On 10th of April 2017 Champaran Satyagraha turns 100 years old. (Read in Hindi)

The centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s first Satyagraha in India is being marked this April. It was undertaken in the erstwhile undivided Champaran district in northern Bihar. He went there in April, 1917 on learning about the abuses suffered by the cultivators of the district, forced into growing indigo by British planters / estate owners. ‘The Champaran tenant’, informs Gandhi, ‘was bound by law to plant three out of every twenty parts of his land with indigo for his landlord’. This system was called Tinkathia. 

If we have to select a person whose life and the organisational capacity has impacted the life of an average Indian the most, that would be undisputedly Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.

There are not many individuals like Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar who cast a long spell on the country’s history and its political destiny, established an organizational which arguably is the largest and most enduring in the world, advanced a new ideological narrative which large sections of the society have adopted and yet remained oblivious to the general public.

The little children in street situations now have a reason to rejoice. Commonly called ‘Street Children’, more than 20 lakh Indian children live without access to safe care, nutrition, health and education. To me, they are like the little flowers by the roads who survive despite our collective indifference. (Read in Hindi)

Karimul Haque and Nivedita Bhide have nothing in common. Neither education, family background, resources at disposal nor even geographical location, but one thing that both have common is their willingness to serve. There is very little chance that you may have met or read about Nivedita Raghunath Bhide, a social worker, associated with Kanyakumari-headquartered Vivekananda Kendra. Similarly, there is very little chance that you may have met or heard about Karimul Haque, a tea garden worker from West Bengal. But they represent the ordinary Indians with extraordinary capabilities.