11 March in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. 11 March is the birth anniversary of Dwijendranath Tagore, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, Vijay Samuel Hazare, Swami Chidbhavananda, Viswanathan Shanta, Baliram Kashyap, CaptainAmarinder Singh, and Wahida Prism Khan.
11 March is also observed as the death anniversary of Sambhaji Bhosale, Rallapalli Ananta Krishna Sharma, and Chandra Bhanu Gupta.
Birth Anniversary
11 March in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Dwijendranath Tagore (11 March 1840 – 26 January 1926), a poet, musician, philosopher, and mathematician. His experiments in poetic composition, ingenious and daring, left a deep impression on the poetic development of his brother, Rabindranath. He was the eldest son of Debendranath Tagore and was born on 11 March 1840 in Kolkata, British India.
Sayajirao Gaekwad III (11 March 1863 – 6 February 1939), the Maharaja of Baroda State from 1875 to 1939. He belonged to the royal Gaekwad dynasty of the Marathas. He was born on 11 March 1863 in Nashik, British India.
Swami Chidbhavananda (11 March 1898 – 16 November 1985), a spiritual leader. Swami Chidbhavananda has authored more than a hundred books in Tamil and English. His books address a variety of topics ranging from deep philosophical enquiry to contemporary social life. He was born on 11 March 1898 in Senguttaipalayam near Pollachi in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, India.
Vijay Samuel Hazare (11 March 1915 – 18 December 2004), an Indian cricketer. He captained India in 14 matches between 1951 and 1953. He has been honoured with a trophy in his name, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, a zonal-cricket tournament in India. He was the first cricketers to be honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award by the Government of India. He was born on 11 March 1915 in Sangli, British India.
Viswanathan Shanta (11 March 1927 – 19 January 2021), an Indian oncologist and the chairperson of Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai. She dedicated herself to the mission of organizing care for cancer patients. Her work won her several awards, including the Magsaysay Award, Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award given by the Government of India. She belongs to the family of Nobel Laureates: C. V. Raman and S. Chandrasekar. She was born on 11 March 1927 in Madras, British India.
Baliram Kashyap (11 March 1936 – 10 March 2011), an Indian politician. He was a member of the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th Lok Sabhas. He represented the Bastar constituency of Chhattisgarh and was affiliated with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kashyap died on 10 March 2011, only one day before his 75th birthday. He was born on 11 March 1936.
CaptainAmarinder Singh, an Indian politician serving as the 15th and current Chief Minister of Punjab. His father was the last Maharaja of the princely state of Patiala. Mr Singh served in the Indian Army from June 1963 to December 1966 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. He also participated in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war during his tenure in defence services. He was inducted into the Congress by Rajiv Gandhi, who was his friend from school. In 1980, he won a seat in the Lok Sabha for the first time. The author Khushwant Singh released a biographic book titled, Captain Amarinder Singh: The People’s Maharaja in 2017. He was born on 11 March 1942 in Patiyala, British India.
Wahida Prism Khan, an Indian naval surgeon. She was the first woman to command the annual parade at the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune in 2006. She was the first woman from Jammu and Kashmir to join the Indian Navy. Khan joined Armed Forces Medical College after finishing her MBBS. She was born on 11 March 1972 in Rajouri, India.
Read More: 10 March in Indian and World History
Death Anniversary
11 March in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Sambhaji Bhosale (14 May 1657 – 11 March 1689), the second ruler of the Maratha kingdom. He was the eldest son of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire. He ruled the state for nine years and his reign was largely shaped by the ongoing wars between the Maratha kingdom and Mughal Empire. In 1689, Sambhaji was captured, tortured and executed on 11 March 1689 by Mughals.
Rallapalli Ananta Krishna Sharma (23 January 1893 – 11 March 1979), a noted composer of Carnatic music, singer as well as a writer. In 1972, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship the highest honour conferred by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India’s National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. He died on 11 March 1979 in Bangalore, India at an age of 86.
Chandra Bhanu Gupta (14 July 1902 – 11 March 1980), three terms as chief minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He had taken an active part in the Indian freedom movement and played a very active role in the social and cultural improvement in his home state post-independence. He died on 11 March 1980 in New Delhi, India, at an age of 77.
Read More: 9 March in Indian and World History
Notable events on 11 March in Indian and World history
11 March 1886 – Anandibai gopalrao Joshi, who was one of the first woman physicians of India actually graduated from the United States on 11th March and completed her medical education. She is also believed to be one of the first women from India who had ever put her foot in the United States. She completed her medical education in Pennsylvania in 1886 and return to India to a hero’s welcome. She died of tuberculosis on 26 February 1887 before turning 22.
11 March 1920 – Julio Garavito Armero, a Colombian mathematician, died.
11 March 1920 – Nicolaas Bloembergen a Dutch American physicist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
11 March 1945 – The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.
11 March 1953 – An Air Force bomber dropped a nuclear weapon on a farm in the rural Mars Bluff community outside Florence. The radioactive payload either wasn’t loaded in the warhead or didn’t detonate.
11 March 1990 – Lithuania declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
11 March 1999 – Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
11 March 2010 – Turhan Selçuk – prolific cartoonist – died.
11 March 2011 – An earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Honshu, Japan, causing widespread damage in the country and triggering a devastating tsunami that instigated a major nuclear accident.
11 March 2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic.
11 March is also observed as World Plumbing Day. It is celebrated to recognize the important role plumbing plays in societal health and amenity.