Kundan Lal

Kundan Lal (1893 – 1966) was an Indian businessman, freedom fighter and philanthropist and founder of Kundan Vidya Mandir, one of the first schools for girls in Ludhiana.[1][2][3]

Kundan Lal
Born
Ludhiana, Punjab

Early life

Kundan Lal was born in 1893 in Ludhiana, Punjab, to a Patwari father. He completed a BSc degree from Government College, Punjab University, Lahore, in pre-partition India. He was directly admitted to the Provincial Civil Service in 1915 and was appointed as a Sub Divisional Magistrate in Nagpur. In 1920, he met Jawaharlal Nehru during the non-cooperation movement was launched by the Congress Party.

Freedom Fighter

In 1926 Kundan Lal joined the Congress Party to support Indian independence and hosted the landmark All India States People’s Conference in Ludhiana, in February 1939, better known as the “Ludhiana Session”.[4]

Philanthropy

With India’s independence in 1947, Kundan Lal turned his attention to educating a generation of Indians. He started a charitable trust, Shri Kundanlal Trust, and donated most of his assets to it.[5][6] He started Kundan Vidya Mandir in 1941, initially as a girls-only school, and converted to a co-educational school around 1958.[7][8]

Humanitarian

On a trip to Vienna, Austria, for a medical procedure in 1938 he saw the plight of Jews under Hitler’s tyranny and helped rescue 14 Jews out of Austria.[9]

References
  1. "Kundan Lal Gupta". AnyPursuit Knowledge Network. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  2. "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Ludhiana Stories". www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  3. bansalmanav (2018-12-29). "Top Ten Schools in Ludhiana and their Contact Details". The Hush Post. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  4. McLeod, John (1999). Sovereignty, Power, Control: Politics in the States of Western India, 1916-1947. BRILL. ISBN 9789004113435.
  5. "KVM students win hearts with musical power". Hindustan Times. 2019-07-29. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  6. "Gupta, Vijya and Vinay". Holocaust Memorial Center. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  7. Oct 18, | TNN | Updated; 2011; Ist, 8:16. "KVM holds programme in memory of founder | Ludhiana News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2019-08-06.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. "From Austria to Australia via India" (PDF).
  9. Viswanath, Meylekh. "From the Reich to the Raj". jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
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