Greatest Indians

Sometime back, I wrote about the greatest Britons and Germans. I was pottering around the net and figured, why don’t I check out the greatest Indians? Well, there are some lists which are knocking around on the internet. The ones which are across several categories are rather limited, while the lists of the Arjun Award, Bharat Ratna, Param Vir Chakra and other are premier military and civilian award winners. Ideally speaking, the Bharat Ratna award should give a list of the greatest Indians, but I was rather disappointed with it, it doesn’t fit into my definition of greatness. In any case, it comprises of people from the past 50 odd years only. So I decided to go ahead and come up with my own evaluation of who is the greatest Indian of all times.

So, putting my analytical hat on, I came up with the following categories.

• Rulers and Political Leaders
• Philanthropists, activists, social workers
• Academicians and Scientists
• Sportspersons
• Artists (authors, poets, singers, composers, actors, etc)
• Industrialists
• Religious leaders
• Military leaders

To keep the list manageable, I had to establish some rules, first was that there can be no more than 5 nominees in each category. Second was to select one person from each category. Third rule is that they have to be actual people and not mythological characters. Fourth rule is: assume an “average” (if such a mythical person does exist) person judgement when selecting across categories. To save on much hassle, I nominate myself as an “average” person although my spreading waistline and gently waving (goodbye) hair says otherwise - I definitely tip the scale. So whom do we nominate for the various categories? Well, off I went to trawl the Internet and the library and this is what I came up with.

• Rulers and Political Leaders: Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ashok, Akbar, B R Ambedkar
• Philanthropists, activists, social workers: Mother Teresa, Vinoba Bhave, Jay Prakash Narayan, Sunderlal Bahuguna, Raja Ram Mohon Roy
• Academicians and Scientists: CV Raman, Chandrashekar, Kautilya, Ramanujam, Homi Bhabha
• Sportspersons: Sunil Gavaskar, Milkha Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Vijay Amritraj, P T Usha.
• Artists (authors, poets, singers, composers, actors, etc): Rabindranath Tagore, Tansen, Munshi Premchand, Lata Mangeshkar, Kalidas
• Industrialists: Dhirubhai Ambani, G. D. Birla, Jamshedji Tata, JRD Tata, Azim H Premji,
• Religious leaders: Gautam Buddha, Mahavir, Shankaracharya, Vivekananda, Dayanand Saraswati
• Military leaders: Tipu Sultan, Shivaji, Subhas Chandra Bose, Lt General Jagjit Singh Aurora, Manekshaw, Hoshiar Singh

I have to admit, it was tough, and in most of the categories, there were just too many choices as one can imagine. We have had a long history, mind you, starting from Panini and Kautilya down to Abdul Kalam and to pick just 5 in each category was rather painful. Still after having trawled through the lists and all, I came up with the above. There are some interesting aspects, which happened while I was searching the books and the Internet. First is the significant ideological bias, which one can see. In other words, depending on who is writing the list, the list is biased, either on the basis of regionalism/culture, language and finally religion. If you are a Bengali or Tamil, then the list has a preponderance of Bengali’s or Tamils. Khudiram Bose is an important person all right, but will not figure on the list of a Tamil. Similarly, an Akbar will not show up on the Hinduism sites, while it’s replete with Gowalkar’s.

The other interesting aspect was the sheer paucity of real life philanthropists and activists, well, at least while searching the books and the net. The current crop of activists makes me break out in spots, perhaps it is their “in-your-face screaming” which turns me off. The current crop is too busy with press conferences or yelling about America or something equally useless. Most of the people I have mentioned have been understated, single-issue activists, who gave their entire life to their cause. Another interesting finding is the scarceness of charitable foundations, for whatever reason, our list of charitable institutions is regrettably low and philanthropy even lower. We all know about Birla Temples around the country, but would you consider that as modern philanthropy? But this subject is for another time and place.

Another surprising (well, not as surprising) element is the small number of military hero’s along the lines of European Military Leaders. Tipu and Shivaji were both on the losing side if one recalls, still their inclusion is more for their bravery and that holds on in our imagination than actual military skills. Even in the post independence time, the field marshals did not really leave their mark as a Guderian or a Monty would have. Hoshiar Singh’s PVC was given for an act of individual bravery. Taking nothing away from the act, Generalship and military skills on a big scale is conspicuously lacking on a comparative basis. Let us also not forget that modern India has not conducted long campaigns where Generalship can emerge. General Aurora is perhaps the closest one gets to a Wavell or Rommel.

Academicians and Scientists were even more difficult, whom to include and whom to drop was a pain. For example, both Aryabhatta’s were dropped, there was no place for Panini, Baudhayana, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara (my namesake, and even though sorely tempted, I had to drop him), Sripati, Brahmadeva et. al. Each did sterling amazing work, Aryabhatta worked on astronomical calculations, planar and spherical trigonometry and algebra; Panini (surprised, eh? You only thought Panini was the first Sanskrit lexicographer, eh?) laid down the basis for languages, and recently has been considered the forerunner of modern formal language theory, the basis of modern computer languages and all this back in 520BC; Baudhayana in Geometry (around 800BC); Brahmagupta in astronomy and mathematics – head of the premier astronomical and mathematical institute in the world in Ujjain around 640 AD; Bhaskara wrote on astronomy and trigonometry; Sripati on trigonometry, algebra and astronomy; Brahmadeva on trigonometry and mathematical astronomy. While all the above were mathematicians, I could hardly drop Kautilya, the author of the first political science and military science treatise in the world. Then there was a dark age for a long period and then people like Chandrashekhar, Ramanujam, etc. emerged.

Rulers and politicians were even more difficult. Do you have any idea how many great leaders have been voted as great Indians? Tons and tons! Again, the ideological bent was clearly visible, but some very good candidates were dropped. People like Vikramaditya, Raja Harishchandra, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, so on and so forth were unfortunately dropped from the line-up.

So who are the winners from each category? Now this is the difficult part. These are my selections.

• Rulers and Political Leaders: Mahatma Gandhi
• Philanthropists, activists, social workers: Raja Ram Mohon Roy
• Academicians and Scientists: Ramanujam
• Sportspersons: Sunil Gavaskar
• Artists: Rabindranath Tagore
• Industrialists: Dhirubhai Ambani
• Religious leaders: Gautam Buddha
• Military leaders: Tipu Sultan

I know, I know, I can just hear the sharp intake of breath and the shocked, horrified and reaching for the pen/keyboard to fire off an indignant reply. Well, so I am a Bengali, an academician and what my friend described as a “liberative” (a strange mixture of conservative and liberal) and my choices reflect those, but allow me to explain why.

I do not think there will be any discussion about MK Gandhi at all, he is, by far, head and shoulders over the others. Similarly, I do not think that anybody will disagree with me selecting Ramanujam as the eminent scientist. His story is highly motivating, a man who rose above his station and delved deep into arcane mathematics. Most mathematicians express regret at his early death otherwise he would have become the world’s foremost mathematician. In the sports world, Sunil Gavaskar has been overtaken by Sachin Tendulkar, but for a boy brought up with his exploits ringing through the tinny transistor radio, Sunil Gavaskar has been a hero. He can legitimately be said to have put India on the sporting map, even if it’s just cricket and many people from non cricketing nations will immediately have glazed expression on their faces.

Dhirubhai Ambani is a clear cut winner, although the Tata’s were strong contenders. Ambani wins, simply because of his drive and how he grew from very humble beginnings to a person who introduced the country to the joys (?) of equity ownership. For him to do all that in a country where profit is a dirty word and capitalism is considered to be the scourge, the 4 horsemen, and all the howling devils of all the religions combined, that is praiseworthy indeed. I am sure people are going to moan about the selection in the religious leader section, but for Buddha to come up with a religion which is decidedly peaceful, is nothing but short of miraculous (especially once one compares it to the other religions). Of all the religions, Buddhism is the most peaceful and frankly that is the main reason why I picked him.

Military Leaders/Hero’s were difficult, as I mentioned before, there are scores and hundreds of instances of individual bravery. A reading of the blurb surrounding each instance of the Param Vir Chakra as well as the Victoria Cross winners brings a lump to your throat, but Generalship? That’s more difficult. Most of our post independence wars have been short, sharp, localised affairs which does not give rise to circumstances where Generalship of the stature of a Wavell or Henrici will flower. Tipu Sultan’s personal great tactical skills over a large scale of land as well as time qualifies him as the great military leader of the country, even though he was defeated because of factors outside his control (and this should stop the biased towards bongs murmurs!). Well, on the literary side, I am sorry but Rabindranath Tagore stands head and shoulders over all. His Nobel Prize notwithstanding, the man was a genius! Mind you, anybody who comes away after listening to Lata Mangeshkar’s “Aiy mere watan ke logo” without a lump in his throat either doesn’t know Hindi or is not an Indian.

The activist/philanthropist category was much more difficult. How can you evaluate people who have literally given their all in a selfless desire to serve? That is even more creditable than the political leaders who, at least, had a return in terms of position and power (not that I am saying that they were motivated by it). The relative lack of community service in India, compared to other countries, makes their contribution even more praiseworthy. All the nominated people are worthy; all were devoted to their causes and selflessly gave of themselves. If I had to choose, I would choose Raja Ram Mohon Roy. A fantastic intellectual and linguist, he worked very hard to remove the twin curses of widow burning (Sati) and widow remarriage from India. He may not be well known, but every person in India has a great debt to him for dragging Hinduism and India into the modern world, kicking and screaming. Mahatma Gandhi was father of the nation and got independence for our country (along with millions of others) but Raja Ram Mohon Roy was an individual and he gave hope for millions of women for a better life. For this, I salute him by saying he is the greatest Indian of all times.

All this to be taken by a grain of salt