Personalities & Biographies (Set 2)

Setalvad served as Advocate General of Bombay before his appointment as India’s first Attorney General.

Motilal Nehru purchased the house in Allahabad’s Civil Lines in 1900 and renamed it Anand Bhawan (“House of Joy”). It later became a hub of the freedom movement.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born Muhiyuddin Ahmad in 1888, in Mecca. He later adopted the pen name Azad, meaning free.

Azad helped set up the University Grants Commission in 1953. He also helped establish the first IIT, at Kharagpur, in 1951.

Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for sedition in 1922. He then directed Ravishankar Maharaj toward reform work among Gujarat’s baharvatiyas, communities branded as outlaws and dacoits.

Local people began calling him “Boring-wala Maharaj” after his well-digging relief work eased Banaskantha’s water shortage.

Indira Gandhi served as Vice-Chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board from 1953 to 1957, working directly under Durgabai Deshmukh, its founding chairperson.

Sucheta Kripalani, India’s first woman Chief Minister, served as a witness at the wedding alongside Jawaharlal Nehru.

She completed a B.A. and M.A. in political science, then a law degree from Madras University in 1942, before practising at the Madras High Court.

At Prajatantra, Biswambhar Parida was a close associate of Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab, Odisha’s first Chief Minister.

Biswambhar Parida also published a poetry collection, rendered in different sources as ‘Shatabdira Dyani’ or ‘Shatabdira Dhwani’ (‘Voice of the Century’).

Biswambhar Parida served as President of the All Odisha Freedom Fighters’ Samiti for more than 15 years.

She married C.D. Deshmukh, India’s first RBI Governor and a later Finance Minister, with Nehru as witness.

Her husband, Dr. Subbarama Swaminathan, arranged private tutors to teach her English and other subjects.

M.C. Setalvad was appointed India’s first Attorney General on 28 January 1950, under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.