Maneka Gandhi is the most well known animal activist in India. Widow of Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of former PM Indira Gandhi.She served as the Indian Minister of Social Justice and Welfare , Environment and Forests (1989-1991). In 1993, she started an animal welfare organization called People for Animal (PFA), with the help of M.F. Hussain and Anupam Kher. Today it has over 200,000 workers working for it in over 146 branches around India and is the country`s largest NGO (Non Government Organization). It has various projects: Mobile Clinics, no-kill shelter, Save our Wild Life (SoWL) etc. PFA networks with the Forest Department, the Police, lawyers and the press to implement their objectives: to create shelters for sick and injured animals; to find loving homes for abandoned and stray animals and stop their killing; preserve and protect wildlife in its natural habitat and to ban the trade in wild animal products. Chemical free farming, organically grown foods, improvement of zoos; to stop animal sacrifice and wild game hunting; to rescue and rehabilitate performing animals and to stop the misuse of animals in movies; to campaign for and enforce proper animal rights laws and to control the testing of drugs and cosmetics on animals. Recipient of the prestigious Lord Erskine Award from the RSPCA,'Prani Mitra Award', 1996; and "Maharana Mewar, Foundation Award" 1996 for Environmental work; Environmentalist and Vegetarian of the year 1994 etc.
Rekha Rodwittiya , a feminist painter, belongs to the Baroda school that adheres to the tradition of narrative painting. At the same time, she emphasises the importance of ancient arts and crafts that are still practised by various artisans in India. Her early years at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, laid the foundation for a politically alert feminist practice of painting.Rodwittiya represents large clothed Gauginesque women as the archetypal figure in their daily work rituals, dwarfing their tools and objects that surround them, in a celebration of the female protagonist.
Vandana Shiva is a physicist, philosopher, ecofeminist, environmental activist and writer.She participated in the Chipko movement during the 1970s. The movement, whose main participants were women, adopted the tactic of hugging trees to prevent their felling. In 1982, she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. Initiatives of this foundation are the organic farming programme Navdanya, the Bija Vidyapeeth (or Seed University, International College for Sustainable Living), and Diverse Women for Diversity. Another of the Vandana Shiva's initiatives is the Living Democracy Movement.She received the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1993 for placing women and ecology at the heart of modern development discourse. Other awards she has received include the Global 500 Award of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1993, and the Earth Day International Award of the United Nations (UN).Vandana Shiva is one of the leaders of the International Forum on Globalization, (along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader, Jeremy Rifkin), and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as anti-globalization movement.
Arundhati Roy - high profile writer, actress and social activist won the 1997 Booker Prize for her first novel The God of Small Things. Also a trained architect, she has worked as a production designer and has written the screenplays for two films. Originally from Kerala in South India, she lives in New Delhi, India. Booker Prize winner and environment activist Arundhati Roy has turned down the 2006 Sahitya Akademi award for her book The Algebra of Infinite Justice.Ms. Roy had declined the award, saying she could not accept the honour from an institution linked to a government whose policies she opposed
Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress (INC)party and the widow of Rajiv Gandhi. Of Italian origin , Sonia married into the Gandhi family and became a full-fledged Indian citizen in 1984. Though her foreign origin has always given her oppopents something to debate on. Sonia Gandhi became the President of the Indian National Congress in 1998.
Phoolan Devi well known as the bandit queen of India. The Bandi Queen turned politician. Phoolan Devi evaded capture for two years and after negotiating terms, surrendered on Feb. 12, 1983, in a dramatic ceremony witnessed by thousands of her admirers. While imprisoned for 11 years in Gwalior Central Jail in Madhya Pradesh, she was befriended by Mala Sen, who wrote her story in India`s Bandit Queen (1991), the basis of a controversial film directed by Shekhar Kapur in 1995. After her release, she married, and converted to a form of Buddhism. In June 1995 she launched a new political party for the lower castes, Eklavya Manch, and opened the prospect of a new career in politics. She was shot dead by masked assailants on 25th July 2001.
Vandana Mataji born a Parsi (Zorastrian) in Mumbai, changed her faith to a christian, believes in many religions. She is an exponent of the new culture called Indian Christains. At her ashram in Rishikesh where she lives and practices her unique faith.Vandana Mataji, a Parsi-turned-nun who heads Jiva Dhara, an ashram in Rishikesh, at the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. According to Vandana Mataji "Jesus was an Asian. We have no right to live, think and pray like western Christians."
Iconoclast and Odissi dancer, Protima Gauri Bedi . Formerly a model she became a Odissi dancer which was her passion. Protima Bedi set up a dance gurukul called Nrityagram, 35 kms from Bangalore. A dream of hers to make it a meeting point for the world dance communities. A dance music festival called Vasanthabba is held every February coinciding with the arrival of Spring, featuring the best dance and music artistes of the world. She died at the age of 56 in a landslide returning from a pilgrimage to the Mansovar in the Himalayas in 1998, leaving behind her most lasting achievement ? a flourishing dance village, Nrityagram, where students continue to learn the classical dance styles of India.
Internationally renowned for Ayurvedic Care & Cure, Shanaz Husain is the the pioneer and the undisputed Queen of herbal care. A royal descendent from Samarkhand, Shanaz trained for 10 years in cosmetology and cosmetic chemistry and adopted the principle of Natural Care and Cure and to apply the Ayurvedic system and formulate custom-made products for skin and hair problems.The legendary Shahnaz Herbal range of therapeutic products was thus born. Recipient of many awards like the World`s Greatest Woman Entrepreneur, Woman of the Year 1999,The 2000 Millennium Medal of Honour and Outstanding Woman of the 20th Century by the American Biographical Institute (ABI), U.S.A.,and many others.
Highly acclaimed Indian filmaker Mira Nair at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. She leapt into the world`s spotlight with her film Salaam, Bombay in 1988. Born in Bhubaneshwar,Orissa in 1957 she studied Sociology and Theater in the University of Delhi and went to continue her Sociology studies at Harvard. Sociology influence can be felt in her films like Mississippi Masala(1991), The Perez Family (1993) and the latest one MOnsoon Wedding (2001) which won her the Golden Lion at the Berlin Film Festival. She also is the director of the controversial film Kama Sutra,a remaking of the 15th century love manual.
Medha Patkar has been a central organizer and strategist of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), a people's movement organized to stop the construction of a series of dams planned for India`s largest wetsward flowing river.The World Bank-financed Sardar Sarovar Dam is the keystone of the Narmada Valley Development Project, one of the world`s largest river development projects. Upon completion, Sardar Sarovar would submerge more than 37,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land. The dam and its associated canal system would also displace some 320,000 villagers, mostly from tribal communities, whose livelihoods depend on these natural resources.
Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai became the first Indian women to win the Miss Universe and the Miss World titles in 1995.
Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), the only child of Jawarharlal Nehru, India`s first Prime Minister. Married to Feroze Gandhi in 1942, she was elected to the Indian Parliament for the first time after her father`s death in 1964. She was Prime Minister of India between 1966-77 and 1980-1984. Her tenure is best remembered for the 1975 Emergency. She was assasinated by her bodyguards in 1984.
Aruna Roy, social activist and winner of the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay award for community service and co-founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan( MKSS), Organization for the Empowerment of Workers and Peasants, in Rajasthan. Aruna Roy is being cited for empowering Indian villagers to claim what is rightfully theirs by upholding and exercising the people`s right to information.
Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, daughter of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar and the widow of Maharaja of Jaipur. With her flawless beauty, grace and style the Maharani has appeared on the list of the World`s Most Beautiful Women and remains a favourite of columnists and an ideal subject for portraiture. Besides dabbling in politics she has also written a book called A Princess Remembers
Madhavi Mudgil is a renowned Odissi dance exponent. Through teaching, performing and conducting workshops, Madhavi Mudgilhas been actively involved in propagating the art of Odissi in New Delhi and other parts of India as well as the world. For her contribution to the art, Madhavi Mudgal received the Sanskriti Award and the President of India's award, the Padmashri besides the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for her contribution to the world of Indian Dance.
Shabana Azmi , internationally acclaimed actress, Member of the Indian Parliament and UN Goodwill Ambassador, She is the winner of five National Awards for best Actress in India and the Padma Shree Award in 1988. Wife of poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhter and daughter of renowned Urdu poet, Kaifi Azmi.
Kiran Bedi is the the first woman to join the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1972. One of the most popular Police officers who ever served the Indian Police Force.Kiran Bedi was honored with the UN medal for outstanding service. In May 2005, she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Law by City University of New York, in recognition of her humanitarian approach to prison reforms and policing. She also recieved the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for her effort to humananise and reform Tihar jail- Asia's largest prison located in New Delhi.
Indian born Kalpana Chawla was an astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist. She died aboard STS-107 (Space Shuttle Columbia) when it disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, on February 1, 2003.Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second person of Indian origin to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 in a Soviet spacecraft.
Bhanwari Devi of Batteri, Jaipur in Rajasthan. Gang raped by 5 upper-caste men, in September 1992, for her social efforts to curb child marriages, she was soon deemed a social outcast by her neighbours, villagers and family members. Belonging to a potter class, no one offered assistance or bought their pots or milk. On 24 January 1994, all 5 men gave themselves up to the police after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) issued warrants and threatened to confiscate their property. Later, the alleged rapists were set free on accounts of being middle-aged, respectable citizens
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