1. Joachim Ignatius Sebastian Alva was an Indian lawyer, journalist and politician from Mangalore.
17 Facts About Joachim Alva
1. 2.
Joachim Alva was a prominent Mangalorean Christian figure involved in the Indian independence movement.
3.
Joachim Alva was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1952,1957, and 1962 from North Kanara.
4.
Joachim Alva was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1968 and retired from the Rajya Sabha in 1974.
5.
Joachim Alva belonged to the Alva-Bhat, a Mangalorean Catholic clan from Belle in Udupi district.
6.
Joachim Alva was educated at the Jesuit St Aloysius College, Mangalore, Elphinstone College, Government Law College, Mumbai and the Jesuit St Xavier's College, Mumbai.
7.
In 1928, Joachim Alva became the first Christian to be elected as Secretary of the fifty-year-old Bombay Students' Brotherhood.
8.
In 1930, Joachim Alva founded the Nationalist Christian Party with the goal of drawing the Christian community into the freedom struggle.
9.
Joachim Alva borrowed and earned money to pay his way through college.
10.
Joachim Alva was expelled from St Xavier's College, Mumbai for moving a resolution at the Catholic Students Union urging it to throw open its doors to non-Catholic students.
11.
In 1937, Joachim Alva presided over a large meeting of Christians at Bombay addressed by Jawaharlal Nehru.
12.
Joachim Alva was actively involved in organizing the "No-Tax" campaign at the Bardoli Satyagraha, the boycotting of the Simon Commission and appointed President of the Bombay Congress "War Council".
13.
In 1934, Mahatma Gandhi wrote a letter to Joachim Alva to inform him that he had missed him at Yerwada Jail because of his early release.
14.
In 1941, in Nasik prison, Joachim Alva wrote two books: Men and Supermen of Hindustan and Indian Christians and Nationalism.
15.
In 1937, Joachim Alva married Violet Hari, a Gujarati Protestant from Ahmedabad and professor of English at St Xavier's Indian Women's University College.
16.
Joachim Alva was elected to the Lok Sabha from North Kanara in the first three General Elections in 1952,1957 and 1962.
17.
In 1962, Joachim Alva led on India's attempts for closer ties with China, meeting Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in Beijing.