The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million
volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded on 9 February 1863
to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings,
and to prevent and alleviate human suffering.
On 9 February 1895, William G. Morgan
created a game called Mintonette, which later came to be referred as volleyball.
For a sport that has been around for over a century, the origin
of volleyball traces
its roots to a rather humble beginning.
History has it that William G. Morgan, who invented
the game of volleyball in 1895, came up with the idea so that people who found
basketball’s ‘bumping’ or ‘jolting’ too strenuous could have an alternative
physical activity to fall back on.
William G. Morgan, who served as the physical
director at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Holyoke,
Massachusetts, looked at the sports around and picked the aspects that he
thought suited his brief the best.
The ball came from baske`tball, the net from tennis
and the use of hands from handball. While this made up a game of volleyball, it
was lent some competitive tone with the introduction of innings - later to be
called sets - that was borrowed from baseball.
Morgan introduced the sport -- called mintonette,
the original name of volleyball -- at the YMCA Physical Director's Conference a
year later at Springfield College, Massachusetts.
"In search of an appropriate game, tennis
occurred to me, but this required rackets, balls, a net and other equipment, so
it was eliminated, but the idea of a net seemed a good one," Morgan
explained. "We raised [the net] to a height of... just above the head of
an average man. We needed a ball and among those we tried was a basketball
bladder, but this was too light and too slow. We therefore tried the basketball
itself, which was too big and too heavy.”
A new specially designed ball, which was lighter and
smaller, was introduced in 1900.
Though it was incomplete with no fixed rules and a
format to follow, the sport did enough to win over the delegation and soon
became a part of YMCA’s wide network throughout the USA with a new name -
volley ball (initially it was termed as two words). Volleyball was officially
selected to spell as a single word in 1952.
A sport that traced its origin to basketball,
baseball, tennis and handball - and now estimated to be played by over 800
million globally - had thus been established.
T.
Balasaraswati, who passed away on 9 February 1984, was
a celebrated Indian dancer, and
singer in the Karnatak (South Indian) tradition, who was one
of the 20th century’s foremost exponents of the bharata natyam style of classical dance.
She was instrumental not only in expanding the performance of this dance form
beyond the precincts of the temples where it was traditionally performed but
also in cultivating international appreciation of the art form.
For her
contributions to Indian arts and culture, Balasaraswati received a Sangeet Natak Akademi (India’s
national academy of music, dance, and drama) award in 1955 and the Padma Vibhushan, one
of the country’s top civilian honours, in 1977. Although she danced extensively
throughout her life, she was seldom filmed. In 1976, however, the acclaimed
Indian film director Satyajit Ray made a short documentary, Bala, as a tribute to her artistic achievement. In 2006 Aniruddha
Knight, Balasaraswati’s grandson, also produced a short documentary.
Narayan Meghaji Lokhande, who passed
away on 9 February 1897, is recognized as the “Father of the Trade Union
Movement in India.” Lokhande dedicated his life to championing the
rights of workers and spearheading the labour movement in the country.
Narayan Meghaji Lokhande's journey began in the late 19th century when
he witnessed the plight of mill workers in Bombay (now Mumbai). Deeply affected
by their poor working conditions, low wages, and lack of basic rights, Narayan
Lokhande took it upon himself to fight for their rights and improve their
lives.
In 1890, Narayan Meghaji Lokhande founded the Bombay Mill Hands
Association, one of the earliest trade unions in India. Through this
association, he led several strikes, protests, and movements, demanding better
wages, improved working conditions, and legal protections for workers. His
charismatic leadership and unwavering commitment to the cause garnered
significant attention and support.
Apart from being a labour leader, Narayan Lokhande was also a
social reformer. He actively worked towards eradicating social evils like child
labour, gender inequality, and caste discrimination. He believed in the
empowerment of workers and fought for their overall well-being, including
access to education, healthcare, and social justice.
Narayan Meghaji Lokhande's contributions laid the foundation for the
trade union movement in India. His relentless efforts paved the way for
significant labour reforms and the recognition of workers' rights.
Baba Amte, who passed
away on 9 February 2008, was an Indian lawyer and
social activist who devoted his life to India’s poorest and least powerful
and especially to the care of those individuals who suffered from leprosy. His
work earned him numerous international awards, notably, the 1988 UN Human
Rights Prize, a share of the 1990 Templeton Prize, and the 1999 Gandhi
Peace Prize.
Amte was born into an
affluent Brahmin family and grew up in a life of privilege. After earning
a law degree in 1936, he set up a legal practice. In 1942 he acted as a
defense lawyer for those imprisoned for participating in Mahatma Gandhi’s
Quit India campaign against the British occupation of India. Influenced by
Gandhi’s nonviolent fight for justice, Amte abandoned his legal career in
the 1940s and settled in Gandhi’s ashram in Sevagram, Maharashtra, India,
working among the downtrodden.
After an encounter with a
man suffering from advanced leprosy, Amte’s attention turned to that disease.
He studied leprosy, worked at a leprosy clinic, and took a course on the
disease at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine. In 1949 Amte founded Anandwan,
an ashram dedicated to the treatment, rehabilitation, and empowerment of
leprosy patients. The centre came to encompass programs in health care,
agriculture, small-scale industry, and conservation and to serve people with
disabilities.
In addition to his work with lepers, Amte was
involved in various other causes, including environmentalism and religious
toleration. In particular, he opposed the building of hydroelectric dams on the
Narmada River, both for environmental reasons and because of the effects on
those displaced by the dams. In 1990 Amte left Anandwan to devote himself to
this cause, but toward the end of his life he returned to the ashram. Amte’s
sons, Prakash and Vikas Amte, became doctors and continued their father’s
philanthropic work.
