UIL Social Studies 2023-2024: Individuals
G.G. Ponnambalam (1901-1977)
A Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, politician, and cabinet minister. He was the founder and leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the first political party to represent the Sri Lankan Tamils.
Velupillai Prabhakaran (1954-2009)
A Sri Lankan Tamil revolutionary who became a major figure in Tamil nationalism and the founder of the infamous Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Under his direction, the Tigers undertook a civil war against the Sri Lankan government for more than 25 years. At the height of his power, he and the Tigers effectively rule northern and eastern sections of the island nation. He was killed in a firefight with the Sri Lankan Army in 2009. His death brought an end to the civil war.
Mahinda Rajapaksa (b. 1945)
A Sri Lankan politician who served as teh President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015 and as prime minister from 2004-2005, 2018-2022. During his political career, he has been accused of multiple crimes including war crimes during the last years of the Sri Lankan Civil War, human rights violations, corruption, and instigating violence against anti-government protestors. He has been accused of creating a "cult of personality" around himself. He was referred to as a "King" by some os his supporters and used the media to portray himself as a strong man.
Ziaur Rahman (1936-1981)
A Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from 1977 until his assassination in 1981. He was the founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He was a key commander during Bangladehs's war for indpendence in 1971. He reached the heights of power after the military coup that killed President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. As president, he reinstated multi-party elections, freedom of the press, free speech, and free markets. He initiated mass irrigation and food production programs. He faced as many as 21 coup attempts while president and resulted in trials where thousands of military officers were executed.
Hussain Muhammad Ershad (1930-2019)
A Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the president of Bangladesh from 1983 to 1990, a time many consider to have been a military dictatorship. He seized power during a bloodless coup from President Abdus Sattar in 1982. He was forced to resign as president in 1990 following a popular pro-democracy mass uprising. While in power he pursued decentralization efforts, privatizing national industries, expanded the national highway system, and joining the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. In 1989, he pushed parliament to make Islam the state religion, even though Bangladesh has a secular constitution.
Khaleda Zia (b. 1945)
A Bangladeshi politican who served as the prime minister from 1991-1996 and again from 2001-2006. She was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh and is the widow of former president Ziaur Rahman. She was a champion for democracy in Bangladesh during the military dictatorship of Hussain Muhammad Ershad throughout the 1980s. As prime minister, she develed a reputation as an "Uncompromising Leader" but was accused of corruption once she left office. Her chief rival has been Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose government sentenced her to 17 years in prison in 2018 for political corruption, which most international observers saw us trumped up charges. She currently is living under house arrest in the nation's capital of Dhaka.
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976)
A Bengali poet, writer, musician, and is revered as the national poet of Bangladesh. He produced a large body of poetry, music, messages, novels, adn stories with themes focusing on justice, anti-imperialism, humanity, rebellion against oppression, and religious devotion. He served in the British Indian Army during World War I, and after the war joined the growing anti-British movement and would become an inspiration during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
Cyril Radcliffe (1899-1977)
A British lawyer and Law Lord best known for his role in the Partition of India. He had never lived east of Paris, France, yet was given just 5 weeks to draw the new borders of India and Pakistan with the goal of leaving as many Sikhs and Hindus in India and as many Muslims in Pakistan. His efforts saw some 14 million people flee across the borders of the two nations in order to be with their majority religion. After seeing the violence that resulted, he refused any payment of his salary for the job.
William Jones (1746-1794)
A British philologist, orientalist, and judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Ft. William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India. He is particuarly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among European and Indo-Aryan languages, which later came to be known as the Indo-European languages.
Allan Octavian Hume (1829-1912)
A British political reformer, ornithologist, civil servant, and botanist that worked in British India. He supported the idea of self-governance by Indians and founded the Indian National Congress. After the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, he made great efforts to improve the lives of the common people and rose through the ranks fo the Indian Civil Service, but was ultimately dismissed in 1879 due to his outspoken criticism of British policy.
Lord Curzon (1859-1925)
A British statesman, Conservative politician and writer who served as Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905. During his tenure as viceroy, he pursued a number of reforms of the British administration, attempted to address the British mistreatment of Indians, restored the Taj Mahal, and sent a British expedition to Tibet to counter Russian expansion. He also presided over the disastrous partition of Bengal in 1905.
Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900-1979)
A British statesman, naval officer, colonial administrator, and uncle to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (Queen Elizabeth II's husband). He served as the last Viceroy of India and briefly as the first Governor-General of the Dominion of India. He oversaw the Partition of India. He was assassinated when a bomb was planted aboard his fishing boat in 1979 by the Irish Republican Army.
Ibrahim Nasir (1926-2008)
A Maldivian politician who served as the Prime Minister of the Maldives from 1957-1968 under the monarchy, and served as President from 1968-1978, when he decided to retire. As president, he introduced English-based modern curriculum to public schools. He brought television and radio to the country. He is considered the independence hero of the Maldives after bringing the protectorate of the British Empire to an end.
Muhammad Amin Didi (1910-1954)
A Maldivian politician who served as the first president of the Maldives for just 8 months in 1953. He was the leader of the first political party in the Maldives. His political program consisted of modernizing the country, advancement of women's rights and education, nationalizing the fishing industry, and an unpopular ban on tobacco smoking.
B.P. Koirala (1914-1982)
A Nepali revolutionary, political leader, and writer. He was the Prime Minister of Nepal from 1959 to 1960. He was the first democratically elected prime minister of Nepal. He held the office for 18 months before being deposed and imprisoned at the instruction of King Mahendra. The rest of his life was spent largely in prison or exile. He was a staunch supporter of democracy and advocated for democratic socialism.
Pervez Musharraf (1943-2023)
A Pakistani army general and politician who served as the 10th president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. He took power from Prime Minsiter Nawaz Sharif in a coup in 1999 after Sharif tried to remove him as the army chief of staff. He placed Sharif under house arrest and launched criminal proceedings against him. During his tenure, he oversaw and directed policies against terrorism, becoming a key player in the American-led War on Terror post-9/11. He pushed for social liberalism while also banning trade unions in the country. His tenure saw a rise in income inequality and he resigned in 2008 to avoid impeachment and went into self-imposed exile to London, UK.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928-1979)
A Pakistani barrister, politician, and statesman who served as the 9th prime minister of Pakistan from 1973-1977. He was the founder fo the Pakistan People's Party and served as its chairman until his execution. Before becoming prime minister he served as Pakistan's 4th president and led the country after losing Bangladesh in 1971. In 1977, he was ousted in a military coup led by army chief Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, before being controversially tried and executed in 1979 for authorizing the murder of a political opponent.
Nawaz Sharif (b. 1949)
A Pakistani businessman and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms (1990-1993; 1997-1999; 2013-2017). He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pakistan. Each of his terms have ended with him being forced from office. He was disqualified from further public office, as it was revealed in the leaked "Panama Papers" that he used his government power to enrich himself.
Malala Yousafzai (b. 1997)
A Pakistani female education activist and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the world's youngest Nobel laureate and second Pakistani winner. She is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her homeland (Swat, Pakistan) where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. In 2012, she was shot by a Taliban gunamn in an assassination attempt targeting her for her activism.
Imran Khan (b. 1952)
A Pakistani former cricketer and politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan from 2018-2022. He is the founder and chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. As prime minister, he addressed an economic crisis with bailouts from the International Monetary Fund, shrunk the deficit, and limited defense spending. He though presided during the COVID-19 pandemic which affected his popularity, even though Pakistan was ranked 3rd in preparedness (right behind Hong Kong and New Zealand). He became the first prime minister to be removed from office through a no-confidence motion in April 2022. On May 9, 2023, he was arrested on corruption charges in Islamabad by paramilitary troops. Protests broke out throughout Pakistan as a result and he was sentenced to three years in jail in August 2023.
Liaquat Ali Khan (1895-1951)
A Pakistani lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the first prime minister of Pakistan from 1947 until his assassination in 1951. He was one of the leaders of the Pakistan independence movement. His tenure oversaw the beginning of the Cold War, in which Pakistan sided with the United States and its allies as opposed to the Soviet Union. In March 1951, he survived an attempted coup by left-wing opponents and the military. He would be shot dead while giving a speech by an Afghan militant for unknown reasons.
Ayub Khan (1907-1974)
A Pakistani military officer and politician who served as the second president of Pakistan from 1958-1969. He was the Defense and Home Minister in the Pakistani government and would lead the nation's first military coup in 1958, installing himself as president over Iskandar Ali Mirza. As president, he aligned with the US during the Cold War and allowed Americans to access the Peshawar airbase to spy on the Soviet Union. He launched Operation Gibraltar and started the 2nd Indo-Pakistani War in 1965. He supported massive economic growth with the building of hydroelectric stations, dams, and reservoirs. He established the Pakistani space program. Unfortunately, failures at land reform and tax reform benefited the elite and led to huge price hikes for food and popular demonstrations led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He resigned following protests in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1969. He remains Pakistan's longest-serving president and his era is often called the "Decade of Development."
Shehbaz Sharif (b. 1951)
A Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 23rd prime minister of Pakistain from April 2022-August 2023. He is the current president of the Pakistan Muslim League. Amid the 2022 Pakistani politica crisis, he was elected to replace Imran Khan.
Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007)
A Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. A liberal and a secularist, she led the Pakistan People's Party from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007. Her father served as the 9th prime minister of Pakistan and was ousted in a coup. As prime minister, he attempts at reform were stifled by conservative and Islamist forces.
Asif Ali Zardari (b. 1955)
A Pakistani politician who is president of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians and was co-chair of the Pakistan People's Party. He served as Pakistan's president from 2008-2013. He also is the widower of twice-elected Prime Minsiter Benazir Bhutto. During his presidency, his remained a strong ally of America during the Afghanistan War. He tried to block the reinstatement of the nation's supreme court, and was criticized for mishandling national flooding in 2010 and growing terrorist violence.
Abdus Salam (1926-1996)
A Pakistani theoretical physicist and a Nobel Prize laureate for his work in electroweak unification theory. He was the first Pakistani and the first Muslim from an Islamic country to receive a Nobel Prize in science and the second from an Islamic country to receive any Nobel Prize. He served as a scientific advisor for the Ministry of Science and Technology in Pakistan from 1960-1974. He went into self-exile after Parliament passed a law declaring his sect of Islam and its members "non-Muslim." In physics, he made important contributions to our understanding of neutrinos, neutron stars, black holes, and quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.
Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898)
A South Asian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educator in 19th-century British India. Though he initially favored Hindu-Muslim unity, he later became the pioneer of Muslim nationalism in India and is widely credited as the father of the "two-nation theory." He established numerous schools and during his career called upon Muslims to loyally serve the British Raj and promoted adoption of Urdu as the common tongue of all Indian Muslims. He maintains a strong legacy in Pakistan and among Indian Muslims.
Mohammad Iqbal (1877-1938)
A South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, and politician, whose poety in the Urdu language is considered among the greatest of the 20th century. His vision of a cultural and political home for the Muslims of British-ruled India was to inspire the movement for an independent Pakistan. His birthday, November 9, used to be a public holiday in Pakistan until 2018.
Chandrika Kumaratunga (b. 1945)
A Sri Lankan politician who served as the 5th president of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005. The country's first and only female president to date and the country's second female prime minister. She is the daughter of two former prime ministers and was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. During her tenure she made conciliatory moves toward the Tamil Tigers to end the ongoing civil war but negotiations failed. She lost vision in her right eye due to an assassination attempt in 1999.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876-1948)
A barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. He served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pakistan in 1947. During the early years of his career, he advocated Hindu-Muslim unity, helping to shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League. In 1920, he resigned from the Indian National Congress because he thought Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent protest movement was poltiical anarchy. By 1940, he would supporte the Lahore Resolution for a separate Muslim state in Pakistan. His birthday is observed as a national holiday in Pakistan and referred to as Baba-e-Qaum ("Father of the Nation").
Milkha Singh (1929-2021)
Also known as "The Flying Sikh," he was an Indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army. He represented India in the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Summer Olympics. He died due to complications from COVID-19 in 2021.
Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917)
Also known as the "Grand Old Man of India," he was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar, and writer who served as the president of the Indian National Congress on three separate occassions. He was the 2nd person of Asian descent to be a British MP. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to his theory of the Indian "wealth drain" into Britain.
Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
An Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and the founder of the Missionaries of Charity. She was canonized in 2016 as a saint. Her organization (started and centered in Kolkata) grew to have over 4,500 nuns across 133 countries. It managed home for people who are dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis. In addition, it ran soup kitchens, dispensaries, mobile clinics, children's and family counseling, and orphanges and schools. She received several honors including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. However, she was a controversial figure during her life and after her death. She was criticized for her views on abortion and contraception as well as the conditions of the housing for the dying.
Muhammad (570-632)
An Arab religious, social, and political leader and founder of Islam. He was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. His teachings and the Quran form the basis of Islamic religious beliefs. He was born in Mecca and was raised under the care of his grandfather after his parents died when he was young. When he was 40, he reported being visited by the Archangel Gabriel in a cave adn receive his first revelation from God. He and his small band of followers would move from Mecca to Medina in 622 to avoid persecution and would later retake Mecca 7 years later. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.
Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (1916-2004)
An Indian Carnatic singer from Madurai. She was the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor. India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, stated "Who am I, a mere Prime Minister before a Queen, a Queen of Music." Poet Sarojini Naidu called her "Nightingale of India."
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (1931-2015)
An Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th president of India from 2002-2007. He spent the majority of his career at the Defence Research and Development Organization and Indian Space Research Organization and was involved in India's civilizan space program and military missile development projects. He is known as the "Missile Man of India." While president, he became known as the "People's President" after getting support from both the Bharatiya Janata and Indian National Congress parties.
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964)
An Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and author who was a central figure of India's independence movement and served as the country's first prime minister from 1947-1964. He promoted Indian parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology to usher India into the modern age. In foreign affairs, he played a leading role in establishing the Non-Aligned Movement. Hailed as the "architect of Modern India," his premiership is still the longest in Indian history.
J.R.D. Tata (1904-1993)
An Indian aviator, industrialist, entrepreneur, and chairman of the Tata Group. His mother was the first woman in India to drive a car. In 1929, he became the first licensed pilot in India. He is known for founding several industries including Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Titan Industries, Tata Salt, Voltas, and Air India.
Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950)
An Indian independence nationalist and barrister who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India. Before that, he was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. He was one of Mahatma Gandhi's earliest political lieutenants and organized peasant protests across the country. After independence, he organized relief for partition refugees fleeing from Pakistan. He also played a major role with Nehru to have most of the 565 princely states join India willingly. Nicknamed the "Iron Man of India," he is also known as the "patron saint of India's civil servants" for establishing the modern All India Services system. The world's tallest statue (Statue of Unity) depicts this man and stands at 597 feet tall.
B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956)
An Indian jurist, economist, social reformer, and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India, served as Law and Justice minister in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru, and inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement after renouncing Hinduism. He is most known for advocating for Dalits' (aka Untouchables) rights within the caste system. In 1990, he was bestowed the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)
An Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political protester who employed nonviolent resistance to lead a the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom around the globe and the honorific Mahatma (Sanskrit for "great-souled elder"), is now used throughout the world. He spent his formative years as a young adult working as a lawyer in South Africa, where he lived for 21 years. This is where he raised a family and first used nonviolent tactics. Returning to India in 1915, he would assume leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921 and led nationwide campaigns against poverty, for expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic peace, ending "untouchability," and achieving self-rule. He undertook several hunger strikes during his political career including during the violent Partition in 1947. He was assassinated by a Hindu extremist in Delhi in 1948 for his attempts to end violence against Muslims. His birthday, October 2, is a national holiday in India and is the International Day of Nonviolence.
Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945)
An Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his World War II-era alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan left a legacy marked by authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and military failture. He joined Mahatma Gandhi's nationalist movement and the Indian National Congress but was ousted from the party before World War II due to his wavering attitude towards non-violence. During World War II he would work to collaborate with Germany and Japan to get Britain out of India, but his revamped Indian National Army never got large or trained enough to beat back the Allied forces in Asia. He died in 1945 due to a plan crash in Taiwan on his way to seek exile in the Soviet Union.
Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950)
An Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist, joining the Indian independence movement until 1910, but then became a spiritual reformer after being arrested and released on charges of treason in relation to a number of bombings against British authorities. With politics behind him, he developed a spiritual practice called Integral Yoga in Pondicherry. This practice focused on the evolution of human life into a divine life in a divine body on earth.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
An Indian poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art. In 1913, he became the first non-European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is referred to as the "Bard of Bengal."
Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949)
An Indian political activist and poet. She was the former governor of the state of Uttar Pradesh. An advocate of civil rights, women's emanicpation, and anti-imperialism, she played an important role in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. She was the first woman to be president of hte Indian National Congress and to appointed governor of a state. Her writings and poetry earned her the nickname the "Nightingale of India" by Mahatma Gandhi.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924-2018)
An Indian politician and poet who served three terms as the 10th Prime Minister of India from 1996-2004. He was one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a member of the nationalist RSS. He was the first Indian prime minister NOT belonging to the Indian National Congress to serve a full term in office. His tenure as prime minister was noted for a new nuclear bomb test, travelling to Lahore, Pakistan, by bus to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, encouraged the private business sector, reduced governmental waste. His tenure bore witness to violent attacks including the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2002 Gujarat Riots.
Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)
An Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the third Prime Minister of India from 1966-1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and still only female prime minister. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister. Her long run in power was known for political stubbornness and unprecedented centralization of power. Events during her tenure include: - 1967 Sino-Indian War - 1971 Indo-Pakistani War - Creation of Bangladesh - Growing relations with the Soviet Union - "The Emergency" of 1975-77 - Operation Blue Star She is remembered as the most powerful womn in the world during the 20th century.
Narendra Modi (b. 1950)
An Indian politician who is the current and 14th Prime Minister of India since 2014. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Hindu nationalist paramilitary organization the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is the longest-serving prime minister who wasn't a member of the Indian National Congress. His administration increased direct foreign investment, reduced spending on healthcare, education, and social-welfare programs, began a high-profile sanitation campaign, removed high-denomination banknotes from circulation, revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and passed the Citizenship Amendment Act which provided an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities (all except Muslims), which resulted in rioting in Delhi. Overall, India has experienced a democratic backsliding, lowering of individual rights, and freedom of expression.
Rajiv Gandhi (1944-1991)
An Indian politician who served as the 6th prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the assassination of his mother to become the youngest prime minister at the age of 40. During his time in ower, he introduced policies aimed at modernizing India and promoting economic development. He emphasized technology, computerization, and telecommunications to transform India into a technologically advanced nation. Like his mother, he was assassinated. A female suicide bomber/member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of the blew herself up and killed him and 14 others nearby.
Ravi Shankar (1920-2012)
An Indian sitarist and composer who became the world's best-known expert of North Indian classical music during the latter half of the 20th century. Influencing many musicians in India and throughout the world, he was awarded India's highest cvilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999. His friendship with rock star and member of The Beatles, George Harrison, exposed him to a western audience including during the "Concert for Bangladesh" where he opened the concert at Madison Square Garden.
Mangal Pandey (1827-1857)
An Indian soldier who played a key role in the events leading up to the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. His attack on British officers on March 29, 1857, was the first major incident that led to the rebellion. This rebellion began due to the rumor that a new Enfield rifle had cartridges greased with cow or pig lard, which was antithetical to Hindu and Muslim teachings. From reports and the following court martial and execution, he attempted to incite his fellow sepoys to rise up against the British officers. Some reports suggested he was under the influence of cannabis or opium at the time. He's rememberd as a freedom fighter against British rule.
Kalpana Chawla (1962-2003)
An Indian-born American astronaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbiain 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. Her second flight would end in tragedy. She was one of the 7 crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003. She was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Mohamed Nasheed (b. 1967)
He is a Maldivian politican and activist currently serving as the 19th speaker of the People's Majilis since 2019. He served as President of the Maldives from 2008 until his resignation in 2012 due to his attempt to arrest the country's chief justice. He is the first democratically elected president ofthe Maldives and the only one to resign from office. As president, he drew international attention to the threat of climate change to the Maldives. In May 2021, he survived an assassination attempt from an IED bomb near his home.
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (b. 1937)
He is a Maldivian politician who served as President of the Maldives from 1978 to 2008. During his 30-year tenure, he survived three coups and an assassination. After his presidency was over in 2008, he was later arrested by his half-brother (then president) for conspiring to overthrow the government but was later acquitted in court.
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (1924-1988)
He was a Pakistani military officer and politician who served as the 6th president of Pakistan from 1978 until his death in 1988. In July 1977, he organized Operation Fair Play, wherein he deposed Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (who had appointed him to Chief of Army Staff) and declared martial law. He assumed the presidency the next year. During his decade of military rule, he directed the Islamization of Pakistan, escalated its nuclear arms program, encouraged industrialization and deregulation of private business. Following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he made Pakistan align with China and the United States. He died in a plane crash near the Sutlej River while travelling to Islamabad.
Abdul Qadeer Khan (1936-2021)
He was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer who is known as the "father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program." An immigrant from India who moved to Pakistan in 1952, and would found the Khan Research Laboratories in 1976 after India's first nuclear bomb test in 1974. He was accused of selling nuclear secrets illegally and was put under house arrest in 2004, but those charges were later overturned by the Islamabad High Court.
Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
He was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief student of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was the key figure in introduce Vedanta and Yoga to the western world and for bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion. Due to his raising awareness of the Indian subcontinent through Hindu lectures and global tours, he contributed to the concept of Indian nationalism during the British colonial period and is viewed as a patriotic saint. His birthday (January 12) is celebrated as National Youth Day in India.
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (1906-2001)
He was an Indian writer and novelist known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. His work highlights the social context and everyday life of his characters and is often compared to American writer William Faulkner. Earning many literary and national accolades during his life, he would make India accessible to outside reading audience. In 2019, his book Swami and Friends was chosen as one of BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.
Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862)
He was the 20th and last of the Mughal emperors and was an accomplished Urdu poet. However, his reign and power was limited within the walled city of Old Delhi as the British crown took over control of the subcontinent after the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. His involvment in that rebellion led him to be exiled in Rangoon, Myanmar.
King Mahendra (1920-1972)
He was the King of Nepal from 1955 until his death in 1972. Following the 1960 coup overthrowing President Koirala, he established the partyless Panchayat system which gave total power to the monarch, which last until 1990. During his reign, Nepal experienced a period of industrial, political, and economic change that opened it to the rest of the world for the first time after the 104-year-long reign of the isolationaist Rana Dynasty.
Solomon Bandaranaike (SWRD) (1899-1959)
Known by the Sri Lankan people as "The Silver Bell of Asia," he was the fourth Prime Minister of Sri Lanka serving from 1956 until his assassination in 1959. He was the founder of the left-wing Sinhalese nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party. While prime minister, he nationalized the bus service, introduce legislation to remove caste-based discrimination, removed British naval and air bases, and established diplomatic missions with a number of communist states. He instituted the Sinhala Only Act, making Sinhala the sole official language of the country. He was assassinated by a Buddhist monk.
Siddhartha Gautama (536-483 B.C.E.)
Most commonly referred to as the Buddha, he was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th and 5th century B.C.E. and founded Buddhism. He was born in Lumbini, Nepal, to royal parents, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic. He attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, India. He wandered the lower Gangetic Plain, teaching and building a monastic order. His teachings of the "middle way" toward nirvana are summarized in the Noble Eightfold Path.
A.K. Fazlul Huq (1873-1962)
Popularly known as the "Lion of Bengal, he was a Bengali lawyer and politician who presented the 1940 Lahore Resolution for the creation of an independent Pakistan. He also served as the first and longest Prime Minister of Bengal during the British Raj. Born to a Bengali Muslim family, he also served as president of the All-India Muslim League, general secretary of the Indian National. Congress, and led inquiries into the Amritsar Massacre (1919).
Sheikh Hasina Wazed (b. 1947)
She is a Bangladeshi politican (and daughter of Bangladeshi founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) who has served as the prime minister of Bangladesh since 2009. As prime minister, she was essential in organizing the response to Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar. However, as the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladeshi history and longest-serving female head of government in the world, it hasn't been all positive. Bangaldesh has experienced democratic baksliding, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings.
Begum Rokeya (1880-1932)
She was a prominent Bengali feminist thinker, writer, educator, professor, teacher, and political activist for Muslim girls from East Bengal. She is widely regarded as a pioneer of women's liberation in South Asia. She advocated for men and women to be treated equally as rational beings, noting that lack of female education led to their inferior economic position. She established the first school for Muslim girls in Kolkata. She founded the Muslim Women's Association in 1916 and presided over the Bengal Women's Education Conference in 1926, the first significant attempt to bring women together in support of women's education rights.
Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (1928-1972)
The 3rd Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan. He began the process of opening Bhutan to the outside world, modernizing its people and government, and took the first step toward democratization.
Guru Nanak (1469-1539)
The founder of Sikhism and is the first of the 10 Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated worldwide. He is said to have travelled far and wide across Asia teaching people the message of 'one God' who dwells in every one of his creations and constitutes the eternal truth. From this concept he would set up a unique spiritual, social, and poltiical platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue. His words are registered in the form of 974 poetic hymns, or shabda, in the Guru Granth Sahib.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920-1975)
The founding father of an independent Bangladesh. He restored Bengali sovereignty after over 200 years following the Battle of Plassey in 1757. He started off as a student activist during the final years of the British Raj. In 1949, he joined Bengali breakaway from the Pakistani-heavy All-India Muslim League with the Awami League. He was the defacto nationalist leader of East Pakistan post independence from Britain, called for a 6-point autonomy movement, challenged the regime of Pakistan's President Ayub Khan. His Awami League won Pakistan's first general election but the military refused to transfer power to the party, which prompted his "7th of March" speech in 1971 announcing an aggressive independence movement. After independence in 1971, he earned a mixed legacy as Bangladesh's first president which ultimately resulted in his assassination by a military coup in 1975.
Muhammad Fareed Didi (1901-1969)
The son of Sultan Prince Abdul Majeed Didi, he was the last Sultan of the Maldives and the first Maldivian monarch to assume the title of "King" with the style of "His Majesty." He was selected by the legislature of the Maldives to follow as sultante after the fall of President Muhammad Amin Didi. He was deposed in 1968 after a nationwide referendum was held to turn the islands from a constitutional monarchy into a republic, thus ending the 853-year-old monarchy of the Maldives.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1916-2000)
The world's first female prime minister when she became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960. She chaired the Sri Lankan Freedom Party from 1960 to 1994 and served three terms as prime minister She attempted to reform Sri Lanka into a socialist republic by nationalizing organizations in banking, education, industry, media, and trade. She routinely campaigned on Sinhalese nationalist and anti-Tamil policies.
