Category Our Presidents

               Kocheril Raman Narayanan was born on 4th February, 1921 in the village of Uzhavoor in the Kottayam district in Kerala. K.R. Narayanan was born and brought up in a very poor family. He had to walk for miles to reach his school, only to stand outside the class to attend the lectures, as his fees were always overdue.

               After enduring such hardships, Narayanan obtained his BA (Honours) and MA in English literature from the University of Travancore (present-day University of Kerala), standing first in the University.

            After finishing college, K.R. Narayanan moved to Delhi, and took up job as a journalist. For one year he worked at ‘The Hindu’ and later joined ‘The Times of India’, as a reporter.

            At the same time, he aspired to continue his higher studies in London. As he had financial constraints he approached J.R.D. Tata, who gave him a scholarship. This helped him to go to England in 1945, where he studied Economics and Political Science at the London School of Economics. In London, he got acquainted with V.K. Krishna Menon and became a part of the Indian League.

            Later, he graduated from the London School of Economics with First Class Honours specializing in political science.

               K.R. Narayanan was the first Indian President from the Dalit community. He was also the first person from Kerala to be elected as the President of our nation. Narayanan was the tenth President of India.

               Narayanan did not hesitate to speak his mind, and he is regarded as an independent and assertive President, who set several precedents, and enlarged the scope of the highest constitutional office.

               After finishing his studies, Narayanan was appointed in the Indian Foreign Service on the advice of Nehru. He then went on to be the Indian Ambassador to Thailand, Turkey, and China.

               In 1980, he was appointed as India’s Ambassador to the United States. After he returned, in the next general elections, he contested from the Ottappalam constituency as a Congress candidate. He got elected by a fair margin, becoming the Minister of State in Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet. He later became the Minister for Science and Technology as well.

               Narayanan was elected as Lok Sabha member two more times. He became the Vice President of the country in 1992. In 1997, he succeeded Shankar Dayal Sharma as the 10th President of India, occupying the office till 2002.

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               Sharma was internationally recognised even before he attained his political fame. He taught law at Lucknow University for nine years, and later, at Cambridge University. Sharma was a Bar-at-Law from Lincoln’s Inn, and even became a Fellow of the Harvard Law School.

               He excelled as a sportsman in athletics, rowing, and swimming. He even tried his hand at journalism by writing on diverse topics such as history, art and culture, philosophy, poetry, literature, and comparative religions. His articles have been published in many reputed international journals.

               The International Bar Association has presented to Sharma the Living Legends of Law Award of Recognition for his outstanding contribution to the legal profession.

               He led several official delegations to international conferences including a parliamentary delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference at Oslo in 1980; a special delegation of veteran freedom fighters to Moscow in August, 1987, for the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of India’s independence during the Festival of India in the USSR, also led a special delegation of veteran freedom fighters to Jalalabad, Afghanistan to pay homage to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1988.

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             After playing a significant role in the independence movement, Shankar Dayal Sharma played a prominent role in the formation of former Bhopal state, too.

            After India’s independence, the Nawab of Bhopal expressed his wish to retain the Bhopal princely state as a separate unit. Sharma led public agitations against the Nawab in December 1948. He was arrested on charges of leading a public agitation against the Nawab. He also served a jail term for violating restrictions on public meetings. He was later released under public pressure, and the Nawab was forced to sign the agreement for merge with the Indian union on 30th April, 1949.

           In the year 1952, he became the Chief Minister of the former state of Bhopal. He was the youngest Chief Minister at the time. He served in that position until the state re-organisation of 1956, when Bhopal state merged with several other states to form the state of Madhya Pradesh.

 

               Shankar Dayal Sharma was born on 19th August 1918 in Bhopal. A meritorious law student from Fitzwilliam College, Sharma was awarded the Chakravarti Gold Medal for Social Service by Lucknow University.

               He later worked at the Cambridge University and Lucknow University. During his tenure in these universities, he was awarded a fellowship at the Harvard Law School and was elected Honorary Bencher and Master of Lincoln’s Inn and Honorary Fellow, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

               While at Cambridge, Sharma was Treasurer of the Tagore Society and the Cambridge Majlis. During his tenure as Vice President of India he was Chancellor of many universities in India.

               Sharma participated in the struggle for Indian independence and became a member of the Indian National Congress. In the year 1952, he became the Chief Minister of the former state of Bhopal.

               Sharma served as a Communication Minister from 1974-77 in the cabinet of Indira Gandhi. Later, Sharma served as the Vice President of India until he was elected as the President of India in 1992.

            Shankar Dayal Sharma was the ninth President of the Indian Republic, and served his tenure from 1992 to 1997. Before he was elected to the post of President, he served as the eighth Vice President of India under R. Venkataraman. Sharma was the only Indian President other than R. Venkataraman in the 20th century, to work with four Prime Ministers, and appoint three of them.

            Sharma participated in the struggle for Indian independence, and became a member of the Indian National Congress. He became the Chief Minister of Bhopal in 1952.

            He was the president of the Indian National Congress in 1972. Later, Sharma served as a Communication Minister from 1974 to 1977 in the cabinet of Indira Gandhi. He was elected from Bhopal to the Lok Sabha in 1980.

            Shankar Dayal Sharma was appointed Governor of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and Maharashtra. He was elected as the Vice President of India in the year 1987. Later, he was elected as the President of India after receiving 66 per cent of the votes.

 

                R. Venkataraman has received many honours from universities in different parts of the world. Madras University, Burdwan University, Nagarjuna University and Philippines University bestowed on Venkataraman the honorary doctor of law. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Madras Medical College; and doctor of social sciences, University of Roorkee.

               In recognition of his participation in the freedom movement, Venkataraman was awarded the Tamra Patra.

              The Russian government had conferred the Soviet Land Prize on him for writing the travelogue on former Tamil Nadu Crime Minister, Kumaraswami Kamaraj’s visit to Russia.

              For his distinguished service as the President of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal, Venkataraman was given a souvenir by the secretary of the UN.

             Besides all these, Venkataraman was a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1953, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961.

             Venkataraman was leader of the Indian delegation to the 42nd Session of the international Labour Conference at Geneva and represented India in the Inter Parliamentary Conference in Vienna. He was a member of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and was its president from 1968 to 1979.

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            Venkataraman, a freedom fighter, actively participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942 for which he was arrested, and jailed.

             After he was released, he became a member of the Constituent Assembly and drafted the Constitution of India. In 1950, Venkataraman was elected to the Provisional Parliament of India (1950-1952) and to the first Parliament (1952-1957).

            He was appointed by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi as a member of the Union Planning Commission in 1967 to supervise matters of industry, power, transport, communications and railways.

                    In 1980, he was elected to the Lok Sabha and was made Finance Minister in the Indira Gandhi government. Later, he was appointed Defence Minister in 1983.

                    Venkataraman gave the required boosting to India’s missile technology. He initiated India’s first missile programme. It was Venkataraman who transferred A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to the missile programme from the space programme. Kalam was later known as the ‘missile man of India’ for leading the ballistic missile technology.

                    Venkataraman was then, made the Vice President of India in 1984, and later, in July 1987, he was sworn in as the President of India, serving till 1992.

            R. Venkataraman’s career as a lawyer was prolific. He was enrolled in the High court of Madras in 1935, after obtaining a degree  in law from the Law College of Madras and later in the Supreme Court.

            It was while he was practicing law that Venkataraman was attracted towards India’s freedom struggle.

            R. Venkataraman’s interest in the law continued even after his involvement with the freedom movement. Especially, he developed an abiding interest in labour laws. Meanwhile, Venkataraman was arrested and jailed for participating in the Quit India movement.

            In 1946, when the transfer of power from British to Indian hands was imminent, R. Venkataraman was included in the panel of lawyers who were given the task of defending Indian nationals in Malaya and Singapore who were charged with collaboration during the Japanese occupation of the two places.

            During the years from 1947 to 1950, Venkataraman also served as secretary of the Madras Provincial Bar Federation. Subsequently, in 1949, he founded the Labour Law Journal that was soon acknowledged as a specialist journal. He edited the journal till 1957.

            R. Venkataraman was an integral part of the trade union movements, in Tamil Nadu, especially of unions for plantation workers, estate staff, dock-workers, railway workers and working journalists.

               R. Venkataraman was born on 4th December, 1910, in Rajamadam, Tamil Nadu. He did his schooling in Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Pattukottai. Later, he did his under graduation in National College, Tiruchirappalli.

               Venkataraman obtained his master’s degree in economics from Loyola College, Madras. He later qualified in law from the Law College, Madras. A lawyer by profession, he had practised law in the Madras High Court, and in the Supreme Court. He was enrolled as a law practitioner in the Madras High Court in the year 1935, and was appointed to the Apex Court in 1951.

               He took part in the Indian independence movement and actively participated in the Quit India agitation. He was jailed by the British government during the period between 1942 and 1944.

               After his release he continued to practise law. In the same year, Venkataraman took up the Organization of the labour section of the Tamil Nadu Provincial Congress Committee.

              He played a crucial role in the parliamentary team that redesigned India’s Provincial parliament.

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