Raja Mahendra Pratap
Encyclopedia
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
social reformist of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He was popularly known as the Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
Peshwa
Peshwa
A Peshwa is the titular equivalent of a modern Prime Minister. Emporer Shivaji created the Peshwa designation in order to more effectively delegate administrative duties during the growth of the Maratha Empire. Prior to 1749, Peshwas held office for 8-9 years and controlled the Maratha army...
. He was born in Thenua
Thenua
Thenua Thenuva Thenewal Thinwal is a gotra of jats found in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. This gotra originated from Tanwars...
gotra
Gotra
In the Hindu society, the term Gotra broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. Panini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyam pautraprabhrti gotram , which means "the word gotra denotes the progeny beginning with the son's son"...
Jat
Jat people
The Jat people are a community of traditionally non-elite tillers and herders in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory,...
Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
princely family of state of Mursan
Mursan
Mursan is a town and a Nagar Panchayat in Mahamaya Nagar district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.Mursan was a state located in the Hathras district. The most well-known ruler of this estate was the Jat nobleman, Raja Mahendra Pratap , who was popularly known as Aryan Peshwa...
in Hathras
Hathras
Hathras is a city and a municipal board in Mahamaya Nagar district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of the district that was created on 3 May 1997 by incorporating parts of Aligarh, Mathura and Agra districts. It forms a part of Aligarh Division...
District of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
on 1 December 1886. He was the third son of Raja Ghanshyam Singh. At the age of three, Raja Harnarayan Singh of Hathras
Hathras
Hathras is a city and a municipal board in Mahamaya Nagar district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of the district that was created on 3 May 1997 by incorporating parts of Aligarh, Mathura and Agra districts. It forms a part of Aligarh Division...
adopted him as his son. He was married to a Jat Sikh family of Jind
Jind
Jind is a town in Jind District, Harayana state, India.It is one of the oldest districts of Harayana. It is one of the first Sikh Kingdoms. It lies in central Haryana and is the fourth district of the Jat belt .The city is beautiful...
princely
Princely state
A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...
state of Haryana
Haryana
Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
(then in Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
) in 1902 while studying in college. She died in 1925.
Education
In 1895 Raja Mahendra Pratap took admission in the Government High School, Aligarh but soon he switched over to the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental Collegiate School.. Here, he received his education under BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Headmasters and Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
teachers all from Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College
MAO College
MAO College was founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the leader of Muslim renaissance in Indian subcontinent, in 1875 at Aligarh. This later became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920....
Aligarh founded by Sir Sayed Ahmad Khan. With this background he shaped into a true representative of secular society. To bring India at par with European Countries, Raja Mahendra Pratap established a free indigenous technical institute, ‘Prem Mahavidyalaya’ in his palace at Vrindavan
Vrindavan
Vrindavan also known as Vraj is a town in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India...
on May 24, 1909.
Freedom movement
In spite of objections from his father-in-law, Raja Mahendra Pratap went to Kolkata in 1906 to attend the Congress sessionHistory of the Indian National Congress
From its foundation on 28 December 1885 until the time of independence of India on August 15, 1947, the Indian National Congress was the largest and most prominent Indian public organization, and central and defining influence of the Indian Independence Movement.Although initially and primarily a...
and met several leaders involved in the Swadeshi movement. He decided to promote small industries with indigenous goods and local artisans. He was very much against social evils, especially untouchability. To eliminate this evil he dined with a Tamata family of Almora
Almora
Almora is a municipal board, a cantonment town in the Almora district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Almora was founded in 1568.It is a town bustling with activity and a rich cultural heritage and history. It is considered the cultural heart of the Kumaon region of...
in 1911 and Mehtar family of Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...
in 1912. He was influenced by the speeches of Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji , known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political leader. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain...
, Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...
, Maharaja Baroda
Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III
165454565Sayajirao Gaekwad III was the Maharaja of Baroda State from 1875 to 1939, and is notably remembered for reforming much of his state during his rule....
, and Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.-Early life and background:...
. The speeches of these great leaders made him a patriot who turned Swadeshi. He started the movement to burn the foreign made clothes in his state.
He tried sincerely to liberate his motherland. On 20 December 1914, at the age of 28, Raja Mahendra Pratap left India for the third time, with a desire to liberate India from the clutches of the British colonial rule with outside support. In January 1915, on learning about his presence in Switzerland, Chatto
Chatto
Chatto may refer to:* Chatto , Chiricahua Apache chief* Beth Chatto , plantswoman, garden designer and author* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya , prominent Bengali Indian revolutionary...
alias Virendranath Chattopadhyay of the newly founded Berlin Committee
Berlin Committee
The Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the Committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence...
(Deutsche Verein der Freunde Indien)requested Von Zimmermann of the German Foreign ministry to get Pratap invited to Berlin. Already Chatto had sent a first mission to Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
led by the Parsi revolutionary Dada Chanji Kersasp. Informed about Chatto's activities from Shyamji Krishnavarma and Lala Hardayal, Pratap insisted on meeting the Kaiser Wilhelm II personally; Chatto rushed to Geneva to intimate Pratap of the Kaiser's eagerness to see him, and they went to Berlin together. Har Dayal, too, followed them. Decorating Pratap with the Order of the Red Eagle, the Kaiser showed his awareness of the strategic position of the Phulkian States (Jind
Jind
Jind is a town in Jind District, Harayana state, India.It is one of the oldest districts of Harayana. It is one of the first Sikh Kingdoms. It lies in central Haryana and is the fourth district of the Jat belt .The city is beautiful...
, Patiala and Nabha
Nabha
Nabha is a city and municipal council in the Patiala district to the south-west of the Indian state of Punjab. In 1998, the annual income of Nabha state was Rs 1,50,000/-.- Princely State of Nabha :...
), if India was invaded through the Afghan frontier. According to Pratap's wish, he was taken to a military camp near the Polish border for a firsthand knowledge of the army policies and functionings. On 10 April 1915, accompanied by the German diplomat Von Hentig, Maulavi Barkatullah
Maulavi Barkatullah
Maulavi Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah or Maulana Barkatullah was a staunch anti-British Indian revolutionary with sympathy for the Pan-Islamic movement. Barkatullah was born on 7 July 1854 at Itwra Mohalla Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India...
and a few other members, Pratap left Berlin, with due credentials from the Kaiser. In Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the delegation met the then Khedive
Khedive
The term Khedive is a title largely equivalent to the English word viceroy. It was first used, without official recognition, by Muhammad Ali Pasha , the Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, and vassal of the Ottoman Empire...
of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
who, during a conversation with Pratap, expressed his desire to see the end of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. On their way, in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
they had an excellent contact with Enver Pasha, son-in-law of the Sultan and Defence Minister, who appointed a trusted military officer to guide the Mission. They were received by Rauf Bey with a detachment of 2000 soldiers at Ispahan. They reached Kabul on 2 October and were greeted by Habibullah
Habibullah
Mullah Habibullah was an Afghan who died while in US custody on December 4, 2002.His death was one of those classed as a homicide, though the initial military statement described his death as due to natural causes.Habibullah's brother was a Taliban leader....
. They had a number of discussions.
Provisional Government of IndiaProvisional Government of IndiaProvisional Government of India was a provisional government-in-exile established by Indian Nationalists in Afghanistan during World War I with support from the Central Powers. Its purpose was to enroll support from both the Afghan Emir, as well as Tsarist Russia, China and Japan for the Indian...
On 1 December 1915, Pratap's 28th birthday, he established the first Provisional Government of IndiaProvisional Government of India
Provisional Government of India was a provisional government-in-exile established by Indian Nationalists in Afghanistan during World War I with support from the Central Powers. Its purpose was to enroll support from both the Afghan Emir, as well as Tsarist Russia, China and Japan for the Indian...
at Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, during First World War. It was a government-in-exile of Free Hindustan with Raja Mahendra Pratap as President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
, Maulavi Barkatullah
Maulavi Barkatullah
Maulavi Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah or Maulana Barkatullah was a staunch anti-British Indian revolutionary with sympathy for the Pan-Islamic movement. Barkatullah was born on 7 July 1854 at Itwra Mohalla Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India...
, Prime Minister
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 may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
, Maulavi Abaidullah Sindhi, Home Minister. Anti-British forces supported his movement. But, for some obvious loyalty to the British, the Amir kept on delaying the expedition.
Due to his revolutionary ideas Raja Mahendra Pratap had a good relationship with Lenin. Lenin invited him to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
on its liberation and welcomed him. He had become a real threat to foreign rule in India. The British Government of India declared a reward on his head, attacked his entire estate and declared him a fugitive.
In Japan
He went to JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1925. He published ‘World Federation Monthly Magazine’ in 1929. Raja Mahendra Pratap tried his best to utilize the world war situations to free India. During Second World War he stayed at Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
in Japan and continued his movement from ‘World Federation Centre’ to free India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
from British rule. He formed the Executive Board of India in Japan in 1940 during Second World War. At last the British government
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
relented and Raja Mahendra Pratap was permitted to come to India from Tokyo with respect. He was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in 1932.
Back to India
He returned to India after about 32 years by ‘the City of Paris’ Ship and landed at Madras on 9 August 1946. On reaching India he immediately rushed to WardhaWardha
Wardha is a city and a municipal council in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Wardha district. Wardha gets its name from the Wardha River which flows at the North, West and South boundaries of district. Founded in 1866, the town is now an...
to meet Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
.
After independence also he continued his struggle for transfer of power to the common man. His vision was that the Panchayat Raj was the only tool, which will give the real power in the hands of people and will reduce corruption and bureaucratic hurdles. He was the member of the second Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
from 1957-1962. He was elected as an independent candidate from Mathura constituency. He was president of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Freedom Fighters’ Association. He was president of All India Jat Mahasabha also. He died on 29 April 1979.
Man of vision
Raja Mahendra Pratap was a man of grand vision, who devoted his entire life to the service of mankind. This life-long revolutionary wanted to bring radical changes in the society and world order. His idea of ‘World Federation’ was a revolutionary one where he treated entire world as a family. His view was that this idea would cut the expenditures on police and armed forces that can be used for the development of nations. Raja Mahendra Pratap was a dedicated journalist and a prolific writer who wrote a large number of books on varied topics.External links
- http://www.rajamahendrapratap.net/index.html
- http://www.punjabiamericanheritagesociety.com/paf/paf2000/ghadar_ki_goonj.html
- http://www.punjabilok.com/misc/freedom/history_of_the_ghadar_movement8.htm