Indian Leaders

Portrait of Sarojini Naidu
Picture from the 1938 Congress Convention Volume
 
Babu Rajendra Prasad Singh


Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Leader of Masses and the Military
Bose in INA Uniform 1943

Pandit Motilal Nehru


Dadabhai Navroji (1825-1917)  


N.G. Chandavarkar (1855-1923)
President of Indian National Congress, 1900 Lahore Convention

INC in K Kamaraj

  K Kamaraj

(1903 - 1975)
President-Bhubaneswar, 1964; Durgapur, 1965; Jaipur, 1966

---

Kumaraswami Kamaraj played a leading role in shaping India's destiny from the passing away of Jawaharlal Nehru to the Congress split in 1969. He was born humble and poor in a backward area of Tamilnadu on July 15, 1903. He was a Nadar, one of the most depressed castes of Hindu society. His schooling lasted only six years. At twelve he was a shop assistant. He was barely fifteen when he heard of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre which was the turning point in his life. Two years later when Kamaraj saw Gandhiji at Madurai the path was chosen. He became a member of the Indian National Congress.
Kamaraj was content for years to remain a rank and file Congress volunteer, working hard for the cause of the freedom movement, unmindful of his personal comfort or career. He was eighteen when he responded to the call of Gandhiji for non-cooperation with the British. He carried on propaganda in the villages, raised funds for Congress work and took a leading part in organising meetings S. At twenty he was picked up by Satyamurthy, one of the greatest orators and a leading figure of the Tamilnadu Congress Committee who was to be Kamaraj's political guru. In April 1930, Kamaraj joined the Salt Satyagraha Movement at Vedaranyam and was sentenced to two years his first term in prison. Jail-going had become a part of his career and in all he went to prison six times and spent more than 3,000 days in British Jails. Bachelor Kamaraj was forty-four when India became free.
Kamaraj was elected President of the Tamilnad Congress Committee in February 1940. He held that post till 1954. He was in the Working Committee of the AICC from 1947 till the Congress split in 1969, either as a member or as a special invitee. Kamaraj was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1937 unopposed. He was again elected to it in 1946. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946, and later to Parliament in 1952. He became Chief Minister of Madras in 1954. He was perhaps the first non-English knowing Chief Minister in India. But it was during the nine years of his administration that Tamilnadu came to be known as one of the best administered States in India. In 1963 he suggested to Nehru that senior Congress leaders should leave ministerial posts to take up organisational work. This suggestion came to be known as the 'Kamaraj Plan', which was designed primarily to dispel from the minds of Congressmen the lure for power, creating in its place a dedicated attachment to the objectives and policies of the organisation. The plan was approved by the Congress Working Committee and was implemented within two months. Six Chief Ministers and six Union Ministers resigned under the Plan. Kamaraj was elected President, Indian National Congress, on October 9, 1963. Twice he played a leading role in choosing the Prime Minister of India.
His defeat in Virudhunagar in 1967 considerably undermined his prestige. It was even said that he was a much disillusioned man. But the landslide victory at Nagercoil revived his political stature. However, the split in the Congress in 1969 (he remained in the Organisation Congress) and the General Elections of 1971 resulted in a set-back to his political prestige and authority. He continued to work quietly among the masses until the last. He was honoured posthumously by the award of Bharat Ratna.
-M. Bhaktavatsalam

---

Even during the days of the freedom struggle, the Congress organisation had broadly indicated that the society which it envisaged after achieving independence was not the conventional type of society but a progressive one based on the modern concepts of social, political and economic equality and justice. The Indian National Congress, until Mahatma Gandhi assumed its leadership was confining its attention to political freedom. Mahatmaji not only spread the message of freedom to the farthest corners of India, but also devoted his attention to the eradication of poverty and misery among the masses. When the masses realised that the Indian National Congress stood for the betterment of their economic condition and their social progress, they joined the organisation in large numbers and gave them massive support.
From the Presidential Address - K. Kamaraj
I.N.C. Session, 1964, Bhubaneswar.

Indian Heads

Year	Location of  Convention	President	Portraits
1885	Bombay	Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	W.C. Bonnerjee	Dadabhai Naoroji
1886	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji
1887	Madras	Badruddin Tyabji
1888	Allahabad	George Yule	George Yule	Pherozeshah Mehta
1889	Bombay	William Wedderburn
1890	Calcutta	Pherozeshah Mehta
1891	Nagpur	P. Ananda Charlu
1892	Allahabad	Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee
1893	Lahore	Dadabhai Naoroji
1894	Madras	Alfred Webb
1895	Poona	Surendranath Banerjea
1896	Calcutta	Rahimtulla M. Sayani
1897	Amraoti	C. Sankaran Nair	Sankaran Nair
1898	Madras	Ananda Mohan Bose
1899	Lucknow	Romesh Chunder Dutt
1900	Lahore	Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar
1901	Calcutta	Dinshaw Edulji Wacha
1902	Ahmedabad	Surendranath Banerjea
1903	Madras	Lalmohan Ghosh
1904	Bombay	Henry Cotton	Gokhale	Henry Cotton
1905	Benares	Gopal Krishna Gokhale
1906	Calcutta	Dadabhai Naoroji
1907	Surat	Rashbihari Ghosh
1908	Madras	Rashbihari Ghosh
1909	Lahore	Madan Mohan Malaviya
1910	Allahabad	William Wedderburn
1911	Calcutta	Bishan Narayan Dar
1912	Bankipur	Rao Bahadur Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar
1913	Karachi	Nawab Syed Mohammad Bahadur
1914	Madras	Bhupendra Nath Bose
1915	Bombay	Satyendra Prasanna Sinha
1916	Lucknow	Ambica Charan Mazumdar
1917	Calcutta	Annie Besant
1918	Bombay	Syed Hasan Imam
1918	Delhi	Madan Mohan Malaviya
1919	Amritsar	Motilal Nehru
1920	Calcutta	Lala Lajpat Rai
1920	Nagpur	C. Vijayaraghavachariar
1921	Ahmedabad	Hakim Ajmal Khan
1922	Gaya	Chittaranjan Das
1923	Cocanada	Maulana Mohammad Ali
1923	Delhi	Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
1924	Belgaum	Mahatma Gandhi
1925	Kanpur	Sarojini Naidu
1926	Gauhati	S. Srinivasa Iyengar
1927	Madras	Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari
1928	Calcutta	Motilal Nehru
1929	Lahore	Jawaharlal Nehru
1931	Karachi	Vallabhbhai Patel
1932	Delhi	Madan Mohan Malaviya
1933	Calcutta	Nellie Sen Gupta/Madan Mohan Malaviya
1934	Bombay	Rajendra Prasad
1935	Lucknow	Jawaharlal Nehru
1936	Faizpur	Jawaharlal Nehru
1938	Haripura	Subhas Chandra Bose	Subhas Chandra Bose	Maulana  A.K. Azad
1939	Tripuri	Subhas Chandra Bose
1940	Ramgarh	Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
1946	Meerut	J. B. Kripalani
1948	Jaipur	Pattabhi Sitaramayya
1950	Nasik	Purshottam Das Tandon
1951	New Delhi	Jawaharlal Nehru	Jawaharlal Nehru	Motilal Nehru
1953	Hyderabad	Jawaharlal Nehru
1954	Kalyani	Jawaharlal Nehru
1955	Avadi (Madras)	U. N. Dhebar
1956	Amritsar	U. N. Dhebar
1957	Indore	U. N. Dhebar
1958	Gauhati	U. N. Dhebar
1959	Nagpur	U. N. Dhebar
1960	Bangalore	Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
1961	Bhavnagar	Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
1962	Patna	Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
1964	Bhubaneswar	K. Kamaraj
1965	Durgapur	K. Kamaraj		Pattabhi Sitaramayya
1966	Jaipur	K. Kamaraj
1968	Hyderabad	S. Nijalingappa
1969	Faridabad	S. Nijalingappa
1969	Bombay	Jagjivan Ram
1972	Calcutta	Shankar Dayal Sharma
1975	Chandigarh	Dev Kanta Borooah
1978	New Delhi	Indira Gandhi	Indira Gandhi	Rajiv Gandhi
1983	Calcutta	Indira Gandhi
1985	Bombay	Rajiv Gandhi
1992	Tirupati	P. V. Narasimha Rao
1997	Calcutta	Sitaram Kesri
Current		Sonia Gandhi

INC President

Name of President	Life Span	Year of Presidency	Place of Conference
Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	December 29, 1844–1906	1885	Bombay
Dadabhai Naoroji	September 4, 1825–1917	1886	Calcutta
Badruddin Tyabji	October 10, 1844–1906	1887	Madras
George Yule	1829–1892	1888	Allahabad
Sir William Wedderburn	1838–1918	1889	Bombay
Sir Pherozeshah Mehta	August 4, 1845–1915	1890	Calcutta
P. Anandacharlu	August 1843- 1908	1891	Nagpur
Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee	December 29, 1844–1906	1892	Allahabad
Dadabhai Naoroji	September 4, 1848–1925	1893	Lahore
Alfred Webb	1834–1908	1894	Madras
Surendranath Banerjea	November 10, 1848–1925	1895	Poona
Rahimtulla M. Sayani	April 5, 1847–1902	1896	Calcutta
Sir C. Sankaran Nair	July 11, 1857–1934	1897	Amraoti
Ananda Mohan Bose	September 23, 1847–1906	1898	Madras
Romesh Chunder Dutt	August 13, 1848–1909	1899	Lucknow
Sir Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar	December 2, 1855–1923	1900	Lahore
Sir Dinshaw Edulji Wacha	August 2, 1844–1936	1901	Calcutta
Surendranath Banerjea	November 10, 1825–1917	1902	Ahmedabad
Lalmohan Ghosh	1848–1909	1903	Madras
Sir Henry Cotton	1845–1915	1904	Bombay
Gopal Krishna Gokhale	May 9, 1866–1915	1905	Benares
Dadabhai Naoroji	September 4, 1825–1917	1906	Calcutta
Rashbihari Ghosh	December 23, 1845–1921	1907	Surat
Rashbihari Ghosh	December 23, 1845–1921	1908	Madras
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya	December 25, 1861–1946	1909	Lahore
Sir William Wedderburn	1838–1918	1910	Allahabad
Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar	1864–1916	1911	Calcutta
Rao Bahadur Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar	1857–1921	1912	Bankipur
Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur	?- 1919	1913	Karachi
Bhupendra Nath Bose	1859–1924	1914	Madras
Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha	March 1863- 1928	1915	Bombay
Ambica Charan Mazumdar	1850–1922	1916	Lucknow
Annie Besant	October 1, 1847–1933	1917	Calcutta
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya	December 25, 1861–1946	1918	Delhi
Syed Hasan Imam	August 31, 1871–1933	1918	Bombay (Special Session)
Pandit Motilal Nehru	May 6, 1861- February 6, 1931	1919	Amritsar
Lala Lajpat Rai	January 28, 1865- November 17, 1928	1920	Calcutta (Special Session)
C. Vijayaraghavachariar	1852- April 19, 1944	1920	Nagpur
Hakim Ajmal Khan	1863- December 29, 1927	1921	Ahmedabad
Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das	November 5, 1870- June 16, 1925	1922	Gaya
Maulana Mohammad Ali	December 10, 1878- January 4, 1931	1923	Kakinada
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad	1888- February 22, 1958	1923	Delhi (Special Session)
Mahatma Gandhi	October 2, 1869- January 30, 1948	1924	Belgaum
Sarojini Naidu	February 13, 1879- March 2, 1949	1925	Kanpur
S. Srinivasa Iyengar	September 11, 1874- May 19, 1941	1926	Gauhati
Dr. M A Ansari	December 25, 1880- May 10, 1936	1927	Madras
Pandit Motilal Nehru	May 6, 1861- February 6, 1931	1928	Calcutta
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	November 14, 1889- May 27, 1964	1929 & 30	Lahore
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel	October 31, 1875- December 15, 1950	1931	Karachi
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya	December 25, 1861–1946	1932	Delhi
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya	December 25, 1861–1946	1933	Calcutta
Nellie Sengupta	1886–1973	1933	Calcutta
Dr. Rajendra Prasad	December 3, 1884- February 28, 1963	1934 & 35	Bombay
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	November 14, 1889- May 27, 1964	1936	Lucknow
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	November 14, 1889- May 27, 1964	1936& 37	Faizpur
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose	January 23, 1897- ???	1938	Haripura
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose	January 23, 1897- ???	1939	Tripuri
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad	1888- February 22, 1958	1940-46	Ramgarh
Acharya J.B. Kripalani	1888- March 19, 1982	1947	Delhi
Dr Pattabhi Sitaraimayya	December 24, 1880- December 17, 1959	1948 & 49	Jaipur
Purushottam Das Tandon	August 1, 1882- July 1, 1961	1950	Nasik
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	November 14, 1889- May 27, 1964	1951 & 52	Delhi
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	November 14, 1889- May 27, 1964	1953	Hyderabad
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	November 14, 1889- May 27, 1964	1954	Calcutta
U N Dhebar	September 21, 1905–1977	1955	Avadi
U N Dhebar	September 21, 1905–1977	1956	Amritsar
U N Dhebar	September 21, 1905–1977	1957	Indore
U N Dhebar	September 21, 1905–1977	1958	Gauhati
U N Dhebar	September 21, 1905–1977	1959	Nagpur
Indira Gandhi	November 19, 1917- October 31, 1984	1959	Delhi
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	May 19, 1913- June 1, 1996	1960	Bangalore
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	May 19, 1913- June 1, 1996	1961	Bhavnagar
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	May 19, 1913- June 1, 1996	1962 & 63	Patna
K. Kamaraj	July 15, 1903- October 2, 1975	1964	Bhubaneswar
K. Kamaraj	July 15, 1903- October 2, 1975	1965	Durgapur
K. Kamaraj	July 15, 1903- October 2, 1975	1966 & 67	Jaipur
S. Nijalingappa	December 10, 1902- August 9, 2000	1968	Hyderabad
S. Nijalingappa	December 10, 1902- August 9, 2000	1969	Faridabad
Jagjivan Ram	April 5, 1908- July 6, 1986	1970 & 71	Bombay
Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma	August 19, 1918- December 26, 1999	1972- 74	Calcutta
Dev Kant Baruah	February 22, 1914–1996	1975- 77	Chandigarh
Indira Gandhi	November 19, 1917- October 31, 1984	1978- 83	Delhi
Indira Gandhi	November 19, 1917- October 31, 1984	1983 -84	Calcutta
Rajiv Gandhi	August 20, 1944- May 21, 1991	1985 -91	Bombay
P. V. Narasimha Rao	June 28, 1921- December 23, 2004	1992 -96	Tirupati
Sitaram Kesri	November 1919- October 24, 2000	1997 -98	Calcutta
Sonia Gandhi	December 9, 1946-	1998–present(2010)	Calcutta

French nadar

Nadar, pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon   (born April 5, 1820, Paris, France—died March 21, 1910, Paris), French writer, caricaturist, and photographer who is remembered primarily for his photographic portraits, which are considered to be among the best done in the 19th century.
As a young man, he studied medicine in Lyon, France, but, when his father’s publishing house went bankrupt in 1838, he was forced to earn his own livelihood. He began to write newspaper articles that he signed “Nadar.” In 1842 he settled in Paris and began to sell caricatures to humour magazines.
By 1853, although he still considered himself primarily a caricaturist, Nadar had become an expert photographer and had opened a portrait studio. His immediate success stemmed partly from his sense of showmanship. He had the entire building that housed his studio painted red and his name printed in gigantic letters across a 50-foot (15-metre) expanse of wall. The building became a local landmark and a favourite meeting place of the intelligentsia of Paris. When in 1874 the painters later known as Impressionists needed a place to hold their first exhibit, Nadar lent them his gallery. He was greatly pleased by the storm the exhibit raised; the notoriety was good for business.
In 1854 he completed his first Panthéon-Nadar, a set of two gigantic lithographs portraying caricatures of prominent Parisians. When he began work on the second Panthéon-Nadar, he made photographic portraits of the persons he intended to caricature. His portraits of the illustrator Gustave Doré (c. 1855) and the poet Charles Baudelaire (1855) are direct and naturally posed, in contrast to the stiff formality of most contemporaneous portraits. Other remarkable character studies are those of the writer Théophile Gautier (c. 1855) and the painter Eugène Delacroix (1855).
Nadar was a tireless innovator. In 1855 he patented the idea of using aerial photographs in mapmaking and surveying. It was not until 1858, however, that he was able to make a successful aerial photograph—the world’s first—from a balloon. This led Daumier to issue a satirical lithograph of Nadar photographing Paris from a balloon. It was titled Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art. Nadar remained a passionate aeronaut until he and his wife and other passengers were injured in an accident in Le Géant, a gigantic balloon he had built.
In 1858 he began to photograph by electric light, making a series of photographs of Paris sewers. Later, in 1886, he made the first<script src="http://adserver.adtechus.com/addyn/3.0/5308.1/1371284/0/170/ADTECH;target=_blank;grp=996;key=true;kvqsegs=D;kvsource=technology;kvtopicid=401417;kvchannel=ARTS;misc=1307405308471"></script> “photo interview,” a series of 21 photographs of the French scientist Michel-Eugène Chevreul in conversation. Each picture was captioned with Chevreul’s responses to Nadar’s questions, giving a vivid impression of the scientist’s personality. Nadar also wrote novels, essays, satires, and autobiographical works.

ARTICLE

Additional Reading