May 2021
Dear Friends,
Namaskaram!
Sunderlal Bahuguna (9 January 1927 – 21 May 2021) was an environmentalist and Chipko movement leader. The idea of the Chipko movement was his wife's. He fought for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas, first as a member of the Chipko movement in the 1970s, and later spearheaded the anti-Tehri Dam movement from the 1980s to early 2004. He was one of the early environmentalists of India, and later he and others associated with the Chipko movement started taking up wider environmental issues, such as being opposed to large dams.
Shri.sundarlalji received various awards during his life time such as Jamnalal Bajaj Award for constructive work (1986), Right Livelihood Award (1987), Honorary Doctorate from IIT Roorkee (1989), and Padma Vibhushan Award by government of India for environment conservation (2009). He has also written a few books on environment and related subjects. In this issue, we have given some of his quotable quotes.
This month, our front page covers the ‘Forest man of India’ - Jadav "Molai" Payeng.
Babasaheb Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956), was a jurist, economist, politician and social reformer, who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination towards the untouchables. He was British India's Minister of Labour, Chairman of the Constituent Drafting committee, independent India's first Minister of Law and Justice, and considered the chief architect of the Constitution of India.
R.K.Narayan (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001) was an Indian writer known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.
Neem Karoli Baba (1900 – 11 September 1973), Lakshman Das Sharma was born around 1900 in the village Akbarpur, Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh, India, into a wealthy Brahmin family. After being married by his parents at the age of 11, he left home to become a wandering Sadhu. He later returned home, at his father's request, to live a settled married life. He has two sons and a daughter.
Ramana Maharshi (30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was born as Venkataraman Iyer, in Tiruchuli, Tamil Nadu, India. In 1895, an attraction to the sacred hill Arunachala and the 63 Nayanmars was aroused in him, and in 1896, at the age of 16, he had a "death-experience" where he became aware of a "current" or "force" which he recognized as his true "I" or "self", and which he later identified with "the personal God, or Iswara", that is, Shiva. Six weeks later he left his uncle's home in Madurai, and journeyed to the holy mountain Arunachala, in Tiruvannamalai, where he took on the role of a sannyasin.