A) Alexander, the great was the king of Macedonia. He was a great warrior and dreamt of ruling the whole world. He conquered the whole of Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Persia in just four years. In 326 B.C., he crossed the Hindukush Mountain and invaded India. Most of the kings could not fight well. But Porus a powerful king fought bravely but was defeated and captured. When brought before Alexander, Porus did not ask for mercy but told Alexander that he should be treated like a `king’. Alexander was impressed by Porus, released him and also gave back his kingdom.

After this, Alexander continued conquering other kingdoms but soon his soldiers became tired and homesick and refused to go any further. Alexander left India in 325 B.C. while returning to Greece; he died at Babylon in 323 B.C. at the young age of 32 years.

B) When Bengal came under the British rule, it was constituted as a province which included present day Bihar and Orissa and extended up to Agra. In 1905, Lord Cruzan divided Bengal into two provinces. A new province called Assam and east Bengal with its capital at Dacca was covered out of old Bengal. The rest of the territory together with Bihar and parts of Orissa formed Bengal. In 1911, due to stiff opposition of the Bengalis, the two parts were united once again. The capital of India was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. Assam and Bihar were not included in the new Bengal. With the partition of 1947, Pakistanis’ share was called East Pakistan which later on became an independent country, named Bangladesh after the 1971india –Pakistan war. India’s share was called west Bengal.

C) On the 30th January, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi hurried to his prayer meeting as he was ten minutes late. A young man, Nathuram Godse came forward and knelt before him with hands joined. As Gandhi raised his hand in blessing, the man fired three shots at him and murmuring, Hey Ram, Gandhi collapsed. The whole nation was stunned, and wept.

Later that night,

Pandit Nehru, India’s prime minister addressing the people of India on all India radio, said ``The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness every where….’’