji, upon leaving India, to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat, alcohol, and promiscuity.[12] Although Gandhi experimented with adopting "English" customs—taking dancing lessons for example—he could not stomach the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady and he was always hungry until he found one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Influenced by Salt's book, he joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its executive committee,[12] and started a local Bayswater chapter.[5] Some of the vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original.[12] Not having shown a particular interest in religion before, he became interested in religious thought and began to read both Hindu as well as Christian scriptures.[5][12]

Gandhi was called to the bar on 10 June 1891 and left London for India on 12 June 1891,[5] where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London, his family having kept the news from him.[12] His attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed and, later, after applying and being turned down for a part-time job as a high school teacher, he ended up returning to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants, a business he was forced to close when he ran foul of a British officer. In his autobiography he refers to this incident as an unsuccessful attempt to lobby on behalf of his older brother.[5][12] It was in this climate that, in April 1893, he accepted a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm, to a post in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British Empire.[5]

Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)
Main article: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in South Africa

Gandhi in South Africa (1895)

M.K. Gandhi while serving in the Ambulance Corps during the Boer War (1899)

In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at Indians. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first class to a third-class coach while holding a valid first-class ticket.[13] Travelling farther on by stagecoach he was beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the foot board to make room for a European passenger.[14] He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do.[15] These events were a turning point in his life, awakening him to social injustice and influencing his subsequent social activism. It was through witnessing firsthand the racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa that Gandhi started to question his people's status within the British Empire, and his own place in society.

Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894,[5][13] and through this organisation, he moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban he was attacked by a mob of white settlers and escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. He, however, refused to press charges against any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.[5]

In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the new law and suffer the punishments for doing so, rather than resist through violent means. The community adopted this plan, leading to a seven-year struggle in which thousands of Indians were jailed (including Gandhi), flogged, or even shot, for striking, refusing to register, burning their registration cards or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. While the government was successful in repressing the Indian protesters, the public outcry stemming from the harsh methods employed by the South African government in the face of peaceful Indian protesters finally forced South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. Gandhi's ideas took shape and the concept of satyagraha matured during this struggle.
Racism and controversy

Some of Gandhi's early South African articles are controversial. On 7 March 1908, Gandhi wrote in the Indian Opinion of his time in a South African prison: "Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals."[16] Writing on the subject of immigration in 1903, Gandhi commented: "We believe as much in the purity of race as we think they do... We believe also that the white race in South Africa should be the predominating race."[17] During his time in South Africa, Gandhi protested repeatedly about the social classification of blacks with Indians, whom he described as "undoubtedly infinitely superior to the Kaffirs".[18] Remarks such as these have led some to accuse Gandhi of racism.[19] It is worth noting though that the word Kaffir had a different connotation in Gandhi's time than its current day meaning.[20]

Two professors of history who specialise in South Africa, Surendra Bhana and Goolam Vahed, examined this controversy in their text, The Making of a Political Reformer: Gandhi in South Africa, 1893–1914. (New Delhi: Manohar, 2005). They focus in Chapter 1, "Gandhi, Africans and Indians in Colonial Natal" on the relationship between the African and Indian communities under "White rule" and policies which enforced segregation (and, they argue, led to inevitable conflict between these communities). Of this relationship they state that, "the young Gandhi was influenced by segregationist notions prevalent in the 1890s."[21] At the same time, they state, "Gandhi's experiences in jail seemed to make him more sensitive to their plight...the later Gandhi mellowed; he seemed much less categorical in his expression of prejudice against Africans, and much more open to seeing points of common cause. His negative views in the Johannesburg jail were reserved for hardened African prisoners rather than Africans generally."[22] However, when plans to unveil a statue of Gandhi in Johannesburg were announced, a movement unsuccessfully tried to block it because of Gandhi's "racist" statements.[19]
Role in Zulu War of 1906
Main article: Bambatha Rebellion

In 1906, after the British introduced a new poll-tax, Zulus in South Africa killed two British officers. In response, the British declared war against the Zulus. Gandhi actively encouraged the British to recruit Indians. He argued that Indians should support the war efforts in order to legitimise their claims to full citizenship. The British, however, refused to commission Indians as army officers. Nonetheless, they accepted Gandhi's offer to let a detachment of Indians volunteer as a stretcher-bearer corps to treat wounded British soldiers. This corps was commanded by Gandhi. On 21 July 1906, Gandhi wrote in Indian Opinion: "The corps had been formed at the instance of the Natal Government by way of experiment, in connection with the operations against the Natives consists of twenty three Indians".[23] Gandhi urged the Indian population in South Africa to join the war through his columns in Indian Opinion: “If the Government only realised what reserve force is being wasted, they would make use of it and give Indians the opportunity of a thorough training for actual warfare.”[24]

In Gandhi's opinion, the Draft Ordinance of 1906 brought the status of Indians below the level of Natives. He therefore urged Indians to resist the Ordinance along the lines of satyagraha by taking the example of "Kaffirs". In his words, "Even the half-castes and kaffirs, who are less advanced than we, have resisted the government. The pass law applies to them as well, but they do not take out passes."[25]

In 1927 Gandhi wrote of the event: "The Boer War had not brought home to me the horrors of war with anything like the vividness that the [Zulu] 'rebellion' did. This was no war but a man-hunt, not only in my opinion, but also in that of many Englishmen with whom I had occasion to talk."[26]
Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–1945)
See also: Indian independence movement

In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India. He spoke at the conventions of the Indian National Congress, but was primarily introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a respected leader of the Congress Party at the time.
Role in World War I

In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi[27] Perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for India's independence,[28] Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.[29] In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote "To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them...If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army."[30] He did however stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy's private secretary that he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe."[31] Gandhi's war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence as his friend Charlie Andrews confirms, "Personally I have never been able to reconcile this with his own conduct in other respects, and it is one of the points where I have found myself in painful disagreement."[32] Gandhi's private secretary also acknowledges that "The question of the consistency between his creed of 'Ahimsa' (non-violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been discussed ever since."

Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–1945)

See also: Indian independence movement

In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India. He spoke at the conventions of the Indian National Congress, but was primarily introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a respected leader of the Congress Party at the time.

Role in World War I

In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi[27] Perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for India's independence,[28] Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.[29] In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote "To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them...If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army."[30] He did however stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy's private secretary that he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe."[31] Gandhi's war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence as his friend Charlie Andrews confirms, "Personally I have never been able to reconcile this with his own conduct in other respects, and it is one of the points where I have found myself in painful disagreement."[32] Gandhi's private secretary also acknowledges that "The question of the consistency between his creed of 'Ahimsa' (non-violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been discussed ever since."
Champaran and Kheda
Main article: Champaran and Kheda Satyagraha

Gandhi in 1918, at the time of the Kheda and Champaran satyagrahas

Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha, although in the latter it was indigo and other cash crops instead of the food crops necessary for their survival. Suppressed by the militias of the landlords (mostly British), they were given measly compensation, leaving them mired in extreme poverty. The villages were kept extremely dirty and unhygienic; and alcoholism was rampant. Now in the throes of a devastating famine, the British levied a tax which they insisted on increasing. The situation was desperate. In Kheda in Gujarat, the problem was the same. Gandhi established an ashram there, organising scores of his veteran supporters and fresh volunteers from the region. He organised a detailed study and survey of the villages, accounting for the atrocities and terrible episodes of suffering, including the general state of degenerate living. Building on the confidence of villagers, he began leading the cleanup of villages, building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the village leadership to undo and condemn many social evils such as untouchability and alcoholism.

But his main impact came when he was arrested by police on the charge of creating unrest and was ordered to leave the province. Hundreds of thousands of people protested and rallied outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his release, which the court reluctantly granted. Gandhi led organised protests and strikes against the landlords who, with the guidance of the British government, signed an agreement granting the poor farmers of the region more compensation and control over farming, and cancellation of revenue hikes and its collection until the famine ended. It was during this agitation that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul). In Kheda, Sardar Patel represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and released all the prisoners. As a result, Gandhi became well-known in India.

Non-cooperation
Main article: Non-cooperation movement

Gandhi employed non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his "weapons" in the struggle against the British Raj. In Punjab, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of civilians by British troops (also known as the Amritsar Massacre)

caused deep trauma to the nation, leading to increased public anger and acts of violence. Gandhi criticised both the actions of the British Raj and the retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution offering condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the riots which, after initial opposition in the party, was accepted following Gandhi's emotional speech advocating his principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified.[33] But it was after the massacre and subsequent violence that Gandhi's mind focused upon obtaining complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.

"Non-cooperation" enjoyed widespread appeal and success, increasing excitement and participation from all strata of Indian society. Yet, just as the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass civil disobedience.[36] According to Andrew Roberts, this was the third time that Gandhi had called off a major campaign, "leaving in the lurch more than 15,000 supporters who were jailed for the cause".[37] Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He began his sentence on 18 March 1922. He was released in February 1924 for an appendicitis operation, having served only 2 years.
Mahatma Gandhi's room at Sabarmati Ashram

Sabarmati Ashram, Gandhi's home in Gujarat

In December 1921, Gandhi was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian National Congress. Under his leadership, the Congress was reorganised with a new constitution, with the goal of Swaraj. Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee. A hierarchy of committees was set up to improve discipline, transforming the party from an elite organisation to one of mass national appeal. Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy — the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi in support of the independence movement.[34] Gandhi even invented a small portable spinning wheel that could be folded into the size of a small typewriter.[35] This was a strategy to inculcate discipline and dedication to weed out the unwilling and ambitious, and to include women in the movement at a time when many thought that such activities were not respectable activities for women. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake British titles and honours.

"Non-cooperation" enjoyed widespread appeal and success, increasing excitement and participation from all strata of Indian society. Yet, just as the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass civil disobedience.[36] According to Andrew Roberts, this was the third time that Gandhi had called off a major campaign, "leaving in the lurch more than 15,000 supporters who were jailed for the cause".[37] Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He began his sentence on 18 March 1922. He was released in February 1924 for an appendicitis operation, having served only 2 years.

Without Gandhi's unifying personality, the Indian National Congress began to splinter during his years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, cooperation among Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the non-violence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924, but with limited success.[38] This may have been due to Gandhi's "uncanny ability to irritate and frustrate" India's Muslim leadership.[37]
Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
Main article: Salt Satyagraha

Gandhi at Dandi, 5 April 1930, at the end of the Salt March

Gandhi stayed out of active politics and, as such, the limelight for most of the 1920s. He focused instead on resolving the wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian National Congress, and expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism, ignorance and poverty. He returned to the fore in 1928. In the preceding year, the British government had appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon, which did not include any Indian as its member. The result was a boycott of the commission by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-cooperation with complete independence for the country as its goal. Gandhi had not only moderated the views of younger men like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought a demand for immediate independence, but also reduced his own call to a one year wait, instead of two.[39] The British did not respond. On 31 December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as India's Independence Day by the Indian National Congress meeting in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930. This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched 388 kilometres (241 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people.

The government, represented by Lord Edward Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. Also as a result of the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists, because it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power. Furthermore, Lord Irwin's successor, Lord Willingdon, began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government tried to negate his influence by completely isolating him from his followers. But this tactic failed.
Without Gandhi's unifying personality, the Indian National Congress began to splinter during his years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, cooperation among Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the non-violence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924, but with limited success.[38] This may have been due to Gandhi's "uncanny ability to irritate and frustrate" India's Muslim leadership.[37]
Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
Main article: Salt Satyagraha

Gandhi at Dandi, 5 April 1930, at the end of the Salt March

Gandhi stayed out of active politics and, as such, the limelight for most of the 1920s. He focused instead on resolving the wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian National Congress, and expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism, ignorance and poverty. He returned to the fore in 1928. In the preceding year, the British government had appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon, which did not include any Indian as its member. The result was a boycott of the commission by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-cooperation with complete independence for the country as its goal. Gandhi had not only moderated the views of younger men like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought a demand for immediate independence, but also reduced his own call to a one year wait, instead of two.[39] The British did not respond. On 31 December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as India's Independence Day by the Indian National Congress meeting in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930. This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched 388 kilometres (241 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people.

The government, represented by Lord Edward Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. Also as a result of the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists, because it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power. Furthermore, Lord Irwin's successor, Lord Willingdon, began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government tried to negate his influence by completely isolating him from his followers. But this tactic failed.

In 1932, through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, the government granted untouchables separate electorates under the new constitution. In protest, Gandhi embarked on a six-day fast in September 1932. The resulting public outcry successfully forced the government to adopt a more equitable arrangement via negotiations mediated by the Dalit cricketer turned political leader Palwankar Baloo. This was the start of a new campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he named Harijans, the children of God. On 8 May 1933, Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purification to help the Harijan movement.[40] This new campaign was not universally embraced within the Dalit community, as prominent leader B. R. Ambedkar condemned Gandhi's use of the term Harijans as saying that Dalits were socially immature, and that privileged caste Indians played a paternalistic role. Ambedkar and his allies also felt Gandhi was undermining Dalit political rights. Gandhi had also refused to support the untouchables in 1924-25 when they were campaigning for the right to pray in temples. Because of Gandhi's actions, Ambedkar described him as "devious and untrustworthy".[37] Gandhi, although born into the Vaishya caste, insisted that he was able to speak on behalf of Dalits, despite the presence of Dalit activists such as Ambedkar.

In the summer of 1934, three unsuccessful attempts were made on Gandhi's life.

When the Congress Party chose to contest elections and accept power under the Federation scheme, Gandhi resigned from party membership. He did not disagree with the party's move, but felt that if he resigned, his popularity with Indians would cease to stifle the party's membership, which actually varied, including communists, socialists, trade unionists, students, religious conservatives, and those with pro-business convictions, and that these various voices would get a chance to make themselves heard. Gandhi also wanted to avoid being a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj.[41]

andhi returned to active politics again in 1936, with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow session of the Congress. Although Gandhi wanted a total focus on the task of winning independence and not speculation about India's future, he did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal. Gandhi had a clash with Subhas Bose, who had been elected president in 1938. Their main points of contention were Bose's lack of commitment to democracy[citation needed] and lack of faith in non-violence. Bose won his second term despite Gandhi's criticism, but left the Congress when the All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of the principles introduced by Gandhi.[42]
World War II and Quit India
Main article: Quit India Movement

Jawaharlal Nehru sitting next to Gandhi at the AICC General Session, 1942

World War II broke out in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Initially, Gandhi favoured offering "non-violent moral support" to the British effort, but other Congressional leaders were offended by the unilateral inclusion of India in the war, without consultation of the people's representatives. All Congressmen resigned from office.[43] After long deliberations, Gandhi declared that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom, while that freedom was denied to India itself. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. This was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive revolt aimed at securing the British exit from India.[44]

Gandhi was criticised by some Congress party members and other Indian political groups, both pro-British and anti-British. Some felt that not supporting Britain more in its struggle against Nazi Germany was unethical. Others felt that Gandhi's refusal for India to participate in the war was insufficient and more direct opposition should be taken, while Britain fought against Nazism yet continued to contradict itself by refusing to grant India Independence. Quit India became the most forceful movement in the history of the struggle, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale.[45] Thousands of freedom fighters were killed or injured by police gunfire, and hundreds of thousands were arrested. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear they would not support the war effort unless India were granted immediate independence. He even clarified that this time the movement would not be stopped if individual acts of violence were committed, saying that the "ordered anarchy" around him was "worse than real anarchy." He called on all Congressmen and Indians to maintain discipline via ahimsa, and Karo Ya Maro ("Do or Die") in the cause of ultimate freedom.

Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee were arrested in Bombay by the British on 9 August 1942. Gandhi was held for two years in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. It was here that Gandhi suffered two terrible blows in his personal life. His 50-year old secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack 6 days later and his wife Kasturba died after 18 months imprisonment on 22 February 1944; six weeks later Gandhi suffered a severe malaria attack. He was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. He came out of detention to an altered political scene - the Muslim League for example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, "now occupied the centre of the political stage" [46] and the topic of Jinnah's campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi met Jinnah in September 1944 in Bombay but Jinnah rejected, on the grounds that it fell short of a fully independent Pakistan, his proposal of the right of Muslim provinces to opt out of substantial parts of the forthcoming political union.

Although the Quit India movement had moderate success in its objective, the ruthless suppression of the movement[clarification needed] brought order to India by the end of 1943. At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released, including the Congress's leadership.

Partition of India
See also: Partition of India

While the Indian National Congress and Gandhi called for the British to quit India, the Muslim League passed a resolution for them to divide and quit, in 1943.[47] Gandhi is believed to have been opposed to the partition during independence and suggested an agreement which required the Congress and Muslim League to cooperate and attain independence under a provisional government, thereafter, the question of partition could be resolved by a plebiscite in the districts with a Muslim majority.[48] When Jinnah called for Direct Action, on 16 August 1946, Gandhi was infuriated and visited the most riot prone areas to stop the massacres, personally.[49] He made strong efforts to unite the Indian Hindus, Muslims and Christians and struggled for the emancipation of the "untouchables" in Hindu society.[50]

On the 14th and 15th of August, 1947 the Indian Independence Act was invoked and the following carnage witnessed a displacement of up to 12.5 million people in the former British Indian Empire with an estimated loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million.[51] But for his teachings, the efforts of his followers, and his own presence, there would have been much more bloodshed during the partition, according to prominent Norwegian historian, Jens Arup Seip.[52]

Stanley Wolpert's words sum up Gandhi's role and views on the partition perfectly:
Their plan to carve up British India was never approved of or accepted by Gandhi, however, who realised too late that his closest comrades and disciples were more interested in power than principle, and that his own vision had long been clouded by the illusion that the struggle he led for India's freedom was a nonviolent one.

– Stanley Wolpert, Gandhi's Passion, The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Oxford University Press

Assassination
See also: Assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Raj Ghat, Delhi is a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi that marks the spot of his cremation

Gandhi's ashes at Aga Khan Palace (Pune, India)

On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot while he was walking to a platform from which he was to address a prayer meeting. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan.[53] Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949. Gandhi's memorial (or Samādhi) at Rāj Ghāt, New Delhi, bears the epigraph "Hē Ram", (Devanagari: हे ! राम or, He Rām), which may be translated as "Oh God". These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed.[54] Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation through radio:[55]

"Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country." – Jawaharlal Nehru's address to Gandhi

Gandhi's ashes were poured into urns which were sent across India for memorial services. Most were immersed at the Sangam at Allahabad on 12 February 1948 but some were secretly taken away.[56] In 1997, Tushar Gandhi immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad.[56][57] Some of Gandhi's ashes were scattered at the source of the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, and a memorial plaque marks the event. On 30 January 2008 the contents of another urn were immersed at Girgaum Chowpatty by the family after a Dubai-based businessman had sent it to a Mumbai museum.[56] Another urn has ended up in a palace of the Aga Khan in Pune[56] (where he had been imprisoned from 1942 to 1944) and another in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Los Angeles.[58] The family is aware that these enshrined ashes could be misused for political purposes but does not want to have them removed because it would entail breaking the shrines.[56]

Principles, practices and beliefs

See also: Gandhism
Truth & Satyagraha

"God is truth. The way to truth lies through ahimsa (non-violence)" – Sabarmati 13 March 1927

Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself. He called his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities. Gandhi summarised his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth". He would later change this statement to "Truth is God". Thus, Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is "God".

Gandhi's commitment to truth has been questioned by Joseph Lelyveld, who claims that Gandhi asked journalists to quote "not the words that had actually come from his mouth but a version he authorized after his sometimes heavy editing of the transcripts".[37]

The essence of Satyagraha(lit. 'insistence/holding of truth') is that it seeks to eliminate antagonisms without harming the antagonists themselves and seeks to transform or “purify” it to a higher level. A euphemism sometimes used for Satyagraha is that it is a “silent force” or a “soul force” (a term also used by Martin Luther King Jr. during his famous “I Have a Dream” speech). It arms the individual with moral power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a “universal force,” as it essentially “makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe.”[59] Gandiji wrote: “There must be no impatience, no barbarity, no insolence, no undue pressure. If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy, we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.”[60] Civil disobedience and non-cooperation as practised under Satyagraha are based on the “law of suffering”,[61] a doctrine that the endurance of suffering is a means to an end. This end usually implies a moral upliftment or progress of an individual or society. Therefore, non-cooperation in Satyagraha is in fact a means to secure the cooperation of the opponent consistently with truth and justice.
Nonviolence

Although Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of non-violence, he was the first to apply it in the political field on a large scale.[62] The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted as saying:

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."

Gandhi nurses Parchure Shastri, a sanskrit scholar afflicted by leprosy, at Sabarmati Ashram, 1940

In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes in envisioning a world where even government, police and armies were nonviolent. The quotations below are from the book "For Pacifists."[63]

The science of war leads one to dictatorship, pure and simple. The science of non-violence alone can lead one to pure democracy...Power based on love is thousand times more effective and permanent than power derived from fear of punishment....It is a blasphemy to say non-violence can be practiced only by individuals and never by nations which are composed of individuals...The nearest approach to purest anarchy would be a democracy based on non-violence...A society organised and run on the basis of complete non-violence would be the purest anarchy

I have conceded that even in a non-violent state a police force may be necessary...Police ranks will be composed of believers in non-violence. The people will instinctively render them every help and through mutual cooperation they will easily deal with the ever decreasing disturbances...Violent quarrels between labor and capital and strikes will be few and far between in a non-violent state because the influence of the non-violent majority will be great as to respect the principle elements in society. Similarly, there will be no room for communal disturbances....

In accordance with these views, in 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people (Non-Violence in Peace and War):[64]

"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions...If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."

In a post-war interview in 1946, he offered a view at an even further extreme:

"Hitler," Gandhi said, "killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs... It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions."[65]

However, Gandhi realised that this level of nonviolence required incredible faith and courage, which he believed everyone did not possess. He therefore advised that everyone need not keep to nonviolence, especially if it were used as a cover for cowardice:

"Gandhi guarded against attracting to his satyagraha movement those who feared to take up arms or felt themselves incapable of resistance. 'I do believe,' he wrote, 'that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.'"[66]

"At every meeting I repeated the warning that unless they felt that in non-violence they had come into possession of a force infinitely superior to the one they had and in the use of which they were adept, they should have nothing to do with non-violence and resume the arms they possessed before. It must never be said of the Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become or been made cowards under Badshah Khan's influence. Their bravery consisted not in being good marksmen but in defying death and being ever ready to bare their breasts to the bullets."[67]

Gandhi also came under some political fire for his criticism of those who attempted to achieve independence through more violent means. According to a report in the Frontline magazine, he did plead several times for the commutation of the death sentence of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev including a personal visit on 19 March 1931 and in a letter to the Viceroy on the day of their execution, pleading fervently for the commutation.[68]

Winston Churchill said that it was "nauseating" to see Gandhi, "a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the Middle East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace. .. to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor".[69]

He continued this argument in a number of articles reprinted in Homer Jack's The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings. In the first, "Zionism and Anti-Semitism," written in 1938, Gandhi commented upon the 1930s persecution of the Jews in Germany within the context of Satyagraha. He offered non-violence as a method of combating the difficulties Jews faced in Germany, stating,

If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest Gentile German might, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance, but would have confidence that in the end the rest were bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy...the calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the God-fearing, death has no terror.[70]

Gandhi was highly criticised for these statements and responded in the article "Questions on the Jews" with "Friends have sent me two newspaper cuttings criticising my appeal to the Jews. The two critics suggest that in presenting non-violence to the Jews as a remedy against the wrong done to them, I have suggested nothing new...what I have pleaded for is renunciation of violence of the heart and consequent active exercise of the force generated by the great renunciation.[71]

Gandhi's statements regarding Jews facing the impending Holocaust have attracted criticism from a number of commentators.[72] Martin Buber wrote a sharply critical open letter to Gandhi on 24 February 1939. Buber asserted that the comparison between British treatment of Indian subjects and Nazi treatment of Jews was inappropriate; moreover, he noted that when Indians were the victims of persecution, Gandhi had, on occasion, supported the use of force.[73]

Gandhi commented upon the 1930s persecution of the Jews in Germany within the context of Satyagraha. In the November 1938 article on the Nazi persecution of the Jews quoted above, he offered non-violence as a solution:

The German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province. But if there can be no war against Germany, even for such a crime as is being committed against the Jews, surely there can be no alliance with Germany. How can there be alliance between a nation which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one which is the declared enemy of both?"[74][75]
Vegetarianism

As a child, Gandhi experimented with meat-eating. This was due partially to his inherent curiosity as well as his rather persuasive peer and friend Sheikh Mehtab. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus are vegetarian and so are almost all Jains.[76][77] The Gandhi family was no exception. Before leaving for his studies in London, Gandhi made a promise to his mother, Putlibai and his uncle, Becharji Swami that he would abstain from eating meat, taking alcohol, and engaging in promiscuity. He held fast to his promise and gained more than a diet: he gained a basis for his life-long philosophies. As Gandhi grew into adulthood, he became a strict vegetarian. He wrote the book The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism[78] and several articles on the subject, some of which were published in the London Vegetarian Society's publication, The Vegetarian.[79] During this period, the young Gandhi became inspired by many great minds and was befriended by the chairman of the London Vegetarian Society, Dr. Josiah Oldfield.

Having also read and admired the work of Henry Stephens Salt, the young Mohandas met and often corresponded with the vegetarian campaigner. Gandhi spent much time advocating vegetarianism during and after his time in London. To Gandhi, a vegetarian diet would not only satisfy the requirements of the body, it would also serve an economic purpose as meat was, and still is, generally more expensive than grains, vegetables, and fruits. Also, many Indians of the time struggled with low income, thus vegetarianism was seen not only as a spiritual practice but also a practical one. He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a form of political protest. He refused to eat until his death or his demands were met. Gandhi noted in his autobiography that vegetarianism was the beginning of his deep commitment to Brahmacharya; without total control of the palate, his success in Bramacharya would likely falter.

Gandhi also experimented with fruitarianism, stating in his autobiography, "I decided to live on a pure fruit diet, and that too composed of the cheapest fruit possible ... Raw groundnuts, bananas, dates, lemons and olive oil composed our usual diet."[80] However, late in life he broke his discipline and started taking goat's milk on the advice of his doctor. This lapse of discipline bothered him to his dying day, and he wrote, "The memory of this action even now rankles my breast and fills me with remorse, and I am constantly thinking how to give up goat's milk." He never took dairy products obtained from cows because of his view initially that milk is not the natural diet of man, disgust for cow blowing,[81] and, specifically, because of a vow to his late mother.
Nai Talim, Basic Education
Main article: Nai Talim

Nai Talim is a spiritual principle which states that knowledge and work are not separate. Gandhi promoted an educational curriculum with the same name based on this pedagogical principle.[82]

It can be translated with the phrase 'Basic Education for all'.[83] However, the concept has several layers of meaning. It developed out of Gandhi's experience with the English educational system and with colonialism in general. In that system, he saw that Indian children would be alienated and 'career-based thinking' would become dominant. In addition, it embodied a series of negative outcomes: the disdain for manual work, the development of a new elite class, and the increasing problems of industrialization and urbanization.

The three pillars of Gandhi's pedagogy were its focus on the life-long character of education, its social character and its form as a holistic process. For Gandhi, education is 'the moral development of the person', a process that is by definition 'life-long'.[84]
Brahmacharya, Sexuality

Gandhi with textile workers at Darwen, Lancashire, 26 September 1931.

When Gandhi was 16 his father became very ill. Being very devoted to his parents, he attended to his father at all times during his illness. However, one night, Gandhi's uncle came to relieve Gandhi for a while. He retired to his bedroom and had sex with his wife. Shortly afterward a servant came to report that Gandhi's father had just died. Gandhi felt tremendous guilt and never could forgive himself. He came to refer to this event as "double shame." The incident had significant influence in Gandhi becoming celibate at the age of 36, while still married.[85]

This decision was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Brahmacharya — spiritual and practical purity — largely associated with celibacy and asceticism. Gandhi saw Brahmacharya as a means of becoming close with God and as a primary foundation for self-realisation. In his autobiography he tells of his battle against lustful urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood bride, Kasturba. He felt it his personal obligation to remain celibate so that he could learn to love, rather than lust. For Gandhi, Brahmacharya meant "control of the senses in thought, word and deed.".[86]

Within a year of his chastity vow, Gandhi's newspaper, the Indian Opinion, wrote "It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife". Gandhi also conducted sexual experiments in his ashrams. In these ashrams, boys and girls bathed together, slept in the same beds, but were punished for any sexual talk. Men and women were segregated. Gandhi also advised that husbands should not be alone with their wives, and, when they felt sexual desire, should take a cold bath.[87]

A recent biography of Gandhi, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India by Joseph Lelyveld, has led to claims that he was "a sexual weirdo".[37] The controversy surround's Gandhi's relationship with Hermann Kallenbach, a "German-Jewish architect and bodybuilder". Andrew Roberts for The Wall Street Journal says that Gandhi left his wife for Kallenbach in 1908. The pair continued to send letters after they were separated by Gandhi's return to India in 1914. Lelyveld has stated that the press coverage "grossly distort[s]" the overall message of the book.[88] However, this did not prevent the government of the Indian state Gujarat, Gandhi's birth state, from banning the book.[89]

Towards the end of his life, it became public knowledge that Gandhi had been sharing his bed for a number of years with young women.[90][91] He explained that he did this for bodily warmth at night and termed his actions as "nature cure". Later in his life he started experimenting with brahmacharya in order to test his self-control. His letter to Birla in April 1945 referring to 'women or girls who have been naked with me' indicates that several women were part of his experiments.[92] He wrote five editorials in Harijan discussing the practice of brahmacharya.[93]

As part of these experiments, he initially slept with his women associates in the same room but at a distance. Afterwards he started to lie in the same bed with his women disciples and later took to sleeping naked alongside them.[92] According to Gandhi active-celibacy meant perfect self-control in the presence of the opposite sex. Gandhi conducted his experiments with a number of women such as Abha, the sixteen-year-old wife of his grandnephew Kanu Gandhi.[94] Gandhi acknowledged "that this experiment is very dangerous indeed", but thought "that it was capable of yielding great results".[95] His nineteen-year-old grandniece, Manu Gandhi, too was part of his experiments. Gandhi had earlier written to her father, Jaisukhlal Gandhi, that Manu had started to share his bed so that he may "correct her sleeping posture".[95] Gandhi saw himself as a mother to these women and would refer to Abha and Manu as "my walking sticks".

Gandhi called Sarladevi, a married woman with children and a devout follower, his "spiritual wife". He later said that he had come close to having sexual relations with her.[96] He had told a correspondent in March, 1945 that "sleeping together came with my taking up of bramhacharya or even before that"; he said he had experimented with his wife "but that was not enough".[95] Gandhi felt satisfied with his experiments and wrote to Manu that "I have successfully practiced the eleven vows taken by me. This is the culmination of my striving for last thirty-six years. In this yajna I got a glimpse of the ideal truth and purity for which I have been striving".[97]

According to Gandhi's letters, some of his "experiments" included stripteases and other non-contact sexual activity. Explicit material has been found in his letters, although much of it was destroyed, with one reading "Vina's sleeping with me might be called an accident. All that can be said is that she slept close to me".[87]

Gandhi complained of experiencing "involuntary discharges" more frequently since his return to India. He believed, however, that semen held special power, saying "one who conserves his vital fluid acquires unfailing power".[87]

Gandhi had to take criticism for his experiments by many of his followers and opponents. His stenographer, R. P. Parasuram, resigned when he saw Gandhi sleeping naked with Manu.[98] Gandhi insisted that he never felt aroused while he slept beside her, or with Sushila Nayar or Abha. "I am sorry" Gandhi said to Parasuram, "you are at liberty to leave me today." Nirmal Kumar Bose, leading anthropologist and close associate of Gandhi, parted company with him in April, 1947 post Gandhi's tour of Noakhali, where some sort of altercation had taken place between Gandhi and Sushila in his bedroom at midnight that caused Gandhi to slap his forehead. Bose said, "there was no immorality on part of Gandhi. Moreover Gandhi tried to conquer the feeling of sex by consciously endeavouring to convert himself into a mother of those who were under his case, whether men or women". This maternal emphasis has also been pointed out by Dattatreya Balkrushna Kalelkar, a revolutionary turned disciple of Gandhi.[99]

simplicity

Gandhi having tea with Lord Mountbatten

Gandhi earnestly believed that a person involved in public service should lead a simple life. He first displayed this principle when he gave up wearing western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. When he returned to India he renounced the western lifestyle he led in South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice.

Gandhi dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). He and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun on a charkha, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. The Swadeshi movement held that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Gandhian simplicity was a sign and expression of swadeshi principles. Consequently, the charkha was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress. He subsequently wore a dhoti for the rest of his life to express the simplicity of his life.

The practice of giving up unnecessary expenditure, embracing a simple lifestyle and washing his own clothes, Gandhi called "reducing himself to zero".[100] On one occasion he returned the gifts bestowed to him from the Natals for his diligent service to the community.[101]

Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace and made him a better listener. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mauna (Sanskrit:मौनं — silence) and shanti (Sanskrit:शांति — peace). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.

After reading John Ruskin's Unto This Last, he decided to change his lifestyle and create a commune called Phoenix Settlement.

Faith

Gandhi was born a Hindu and practised Hinduism all his life. As a common Hindu, he believed all religions to be equal, and rejected all efforts to convert him to a different faith. He was an avid theologian and read extensively about all major religions. He had the following to say about Hinduism:
Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being...When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

Gandhi Smriti (The house Gandhi lodged in the last 4 months of his life has now become a monument, New Delhi)

Gandhi wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita in Gujarati. The Gujarati manuscript was translated into English by Mahadev Desai, who provided an additional introduction and commentary. It was published with a Foreword by Gandhi in 1946.[102][103]

Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth and love (compassion, nonviolence and the Golden Rule). He also questioned what he saw as hypocrisy, malpractices, and dogma in all religions, including his own, and he was a tireless advocate for social reform in religion. Some of his comments on various religions are:
Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'être of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Seth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty.
—Gandhi's autobiography
As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.
The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
God has no religion.

Later in his life, when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied, "Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew."

In spite of their deep reverence to each other, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore engaged in protracted debates more than once. These debates exemplify the philosophical differences between the two most famous Indians at the time. On 15 January 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and caused extensive damage and loss of life. Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of untouchability may be.[104]

Gandhi took a keen interest in theosophy. He empathised with theosophy's message of "universal brotherhood and consequent toleration", as he put it in 1926.[105]

Swaraj, Self-Rule

Main article: Swaraj

Gandhi with Rabindranath Tagore, 1940

Gandhi was a self-described philosophical anarchist,[106][107] and his vision of India meant India without an underlying government.[108] He once said that "the ideally nonviolent state would be an ordered anarchy."[109] While political systems are largely hierarchical, with each layer of authority from the individual to the central government have increasing levels of authority over the layer below, Gandhi believed that society should be the exact opposite, where nothing is done without the consent of anyone, down to the individual. His idea was that true self-rule in a country means that every person rules his or herself and that there is no state which enforces laws upon the people.[110] This would be achieved over time with nonviolent conflict mediation, as power is divested from layers of hierarchical authorities, ultimately to the individual, which would come to embody the ethic of nonviolence. Rather than a system where rights are enforced by a higher authority, people are self-governed by mutual responsibilities. On returning from South Africa, when Gandhi received a letter asking for his participation in writing a world charter for human rights, he responded saying, "in my experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human duties."[111] A free India for him meant the existence of thousands of self-sufficient small communities (an idea possibly from Tolstoy) who rule themselves without hindering others. It did not mean merely transferring a British established administrative structure into Indian hands which he said was just making Hindustan into Englistan.[112] He wanted to ultimately dissolve the Congress Party after independence and establish a system of direct democracy in India,[113] having no faith in the British styled parliamentary system.[112]

Literary works

Young India, a journal published by Gandhi

Gandhi was a prolific writer. For decades he edited several newspapers including Harijan in Gujarati, in Hindi and in the English language; Indian Opinion while in South Africa and, Young India, in English, and Navajivan, a Gujarati monthly, on his return to India. Later, Navajivan was also published in Hindi.[114] In addition, he wrote letters almost every day to individuals and newspapers. However, Andrew Roberts writes that 'we cannot be certain that he really made all the pronouncements attributed to him, since, according to Mr. Lelyveld, Gandhi insisted that journalists file "not the words that had actually come from his mouth but a version he authorized after his sometimes heavy editing of the transcripts."'.[37]

Gandhi also wrote several books including his autobiography, An Autobiography of My Experiments with Truth ((Gujarātī "સત્યના પ્રયોગો અથવા આત્મકથા")), of which he bought the entire first edition to make sure it was reprinted.[37] His other autobiographies included: Satyagraha in South Africa about his struggle there, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, a political pamphlet, and a paraphrase in Gujarati of John Ruskin's Unto This Last.[115] This last essay can be considered his programme on economics. He also wrote extensively on vegetarianism, diet and health, religion, social reforms, etc. Gandhi usually wrote in Gujarati, though he also revised the Hindi and English translations of his books.

Gandhi's complete works were published by the Indian government under the name The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1960s. The writings comprise about 50,000 pages published in about a hundred volumes. In 2000, a revised edition of the complete works sparked a controversy, as Gandhian followers argue that the government incorporated the changes for political purposes. The Indian government later withdrew the revised edition

Legacy and depictions in popular culture

See also: List of artistic depictions of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

The word Mahatma, while often mistaken for Gandhi's given name in the West, is taken from the Sanskrit words maha (meaning Great) and atma (meaning Soul). Rabindranath Tagore is said to have accorded the title to Gandhi.[117] In his autobiography, Gandhi nevertheless explains that he never valued the title, and was often pained by it.[118]
Followers and international influence

Mahatma Gandhi on a 1969 postage stamp of the Soviet Union.

Mahatma Gandhi District in Houston, Texas

Gandhi influenced important leaders and political movements. Leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States, including Martin Luther King and James Lawson, drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of their own theories about non-violence.[119][120][121] Anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was inspired by Gandhi.[122] Others include Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan,[123] Steve Biko, Aung San Suu Kyi,[124] and Benigno Aquino, Jr. (the Philippine opposition leader during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and father of current Philippine president Benigno Aquino III).

"Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics." – Martin Luther King Jr, 1955[125]

In his early years, the former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was a follower of the non-violent resistance philosophy of Gandhi.[122] Bhana and Vahed commented on these events as "Gandhi inspired succeeding generations of South African activists seeking to end White rule. This legacy connects him to Nelson Mandela...in a sense Mandela completed what Gandhi started."[126]

Gandhi's life and teachings inspired many who specifically referred to Gandhi as their mentor or who dedicated their lives to spreading Gandhi's ideas. In Europe, Romain Rolland was the first to discuss Gandhi in his 1924 book Mahatma Gandhi, and Brazilian anarchist and feminist Maria Lacerda de Moura wrote about Gandhi in her work on pacifism. In 1931, notable European physicist Albert Einstein exchanged written letters with Gandhi, and called him "a role model for the generations to come" in a later writing about him.[127] Lanza del Vasto went to India in 1936 intending to live with Gandhi; he later returned to Europe to spread Gandhi's philosophy and founded the Community of the Ark in 1948 (modelled after Gandhi's ashrams). Madeleine Slade (known as "Mirabehn") was the daughter of a British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as a devotee of Gandhi.

In addition, the British musician John Lennon referred to Gandhi when discussing his views on non-violence.[128] At the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2007, former U.S. Vice-President and environmentalist Al Gore spoke of Gandhi's influence on him.[129]

President of the United States Barack Obama in an address to a Joint Session of the Parliament of India said that:

"I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world." – Barack Obama in an address to a Joint Session of the Parliament of India, 2010[130]

Obama at the Wakefield High School speech in Sept 2009, said that his biggest inspiration came from Mahatma Gandhi. His reply was in response to the question 'Who was the one person, dead or live, that you would choose to dine with?'. He continued that "He's somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. King with his message of nonviolence. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics."

The Mahatma Gandhi District in Houston, Texas, United States, an ethnic Indian enclave, is named after Gandhi. The district officially received its named on 16 January 2010 when the City of Houston held a naming ceremony.[131]
Global holidays

On 15 June 2007, it was announced that the "United Nations General Assembly" has "unanimously adopted" a resolution declaring 2 October as "the International Day of Non-Violence."[132] 30 January of every year is observed the School Day of Non-violence and Peace in schools of many countries.[133][134] In countries with a Southern Hemisphere school calendar, it can be observed on 30 March.

Global holidays

On 15 June 2007, it was announced that the "United Nations General Assembly" has "unanimously adopted" a resolution declaring 2 October as "the International Day of Non-Violence."[132] 30 January of every year is observed the School Day of Non-violence and Peace in schools of many countries.[133][134] In countries with a Southern Hemisphere school calendar, it can be observed on 30 March.
Awards

Monument to Mahatma Gandhi in New Belgrade, Serbia. On the monument is written "Non-violence is the essence of all religions".

Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930. Gandhi was also the runner-up to Albert Einstein as "Person of the Century"[135] at the end of 1999. Einstein said of Gandhi:

Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works. We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.

Time Magazine named The 14th Dalai Lama, Lech Wałęsa, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino, Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela as Children of Gandhi and his spiritual heirs to non-violence.[136] The Government of India awards the annual Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens. Nelson Mandela, the leader of South Africa's struggle to eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, is a prominent non-Indian recipient. In 2011, Time magazine named Gandhi as one of the top 25 political icons of all time.[137]

Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948, including the first-ever nomination by the American Friends Service Committee,[138] though he made the short list only twice, in 1937 and 1947.[139] Decades later, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided nationalistic opinion denying the award.[50] Gandhi was nominated in 1948 but was assassinated before nominations closed. That year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living candidate" and later research shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable living candidate was to Gandhi.[139] When the 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi."[139]
Film and literature

Mahatma Gandhi has been portrayed in film, literature, and in the theatre. Ben Kingsley portrayed Gandhi in the 1982 film Gandhi, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Gandhi is also a central theme in the 2006 Bollywood film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. The 2007 film, Gandhi, My Father explores the relationship between Gandhi and his son Harilal. The 1996 film, The Making of the Mahatma, documents Gandhi's time in South Africa.

Several biographers have undertaken the task of describing Gandhi's life. Among them are: D. G. Tendulkar with his Mahatma. Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in eight volumes, and Pyarelal and Sushila Nayar with their Mahatma Gandhi in 10 volumes. There is also another documentary, titled Mahatma: Life of Gandhi, 1869–1948, which is 14 chapters and 6 hours long.

In April 2010, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India by Joseph Lelyveld was released. It contains controversial claims that Gandhi was "a sexual weirdo, a political incompetent and a fanatical faddist—one who was often downright cruel to those around him."[37] Lelyveld has stated that the press coverage "grossly distort[s]" the overall message of the book.[88] However, this did not prevent the government of the Indian state Gujarat, Gandhi's birth state, from banning the book.[89]
Current impact within India
"Gandhi remains India’s patriarch, the founding father whose face is printed on the currency, but modern India is hardly a Gandhian nation, if it ever was one. His vision of a village-dominated economy was shunted aside during his lifetime as rural romanticism, and his call for a national ethos of personal austerity and nonviolence has proved antithetical to the goals of an aspiring economic and military power ... Gandhi is still revered here, and credited with shaping India’s political identity as a tolerant, secular democracy. But he can sometimes seem to hover over modern India like a parent whose expectations are rarely met."
— The New York Times, November 2010 [140]

Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is a national holiday in India, Gandhi Jayanti. India observes 30 January the day of his assassination, as Martyr's Day, to commemorate those who gave up their lives in service of the Indian nation. There are two temples in India dedicated to Gandhi.[141] One is located at Sambalpur in Odisha and the other at Nidaghatta village near Kadur in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka.

THE GRATE RAMA STORE

2011-05-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

Rama's life and journey is one of perfect adherence to dharma despite harsh tests of life and time. He is pictured as the ideal man and the perfect human. For the sake of his father's honour, Rama abandons his claim to Kosala's throne to serve an exile of fourteen years in the forest.[8] His wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, unable to live without Rama, decide to join him, and all three spend the fourteen years in exile together. While in exile, Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, the Rakshasa (Asura) monarch of Lanka. After a long and arduous search that tests his personal strength and virtue, Rama fights a colossal war against Ravana's armies. In a war of powerful and magical beings, greatly destructive weaponry and battles, Rama slays Ravana in battle and liberates his wife. Having completed his exile, Rama returns to be crowned king in Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) and eventually becomes emperor,[8] rules with happiness, peace, prosperity and justice—a period known as Rama Rajya.

Rama's courage in searching for Sita and fighting a terrible war to rescue his wife and their honour is complemented by Sita's absolute devotion to her husband's love, and perfect chastity despite being Ravana's captive. Rama's younger brothers, namely Lakshmana, Shatrughna and Bharata strongly complement his piety, virtue and strength,[8] and they are believed by many to belong to the Maryada Purushottama and the Seventh Avatara, mainly embodied by Rama. Rama's piety and virtue attract powerful and devoted allies such as Hanuman and the Vanaras of Kishkindha, with whose help he rescues Sita.[8] The legend of Rama is deeply influential and popular in the societies of the Indian subcontinent and across South East Asia. Rama is revered for his unending compassion,[9] courage and devotion to religious values and duty.
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v • d • e
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Literary sources
3 Avatara
4 Prince of Ayodhya
5 Initiation of the Avatara
6 Dharma of exile
7 Rama and Sita
7.1 Agni pariksha
7.2 Sita's banishment
7.3 Children
8 Maryada Purushottama/ Chakravarthi Thirumagan
9 Companions
9.1 Bharata and Lakshmana
9.2 Jatayu, Hanuman and Vibheeshana
10 Rama in war
10.1 Sagara
10.2 Facing Ravana
10.3 Rama Rajya
11 International influence
11.1 Festivals
12 See also
13 Notes
14 References
15 External links

Etymology
10.3.3cd Agni, far-spreading with conspicuous lustre, hath compassed Night [Rama] with whitely shining garments.

This to Duhsima Prthavana have I sung, to Vena, Rama, to the nobles [Asuras], and the King.

The feminine form of the adjective, rāmīˊ is an epitheton of the night (Ratri), as is kṛṣṇīˊ, the feminine of kṛṣṇa, viz. "the dark one; the black one". Two Ramas are mentioned in the Vedas, with the patronymics Mārgaveya and Aupatasvini; another Rama with the patronymic Jāmadagnya is the supposed author of a Rigvedic hymn. According to Monier-Williams, three Ramas were celebrated in post-Vedic times,
Rāma-chandra ("Rama-figuratively referred to as the full moon (bright light in the night sky) "), son of Dasaratha belongs to Raghuvnsha, believed to have descended from Raghu. (The Rama of this article).
Parashu-rāma ("Rama of the Battle-axe"), the Sixth Avatara of Vishnu, sometimes also referred to as Jāmadagnya, or as Bhārgava Rāma (descended from Bhrigu), a "Chiranjeevi" or Immortal.
Krishna , the Eighth Avatara of Vishnu , the younger brother and close companion of Bala-rāma ("the strong Rama").

In the Vishnu sahasranama, Rama is the 394th name of Vishnu. In the interpretation of Adi Sankara's commentary, translated by Swami Tapasyananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, Rama has two meanings: the supreme Brahman who is the eternally blissful spiritual Self in whom yogis delight, or the One (i.e., Vishnu) who out of His own will assumed the enchanting form of Rama, the son of Dasarath[11].
Literary sources

The primary source of the life and journey of Rama is the epic Ramayana as composed by the Rishi Valmiki. The Vishnu Purana also recounts Rama as Vishnu's seventh avatara, and in the Bhagavata Purana, ninth skandha, adhyayas 10 & 11, the story of the Ramayana is again recounted in brief up to an including the slaying of Ravana and Prince Rama's return to Ayodhya. Additionally, the tales of Rama are reverently spoken of in the epic Mahabharata.

The epic had many versions across India's regions. However, other scriptures in Sanskrit reflect the life of Ramayana. The followers of Sri Madhvacharya believe that an older version of the Ramayana, the mula-Ramayana, previously existed but is no longer extant. They consider it to be more authoritative than the version by Valmiki. Another important shortened version of the epic in Sanskrit is the Aadhyaatma Ramayana. The seventh century CE Sanskrit "Bhatti's Poem" Bhaṭṭikāvya of Bhaṭṭi who lived in Gujarat, is a retelling of the epic that simultaneously illustrates the grammatical examples for Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as the major figures of speech and the Prakrit language.[12] Versions of the Ramayana exist in most major Indian languages; examples that elaborate on the life, deeds and divine

Avatar
Main article: Avatars of Vishnu
See also: Daśāvatāra

The Ramayana speaks of how the Goddess Earth (Bhumidevi), came to the Lord Creator, Brahma begging to be rescued from evil kings who were plundering her resources and destroying life through bloody wars and evil conduct. The Devas also came to Brahma fearful of the rule of Ravana, the ten-headed rakshasa emperor of Lanka. Ravana had overpowered the Devas and now ruled the heavens, the earth and the netherworlds. Although a powerful and noble monarch, he was also arrogant, destructive and a patron of evil doers. He had boons that gave him immense strength and was invulnerable to all living and celestial beings, except man and animals.[14]

Brahma, Bhumidevi and the Devas worshipped Vishnu, the Preserver, for deliverance from Ravana's tyrannical rule. Vishnu promised to kill Ravana by incarnating as a man – the eldest son of Kosala's king Dasaratha.[14] His eternal consort, Lakshmi took birth as Sita and was found by king Janaka of Mithila while he was ploughing a field. Vishnu's eternal companion, the Ananta Sesha is said to have incarnated as Lakshmana to stay at his Lord's side on earth. Throughout his life, no one, except himself and a few select sages (among which are included Vasishta, Sharabhanga, Agastya and Vishwamitra) know of his destiny. Rama is continually revered by the many sages he encounters through his life, but only the most learned and exalted know of his true identity. At the end of the war between Rama and Ravana, just as Sita passes her Agni pariskha, Lord Brahma, Indra and the Devas, the celestial sages and Lord Shiva appear out of the sky. They affirm Sita's purity and ask him to end this terrible test. Thanking the Avatara for delivering the universe from the grips of evil, they reveal Rama's divine identity upon the culmination of his mission.

Prince of Ayodhya

Birth of Rama
King Dasaratha performs a putrakameṣṭi yajña, a sacrifice to obtain offspring by pleasing the gods. He gives the sacred, sacrificial nectar to his three wives according to their seniority: Kousalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi. On the night of the ninth day after Amavasya, under the asterism of Punarvasu and the cardinal sign of the Crab, Rama was born in the city of Ayodhya, which is the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kosala. The city and the area are located in the central region of the modern state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Rama was the prince of the Suryavamsha (Sun Dynasty) House of Ikshvaku, descendant of great monarchs like Ikshvaku, Raghu and Bhagiratha. He is the eldest brother to Bharata, son of Kaikeyi, and the twin sons of Sumitra, Lakshmana and Shatrughna. Rama is dark-complexioned, mainly bluish – a symbol of divinit.
[16] In Ramayana Rama is referred to as Aryaputra (son of an Aryan).

The Ramayana describes the relationship between the brothers as intensely loving and devotional, although Rama and Lakshmana share a special, inseparable bond, while Bharata is especially close to Shatrughna. The four brothers enjoy an undiscriminating love from Dasaratha and his three queens, but Dasaratha's main affections are affixed upon Rama. Rama and his brothers are trained by Rishi Vasishta in the Vedas, religion, philosophy and the sciences. They are described as taller than the tallest men of modern times, possessive of exceptional acumen and prowess in the military sciences and arts.
[17]
Ravana the king of Lanka mastered in all four vedas and therefore Lord Rama was believed to be lived after the Atharvaveda, roughly between 1000-600 BCE. calculations[18].
Initiation of the Avatara
Rama breaking the bow, Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906)Sage Vishwamitra takes the two princes, Rama and Lakshmana, to his ashram, as he needs Rama's help in slaying several Rakshasas that have been harassing him and several other sages living in the area. Rama's first encounter is with a Rakshasi named Taataka, who is a celestial nymph cursed to take the form of a demoness. Vishwamitra explains that she has polluted much of the habitat where the sages reside and there will not be any contentment until she is destroyed. Rama has some reservations about killing a woman, but since Taataka poses such a big threat to the Rishis and he is expected to follow their word, he fights with Taataka and kills her with a poisoned arrow. After her death, the surrounding forest becomes greener and cleaner.

Vishwamitra presents Rama with several astras and sastras (divine weapons) that will be of use to him in the future, and Rama masters the knowledge of all the weapons and their uses. Vishwamitra then tells Rama and Lakshmana that soon, he along with some of his disciples, will perform a yagna for seven days and nights that will be of great benefit to the world, and the two princes must keep close watch for the two sons of Taataka, Mareecha and Subahu, who will try to defile the yagna at all costs. The princes therefore keep a strong vigil for all of the days, and on the seventh day they spot Maricha and Subahu coming with a whole host of Raakshasas ready to pour bones and blood into the fire. Rama points his bow at the two, and with one arrow kills Subahu, and with the other arrow flings Mareecha thousands of miles away into the ocean. Lakshmana deals with the rest of the demons. The yagna is completed successfully

Rama also frees Ahalya, the wife of Gautama Maharishi, from a curse. She was cursed to turn into stone by her husband after a displeasing incident. However, the dust on Rama's feet touched the stone and turned it back into a woman again. Gautama Maharishi was gratified that everything was back to normal again.

Sage Vishwamitra then takes the two princes to the Swayamvara ceremony for Sita. The challenge is to string the bow of Shiva, and shoot an arrow with it. This task is considered impossible for any ordinary king or living being, as this is the personal weapon of Shiva, more powerful, holy and of divine creation than conceivable. While attempting to string the bow, Rama breaks it in two. This feat of strength spreads his fame across the worlds and seals his marriage to Sita, celebrated as Vivaha Panchami.
[19]
After Rama weds Sita and the entire royal family and the Ayodhya army begin their journey back, the great rishi Parashurama (Bhargava Rama) appears before them, having descended from his mountainous hermitage. Parashurama is an extremely powerful rishi, responsible for killing all of the world's tyrannical and oppressive emperors and kings 21 times. He was the sixth Avatara of Vishnu, and finds it unbelievable that anybody could break the bow of Shiva. Considering himself to still be the most powerful warrior-rishi on earth, he brings with them the bow of Vishnu, and intends to challenge Rama to prove his strength by stringing it, and then fighting a battle with him to prove superiority.[20] Although the entire Ayodhya army is forestalled by his mystical power, Rama is himself angered. He respectfully bows to Parashurama, and within a twinkling of an eyelid snatches the bow of Vishnu, strings it, places an arrow and points it straight at the challenger's heart. Rama asks Parashurama what he will give as a target to the arrow in return for his life? At this point, Parashurama feels himself devoid of the tremendous mystical energy he possessed for so long. He realizes that Rama is Vishnu incarnate, his successor and definitely his superior. He accepts Rama's superiority, devotes his tapasya to him, pays homage to Rama and promises to return to his hermitage and leave the world of men.
[21]Rama then shoots the arrow up into the sky with Vishnu's bow, performing a feat true to his supreme, divine nature with his natural weapon. His overpowering of Parashurama and using the supreme weapon with incredible ease and perfection dazzle the spectators and his relatives, but no one save Parashurama and Vasishta associate this with his true identity. It is said that the Rama's arrow is still flying across space, across time and across all of the universe. The day it will return to earth, it is said, it will bring the end of the world. Others say that the flying arrow destroys all evil on earth to uphold dharma and righteousness.
Dharma of exile
King Dasaratha announces to Ayodhya that he plans to crown Rama, his eldest child the Yuvaraja (crown prince). While the news is welcomed by everyone in the kingdom, the mind of queen Kaikeyi is poisoned by her wicked maid-servant, Manthara. Kaikeyi, who is initially pleased for Rama, is made to fear for the safety and future of her son Bharata. Fearing that Rama would ignore or possibly victimize his youngest brother for the sake of power, Kaikeyi demands that Dasaratha banish Rama to a forest exile for fourteen years, and that Bharata be crowned in Rama's place. She had been granted two boons by the king when she had saved his life a long time ago in battle, and the queen now used them to serve her purpose
.[22] The king's court and the people are outraged at this turn of events. Dasaratha loved and cherished Rama dearly, and was in personal turmoil. Completely estranged now from his younger wife, he abhors the prospect of separation from Rama. But Rama realizes that the king must not break a solemn promise at any time, and neither should a son disobey his father's command. Sita joins her husband in exile despite his discouraging her, as it is her duty and out of love for Rama that she must be at his side at all times. His younger brother Lakshmana also immediately decides to join Rama rather than remain in the city.
[23]As he leaves for exile, the people of Ayodhya are deeply saddened and angered at Dasaratha and Kaikeyi. Dasaratha's heart is broken and he collapses and dies by the next day, unable to bear the agony of separation from Rama. Despite the reasoning of Vasishtha and the pleas of his brothers, Rama refuses to return. Although horrified at the news of his father's death, Rama finds it impossible that he should break his dead father's word. Rama does not bear any anger towards Kaikeyi, believing firmly in the power of destiny.
[24] According to the explanation of the classic, this exile actually presents Rama the opportunity to confront Ravana and his evil empire.
Rama and Seta

Rama with Sita on the throne, their children Lava and Kusha on their laps. Behind the throne, Lakshamana, Bharata and Shatrughna stand. Hanuman bows to Rama before the throne. Valmiki to the left

Rama and Sita are the protagonists in one of the most famous love stories of all time. Described as being deeply in love, Sita and Rama are theologically understood as Avatars of Lakshmi and Vishnu respectively. When Rama is banished from the kingdom, he attempts to convince Sita not to join him in a potentially dangerous and certainly arduous existence in the jungle, but Sita rejects this. When Rama orders her in his capacity as husband, Sita rejects it, asserting that it was an essential duty of a wife to be at her husband's side come good or ill.
[23] Rama in turn is assiduously protective and caring for Sita throughout the exile.When Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, both Sita and Rama undergo great personal hardships during their separation. Sita protects her chastity assiduously, and survives over a year in captivity on the strength of her love and attention to religious values and duty. She is completely unfettered in her resolve despite Ravana's courting, cajoling and threats. Meanwhile Rama, not knowing who had kidnapped Sita or where was she taken, often succumbs to despair and tears, denouncing himself for failing to defend her and agonizing over her safety and pain. Sita knows that it is in Rama's destiny to fight to rescue her (she refuses to be rescued thus by Hanuman, who discovers her), but is deeply anxious for his safety and fearful of Ravana's power.

Agni pariksha

Lord Rama sent a messenger to Ravana that said, "Come to me and I will forgive you," before he slays Ravana. After Rama slays Ravana and wins the war, Sita wants to come before him in the state which over a year's imprisonment had reduced her to, Rama arranges for Sita to be bathed and given beautiful garments before they are re-united. But even as Sita comes before him in great excitement and happiness, Rama does not look at her, staring fixedly at the ground. He tells her that he had fought the war only to avenge the dishonour that Ravana had inflicted on Raghuvamsa and Sita. At this sudden turn of events, all the vanaras, rakshasas, Sugriva, Hanuman and Lakshmana are deeply shocked.

The Agni pariksha

Sita begs Lakshmana to build her a pyre upon which she could end her life, as she could not live without Rama. At this point, Lakshmana is angered at Rama for the first time in his life, but following Rama's nod, he builds a pyre for Sita. At the great shock and sorrow of the watchers, Sita walks into the flames. But to their greater shock and wonder, she is completely unharmed. Instead, she glows radiantly from the centre of the pyre. Immediately Rama runs to Sita and embraces her. He had never doubted her purity for a second, but, as he explains to a dazzled Sita, the people of the world would not have accepted or honoured her as a queen or a woman if she had not passed this Agni pariksha before the eyes of hundreds, where Agni would destroy the impure and sinful, but not touch the pure and innocent.[26] There is a version of Tulsidas's Ramacharitamanasa, which is popular, which states that Rama had Sita under the protection of Agni God. After Sita was released it was necessary to bring her out of security of Agni god.
[27] Another version of this, used in Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan, was that Rama had known Sita was going to be abducted by Ravana ahead of time. So, he entrusted her to Agni Dev, or the God of Fire. Rama did this so that he, who in reality was Vishnu, could kill Ravana. Sita, in turn, left behind a "shadow", or twin-like version of herself behind. The "shadow" Sita had been abducted by Ravana. Therefore, the lila of Agni Pariksha was to retrieve the genuine Sita from the temporary care of Agni Dev. Rama explains this to Lakshmana before the "Pariksha" is done. This version has also been written in the Ram Charit Manas.
Sita's banishment

In the Uttara Kanda, Rama banishes his wife Sita, even as she is pregnant, asking Lakshmana to deliver her safely to Rishi Valmiki's ashram. He does so when it is reported to him that some subjects of his in Ayodhya believed that Sita was not fit due to her long captivity in Ravana's city. As a king is expected to uphold moral principles, Rama reluctantly banished Sita in order to uphold his duty as a king. Sita probably lives in her kingdom Mithila but later in Valmiki's ashram for education of Lava and Kusha, Rama's and Sita's sons.

A legend by Rishi Agastya in the epic states that Vishnu in a previous age had been cursed by a rishi, whose wife had been killed by Vishnu for sheltering his enemies escaping from battle. The Rishi condemns Vishnu to be denied for a long age the companionship of his soul mate, just as Vishnu, by an inadvertent display of anger, had deprived the rishi of his loving wife. Thus Rama, Vishnu's incarnation, must live the rest of his life without Sita
Many Hindus, such as the followers of Sri Vaishnavism, consider this entire section of the Ramayana to be interpolated, and thus they do not accept the authenticity of this story claiming that Sita was banished. A general narration of Ramayana does not state it so. It says that Sita later lived in her father's kingdom Mithila with her sons Lava and Kusha as per the custom that children be brought up in their nanihal(maternal grandmother's place) followed in North India in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Sita along with her sons later live in Valmiki's ashram for her son's education and training in military skills.

Rama fighting Lava and Kusha
Children
Main articles: Kusha (Ramayana) and Lava (Ramayana)

According to legend, Kusha and Lava are the twin sons of Lord Rama and Sita. Born in the forest after the banishment of Sita from Ayodhya, the twins were educated and trained in military skills as their mother took refuge in Sage Valmiki's ashram, located in a forest on the banks of the River Tamsa.

As Rama performed the Ashvamedha Yajna, a horse strayed into their forest, Rama sent Hanuman to retrieve the horses. Rama's sons Luv and Kush captured the horses. Hanuman, seeing Luv and Kush recognised that they were the son's of Rama. He let them capture him and tie him up. There Hanuman started meditating on the name Rama. Worried Rama sent his brothers to look for the horses. As they saw Hanuman tied up and two boys guarding him, they thought that the two boy had stolen the horses. So Ramas brothers started attacking Luv and Kush. Although Rama's

Maryada Purushottama/ Chakravarthi Thirumagan

As a person, Rama personifies the characteristics of an ideal person (purushottama)[6][29] who is to be emulated. He had within him all the desirable virtues that any individual would seek to aspire, and he fulfils all his moral obligations (maryada). Rama's purity and piety in his intentions and actions inspires affection and devotion for him from a variety of characters from different backgrounds. For example, he gave up his rightful claim to the throne, and agreed to go into exile for fourteen years, to fulfill the vow that his father had given to Kaikeyi, one of King Dashratha's wives. This is in spite of the fact that Kaikeyi's son, Bharat, begged him to return back to Ayodhya and said that he did not want to rule in place of Rama. But Rama considered his dharma as a son above that of his own birthright and his life's ambition. For such supreme sacrifices, and many other qualities, Rama is considered a Mariana purushottam. Some of his ideals are as follows:

1. At the time when it was normal for kings to have more than one wife, Rama gave ideal of having a single wife. After Sita was banished, he was doing penance with a gold statue of Sita. In Balakanda of Valmiki Ramayana it is written that Rama and Sita resided in each other’s heart.

2. Rama always followed his promise at any cost. In fact, he went to forest to make his father's promise to Kaikeyi true. Another instance was when, he had promised the Spirit of Time that during their conversation, if anyone was to intrude, Rama would have pronounce an instant death sentence upon the individual. They were intruded upon by his beloved younger brother Lakshmana, and to keep his part of the promise, pronounced the death sentence. There are many examples of Rama's promises which he kept. Most important are the promise to sages to save their lives from Rakshasas, getting back Sugreeva's kingdom, making Vibhishana the king of Lanka.

3. Excellent friend: Rama had very touching relations with his friends irrespective of their status. Some of his friends are Nishada-raja Guha, King of Nishaadas (a caste whose profession was hunting the birds), Sugreeva (the Vanar king) and Vibhishana a Rakshasa.

4. Even towards his enemies, Rama showed great nobility and virtue. To gather information about the enemy army's strengths and weaknesses, Ravana sent two of his spies, Suka and Sarana, to the Vanara camps. Disguised as Vanaras they blended into the enemy camp, but Vibhishana saw through their deceit and presented the two spies to Rama. Rama then asked them what their mission was and whether they fulfilled it. After listening to them, he sent for a Vanara to give them a proper tour of all the Vanara camps and give them all the information they desired about the major soldiers and their strengths. He then told the spies to give this message to Ravana. "Tomorrow morning, I will destroy all of Lanka. Keep all sides of your palace well defended and be ready with all of your men by sunrise." The spies were greatly astonished with Rama's charisma, courage, and adherence to the codes of war. After Rama gave them leave, they knew that their king was bound to lose against this virtuous and courageous man. When Ravana first fought with Rama, Rama defeated him to such an extent that Ravana lost his charioteer, horses, chariot, flag, weapons and armor. Though the situation was at his advantage, Rama instead praised Ravana for a great fight that day, and asked him to retire and take rest, as he must be quite tired. Ravana was greatly embarrassed at this, but he was also gratified that Rama saved his life, and this led him to consider for a moment whether to retreat and give Sita back.
Companions

Even as Rama is the ideal conception of manhood, he is often aided and complemented in different situations by the characteristics by those who accompany him. They serve Rama devotedly, at great personal risk and sacrifice.

Bharata and Lakshmana
Main articles: Bharata (Ramayana) and Lakshmana

Absent when Rama is exiled, upon his return Bharata is appalled to learn of the events. And even though Kaikeyi had done all this for his benefit, Bharata is angered at the suggestion that he should take Ayodhya's throne. Denouncing his mother, Bharata proclaims to the city that he would go to the forest to fetch Rama back, and would serve out his term of exile himself. Although initially resentful and suspicious, the people of Ayodhya hail Bharata's selfless nature and courageous act. Despite his fervent pleas to return, Rama asserts that he must stay in the forest to keep his father's word. He orders Bharata to perform his duty as king of Ayodhya, especially important after Dasaratha's death, and orders Shatrughna to support and serve him. Returning saddened to the city, Bharata refuses to wear the crown or sit on the throne. Instead, he places the slippers of Rama that he had taken back with him on the throne, and rules Ayodhya assiduously keeping Rama's beliefs and values in mind. When Rama finally returns, Bharata runs personally to welcome him back.

Bharata is hailed for his devotion to his elder brother and dharma, distinguished from Lakshmana as he is left on his own for fourteen years. But he unfailingly denies self-interest throughout this time, ruling the kingdom only in Rama's image.[30] Vasishtha proclaims that no one had better learnt dharma than Bharata,[31] and for this piety he forms an essential part of the conception of perfect manhood, of the Seventh Avatara of Vishnu. Shatrughna's role to Bharata is akin to that of Lakshmana to Rama. Believed to be one-quarter of Vishnu incarnated, or as the incarnation of his eternal companion, Ananta Sesha, Lakshmana is always at Rama's side.[32] Although unconstrained by Dasaratha's promise to Kaikeyi, Lakshmana resists Rama's arguments and accompanies him and Sita into the forest. During the years of exile, Lakshmana constantly serves Rama and Sita – building huts, standing guard and finding new routes. When Sita is kidnapped, Rama blazes with his divine power and in his immense rage, expresses the desire to destroy all creation. Lakshmana prays and pleads for Rama to calm himself, and despite the shock of the moment and the promise of travails to come, begin an arduous but systematic search for Sita. During times when the search is proving fruitless and Rama fears for Sita, and expresses despair in his grief and loneliness, Lakshmana encourages him, providing hope and solace.

When Rama in his despair fears that Sugriva has forgotten his promise to help him trace Sita, Lakshmana goes to Kishkindha to remind the complacent monarch of his promise to help. But Lakshmana kicks down the city gate and threatens to destroy Sugriva and the monkey kingdom with his own divine power. Lakshmana is unable to tolerate Sugriva breaking his vow to Rama while enjoying material and sensual pleasures while Rama suffers alone. It is only through the diplomatic intervention of Queen Tara, Sugriva's wife, that Lakshmana is pacified. Tara then scolds and galvanises Sugriva into honoring his promise to Rama. Sugriva and Rama are then reconciled with the help of Lakshmana and Tara. And finally Sugriva appoints Hanuman to find the location of Sita and lead the monkey army into battle against the demonic forces of Ravana.[33]

Lakshmana is uniquely responsible for slaying Indrajit, the invincible son of Ravana who had humiliated Indra and the Devas, and outwitted the brothers and the Vanaras on several occasions. Rishi Agastya later points out that this victory was the turning point of the conflict. Rama is often overcome with emotion and deep affection for Lakshmana, acknowledging how important and crucial Lakshmana's love and support was for him. He also trusts Lakshmana to carry out difficult orders – Lakshmana was asked to take Sita to the ashrama of Valmiki, where she was to spend her exile. Lakshmana's deep love for Rama, his unconditional service and sacrifice, as well as qualities of practical judgment and clear-headedness make him Rama's superior in certain situations and perspectives. Lakshmana symbolizes a man's duty to his family, brothers and friends, and forms an essential part of the conception of ideal manhood, that Rama primarily embodies.
See also: Shatrughna
Jatayu, Hanuman and Vibheeshana
Main articles: Jatayu (Ramayana), Hanuman, and Vibheeshana

When Rama and Lakshmana begin the desperate search to discover where Sita had been taken. After traversing a distance in many directions, they come across the magical eagle Jatayu, who is dying. They discover from Jatayu that a rakshasa was flying away with a crying, struggling Sita towards the south. Jatayu had flown to the rescue of Sita, but owing to his age and the rakshasa's power, had been defeated. With this, Jatayu dies in Rama's arms. Rama is overcome with love and affection for the bird which sacrificed its own life for Sita, and the rage of his death returns to him in the climactic battle with

Ravana.

Rama's only allies in the struggle to find Sita are the Vanaras of Kishkindha. Finding a terrified Sugriva being hunted by his own brother, king Vali, Rama promises to kill Vali and free Sugriva of the terror and the unjust charge of plotting to murder Vali. The two swear everlasting friendship over sacred fire. Rama's natural piety and compassion, his sense of justice and duty, as well as his courage despite great personal suffering after Sita's kidnapping inspire devotion from the Vanaras and Sugriva, but especially Hanuman, Sugriva's minister. Devoted to Rama, Hanuman exerts himself greatly over the search for Sita. He is the first to discover that Sita was taken to Lanka, and volunteers to use his divine gifts in a dangerous reconnaissance of Lanka, where he is to verify Sita's presence. Hanuman hands Rama's ring to Sita, as a mark of Rama's love and his imminent intention of rescuing her. Though captured, he candidly delivers Rama's message to Ravana to immediately release Sita, and when his tail is burned, he flees and sets Lanka on fire. When Lakshmana is struck down and near death and Rama overcome with love and concern for his brother, Hanuman flies to the Himalayas on the urgent mission to fetch the sanjeevani medicinal herbs, bringing the entire mountain to Lanka so that no time is lost in saving Lakshmana.[34] The Vanaras fight the rakshasas, completely devoted to Rama's cause. They angrily dismiss Ravana's efforts to create divisions by suggesting that Rama considered them, monkeys, as mere animals. At the end of the war, Rama worships Brahma, who restores life to the millions of fallen Vanaras.[35]

Before the onset of war, rakshasa prince Vibheeshana, Ravana's youngest brother comes to join Rama. Although he loves his brother and Lanka, he fails in repeated efforts to make Ravana follow religious values and return Sita. Vibheeshana believes that Ravana's arrogance and callousness will cause the destruction of Lanka, which is a gross violation of a king's duty, and that Ravana's actions have only propagated evil. Vibheeshana refuses to defend the evil of Ravana's ways and inspired by Rama's compassion and piety, leaves Lanka to join the Vanara Army.[36] His knowledge of rakshasa ways and Ravana's mind help Rama and the Vanaras overcome black magic and mystical weapons. At the end of the war, Rama crowns Vibheeshana as the king of Lanka. Vibheeshana, and to a greater extent Hanuman, embody the perfect devotee in the wider conception of perfect manhood.

Ravana.

Ravana.

Rama's only allies in the struggle to find Sita are the Vanaras of Kishkindha. Finding a terrified Sugriva being hunted by his own brother, king Vali, Rama promises to kill Vali and free Sugriva of the terror and the unjust charge of plotting to murder Vali. The two swear everlasting friendship over sacred fire. Rama's natural piety and compassion, his sense of justice and duty, as well as his courage despite great personal suffering after Sita's kidnapping inspire devotion from the Vanaras and Sugriva, but especially Hanuman, Sugriva's minister. Devoted to Rama, Hanuman exerts himself greatly over the search for Sita. He is the first to discover that Sita was taken to Lanka, and volunteers to use his divine gifts in a dangerous reconnaissance of Lanka, where he is to verify Sita's presence. Hanuman hands Rama's ring to Sita, as a mark of Rama's love and his imminent intention of rescuing her. Though captured, he candidly delivers Rama's message to Ravana to immediately release Sita, and when his tail is burned, he flees and sets Lanka on fire. When Lakshmana is struck down and near death and Rama overcome with love and concern for his brother, Hanuman flies to the Himalayas on the urgent mission to fetch the sanjeevani medicinal herbs, bringing the entire mountain to Lanka so that no time is lost in saving Lakshmana.[34] The Vanaras fight the rakshasas, completely devoted to Rama's cause. They angrily dismiss Ravana's efforts to create divisions by suggesting that Rama considered them, monkeys, as mere animals. At the end of the war, Rama worships Brahma, who restores life to the millions of fallen Vanaras.[35]

Before the onset of war, rakshasa prince Vibheeshana, Ravana's youngest brother comes to join Rama. Although he loves his brother and Lanka, he fails in repeated efforts to make Ravana follow religious values and return Sita. Vibheeshana believes that Ravana's arrogance and callousness will cause the destruction of Lanka, which is a gross violation of a king's duty, and that Ravana's actions have only propagated evil. Vibheeshana refuses to defend the evil of Ravana's ways and inspired by Rama's compassion and piety, leaves Lanka to join the Vanara Army.[36] His knowledge of rakshasa ways and Ravana's mind help Rama and the Vanaras overcome black magic and mystical weapons. At the end of the war, Rama crowns Vibheeshana as the king of Lanka. Vibheeshana, and to a greater extent Hanuman, embody the perfect devotee in the wider conception of perfect manhood.
Rama in war

The epic story of Ramayana was adopted by several cultures across Asia. Shown here is a Thai historic artwork depicting the battle which took place between Rama and Ravana.

When Rama is sixteen years old, he and his brother Lakshmana are taken by Vishwamitra to the forests, with the purpose of killing rakshasas who are wrecking the tapasya and sacrifices of brahmins. Rama and Lakshmana are taught the advanced military arts and given the knowledge of all celestial weapons by Vishwamitra. Rama proceeds to slay Tadaka, a cursed yaksha demoness. When asked to slay the demoness, Rama demurs, considering it sinful to kill a woman. But Vishwamitra explains that evil has no gender. The killing of Tadaka liberates the yaksha soul who was cursed for a sin, and had to adopt a rakshasi's body. It restores the purity of the sacrifices of the brahmins who live nearby, and protects the animals who live in the forest, and travelers. The main purpose of Vishwamitra's exursion is to conduct his yagna without interruption from two evil demons, Maricha and Subahu. Rama and Lakshmana guard the sacrifice, and when the two demons appear, Rama shoots an arrow that carries Maricha across the lands and into the ocean, but does not kill him. Rama and his brother then proceed to kill Subahu and accompanying demons. Rama explains to Lakshmana that leaving Maricha alive was an act of compassion, but the others did not heed the point and chose to attack.[37] During the forest exile, sages plead for protection and help against evil rakshasas who spoil their sacrifices and religious activities and terrorize them. Many rakshasas had even killed and eaten sages and innocent people. At Janasthana, Rama uses his exceptional prowess to single-handedly kill over fourteen thousand demon hordes led by the powerful Khara, who is a cousin of Ravana.

Raja Ravi Varma Painting – 'Rama Conquers Varuna'
Sagara

Faced with the dilemma of how to cross the ocean, Rama performs a penance tapasya, fasting and meditating in perfect dhyana for three days and three nights to Varuna, the Lord of Oceans. The ocean god does not respond out of arrogance, and Rama on the fourth morning, pointed the brahmastra towards the ocean. The Vanaras are dazzled and fearful at witnessing the enraged Rama demolish the oceans, and Lakshmana prays to calm Rama's mind. Just as Rama invokes the brahmastra, considered the most powerful weapon capable of destroying all creation, Saagara arises out of the oceans. He bows to Rama, and begs for pardon. Since lord Rama had to use the weapon, he suggests Rama re-direct the weapon at a demonic race that lives in the heart of the ocean. Rama's arrows destroys the demons, and establishes a purer, liberated environment there. Saagara promises that he would keep the oceans still for all of Rama's army to pass, and Nala constructs a bridge (Rama's Bridge) across to Lanka. Rama justifies his angry assault on the oceans as he followed the correct process of petitioning and worshipping Saagara, but obtaining the result by force for the greater good.[38]

In another version of the story, Lord Rama redirected his missile to the barren Island, and as a result huge volcanic eruption resulted. This volcano is the one which is found till today at the southern part of Indian peninsula.

Coronation of Rama with Sita (center on the throne), surrounded by his brothers and other deities including Hanuman (bottom left)

The end of the war coincides with the end of Rama's tenure of exile. Flying home on the Pushpaka Vimana, Rama returns to a joyous Ayodhya. His mothers, brothers and the people joyously welcome him. Kaikeyi is repentant of her deeds, and Rama forgives her. The next day, Rama is invested as the King of Ayodhya, and Emperor of the World. Although he first asks Lakshmana to become the yuvaraja, upon the advice of Lakshmana he invests the position to Bharata, who has had fourteen years of experience as the ruler of Ayodhya. Rama performs the holy Ashwamedha sacrifice, purifying and establishing religion across earth.

[41]Beyond the Ramayana, the eleven thousand days of Rama's rule over the earth represent to millions of modern Indians a time and age when God as a man ruled the world. There was perfect justice and freedom, peace and prosperity. There are no natural disasters, diseases, ailments or ill-fortune of any nature for any living being. There are no sins committed in the world by any of his people. Always attentive and accessible to his people, Rama is worshipped and hailed by all – the very symbol of moksha, the ultimate goal and destination of all life, and the best example of perfect character and human conduct, inspiring human beings for countless succeeding ages.

Rama like other Indian kings went undercover every night to hear the pleas of his subjects and have a common man's perspective of his rule. During Rama's tenure as King, the people apparently had no locks on their doors as they feared no burglaries or other such misfortunes.
International influence

Rama (Yama) and Sita (Me Thida) in Yama Zatdaw

Be it as a manifestation of God or simply as a legendary hero of myths and folktales, Rama is an immensely revered and inspirational figure to people across the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia, as well as increasingly across Western civilization, where the Hindu epics and values are gaining recognition and popularity. In Jainism, Rama is enumerated among the nine white Balas.

Deities of Sri Sri Sita (far right), Rama (center), Lakshmana (far left) and Hanuman (below seated) at Bhaktivedanta Manor, a temple in Watford England

Rama is a great hero to the adherents of Agama Hindu Dharma and to the Muslims who practice Abangan, a syncretic form of Islam and Hinduism, in Indonesia. He is revered by the people throughout Indochina who otherwise adhere to different forms of Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism. His regal bearing and fighting prowess is emulated in various Indian martial arts which in turn influenced various Southeast Asian fighting systems such as silat. The Rama Leela is performed across South East Asia in numerous local languages and the story has been the subject of art, architecture, music, folk dance and sculpture. The ancient city of Ayutthaya stands in Thailand, as the tribute of an ancient Thai kingdom to the great legend. Many ancient and medieval era kings of India and South East Asia have adopted Rama as their name.

A Buddhist version of the tale is found in the Jataka stories, in the Dasharatha Jataka (Jataka Atthakatha 461) in the Pali vernacular. Here Rama is represented as a former life of the Buddha as a Bodhisatva and supreme Dharma King of great wisdom. In the Buddhist tale, he is the king of Varanasi and not Ayodhya, which is traditionally the capital of Kosala.

Reviewers linked the imagery of the blue-skinned Na'vi in James Cameron's film Avatar to Rama as one of their possible conceptual prototypes.
[42]Festivals
Main article: Rama Navami This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2011)

Rama's day and time of birth, as well as marriage to Sita are celebrated by Hindus across the world as Rama Navami. It falls on the ninth day of a Hindu lunar year, or Chaitra Masa Suklapaksha Navami. This day is observed as the marriage day of Rama and Sita as well as the birthday of Rama. People normally perform Kalyanotsavam (marriage celebration) for small statues of Rama and Sita in their houses and at the end of the day the idols are taken in a procession on the streets. This day also marks the end of nine

day utsavam called Vasanthothsavam (Festival of Spring), that starts with Ugadi. Some highlights of this day are:

A Home shrine with images of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman, on Sri Rama Navami
Kalyanam (Ceremonial wedding performed by temple priests) at Bhadrachalam on the banks of the river Godavari in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh.
Panakam, a sweet drink prepared on this day with jaggery and pepper.
Procession of idols in the evening that is accompanied with play of water and colours.
For the occasion, Hindus are supposed to fast (or restrict themselves to a specific diet).
Temples are decorated and readings of the Ramayana take place. Along with Rama, people also pray to Sita, Lakshmana and Hanumana.

The occasion of victory over Ravana and the rakshasas is celebrated as the 10-day Vijayadashami, also known as Dussehra. The Ram Leela is publicly performed in many villages, towns and cities in India. Rama's return to Ayodhya and his coronation are celebrated as Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights. The latter two are the most important and popular festivals in India and for Hindus across the world. In Malaysia, Diwali is known as Hari Deepavali, and is celebrated during the seventh month of the Hindu solar calendar. It is a federal public holiday. In many respects it resembles the traditions followed in the Indian subcontinent. In Nepal, Diwali is known as Tihar and celebrated during the October/November period. Here, though the festival is celebrated for five days, the traditions vary from those followed in India. On the first day, cows are worshipped and given offerings. On the second day, dogs are revered and offered special food. On the third day, celebrations follow the same pattern as in India, with lights and lamps and much social activity. On the fourth day Yama, the Lord of Death, is worshipped and appeased. On the fifth and final day, brothers sisters meet and exchange pleasantries. In Guyana, Diwali is marked as a special occasion and celebrated with a lot of fanfare. It is observed as a national holiday in this part of the world and some ministers of the Government also take part in the celebrations publicly.
See also: List of Hindu festivals

Rama's day and time of birth, as well as marriage to Sita are celebrated by Hindus across the world as Rama Navami. It falls on the ninth day of a Hindu lunar year, or Chaitra Masa Suklapaksha Navami. This day is observed as the marriage day of Rama and Sita as well as the birthday of Rama. People normally perform Kalyanotsavam (marriage celebration) for small statues of Rama and Sita in their houses and at the end of the day the idols are taken in a procession on the streets. This day also marks the end of nine day utsavam called Vasanthothsavam (Festival of Spring), that starts with Ugadi. Some highlights of this day are:
Kalyanam (Ceremonial wedding performed by temple priests) at Bhadrachalam on the banks of the river Godavari in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh.
Panakam, a sweet drink prepared on this day with jaggery and pepper.
Procession of idols in the evening that is accompanied with play of water and colours.
For the occasion, Hindus are supposed to fast (or restrict themselves to a specific diet).
Temples are decorated and readings of the Ramayana take place. Along with Rama, people also pray to Sita, Lakshmana and Hanumana.

The occasion of victory over Ravana and the rakshasas is celebrated as the 10-day Vijayadashami, also known as Dussehra. The Ram Leela is publicly performed in many villages, towns and cities in India. Rama's return to Ayodhya and his coronation are celebrated as Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights. The latter two are the most important and popular festivals in India and for Hindus across the world. In Malaysia, Diwali is known as Hari Deepavali, and is celebrated during the seventh month of the Hindu solar calendar. It is a federal public holiday. In many respects it resembles the traditions followed in the Indian subcontinent. In Nepal, Diwali is known as Tihar and celebrated during the October/November period. Here, though the festival is celebrated for five days, the traditions vary from those followed in India. On the first day, cows are worshipped and given offerings. On the second day, dogs are revered and offered special food. On the third day, celebrations follow the same pattern as in India, with lights and lamps and much social activity. On the fourth day Yama, the Lord of Death, is worshipped and appeased. On the fifth and final day, brothers sisters meet and exchange pleasantries. In Guyana, Diwali is marked as a special occasion and celebrated with a lot of fanfare. It is observed as a national holiday in this part of the world and some ministers of the Government also take part in the celebrations publicly.

Antique Stores

2011-05-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

Ancient Weapons.
Manufacturers and exporters of ancient weapons and armoury including daggers, swords, polearms, battle axes, bayonets, tomahawks, hunting knives, khukries, scottish dirks, throwing stars, helmets, shields, breast plates, chain mails and neck plates.
Antiques
Indian Antiques site for news, articles.. Includes Antique reviews, buying guide, care & restoration tips. Updated information Guide to Indian Antique market
Global Art Interiors
The Global Art Interiors, is government recognized manufacturer exporter and supplier of pure silver mounted handicrafts furniture, white metal (German silver), brass handicrafts furniture as antique reproduction in Victorian, Regency, Anglo-Indian style and Indian Palace & Ethnic style furniture.
India Overseas Trading Corporation.
Manufacturer and supplier of antique weapons, body armour, helmets, shields, breastplate, roman shield, armor helmets, armor suits, armor helmets, viking spectacles helmets, muscle armor, divers helmet, compass, telescopes, binoculars etc.
Jamal Mir
Vegetable Dyed Antique carpets, now showing at all JAMAL MIR � outlets.
Khanna Overseas.
Suppliers of all kinds of antique weapons, medieval weaponary and their replicas like medieval swords, civil war swords, scottish swords, damascus knives, khukries, daggers, armour, helmets, shields, leg and arm plates, chainmail, butted chainmail etc.
M.C. Handicrafts
M.C. Handicrafts dealing in wooden incense holder box, leather and brass animals, brass and antique statue. There are many leading products.
N. H. Exports
We are a renowned manufacturer and exporter of decorative lanterns, candle lanterns, metal candle lanterns, table candle lanterns, recycled lanterns, moroccan lanterns, iron lanterns, hanging lanterns, metal lanterns, antique lanterns etc.
Saga Department Stores
Saga Department Stores - Shopping malls and retail chain dealing in heritage artifacts, art and sculptures, and home d�cor and interior gift items.
Surya Handicrafts,Dehradun
Manufacturer and exporter of all type of medeival arms etc.

Engineering Drawing

2011-05-21T19:46:00.001-07:00

UNIT - I

Introduction to engineering graphics - construction of ellipse, parabola and hyperbola - cylindrical curves.
UNIT - II

Orthographic projections of points, lines and planes - axis inclined to one planes and inclined to both the planes.
UNIT - III

Orthographic projections of solids :

Cylinder, cone, prism, pyramid and sphere positions and axis inclined to both the planes.
UNIT - IV

Isomeric projections of lines, planes and simple solids
UNIT - V

Conversion of orthographic views into isometric views and vice-versa.
Text Books:

1. Engineering drawings By N.D.Bhatt

2. Engineering graphics By K.L. Narayana & P.Kannayya
References:-

1. Engineering drawing and graphics: Venugopal/ New age

2. Engineering drawing : Johle / TMH

English Language Communication skills Lab

2011-05-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

Language Lab focuses on the production and practice of sounds of language and familiarises the students with the use of English in everyday situations and contexts.
Objectives:
To make students recognise the sounds of English through Audio-Visual aids and Computer Software.
To help them overcome their inhibitions and self- consciousness while speaking in English and to build their confidence. The focus shall be on fluency rather than accuracy.
To enable them to speak English correctly with focus on stress and intonation.

SYLLABUS :
The following course content is prescribed for the English Language Laboratory sessions:
1. Introduction to the Sounds of English- Vowels, Diphthongs & Consonants.
2. Introduction to Stress and Intonation.
3. Situational Dialogues / Role Play.
4. Oral Presentations- Prepared and Extempore.
5. 'Just A Minute' Sessions (JAM).
6. Describing Objects / Situations / People.
7. Information Transfer
8. Debate
9. Telephoning Skills.
10. Giving Directions.
Minimum Requirement:
The English Language Lab shall have two parts:

i) The Computer aided Language Lab for 60 students with 60 systems, one master console, LAN facility and English language software for self- study by learners.

ii) The Communication Skills Lab with movable chairs and audio-visual aids with a P.A System, a T. V., a digital stereo -audio & video system and camcorder etc.
System Requirement ( Hardware component):
Computer network with Lan with minimum 60 multimedia systems with the following specifications:

i) P - IV Processor
a) Speed - 2.8 GHZ
b) RAM - 512 MB Minimum
c) Hard Disk - 80 GB
ii) Headphones of High quality
iii) Internet connectivity
Suggested Software:

Cambridge Advanced Learners' English Dictionary with CD.
The Rosetta Stone English Library
Clarity Pronunciation Power
Mastering English in Vocabulary, Grammar, Spellings, Composition
Dorling Kindersley series of Grammar, Punctuation, Composition etc.
Language in Use, Foundation Books Pvt Ltd with CD.
Learning to Speak English - 4 CDs
Microsoft Encarta with CD
Murphy's English Grammar, Cambridge with CD
Books to be procured for English Language Lab Library (to be located within the lab in addition to the CDs of the text book which are loaded on the systems):

1. Spoken English (CIEFL) in 3 volumes with 6 cassettes, OUP.
2. English Pronouncing Dictionary Daniel Jones Current Edition with CD.
3. Spoken English- R. K. Bansal and J. B. Harrison, Orient Longman 2006 Edn.
4. A Practical course in English Pronunciation, (with two Audio cassettes) by J. Sethi, Kamlesh Sadanand & D.V. Jindal, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
5. A text book of English Phonetics for Indian Students by T.Balasubramanian (Macmillan)
6. English Skills for Technical Students, WBSCTE with British Council, OL
DISTRIBUTION AND WEIGHTAGE OF MARKS

English Language Laboratory Practical Paper:
1. The practical examinations for the English Language Laboratory shall be conducted as per the University norms prescribed for the core engineering practical sessions.
2. For the Language lab sessions, there shall be a continuous evaluation during the year for 25 sessional marks and 50 year-end Examination marks. Of the 25 marks, 15 marks shall be awarded for day-to-day work and 10 marks to be awarded by conducting Internal Lab Test(s). The year- end Examination shall be conducted by the teacher concerned with the help of another member of the staff of the same department of the same institution.

BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

2011-05-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

UNIT - I
Introduction to Electrical Engineering : Essence of electricity, Conductors, semiconductors and insulators (elementary treatment only); Electric field; electric current, potential and potential difference, electromotive force, electric power, ohm’s law, basic circuit components, electromagnetism related laws,

Magnetic field due to electric current flow ,force on a current carrying conductor placed in a magnetic field, Faradays laws of electromagnetic induction. Types of induced EMF’s, Kirchhoff’s laws. Simple problems.

UNIT-II
Network Analysis : Basic definitions, types of elements , types of sources, resistive networks, inductive networks, capacitive networks, series parallel circuits, star delta and delta star transformation , Network theorems- Superposition , Thevenins’s, Maximum power transfer theorems and simple problems.

UNIT-III
Magnetic Circuits : Basic definitions, analogy between electric and magnetic circuits, magnetization characteristics of Ferro magnetic materials, self inductance and mutual inductance, energy in linear magnetic systems, coils connected in series, attracting force of electromagnets.

UNIT-IV
Alternating Quantities : Principle of ac voltages , waveforms and basic definitions, relationship between frequency, speed and number of poles, root mean square and average values of alternating currents and voltage, form factor and peak factor, phasor representation of alternating quantities, the J operator and phasor algebra, analysis of ac circuits with single basic network element, single phase series circuits, single phase parallel circuits, single phase series parallel circuits, power in ac circuits.
UNIT-V
Transformers : Principles of operation, Constructional Details, Ideal Transformer and Practical Transformer, Losses, Transformer Test, Efficiency and Regulation Calculations (All the above topics are only elementary treatment and simple problems).

UNIT-VI

Direct current machines : Principle of operation of dc machines, armature windings, e.m.f equation in a dc machine, Torque production in a dc machine, Operation of a dc machine as a generator, operation of a dc machine as a motor.

UNIT-VII
A.C Machines : Three phase induction motor, principle of operation, slip and rotor frequency, torque (simple problems). Synchronous Machines: Principle of operation, EMF equation (Simple problems on EMF). Synchronous
motor principle and operation (Elementary treatment only)

UNIT VIII

Basic Instruments : Introduction, classification of instruments, operating principles, essential features of measuring instruments, Moving coil permanent magnet (PMMC) instruments, Moving Iron of Ammeters
and Voltmeters (elementary Treatment only)

Text Books:
1. Basic Electrical Engineering - By M.S.Naidu and S. Kamakshiah – TMH.
2. Basic Electrical Engineering –By T.K.Nagasarkar and M.S. Sukhija Oxford University Press.

References:

1. Theory and Problems of Basic Electrical Engineering by D.P.Kothari & I.J. Nagrath PHI.
2. Principles of Electrical Engineering by V.K Mehta, S.Chand Publications.
3. Essentials of Electrical and Computer Engineering by David V. Kerns, JR. J. David Irwin Pearson.

C Programming and Data Structures

2011-05-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

UNIT - I
Algorithm / pseudo code, flowchart, program development steps, structure of C program, A Simple C program, identifiers, basic data types and sizes, Constants, variables, arithmetic, relational and logical operators, increment and decrement operators, conditional operator, bit-wise operators, assignment operators, expressions, type conversions, conditional expressions, precedence and order of evaluation.

Input-output statements, statements and blocks, if and switch statements, loops- while, do-while and for statements, break, continue, goto and labels, programming examples.

UNIT - II
Designing structured programs, Functions, basics, parameter passing, storage classes- extern, auto, register, static, scope rules, block structure, user defined functions, standard library functions, recursive functions, header files, C preprocessor, example c programs.

UNIT - III
Arrays- concepts, declaration, definition, accessing elements, storing elements, arrays and functions, two-dimensional and multi-dimensional arrays, applications of arrays. pointers- concepts, initialization of pointer variables, pointers and function arguments, address arithmetic, Character pointers and functions, pointers to pointers, pointers and multidimensional arrays, dynamic memory managements functions, command line arguments, c program examples.

UNIT - IV
Derived types- structures- declaration, definition and initialization of structures, accessing structures, nested structures, arrays of structures, structures and functions, pointers to structures, self referential structures, unions, typedef, bitfields, C program examples.

UNIT - V
Input and output - concept of a file, text files and binary files, streams, standard I/o, Formatted I/o, file I/o operations, error handling, C program examples.

UNIT - VI
Searching - Linear and binary search methods, sorting - Bubble sort, selection sort, Insertion sort, Quick sort, merge sort.

UNIT – VII
Introduction to data structures, singly linked lists, doubly linked lists, circular list, representing stacks and queues in C using arrays and linked lists, infix to post fix conversion, postfix expression evaluation.

UNIT - VIII
Trees- Binary tress, terminology, representation, traversals, graphs- terminology, representation, graph traversals (dfs & bfs)
TEXT BOOKS :

1. Computer science, A structured programming approach using C, B.A. Forouzan and R.F. Gilberg, Third edition, Thomson.
2. DataStructures Using C - A.S.Tanenbaum, Y. Langsam, and M.J. Augenstein, PHI/Pearson education.

REFERENCES :
1. C& Data structures - P. Padmanabham, B.S. Publications.
2. The C Programming Language, B.W. Kernighan, Dennis M.Ritchie, PHI/Pearson Education
3. C Programming with problem solving, J.A. Jones & K. Harrow, Dreamtech Press
4. Programming in C - Stephen G. Kochan, III Edition, Pearson Eductaion.
5. Data Structures and Program Design in C, R.Kruse, C.L. Tondo, BP Leung, Shashi M, Second Edition, Pearson Education

APPLIED PHYSICS

2011-05-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

UNIT I
BONDING IN SOLIDS :
Introduction - Types of bonding in solids - Estimation of cohesive energy - Madelung constant.

CRYSTAL STRUCTURES AND X-RAY DIFFRACTION:
Introduction -Space lattice - Basis - Unit cell - Lattice parameter - Bravais lattices - Crystal systems - Structure and packing fractions of Simple cubic - Body centered cubic - Face centered cubic crystals - Directions and planes in crystals - Miller indices - Separation between successive [h k l] planes - Diffraction of X-rays by crystal planes - Bragg's law - Laue method - Powder method.

UNIT II
PRINCIPLES OF QUANTUM MECHANICS:
Waves and particles - Planck's quantum theory - de Broglie hypothesis - Matter waves - Davisson and Germer experiment - G. P. Thomson experiment - Heisenberg uncertainty principle - Schrödinger's time independent wave equation - Physical significance of the wave function - Particle in one dimensional potential box.

UNIT III
ELECTRON THEORY OF METALS:
Classical free electron theory - Mean free path - Relaxation time and drift velocity - Quantum free electron theory - Fermi-Dirac distribution (analytical) and its dependence on temparature - Fermi energy - Electron scattering and resistance.

BAND THEORY OF SOLIDS:
Bloch theorem - Kronig-Penney model (qualitative treatment) - Origin of energy band formation in solids - Classification of materials into conductors, semi conductors & insulators - Concept of effective mass of an electron.

UNIT IV
DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES:
Introduction - Dielectric constant - Electronic, ionic and orientational polarizations - Internal fields in solids - Clausius - Mossotti equation - Dielectrics in alternating fields - Frequency dependence of the polarizability - Ferro and Piezo electricity.

MAGNETIC PROPERTIES:
Permeability - Magnetization - Origin of magnetic moment - Classification of magnetic materials - Dia, para and ferro magnetism - Hysteresis curve - Soft and hard magnetic materials.

UNIT V
SEMICONDUCTORS :
Introduction - Intrinsic semiconductor and carrier concentration - Equation for conductivity - Extrinsic semiconductor and carrier concentration - Drift and diffusion - Einstein's equation - Hall effect - Direct & indirect band gap semiconductors.

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY:
General properties - Meissner effect - Penetration depth - Type I and Type II superconductors - Flux quantization - DC and AC Josephson effect -BCS Theory - Applications of superconductors.
LASERS:
Introduction - Characteristics of Lasers - Spontaneous and stimulated emission of radiation - Einstein's coefficients - Population inversion - Ruby laser - Helium-Neon Laser - CO2 laser -Semiconductor Laser - Applications of lasers.

UNIT VII
FIBER OPTICS AND HOLOGRAPHY:

Introduction - Principle of optical fiber - Acceptance angle and acceptance cone - Numerical aperture - Types of optical fibers and refractive index profiles - Attenuation in optical fibers - Application of optical fibers - Basic principles of holography - Construction and reconstruction of image on hologram - Applications of holography.
UNIT VIII

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY OF NANOMATERIALS:
Introduction to Nano materials - Basic principles of Nanoscience & Technology - Fabrication of nano materials - Physical & chemical properties of nanomaterials - Carbon nanotubes - Applications of nanotechnology.
Text Books:
1. Applied Physics by Dr. M.Chandra Shekar & Dr. P. Appala Naidu ; V.G.S. Book links.
2. Introduction to Solid State Physics by C. Kittel ; Wiley Eastern Ltd.
3. Nanotechnology by Mark Ratner and Daniel Ratner; Pearson Education.

References:
1. Materials Science and Engineering by V. Raghavan; Prentice-Hall India.
2. Materials Science by M. Arumugam; Anuradha Agencies.
3. Solid State Physics by N.W. Ashcroft & N. David Merwin; Thomson Learning.
4. Materials Science by M.S.Vijaya & G. Rangarajan; Tata McGraw Hill.
5. Solid State Physics by P.K. Palanisamy; Scitech Publications (India) Pvt. Ltd.
6. Nano Materials by A.K. Bandyopadhyay, New Age International Publishers.
7. Applied Physics by P.K.Mittal; I.K. International.
8. Applied Physics by K. Vijay Kumar & T. Sreekanth; S. Chand & Company Ltd.

MATHEMATICAL METHODS

2011-05-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

UNIT – I
Matrices and Linear systems of equations: Elementary row transformations-Rank-Echelon form, Normal form – Solution of Linear Systems – Direct Methods- LU Decomposition- LU Decomposition from Gauss Elimination –Solution of Tridiagonal Systems-Solution of Linear Systems

UNIT – II
Eigen values, eigen vectors – properties – Cayley-Hamilton Theorem - Inverse and powers of a matrix by Cayley-Hamilton theorem – Diagonolization of matrix. Calculation of powers of matrix – Modal and spectral matrices.

UNIT – III
Real matrices – Symmetric, skew - symmetric, orthogonal, Linear Transformation – Orthogonal Transformation. Complex matrices: Hermitian, Skew-Hermitian and Unitary – Eigen values and eigen vectors of complex matrices and their properties. Quadratic forms- Reduction of quadratic form to canonical form – Rank - Positive, negative definite - semi definite - index - signature - Sylvester law.

UNIT – IV
Solution of Algebraic and Transcendental Equations: Introduction – The Bisection Method – The Method of False Position – The Iteration Method – Newton-Raphson Method.
Interpolation: Introduction- Errors in Polynomial Interpolation – Finite differences- Forward Differences- Backward differences –Central differences – Symbolic relations and separation of symbols-Differences of a polynomial-Newton’s formulae for interpolation – Central difference interpolation Formulae – Gauss Central Difference Formulae –Interpolation with unevenly spaced points-Lagrange’s Interpolation formula.

UNIT – V
Curve fitting: Fitting a straight line –Second degree curve-exponentional curve-power curve by method of least squares. Numerical Differentiation and Integration– Trapezoidal rule – Simpson’s 1/3 Rule –Simpson’s 3/8 Rule.

UNIT – VI
Numerical solution of Ordinary Differential equations: Solution by Taylor’s series-Picard’s Method of successive Approximations-Euler’s Method-Runge-Kutta Methods –Predictor-Corrector Methods- Adams- Moulton Method –Milne’s Method.

UNIT – VII
Fourier Series: Determination of Fourier coefficients – Fourier series – even and odd functions – Fourier series in an arbitrary interval – even and odd periodic continuation – Half-range Fourier sine and cosine expansions. Fourier integral theorem (only statement)– Fourier sine and cosine integrals. Fourier transform – Fourier sine and cosine transforms – properties – inverse transforms – Finite Fourier transforms.

UNIT – VIII
Formation of partial differential equations by elimination of arbitrary constants and arbitrary functions –solutions of first order linear (Lagrange) equation and nonlinear (standard type) equations. Method of separation of variables. z-transform – inverse z-transform - properties – Damping rule – Shifting rule – Initial and final value theorems. Convolution theorem – Solution of difference equation by z-transforms.

Text Books:
1. Mathematical Methods, T. K. V. Iyengar, B. Krishna Gandhi and Others, S. Chand & Company.

2. Mathematical Methods, C. Sankaraiah, V. G. S. Book Links.
3. A text book of Mathematical Methods, V. Ravindranath, A. Vijayalaxmi, Himalaya Publishers.
4. A text book of Mathematical Methods, Shahnaz Bathul, Right Publisshers.

References:
1. A text Book of Engineering Mathematics, B. V. Raman, Tata Mc Graw Hill.
2. Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Irvin Kreyszig, Wiley India Pvt. Ltd.

3. Numerical Methods for Scientific and Engineering Computation, M. K. Jain, S. R. K. Iyengar & R. K. Jain, New Age International Publishers.

4. Elementary Numerical Analysis, Aitkinson & Han, Wiely India, 3rd Edition, 2006

Syllabus of JNTU BTech Mathematics I

2011-05-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

UNIT - I
Differential equations of first order and first degree - exact, linear and Bernoulli. Applications to Newton's Law of cooling, Law of natural growth and decay, orthogonal trajectories.

UNIT - II
Non-homogeneous linear differential equations of second and higher order with constant coefficients with RHS term of the type e, Sin ax, cos ax, polynomials in x, e V(x), xV(x), method of variation of parameters.

UNIT - III
Rolle's Theorem - Lagrange's Mean Value Theorem - Cauchy's mean value Theorem - Generalized Mean Value theorem (all theorems without proof) Functions of several variables - Functional dependence- Jacobian- Maxima and Minima of functions of two variables with constraints and without constraints

UNIT - IV
Radius, Centre and Circle of Curvature - Evolutes and Envelopes Curve tracing - Cartesian , polar and Parametric curves.

UNIT - V
Applications of integration to lengths, volumes and surface areas in Cartesian and polar coordinates multiple integrals - double and triple integrals - change of variables - change of order of integration.

UNIT - VI
Sequences - series - Convergences and divergence - Ratio test - Comparison test - Integral test - Cauchy's root test - Raabe's test - Absolute and conditional convergence

UNIT - VII
Vector Calculus: Gradient- Divergence- Curl and their related properties of sums- products- Laplacian and second order operators. Vector Integration - Line integral - work done - Potential function - area- surface and volume integrals Vector integral theorems: Green's theorem-Stoke's and Gauss's Divergence Theorem (With out proof). Verification of Green's - Stoke's and Gauss's Theorems.

UNIT - VIII
Laplace transform of standard functions - Inverse transform - first shifting Theorem, Transforms of derivatives and integrals - Unit step function - second shifting theorem - Dirac's delta function - Convolution theorem - Periodic function - Differentiation and integration of transforms-Application of Laplace transforms to ordinary differential equations Partial fractions-Heaviside's Partial fraction expansion theorem.
Text Books:
1. A text Book of Engineering Mathematics, Vol-1 T. K. V. Iyengar, B. Krishna Gandhi and Others, S. Chand & Company.
2. A text Book of Engineering Mathematics, C. Sankaraiah, V. G. S. Book Links.
3. A text Book of Engineering Mathematics, Shahnaz Bathul, Right Publishers.
4. A text Book of Engineering Mathematics, P. Nageshwara Rao, Y. Narasimhulu & N. Prabhakar Rao, Deepthi Publications.
References:

1. A text Book of Engineering Mathematics, B. V. Raman, Tata Mc Graw Hill.
2. Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Irvin Kreyszig, Wiley India Pvt. Ltd.
3. A text Book of Engineering Mathematics, Thamson Book Collection.

Syllabus of JNTU BTech Common Syllabus - HS 05231 English

2011-05-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

1. INTRODUCTION :In view of the growing importance of English as a tool for global communication and the consequent emphasis on training students to acquire communicative competence, the syllabus has been designed to develop linguistic and communicative competence of Engineering students. The prescribed books and the exercises are meant to serve broadly as students' handbooks.

In the English classes, the focus should be on the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking and for this the teachers should use the text prescribed for detailed study. For example, the students should be encouraged to read the texts/selected paragraphs silently. The teachers can ask comprehension questions to stimulate discussion and based on the discussions students can be made to write short paragraphs/essays etc.

The text for non-detailed study is for extensive reading/reading for pleasure by the students. Hence, it is suggested that they read it on their own with topics selected for discussion in the class. The time should be utilized for working out the exercises given after each section , as also for supplementing the exercises with authentic materials of a similar kind for example, from newspaper articles, advertisements, promotional material etc. However, the stress in this syllabus is on skill development and practice of language skills.
2. OBJECTIVES:
a. To improve the language proficiency of the students in English with emphasis on LSRW skills.
b. To equip the students to study academic subjects with greater facility through the theoreticalandpractical components of the English syllabus.
c. To develop the study skills and communication skills in formalandinformal situations.

3. SYLLABUS :
Listening Skills:
Objectives
1. To enable students to develop their listening skill so that they may appreciate its role in the LSRW skills approach to languageandimprove their pronunciation
2. To equip students with necessary training in listening so that can comprehend the speech of people of different backgroundsandregions
Students should be given practice in listening to the sounds of the language to be able to recognise them, to distinguish between them to mark stressandrecogniseanduse the right intonation in sentences.
Listening for general content
Listening to fill up information
Intensive listening
Listening for specific information
Speaking Skills :
Objectives
1. To make students aware of the role of speaking in Englishandits contribution to their success.
2. To enable students to express themselves fluentlyandappropriately in socialandprofessional contexts.
Oral practice
Describing objects/situations/people
Role play - Individual/Group activities (Using exercises from all the nine units of the prescribed text: Learning English : A Communicative Approach.)
Just A Minute(JAM) Sessions.
Reading Skills:

Objectives

1. To develop an awareness in the students about the significance of silent readingandcomprehension.
2. To develop the ability of students to guess the meanings of words from contextandgrasp the overall message of the text, draw inferences etc.
Skimming the text
Understanding the gist of an argument
Identifying the topic sentence
Inferring lexicalandcontextual meaning
Understanding discourse features
Recognizing coherence/sequencing of sentences
NOTE :
The students will be trained in reading skills using the prescribed text for detailed study.They will be examined in readingandanswering questions using ‘unseen' passages which may be taken from the non-detailed text or other authentic texts, such as magazines/newspaper articles.
Writing Skills :

Objectives

1. To develop an awareness in the students about writing as an exactandformal skill
2. To equip them with the components of different forms of writing, beginning with the lower order ones.
Writing sentences
Use of appropriate vocabulary
Paragraph writing
Coherenceandcohesiveness
Narration / description
Note Making
Formalandinformal letter writing
Editing a passage
4. TEXTBOOKS PRESCRIBED:In order to improve the proficiency of the student in the acquisition of the four skills mentioned above, the following textsandcourse content, divided into Eight Units, are prescribed:
For Detailed study
1. LEARNING ENGLISH: A Communicative Approach, Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2006. (Six Selected Lessons)
For Non-detailed study
2. WINGS OF FIRE: An Autobiography - APJ Abdul Kalam, Abridged version with Exercises, Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd., 2004.A. STUDY MATERIAL:
Unit -I
1. Astronomy from LEARNING ENGLISH: A Communicative Approach, Orient Longman, 2005.
2. Chapters 1-4 from Wings of Fire: An Autobiography - APJ Abdul Kalam, an abridged version with Exercises, Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd.,2004
Unit -II
3. Information Technology from LEARNING ENGLISH: A Communicative Approach, Orient Longman, 2005.
4. Chapters 5-8 from Wings of Fire: An Autobiography - APJ Abdul Kalam, an abridged version with Exercises, Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd.,2004
Unit -III
5. Humour from LEARNING ENGLISH: A Communicative Approach, Orient Longman, 2005.
6. Chapters 9-12 from Wings of Fire: An Autobiography - APJ Abdul Kalam, an abridged version with Exercises., Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd.,2004
Unit -IV
7. Environment from LEARNING ENGLISH: A Communicative Approach, Orient Longman, 2005.
8. Chapters 13-16 from Wings of Fire: An Autobiography - APJ Abdul Kalam, an abridged version with Exercises, Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd.,2004
Unit -V
9. Inspiration from LEARNING ENGLISH: A Communicative Approach, Orient Longman, 2005.
10. Chapters 17-20 from Wings of Fire: An Autobiography - APJ Abdul Kalam, an abridged version with Exercises, Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd.,2004.
Unit - VI
11. Human Interest from LEARNING ENGLISH: A Communicative Approach, Orient Longman, 2005.
12. Chapters 21-24 from Wings of Fire: An Autobiography - APJ Abdul Kalam, an abridged version with Exercises, Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd., 2004.
* Exercises from the lessons not prescribed shall also be used for classroom tasks.
Unit - VII
Exercises on
ReadingandWriting Skills
Reading Comprehension
Situational dialogues
Letter writing
Essay writing
Unit - VIII
Practice Exercises on Remedial Grammar covering
Common errors in English, Subject-Verb agreement, Use of ArticlesandPrepositions,Tenseandaspect
Vocabulary development covering
Synonyms& Antonyms, one-word substitutes, prefixes& suffixes, Idioms& phrases, words often confused.
REFERENCES :
1. Strengthen Your English, Bhaskaran and Horsburgh, Oxford University Press
2. Basic Communication Skills for Technology,and rea J Rutherfoord, Pearson Education Asia.
3. Murphy's English Grammar with CD, Murphy, Cambridge University Press
4. English Skills for Technical Students by Orient Longman
5. Everyday Dialogues in English by Robert J. Dixson, Prentice-Hall of India Ltd., 2006.
6. English For Technical Communication, Vol. 1& 2, by K. R. Lakshmi Narayanan, Sci tech. Publications.
7. A Handbook of English for Engineers& Technologists by Dr. P. Eliah,B. S. Publications.
8. Developing Communication Skills by Krishna Mohan& Meera Benerji (Macmillan)
9. SpeakingandWriting for Effective Business Communication, Francis Soundararaj, MacMillan India Ltd., 2007.
10. The Oxford Guide to WritingandSpeaking, John Seely, Oxford

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2011-05-21T04:12:00.000-07:00

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The selection of the new managing director for the IMF would be completed by June 30, the institution has said as it set in motion to find a suitable replacement of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned this week following rape charges against him.
India’s latest communication satellite, GSAT-8, successfully launched by European launcher Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana.
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ED gets permission to question Kalmadi in Tihar Enforcement directorate gets permission to interrogate kalmadi and company in Tihar. ED has to question him within one month from today. Also questioning of Bhanot, ASV Prasad, Surjeet Lal to be done regarding Swiss timing case.