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The Greatest Indian

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The Greatest Indian was a poll sponsored by Reliance Mobile and conducted by Outlook magazine, in partnership with CNN-IBN and The History Channel. The poll was conducted from June to August 2012, with the winner, Babasaheb Dr.B.R. Ambedkar, announced on 11 August. A program associated with the poll aired from 4 June until 15 August.[1]

Unlike other editions of Greatest Britons spin-offs, The Greatest Indian did not include people from all time periods of history. Two reasons were given for this choice. The first was that "the pre-independence history of India is dominated by Mahatma Gandhi and it is impossible for anyone to come close to the Father of the Nation*(not father of nation anymore according to the Indian government and constitution) when it comes to Leadership, Impact and Contribution. [...] The panel of experts felt that if Gandhiji were to be included in the list, there would be no competition for title of The Greatest Indian".[2] Secondly, The Greatest Indian chose to focus on India as a modern nation: "India today is unrecongnizable from the India that got independence in 1947. This nation has achieved this stature in the world thanks to contribution from millions of Indians. This is an effort to recognise one who has made the maximum contribution and impact in the surge of independent India".[2]

Nominations and voting process

A list of 100 names was presented to and complied by a 28-member jury composed of actors, writers, sportspersons, entrepreneurs, and men and women of distinction in their fields.[3] This jury included N. Ram (former Editor-In-Chief of The Hindu), Vinod Mehta (Editor-in-Chief of Outlook), Soli Sorabjee (Former Attorney General of India), Sharmila Tagore (Bollywood actress and former Chairperson of the Censor Board of India), Harsha Bhogle (sports), Chetan Bhagat (author),[4] Ramachandra Guha (historian),[3] Shashi Tharoor (politician and author), Nandan Nilekani, Rajkumar Hirani, Soli Sorabjee, Shabana Azmi and Arun Jaitley.[5] They finalized a list of the top 50 nominees, which was released to the public on 4 June 2012, by CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai. A three-way process was then used to assess a top ten, in which equal weight was given to the votes of the jury, an online poll, and a market survey conducted by the Nielsen Company.[3] 7,129,050 people participated in this phase of the online poll.[6] Public voting was conducted from 4 June to 25 June,[1] with the final top ten were announced on 3 July.[7] A second round of voting followed, using the same method as the first, lasting from 1 July to 1 August.[1] Individuals were able to cast votes either by visiting www.thegreatestindian.in or by calling a unique number given to each of the nominees.[7] Nearly 20,000,000 people voted in this round of the survey[8] The announcement of the winner was made on 11 August,[9] with a special finale, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan and featuring other Indian celebrities, airing on 14 and 15 August (Independence Day (India)).[10]

Top ten nominees

  1. B.R. Ambedkar chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution of India
  2. Lal Bahadur Shastri
  3. Vallabhbhai Patel
  4. Subhas Chandra Bose
  5. Mother Teresa
  6. J. R. D. Tata
  7. Atal Bihari Vajpayee
  8. Lata Mangeshkar
  9. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
  10. Jawaharlal Nehru
  11. Bhagat Singh

List of original fifty nominees

  1. B. R. Ambedkar
  2. Indira Gandhi
  3. APJ Abdul Kalam
  4. Jawaharlal Nehru
  5. Jayaprakash Narayan
  6. Atal Bihari Vajpayee
  7. Vallabhbhai Patel
  8. Kanshi Ram
  9. Ram Manohar Lohia
  10. Rajagopalachari
  11. Sam Manekshaw
  12. Baba Amte
  13. Mother Teresa
  14. Ela Bhatt
  15. Vinoba Bhave
  16. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
  17. Ravi Shankar
  18. M. S. Subbulakshmi
  19. M. F. Husain
  20. Bismillah Khan
  21. R. K. Narayan
  22. R K Laxman
  23. B. K. S. Iyengar
  24. Amitabh Bachchan
  25. Raj Kapoor
  26. Kamal Hasan
  27. Satyajit Ray
  28. Lata Mangeshkar
  29. A. R. Rahman
  30. Kishore Kumar
  31. Dilip Kumar
  32. Dev Anand
  33. Mohammad Rafi
  34. Homi Bhabha
  35. Dhirubhai Ambani
  36. Verghese Kurien
  37. Ghanshyam Das Birla
  38. J. R. D. Tata
  39. N. R. Narayana Murthy
  40. Vikram Sarabhai
  41. M. S. Swaminathan
  42. Ramnath Goenka
  43. Amartya Sen
  44. E. Sreedharan
  45. Sachin Tendulkar
  46. Kapil Dev
  47. Sunil Gavaskar
  48. Dhyan Chand
  49. Viswanathan Anand
  50. Milkha Singh
  51. Bhagat Singh

Results

Ambedkar was generally approved of as the greatest Indian, with several prominent scholars writing articles congratulating him, including Ramachandra Guha[3] and S. Anand.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Greatest Indian: Terms of Use". Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  2. ^ a b "The Greatest Indian: FAQ". Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d "The Hindu, 21 July 2012: Indians great, greater, greatest?". Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  4. ^ "Indian Television, 18 May 2012: History TV18, CNN IBN name jury members for 'The Greatest Indian'". Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  5. ^ "TwoCircles.net, 5 June 2012: Now vote for 'The Greatest Indian'". Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  6. ^ "India Info Online, 3 July 2012: HISTORY TV18 & CNN IBN reveals names of 'The Greatest Indian'". Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  7. ^ a b "Outlook, 11 June 2012: The Greatest Indian After Gandhi". Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  8. ^ "The Hindu Business Line, 14 August 2012: Ambedkar voted "Greatest Indian" in poll". Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  9. ^ "Asian Human Rights Commission, 16 August 2012: INDIA: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar -- the greatest Indian". Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  10. ^ "Indian Television, 13 August 2012: 'Dr. B R Ambedkar is 'The Greatest Indian after the Mahatma'". Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  11. ^ "Outlook, 20 August 2012: A Case For Bhim Rajya". Retrieved 3 March 2013.

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