Mother Teresa voted top Indian
2002-08-12 09:25
New Delhi - Mother Teresa has been voted the greatest Indian since the country's independence in 1947 in a magazine survey which received 50 000 responses.
She was ranked ahead of independent India's first prime
minister, Jawaharal Nehru, as well as frontline independence leader Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who was instrumental in getting 562 princely states to join the Indian Union.
The poll, for Outlook magazine, did not include the leader of India's non-violent freedom struggle Mahatma Gandhi because the magazine decided "to keep the father of the nation above a voting process".
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee also found a place in the list of "the ten titans", but he was at number ten, below
cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who secured the number eight position.
Mother Teresa's work among the poor and dying in the city of
Calcutta and around the world won her a Nobel prize and millions of admirers.
She set up the Missionaries of Charity order in Calcutta in 1950 and lived a life that has been held up as a model of Christian service.
Born in the Macedonian capital of Skopje in 1910, Mother Teresa died in Calcutta in September 1997.
The survey showed that Indians below 25 years of age ranked
Mother Teresa higher than Nehru, while the older generation chose
Nehru.
"Is it some sort of comment on 55 years of Indian history that
the person voted the greatest Indian is the only one in the list
who was not born an Indian? Is it some sort of indication of the
popular mood that Sachin Tendulkar is ranked higher than Atal
Behari Vajpayee?" an editorial on the survey asked.
Indian writer Khushwant Singh said part of the answer was "that the people of India are totally disenchanted with politics and their political leaders" because of corruption.
"That explains the vote in favour of Mother Teresa who had
nothing to do with any politician" he wrote in Outlook. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA