दिन विशेष - ३१ ऑक्टोबर

सरदार वल्लभभाई पटेल

३१ ऑक्टोबर १८७५ - १५ डिसेंबर १९५०

जन्म व कौटुंबीक जीवन

वल्लभभाई झवेरभाई पटेल याचा जन्म त्यांच्या मामाच्या घरी नडीयाद - गुजरात येथे झाला. त्यांची अचूक जन्मतारिख द्न्यात नाही, त्यांनी मॅट्रीक परीक्षेवेळी स्वतःची जन्म तारीख ३१ ओक्टोबर अशी लिहिली होती. हिंदू धर्मिय पिता झवेरभाई व माता लाडबा यांचे ते चौथे पुत्र होत.

झवेरभाई खेडा जिल्ह्याच्या करमसद गावचे रहिवासी होते. सोमाभाई, नरसिंहभाई व विठ्ठलभाई (विठ्ठलभाई - पुढे राजकारणीही झाले) ही त्यांची मोठी भावंडे होत. त्यांना एक धाकटा भाऊ - काशीभाई व धाकटी बहिण - दहीबा ही होती. बालपणी वल्लभभाई वडिलांना शेतात मदत करत असत. १८ वर्षाचे झाले असता त्यांचे लग्न जवळच्या गावातील १२ / १३ वर्षाच्या झवेरबा यांच्यासोबत झाले.

वल्लभभाई मॅट्रीकची परीक्षा तुलनेने उशिरा म्हणजे २२ वर्षाचे असताना उत्तीर्ण झाले. इतरांकडे पुस्तके मागून, कुटुंबापासून दूर राहून दोन वर्षात वल्लभभाई वकीलीची परिक्षा उत्तीर्ण झाले. यानंतर गोध्रा येथे झवेरबांसोबत त्यांनी गृहस्थ जीवनाची सुरूवात केली. तिथल्या बार कौन्सिलमध्येही नाव नोंदवले. झवेरबांपासून त्यांना दोन अपत्ये झाली - १९०४ मध्ये मणीबेन आणि १९०६ मध्ये डाह्याभाई. गुजरातमध्ये त्या वेळी ब्युबोनिक प्लेगची साथ पसरली होती. या काळात त्यांनी स्वतःच्या कुटुंबास सुरक्षित स्थानी हलवले. वल्लभभाई गोधरा, बोरसद व आणंद भागात वकिली करत असताना करमसदच्या घराची जबाबदारीही बघत होते.

राजकीय जीवन

सरदार वल्लभभाई पटेल (३१ ओक्टोबर १८७५ - १५ डिसेम्बर १९५०) भारत भारताचे एक राजकीय व सामाजिक नेते होते, ज्यांनी देशाच्या स्वातंत्र्य लढ्यात व स्वातंत्र्यप्राप्तीनंतर भारताच्या राजकीय एकत्रीकरणात महत्वाचे योगदान दिले. त्यांना 'सरदार' ह्या पदवीने संबोधित केले जाई. ते पेशाने वकील होती. वकीलीच्या काळात ते महात्मा गांधीच्या प्रभावाखाली आले. गुजरातच्या खेडा, बोरसद आणि बारडोली गावाच्या खेडूतांना संघटित करून इंग्रजी अत्याचाराचा प्रतिकार केला. या सत्याग्रहानंतर त्यांची गणना गुजरातच्या प्रभावशाली नेत्यांमध्ये होऊ लागली.

भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कॉग्रेसचे ते एक महत्वाचे नेते होते. १९३४ व १९३७च्या निवडणूकांमध्ये त्यांनी पक्षाचे संघटनही बघितले. भारत छोडो आंदोलनात ते आघाडीवर होते. भारताचे पहिले गृहमंत्री व उपपंतप्रधान या रूपात त्यांनी पंजाब व दिल्लीच्या निराश्रितांच्या मदतीसाठी व फाळणीनंतर उफाळलेल्या हिंसाचारानंतर शांती पुन:स्थापनेकरिताही त्यांनी कार्य केले. सरदारांनी केलेले ५६५ अर्धस्वायत्त संस्थानांचे भारतात विलिनीकरण हे त्यांचे सर्वात महत्वाचे कार्य होय. मुत्सद्दीगिरी व वेळ पडल्यास सैन्यबळ वापरून सरदारांनी संस्थाने भारतात विलीन केली. ते भारताचे 'लोहपुरूष' म्हणून ओळखले जातात. सरदार, मुक्त व्यापार व मालकी हक्कांचे समर्थक होते.

संधर्भ : विकिपीडिया

दिन विशेष - ३० ऑक्टोबर

Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Born: 30 October 1909

Homi Jehangir Bhabha (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.Colloquially known as "father of theIndian nuclear programme", Bhabha was the founding director of two well-known research institutions, namely theTata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment (now named after him); both sites were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as its director.

Career

Starting his nuclear physics career in Great Britain, Bhabha had returned to India for his annual vacation before the start of World War II in September 1939. War prompted him to remain in India and accepted a post of reader in physics at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, headed by Nobel laureate C.V. Raman. During this time, Bhabha played a key role in convincing the Congress Party's senior leaders, most notably Jawaharlal Nehru who later served as India's first Prime Minister, to start the ambitious nuclear programme. As part of this vision, Bhabha established the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the Institute, began to work on the theory of point particles movement, while independently conducting research on nuclear weapons in 1944. In 1945, he established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, and the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948, serving as its first chairman. In 1948, Nehru led the appointment of Bhabha as the director of the nuclear program and tasked Bhabha to develop the nuclear weapons soon after. In the 1950s, Bhabha represented India in IAEA conferences, and served as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. During this time, he intensified his lobbying for the development of nuclear weapons. Soon after the Sino-Indo war, Bhabha aggressively and publicly began to call for the nuclear weapons.

Bhabha gained international prominence after deriving a correct expression for the probability of scattering positrons by electrons, a process now known as Bhabha scattering. His major contribution included his work on Compton scattering, R-process, and furthermore the advancement of nuclear physics. He was awarded Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 1954. He later served as the member of the Indian Cabinet's Scientific Advisory Committee and provided the pivotal role to Vikram Sarabhai to set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research. In January 1966, Bhabha died in a plane crash near Mont Blanc, while heading to Vienna, Austria to attend a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee.

Research in Nuclear physics

In January 1933, Bhabha received his doctorate in nuclear physics after publishing his first scientific paper, "The Absorption of Cosmic radiation". In the publication, Bhabha offered an explanation of the absorption features and electron shower production in cosmic rays. The paper helped him win the Isaac Newton Studentship in 1934, which he held for the next three years. The following year, he completed his doctoral studies in theoretical physics under Ralph H. Fowler. During his studentship, he split his time working at Cambridge and with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. In 1935, Bhabha published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which performed the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron scattering was later named Bhabha scattering, in honor of his contributions in the field.

In 1936, the two published a paper, "The Passage of Fast Electrons and the Theory of Cosmic Showers" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which they used their theory to describe how primary cosmic rays from outer space interact with the upper atmosphere to produce particles observed at the ground level. Bhabha and Heitler then made numerical estimates of the number of electrons in the cascade process at different altitudes for different electron initiation energies. The calculations agreed with the experimental observations of cosmic ray showers made by Bruno Rossi and Pierre Victor Auger a few years before. Bhabha later concluded that observations of the properties of such particles would lead to the straightforward experimental verification of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. In 1937, Bhabha was awarded the Senior Studentship of the 1851 exhibition, which helped him continue his work at Cambridge until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.