Anna
Hazare (full name: Kisan Baburao Hazare), was born on 15th June 1937. He is an Indian social activist who works for
the upliftment of rural areas and tries eliminating corruption from its
grass-root level. He is a follower of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He has served
Indian army during 1965 Indo Pak war. He became the crusader for right to information
act. His journey has been remarkable spanning over four decades and that too
non-violently. He is responsible for transforming his village Ralegan Siddhi
and made it as a role model for other villages to follow. He empowered
grampanchayats and protected honest officers to make the governance more
effective in the villages.
Childhood
He
was born in Bhingar near Ahmednagar, to father Baburao Hazare and mother Laxmi
Bai. Parents with two daughters and five sons make the complete family. His
childhood was not a cakewalk for him due to financial crises at home. Because
of this reason only, he could attend school only upto seventh standard and his
siblings never attended school. He started selling flowers at the railway
station in Mumbai and then raised to open a flower shop. At the age of 23, he
joined Indian Army.
Career
Anna
Hazare joined Indian Army in April 1960. He served Indian Army for a period of
fifteen years. He enlisted after the 1962 Indo-China war when the government
exhorted young men to join the Army. He remained the sole survivor of 1965
India Pakistan battle attack at the border in Khem Karan Sector. He used to
read books and got influenced by Swami Vivekanand. By reading his books he
found answers to all his questions. Since then he strived for the betterment of
people. In 1978, he decided to take voluntary retirement from Indian Army. He
then went back to his village and upgraded the economy and ecology of the
village.
At
Present
Anna
Hazare wanted lokpall bill to be passed so that corruption says good bye to the
country. His way was non-violent. Thus, his weapon of protest was hunger
strikes and his prime targets were politicians. In the year 2011, he fasted for
continuously four days and for that matter he gained attention and brought
several personalities to ask. He fought for Right to Information and got that
implemented. For him this was India’s second freedom struggle.
Recently
he was seen supporting Mamta Banarjee during 2014 General Elections.
Awards
and Recognition
Indian
Government honored Anna Hazare with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan in 1990 and 1992
respectively.
