Leaders of India

Leaders of India

Introduction
From ancient times to the present times, India has been served by a large number of leaders in diverse fields. It is not possible to study them all, so we have chosen only a few of them.
Social Reformers
During the course of progress, some evil practices have entered our social life. These are called social evils, such as illiteracy, child marriage, dowry, Sati custom etc. Many social reformers have made effort to eradicate them. Some of them are as follows:
Sant Kabir: lived in Varanasi about 500 years ago. He taught love, brotherhood and cooperation among all people. He discussed how meaningless were several religious practices in both Hinduism and Islam.


Raja Ram Mohan Roy: was a great social reformer from Bengal. He knew several languages. He worked against the Sati custom, women suffering and child marriage. It was due to his effort that the Sati custom was abolished. He worked for women education. He set up the Brahmo Samaj.


Swami Dayanand Saraswati: studied different religions and showed how they were based on wrong principles. He set up the Arya Samaj.


Sir Salyed Ahmed Khan: took steps for education amongst Muslims as he realized that illiteracy among the Muslims was the root cause of their problems. He set up a college at Aligarh, now known as Aligarh Muslim University. He opposed the purdah (or veil) system.