Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay - A woman freedom fighter less acknowledged in the pages of History

Although a student of history, I must admit that I know little about Kamaladevi Chattopadyay. The fault is not entirely mine. Popular books on history throw little light on prominent women freedom fighters and important political activists.  

 This lacuna has also been highlighted by author Devaki Jain while reviewing the book- ‘A Passionate Life: Writings by and on Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’, in EPW dated March 24, 2018. Devakiji writes, “A Passionate Life, a collection of essays on Kamaladevi Chattopadyay…puts to shame scholars of Indian political history, and those writing on Indian women’s movement…she engaged in Indian freedom struggle at the highest level, as a critic who could not be ignored…there are hardly any substantial writings by prominent  modern history scholars on her life…”

 

Kamaladevi Chattopadyay (center) leading a march during India's struggle for freedom. Photo Source: Hindustan360

One therefore has to dig in more to be able to get further information on someone like Kamaladevi who was the first woman to be jailed in Bombay Presidency to break the salt law way back in 1930[1].  And whose contribution to India’s social, economic, cultural and political sphere is extraordinary. Her life and work is of particular significance for being a woman and as a contemporary of many known figures of our freedom struggle and development history of the country.  I therefore thought it important to bring before the readers whatever little has been written or not written on Kamaladevi in some books of history I have referred to for information on her:

 

Kamaladevi (center) and Kasturba  Gandhi (right). Photo Source- Codepen

1. Mahadevbhai’s diaries: The references to Kamaladevi in the diaries are few (translated from Gujarati):Volume-14, Karachi Congress (1931): 

“…The participation of women in this struggle was appreciated everywhere and as a result the number of Congress women volunteers at the Karachi Congress was huge.  It was heard that those women on guard had forcibly presented the issue of the rights of the women volunteers. In the Congress Mahasamity also several of the women could be seen and at the time of passing an important resolution on Bhagat Singh, the one who opposed Gandhi was Shri Kamaladevi Chattopadyay. The resolution concerning equal rights to women can also be said to have come about because of these women…”

Volume-3, 27-2-1933:

 “…Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay came…It was instructed [instruction was given] to come only over the issue of untouchability and yet ... brought her in without informing her about the condition. She wanted advice from Bapu about her son. How can she who arrived, asked to go out?”

 2. Book- ‘Mridula Sarabhai, Rebel with a Cause’, by Aparna Basu:  Before looking at the reference to Kamaladevi in this book, I wish to point out what Devaki Jain further writes in EPW in her review- A Passionate Life, 

“Lal shares my view and he says that searching for documents which record or signal significant woman leaders in the independence movement, it was shocking to find her absent in most of these, and yet it was she and not Sarojini or Vijyalakshmi or even Aruna Asaf Ali who built the Congress Socialist Party. She challenged Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru critiquing their draft resolutions at the working committee meetings of the Congress party to such an extent that Gandhi warned Nehru that she was a mischievous woman and needed to be dropped from the drafting committee.”

In the book- ‘Mridula Sarabhai, Rebel with a Cause’, the following matches what Devaki Jain has written above:

 “In 1936 Jawaharlal Nehru, as president of the Congress, included in his new working committee three Congress Socialists, Acharya Narendra Deva, Jayprakash Narayan and Achyut Patwardhan. He did not however include any woman. Sarojini Naidu who was previously a member of the working committee was dropped. Mridula [Sarabhai] was deeply disappointed that of all persons, Jawaharlal should have done this and she wrote: ‘You have not been able to select even one woman member for your cabinet. None of us had imagined that such a situation will arise under your Presidentship. Not only was I surprised at such an omission but I was also pained.’  She was not upset at the exclusion of Sarojini Naidu, who, she felt ‘had done nothing actively in the Congress to bring awakening amongst women,’ but said that someone else such as Kamladevi Chattopadhyay should have been taken in.”

 3.  ‘The Autobiography of Indulal Yagnik- Volume -3’: Indulal Yagnik: on Kamaladevi:

 “Before I went to Dahod for the Bhil Conference, Nirubhai had told me that on 16 January the Congress and Congress Socialist workers had assembled at Meerut …it was decided in this meeting that the first All India Kisan Parishad would be held in the month of April in conjunction with the congress sessions. The Congress Socialist Party committee had appointed a Kisan subcommittee and the meeting  called under its auspices was attended by Kamladevi,  Jayprakash  and Mohan Lal Gautam... ever since I had come to Bombay,  Kashalchand bhai continued to write to me from Ahmedabad to find the proper president for the conference of the shop- clerks.  The name of Kamladevi who had taken a lead in Kisan organisation occurred to me and when I contacted her through my socialist friends she accepted.  Kashalchandbhai and his colleagues felt happy at the choice of this president.  Hence the impressive conference of the shop –clerks assembled in Ahmedabad on 12th and 13th March under the presidency of Kamladevi.  She made a spirited speech about the demands of the shop-clerks’ wages, holidays and hours of leave.  For implementing them she called on the entire world of shop-clerks to give support to the - Bakhle-Bill...12 years had passed since I attended the congress session of 1924, I knew only a few congressmen and socialists. Fortunately, comrade Jamaluddin Bukhari whom I knew from Bombay introduced me to several people and arranged for my refreshments.  The top leaders in Congress resented my relations with the Socialists and therefore I kept away from them, but I met Meherali  Batliwala  and other friends from Bombay,  and Kamladevi who had taken the initiative in calling the Kisan Sabha.  I had seen her several years before in the Excelsior theatre in Bombay playing a role on stage along with Rabindranath Chattopadhyay.  Later on I also met her in the non acceptance of office campaign in Bombay.  Now talking at leisure with her about kisans, I was impressed by her serious and powerful personality...during these days the meeting of the Central Kisan Committee was held.  The president and the secretaries, Kamladevi and Jayaprakash attended.  The committee made a demand to pass new pro-kisan laws regarding rent and the land revenue quickly ...and  pass laws cutting down the debt to the sahukars ...”

 4.   ‘Leftism in India 1917 – 1947’, by Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri: 

“...At Karachi, although the left wing had decided to not to approve the Gandhi –Irwin Pact, they refrained from precipitating a split…among the various socialist groups formed during this period, the most important were those in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bombay and Punjab….In Bombay similar groups were formed by eminent Socialists such as Yusuf Meherally, M.R. Masani, Achyut Patwardhan and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya…The idea of the Congress Socialist Party first took shape in the Nashik Jail....came to realise that it was only by forming an effective opposition bloc inside the Congress that the drift to neo-constitutionalism could be prevented and the nationalist movement resuscitated to a revolutionary purpose and with a mass base...The South Indian Federation of Peasants to explore the possibilities of forming an all- India organisation from whose platform the peasants could fight for their class demands…it was also decided that the representatives of all peasants’ organisations would meet in another conference at Meerut in January 1936. The Meerut Conference held under the presidency of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, outlined the aims and objectives of the peasant movement and formed an organising committee with N.G. Ranga, Mohanlal Gautam and Jayprakash Narayan as secretaries…from the moment of its inception, the All India Kisan Congress was subjected to pull and pressures from the right and the left. Right wing leaders of the Congress...viewed the formation of a separate peasants’ organisation with misgivings...explaining why the Kisan Congress was formed outside the Congress, Narendra Dev observed that at many places the Congress was controlled by professional men, merchants and city money lenders and as they could not identify with the rural population they could not be expected to safeguard the interests of the peasantry... ”

 5. ‘Women In India’s Freedom Struggle’,  by Manmohan Kaur: 

“...Kamala Devi joined the Congress Socialist Party in 1934 and presided over its All India Conference at Meerut the very next year...after India attained independence, Kamala Devi’s interest was diverted from politics to cooperative movement. She sponsored the Indian cooperative union...”

  

Although Kamaladevi seems to be at the forefront of Congress Socialist Party and promoting several crucial causes including those of the workers, women and peasants, she is not given the place she deserves in the pages of history.

1. In the book, ‘India’s struggle for Independence’, by Bipan Chandra, I could not find any reference to Kamaladevi in the Index. In the book Bipan Chandra writes, 

“The Congress met at Karachi on 29 March 31 to endorse the Gandhi- Irwin or the Delhi Pact.  Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru had been executed 6 days earlier.  Even though Gandhiji had made every attempt to save their lives there was anger among the people especially the youth, and as to why he had not refused to sign the Pact on this question. All along Gandhiji’s route to Karachi he was greeted with black flag demonstrations.  The Congress passed a resolution drafted by Gandhiji by which it, ‘ while disassociating itself from and disapproving of political violence  in any shape or form,’ admired the bravery and sacrifice of the three Martyrs.’ The Congress endorsed the Delhi Pact…”

In this book by Bipin Chandra,  there is no reference to Kamaladevi’s opposition to the resolution as noted in Mahadevbhai’s diary above.  Similarly, the Congress Socialist Party, its work among the peasants and working class, its ideology and its members like Jayprakash Narayan,   Acharya Narendra Dev, Minoo Masani are detailed at length in the book. But Kamaladevi, her work and role in the Congress Socialist Party or with peasants and workers find no reference. 

2.      In the book titled, ‘From Plassey to Partition- A history of Modern India’, by Shekhar Bandhopadhyay, once again I could not find any reference to Kamaladevi in the Index or in the write up about Congress Socialist Party and Kisan Sabhas. 

3.   In the book titled, ‘India after Gandhi, the history of world’s largest democracy’, by Ramchandra Guha, Kamaladevi has been referred to as follows:

 “The bulk of the migrants from West Punjab were farmers…to accommodate them the Government built brand new townships…among the groups active here was the Indian Cooperative Union (ICU) an organisation headed by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, a socialist and feminist who had been closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi.” And later, while writing about the problem of refugees and their rehabilitation, “…Thus it came to be that the heroes remembered in these pages were all Indians- whether politicians like Nehru and Patel, bureaucrats like Tarlok Singh and V.P. Menon or social workers like Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Mridula Sarabhai.”

Although Guha talks about the Socialist Party, Kamaladevi as one of its important leaders is absent in the pages.

To conclude: Kamaladevi’s role as an important freedom fighter, her differences with the Congress party and taking up leadership role in the Congress Socialist Party, her role in the struggles and organisations of peasants and workers, is generally absent from the popular books of history. So also her contribution and work as the chair person of All India Handicrafts Board for seventeen years, or her role in Bhartiya Natya Sangh, Sangeet Natak Academy, etc has not been highlighted. 

One therefore looks forward to books that are based on in-depth research on women freedom fighters and political activists of our country.

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[1] Book: Women Pioneers In India’s Renaissance, National Book Trust

Mridula Sarabhai: The struggle within- Part-1

Many of the popular books on Indian history do not have in-depth information on the significant role women have played during India’s struggle for freedom and/or soon after. One has to proactively seek out information even on eminent women to get a fair idea of their work and contribution. For example while one does get some idea of the role Mridula Sarabhai has played in India’s struggle from freedom from books noted below; it is only on reading Aparna Basu’s – ‘Mridula Sarabhai: Rebel with a cause’, that one gets to know the many struggles Mridula Sarabhai had to wage to make room for herself and her work within the organisations she was working/associated with. 

Mridula Sarabhai with Mahatma Gandhi. Photo credit: Old Indian Photos website.

References to Mridula Sarabhai in some of the books on Indian History: 

1. Historian Bipan Chandra in his book ‘India’s Struggle for Independence’ refers to Mridula Sarabhai as follows: “...15^th August 1947, dawned revealing the dual reality of Independence and Partition. As always, between the two of them, Gandhiji and Nehru mirrored the feelings of the Indian people. Gandhiji prayed in Calcutta for an end to the carnage taking place. His close follower, Mridula Sarabhai, sat consoling a homeless, abducted 15-year-old girl in a room somewhere in Bomabay...”

2.  In the book ‘India after Independence’, by Bipan Chandra, Mridula Mukherjee and Aditya Mukherjee, the reference to Mridula Sarabhai is as follows: “...Besides, the freedom struggle since the twenties and especially since the thirties, had partaken amply of the creative energies of Indian women. Gandhiji’s statement in the mid thirties to Mridula Sarabhai, a valiant fighter for his causes of women and freedom, ‘I have brought the Indian women out of the kitchen, it is up to you (the women activists) to see that they don’t go back,’ was no empty boast and no thoughtless exhortation...”
 
3.  Ramchandra Guha in his book ‘India after Gandhi’ makes the following references to Mridula Sarabhai: “...On the Indian side, the operation to recover abducted women [after partition] was led by Mridula Sarabhai and Rameshwari Nehru. Both came from aristocratic homes and both had sturdily nationalist credentials. Their work was encouraged and aided by Nehru, who took deep personal interest in the process. In a radio broadcast to the refugees, the prime minister spoke ...” and then again as follows: “...Like the integration of princely states, the rehabilitation of refugees was political problem unprecedented in nature and scope...The refugees who came to India after independence numbered close to eight million. This was greater than the population of small European countries...Yet both tasks were, in the end, accomplished. Notably, the actors in this complicated and tortuous process were all Indian...Thus it came to be that the heroes remembered in these pages were all Indians- whether politicians like Nehru and Patel, bureaucrats like Tarlok Singh and V.P. Menon, or social workers like Kamladevi Chattopadhyaya and Mridula Sarabhai...” 

4. Achyut Yagnik and Suchitra Sheth in their book ‘The Shaping of Modern Gujarat’, make the following references to Mridula Sarabhai: “...Women In Gujarat were greatly empowered by the Salt Satyagraha and leaders like Mridula Sarabhai, niece of Anasuya Sarabhai, were concerned that ‘women who have been energised and awakened’ should not ‘relapse into apathy and go back to be confined to their homes’. Gandhi wrote to her: “Our women joined the salt satyagraha they came out of their homes. It is now your duty to see that they should not be imprisoned within the four walls of their homes.” 

Later in the book “...More women began to enter public domain and this was reflected in the large participation of women in the Quit India movement in 1942. Later Mridula Sarabhai and her associate Kamlaben Patel worked to rescue and support women abducted during Partition...” and later “...To restore communal harmony Gandhi suggested the formation of Shanti Sevak Sangh...in Ahmedabad...two women members of the newly founded Sangh, Mridula Sarabhai and Indumati Chimanlal went to the affected areas and spread the message of peace and harmony...”

  5. Arun Gandhi in his book ‘Kasturba a life’, makes the following references to Mridula Sarabhai: “In 1938, spontaneous uprisings against arbitrary rule by local princes began erupting across India...But not until protests broke out in Rajkot did the crises reach its climax...and one of the first woman demonstrators to be hauled off to the Rajkot jail was Vallabhbhai Patel’s daughter Maniben...Kasturba was especially disturbed, for Maniben was one of her favourites among younger women in the independence movement...Kasturba, in fact, had left for Rajkot- having hurriedly arranged for another dedicated woman, Mridula Sarabhai...to accompany her... on February 3, 1939, she [Kasturba] was summarily arrested and...was taken to Tramba to be confined... [later] Ba [Kasturba] was not only released from solitary confinement, but her companions Maniben Patel and Mridula Sarabhai, detained separately in Rajkot jails, were brought to Tramba to share her captivity in the royal bungalow...”

"  "...On March 5, the Thakore’s deputies...freed Kasturba Gandhi from her imprisonment...and escorted her to her husband’s bedside in Rajkot...Ba returned to Tramba that evening at her own request. The guards obliged by taking her in for the night, but next morning Kasturba, Maniben and Mridula were all released...”

From the various books, it is clear that the role Mridula Sarabhai played during the freedom struggle and thereafter was significant. However, in spite of her important contribution, it seems that it was not always easy for Mridula Sarabhai to hold on to positions in the institutions she was associated with. Not just Mridula Sarabhai, but it also seems that women in general who otherwise played important role in public life did not easily get positions of significance in the committees/ institutions/organisations they were associated with as can be understood from Aparna Basu’s book as follows (the book is not easily available in print now and I reproduce some excerpts here):

“ In 1936 Jawaharlal Nehru, as president of the Congress, included in his new Working Committee three Congress Socialists...He did not, however, include any woman. Sarojini Naidu who had been previously a member of the Working Committee was dropped. Mridula was deeply disappointed that, of all persons, Jawaharlal should have done this and she wrote: You have not been able to select even one woman member for your Cabinet. None of us had imagined that such a situation will arise under your Presidentship. Not only was I surprised at such an omission but I was also pained...I have always hoped that we women who are struggling for our development would get blessings from at least Bapu and yourself.’ She [Mridula Sarabhai] made women members of the Gujarat Congress write to Jawaharlal, protesting against the exclusion of women from the Working Committee and the Parliamentary Committee...”.

“...Kasturba Gandhi passed away as a prisoner of the British Government in the Aga Khan Palace Jail, Poona on 22^nd February 1944. A plan to raise fund in her name was thought of by Shri Narandas Gandhi...In all, about 100 persons of all shades of public opinion put their signatures to this appeal...A target of collecting seventy-five lakhs of rupees was envisaged by 2^nd Oct, 1944...In fact a crore of rupees was collected before that date...On his release from jail on 6^th May 1944, Gandhiji was requested and prevailed upon to accept the chairmanship of the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust (KGNMT) ... Among the persons he [Gandhiji] nominated as trustees was Mridula. For better administration and smooth running, the Board of Trustees resolved to have an executive committee with Mahatma Gandhi as chairman, Sir Purshottamdas Thakurdas as vice-chairman, A.V. Thakkar, popularly known as Thakkar Bapa, as secretary. Mridula was a member of this committee also. At the meeting of the Board of Trustees held in November 1944, Mridula was appointed organising secretary by Gandhiji...Differences developed between Mridula and Thakkar Bapa regarding their method of working, their attitude towards women, the location of the office and generally about the aims of the organisation. According to Mridula, while Thakkar Bapa emphasised relief work, KGNMT’s aim was to create a ‘new’ woman. This ideal he did not share. He was old fashioned, traditional and could not appreciate strong, independent, self-willed women. She wrote to Gandhiji that as long as Bapa was the general secretary, women were not going to be allowed to be in command or take policy decisions...the first clash occurred regarding the appointment of the office secretary. Thakkar Bapa wanted to appoint Shyam Lal, who was serving as secretary of the Harijan Sevak Sangh at Delhi, as he felt that only a man could handle this work. Mridula did not agree and wanted Pupul Jayakar for the post. Thakkar Bapa however was not prepared to appoint Pupul Jayakar. He wrote to the vice-chairman of the Trust, Purshottamdas Thakurdas that Gandhiji wanted Shyam Lal appointed as full-time secretary in the central office of the Trust. The trustees thereupon decided to appoint Shyam Lal. In order not to offend Mridula’s feelings, Gandhiji suggested that Pupul Jayakar could be requested to work in an honorary capacity, and she agreed to do so...”

“...Differences between Thakkar Bapa and Mridula however continued and so she submitted a letter of resignation to Gandhiji in July 1945...He [Gandhiji] held that it was wise for her to resign since she and Thakkar Bapa could not pull along as they were temperamentally so different and he felt that Thakkar Bapa was necessary for the organisation...Mridula continued to take interest in the work of KGNMT. In October 1949, she invited Madam Aung San, the widow of the first prime minister of Independent Burma, to Sevagram to attend the tenth KGNMT meeting...her continuing interest in the work of the Trust despite the fact that she was removed as its organising secretary, reflects her lack of pettiness and her genuine concern for the work which the Trust had undertaken...”

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Prison Diaries/Writings : Remembering Mridula Sarabhai

From an article ‘Squeezing the Olives’, in the Frontline magazine by K. Satchidanandan, I came to know of the diverse writings that have been done by various people while incarcerated. http://www.frontline.in/columns/K_Satchidanandan/squeezing-the-olives/article6464702.ece

Many Indian freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Rajaji, etc feature in this article along with several other eminent people from around the globe; who have written on various issues from within the confines of a prison. It was this article that made me curious and I wanted to know if the several Indian women freedom fighters  maintained a diary/wrote while imprisoned during the freedom struggle or not.

It was only when I accidentally came across a book ‘Rebel with a cause’, on Mridula Sarabhai, by Aparna Basu that I came to know in the chapter ‘In Prison’, the following (the book is not easily available in print now and I reproduce some excerpts here):

“...Mridula’s first experience of jail life was in 1930 when she, her mother and Khursedben were arrested picketing shops selling foreign cloth. They were put in Sabarmati jail for three weeks. She kept a jail dairy in Gujarati...”

Mridula Sarabhai. Photo Source: www.mkgandhi.org

[On another occasion] “...Mridula, the fourth in line was arrested on 8^th January 1932, and taken once again to Sabarmati jail. She was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and fined Rs 300...Mridula, together with Lilavati Desai and Vijyalakshmi Kanuga was put in ‘B’ class , whereas Maniben Patel and Mithuben Petit were made ‘C’ class prisoners...Twenty days later, Mridula and sixteen of her fellow women prisoners were removed from Sabarmati jail to an unknown destination...From Sabarmati, they were moved to Yeravada prison, Poona...Within five days there was an order, once again transferring her, together with six of her fellow women prisoners, from Yeravada jail to Belgaum...in one of the rooms for ‘B’ class prisoners were Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Naju Wadia, Jhaverben Jamnadas, Brijkumari and others. In the other room were Nanduben Kanuga, Lilavati Desai, Maniben Patel, Lilavati Munshi, Manorama Joshi, Mridula and Devyani Desai with her small daughter...She [Mridula] was released on 22^nd June 1932. These six months were indeed an important phase in her life..."

"...She was released but the satyagraha was going on and she could not keep away for long...on 17^th February, she was arrested again and produced before the district magistrate and kept in Sabarmati jail till 3^rd March...after being detained for some weeks in Sabarmati jail, she was shifted to Belgaum where the home secretary to the Government of Bombay, N.W. Maxwell, issued an order directing her to reside and remain within the limits of Belgaum city...As was to be expected, she violated this order by picketing outside a cloth shop in Belgaum and was immediately arrested and sentenced to six months’ simple imprisonment and fined Rs.500...Mridula was eventually released on 26 September. Her next imprisonment was in December 1938 when a satyagraha was launched in Rajkot by the Praja Parishad...

“...Mridula was arrested as a dangerous person within forty-eight hours of her arrival in Rajkot and was sentenced to five weeks’ imprisonment. She and Maniben were kept in Tramba Darbar’s bunglow...”

“... [Later] She [Mridula] was arrested on 20^th August and taken to Arthur Road Jail, Bombay. She vividly described the period of her detention: [and Mridula Sarabhai writes] ‘I was arrested at Bombay on 20^th August 1942...It took more than ten days to arrest me. Soon after my arrest, I was lodged in the Arthur Road Jail, Bombay. Thereafter, I was transferred to Yeravada Jail, Poona and finally to Belgaum Jail. Nobody was allowed to meet me for six to eight months...The most heartening thing for me was that Maniben Patel, daughter of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was my companion...I was told by the British authorities that I would be released on parole provided I don’t meet any Congressmen. I did not agree to this condition. I retorted that I do not have acquaintance with anybody except Congressmen. I was released unconditionally in December 1943 on the day I was to be operated upon’... This was her last imprisonment before independence [writes Aparna Basu in her book]. ”

The book by Aparna Basu also accounts for Mridula Sarabhai's relentless public work in most difficult of circumstances during the time of partition and in the work of rescue operations as well as rehabilitation of refugees after independence. She also worked to restore peace when riots broke out in different parts of the country. What is interesting is that while many of the freedom fighters, particularly men, took position of high power and authority in the Indian Government after independence, Mridula Sarabhai did not do so. 

Mridula Sarabhai continued to remain an activist, many times critical of Government polices and was also jailed post independence for her outspoken views and actions. About Mridula Sarabhai, Aparna Basu further writes, “...From 1953 Mridula devoted herself to Kashmir and stood by Sheikh Abdulla and his supporters even when they were accused of treason, as a result she had to resign or leave every organization she was connected with...her phone was tapped, CID watched her house...She was dismissed from the  Congress party in 1958 and was finally detained under the Prevention Detention Act in Tihar Jail from 8 August 1959 till 6 August 1959 and later put under House detention in her home in Ahmedabad under Defence of India Rules...”

It is indeed surprising that so little is known of a person like Mridula Sarabhai. This is particularly intriguing because many other women from the Sarabhai family and their contribution to the society is fairly known.  

In her paper ‘Archiving the Nation- State in Feminist Praxis: A South Asian Perspective’, Uma Chakravarti too acknowledges that not much is known about Mridula Sarabhai as follows: “When I look back on the last years of Mridula’s life, I am struck by the fact that I was already then a teacher, and had close friends among the socialist network who espoused the cause that she had been fighting for; some of these socialists had even taken on the Kashmir issue in a mediating capacity and yet there was little public recognition of Mridula’s long struggle in support of Kashmir in the media, or even in ordinary conversation that was happening around me. Both Gandhi (symbolically) and Nehru whom she cited as her mentors, still dominated the public sphere in the 60’s and 70’s and yet no one talked of Mridula. All I can recall is a hazy connection of her name being associated with some kind of a ‘bee in her bonnet’ about Kashmir.”

In her paper, Uma Chakravarty explains, “Resistance to a blind nationalism and the demands of loyalty from its citizens by a nation-state in South Asia in the post colonial period was indeed a madness if it was the position of a single individual, and that too a woman...”

This certainly is one of the reasons why Mridula Sarabhai does not hold a place of eminence in public discourse. However I also feel that there are other reasons. Mridula Sarabhai was a non conformist woman, critical of Government policies, polices of her own party, the Congress and many of the Congress men in power.  But most importantly the role and the exemplary work of not just Mridula Sarabhai but most of the women freedom fighters of the country, continues to remain less known even today because this space is to a great extent occupied by a few male personalities. The dominance of few names in India’s struggle for freedom I believe is also one reason why it eclipses many others, particularly the names of the women. Thus the scores of women who have played commendable role in India’s struggle for freedom continues to remain less known. 

I have been trying to locate if Mridula Sarabhai’s prison diaries are available or published but in vein. The other memoirs written from within the confines of a prison are by Dr. Sushila Nayar titled, “Mahatma Gandhi’s Last Imprisonment”. Sushila Nayar’s book, “ Kasturba: A personal Reminiscence”, also details the last days of Kasturba and her passing away  while jailed at the Aga Khan palace by the British.Sushila Nayar was also in jail with Gandhi and Kasturba.

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