We sea the history from 1900 to 2000 of India....
Here we come across many people, many movements and many personalities who influenced the minds of the Indians and changed the course of Indian History.....
Prior to Independence it was undoubtedly Gandhi who influenced and contributed to Indian history the most. He contributed to Indian freedom from the colonial rule. He influenced the Indian masses with his philosophy of non violence and the culture and concept of mass movement. Mass movement was so foreign to Nehru and Jinnah but they both picked it up from him, but not before Subhash Bose would do that. At a different level Arobindo Ghosh and Tilak influenced the English educated Indian Hindus to a great degree with their religious political thoughts. Jinnah and Nehru ended up dividing India, if it can at all be termed as contribution at all.
There were so many others - Bhagat Singh, MN Roy, The Neval Mutiny and the terrorist movements to name a few.
But what largely shaped India was Nehru and Sardar Patel's refusal to give in to an archaic fundamentalist Muslim attitude of black mail of usurping entire India for Muslim rule merely as exchange of British Rule with Mogul Rule. The Muslim elites as also the Hindus accepted division of the country but not the Muslim blackmail under new circumstances and in a new historic context. That would turn out to be the best decision they would take and history would judge it as wise decision some of it already having been proved . The Indians ( who think they were Indians) would establish their own state and the country and the Moguls got their pie rather than whole of India as Jinnah or many other Muslim elites dreamt of .
After independence, Nehru faltered and let down the idea of India right in 1948. He was more interested in perpetuating his rule and imposing his own brand of Mogul Type dynastic rule through his selective idea of secularism rather than endearing himself to the majority which he could never do and would have not been successful to do. He very badly proved to be the guilty man of 1962, the greatest shame India suffered in 20th century largely due to him, his misplaced ideas and his political cronies.
His daugheter, Indira Gandhi emerged as a big leader and led the country to the victory over Pakistan in 1972. That gave a great sense of confidence to the nation. However, she also emerged as murder of democracy in India. She was responsible for fracturing the polity and sectorisation of Hindu society. Vote bank politics of the kind existing today was her ill - contribution.
Out of all, however, Indira Gandhi does emerge as a leader who faced vast challenges, safeguarded Indian interests in the backdrop of intense Pakistani hostility, cold war pressures , American hostility and gave confidence to the nation in the victory of 1971. It was a defining moment for the emergence of India as a self confident nation.
It is unfortunate she is not even listed. That speaks about the bankruptcy and superficiality of the initiator of the thread.
I am sorry for being harsh.
Netaji subhash chandra bose
Mahatma gandhi
Sardar vallabh bhai patel
General Sam Manekshaw
Homi jahangir bhabha
Jawahar lal nehru
But for Indira Gandhi's leadership in crucial times we would not be what we are today....
Indira Gandhi did not do anything and so rightly not listed. Crediting her for victory, self confidence , handling American pressure etc. is done by sycophants of Nehru dynasty not by independent intellectuals like you but what can I say further? She was just " Didda" and nothing else.
Your admission of partition is also quite shocking .
