Govind Ballabh Pant was an Indian freedom fighter and one of the architects of modern India. Alongside Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabh Bhai Patel, Pant was a key figure in the movement for India’s Independence and later a pivotal figure in the Indian Government.
Govind Ballabh Pant was born in Khoont village near Almora. His family had migrated from the present day North Karnataka to Kumaon region. Pant studied at Allahabad University and subsequently worked as a lawyer in Kashipur. Here, he began active work against the British Raj in 1914. In 1921, he entered politics and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. In 1930, he was arrested and imprisoned for several weeks for organising a Salt March inspired by Gandhi’s earlier actions. In 1933. During the Second World War, Pant acted as the tiebreaker between Gandhi’s faction, and Subhas Chandra Bose’s faction. In 1934, he became deputy leader of the Congress party in the Assembly.

In 1942 he was arrested again, this time for signing the Quit India resolution, and spent three years in Ahmednagar Fort along with other members of the Congress working committee until March 1945, at which point Jawaharlal Nehru pleaded successfully for Pant’s release, on grounds of failing health. Pant took over as the Chief Minister of the United Provinces from 1937 until 1954. Then he moved to Delhi to become cabinet minister. Pant served as Union Home Minister from 1955 to 1961.
His judicious reforms and stable governance in the Uttar Pradesh stabilised the economic condition of the most populous State of India. Among his achievements in that position was the abolition of the zamindari system. Also he passed the Hindu Code Bill and made monogamy compulsory for Hindu men and gave the Hindu women the rights of divorce and inheritance to ancestral property.