The India History Podcast

One of the great scientific achievements of modern India has been Pokhran I on May 18, 1974, when it carried out it’s first ever peaceful nuclear test. And the man behind this feat, Dr Raja Ramanna was one of the most multifaceted personalities ever, an eminent nuclear physicist, technologist, administrator, a gifted musician, Sanskrit scholar. Handpicked by Homi J Bhabha himself, he would go on to lead the team for Pokhran I.

Bipin Chandra Pal, one of the members of the Lal-Bal-Pal trio in Congress, others being  Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai. A nationalist,  writer and thinker, and above all, a man who was uncomprosingly independent in his views.

Sam Manekshaw, aka Sam Bahadur, first Indian army officer to become Field Marshal, who led the Army to it’s greatest moment of triumph in 1971 as Chief of Army Staff.

Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, aka K.M.Munshi, freedom fighter, founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, as well as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. A lawyer by profession, he was also one of the foremost writers in Gujarati. And presided over the surrender of the Nizam post Operation Polo.

Birsa Munda in Jharkhand, the only tribal leader whose portrait hangs in Parliament Central Hall and whose Jayanti is celebrated as Jharkhand Day too.

Lachit Borphukan, who would rise to become one of the greatest heroes of Assam, and one of the symbols of resistance to the the Mughal rule. When one writes of the history of resistance to the Mughals, Lachit Borphukan’s name would be there right up with Shivaji and Rana Pratap.

One of the biggest advances in the field of molecular biophysics, has been the discovery of the triple hellical structure of collagen, that enabled a better understanding of the peptide structure.The Ramachandran plot has become a standard description of protein structures in the text books. And the man behind this discovery,  G.N. Ramachandran or GNR as he was known, one of the great Indian scientists of modern era, who was an equally good Vedic scholar, studied the Upanishads in depth and interpreted their teachings.

Komaram Bheem led an intense uprising against both the British and the Nizam rule, in the forests of North Telangana, and gave the slogan of Jal, Jangal, Zameen.

Typically when we speak of Mewar, it usually ends with Rana Pratap and the Battle of Haldighati.  Not much is really known about his succesors, nor his son Amar Singh.  While Pratap’s rivalry with Akbar is well known and chronicled, not known is the fact that his son Amar Singh fought an equally long war with Jahangir, before he was forced to surrender.

Tatya Tope one of the greats of the 1857 Revolt, who waged a long guerilla war against the British even after the Revolt was crushed. A man who had no formal military training, but was considered one of the finest rebel generals.