Doyens of women’s empowerment

The history of the freedom movement is replete with the saga of sacrifice, courage and sagacity of great men and women. Many women played prominent leadership role. We shall trace here the historic role played by two women whose death anniversaries fell last week – Kamala Nehru (Feb 28, 1936) and Sarojini Naidu (March 2, 1948).

Sarojini Naidu was the President of INC who presided over the party’s annual session at Kanpur in 1925. She was born in Hyderabad on February 13, 1879. Her father, Dr Aghorenath Chatterjee, originally from East Bengal, was a brilliant scientist as well a poet in Urdu and Bengali. Her mother Varda Sundari was a renowned singer and wrote her own lyrics in Bengali.

Sarojini passed the matriculation examination when she was only 12, standing first in the Madras presidency. However, her love for poetry came in the way of achieving any degree even though she was sent to London and Cambridge for higher studies.

Sarojini Chattopadhyaya married Dr Govindarajula Naidu in 1898 after her return from England and settled down in Hyderabad. Sarojini was deeply influenced by the Hindu- Islamic culture of her town, and gave expression to it in her poems.

Sarojini’s innate longing for the ‘rapture of song’ could not prevent her from being drawn into the social and political life of the country. She met Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru at the Lucknow session of the INC in 1916 and developed friendship with Rabindranath Tagore and CF Andrews.

Sarojini was deeply troubled by the rift between Hindu and Muslim communities. As much as Hindu culture, she admired Islamic culture and Muslim way of life. At the Lucknow session of INC, she played a notable role in bringing about cooperation between Congress and Muslim league under the guidance of Lokmanya Tilak.

Hindu- Muslim unity became a passion and Sarojini’s life mission. Addressing the seventh All India Women’s Conference she declared: “No Indian could be loyal to the country and yet be narrow and sectarian in spirit… No matter whether it was temple or mosque, church or fire shrine, let them transcend the barriers that divide man from the man.”

In 1925 she was elected President of INC which became an inspiration for women to join public life. Sarojini took a leading part in the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 and was sent to jail. In 1931 she accompanied Mahatma Gandhi to London for the Second Round Table Conference.

She was imprisoned for the third time in the Quit India Movement and was put in the Agha Khar Palace along with Gandhiji. After India became independent she became the first woman to be appointed a Governor. On March 2, 1949 she breathed her last at the Lucknow Raj Bhawan, Nehru in his homage stated: “Here was a person of great brilliance – vital and vivid. She infused artistry and poetry into our national struggle…she represented in herself a rich culture into which flowed various currents which have made Indian culture as great as it is.”

Kamala Nehru was born on August 1, 1899 in Bazar Sita Ram in Chandani Chowk, Delhi. Her father, Jawaharmal Kaul was a wealthy businessman and her mother, Rajpati an orthodox woman well versed in Ramayana and Mahabharata folklore. She was married to 26-year-old Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi on February 8, 1916 at a grand wedding ceremony, at the behest of Motilal Nehru.

The first three years of marriage were for Kamala a period of adjustment with the Nehru household. Kamala, brought up in a traditional Indian home, had a lot to learn to adjust herself to live in a highly affluent home. But that was soon to change. Jawaharlal came under the influence of Gandhiji as the Mahatma was preparing the nation for launching the non-cooperation movement after the Jallianwalla massacre of April 1919. Though Motilal Nehru had become President of INC in December that year, it was Jawaharlal who influenced his father to throw his lot completely with Gandhiji. “It was a tremendous struggle for him (Motilal Nehru) to uproot himself and to fit himself into this new environment,” wrote Jawaharlal Nehru.

As father and son threw themselves into the fray, their lives also changed. Silks and cutaway suits gave way to Khadi dhotis and kurtas. The change in their mode of life from one of luxury to simple and austere was to Kamala’s liking. From a simple girl she changed into a serious intense, mature person while retaining her girlish appearance. The change in their way of living also brought Kamala and Jawahar closer.

By April 1930 the country was in the grip of the Civil Disobedience movement and Jawahar was in prison again as also many other Congress leaders. But a remarkable thing happened: Indian woman came forward in large numbers, much larger than during 1920/21, to continue the fight. They picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops and took out processions and braved lathi charge. Kamala played a heroic role in political awakening of women. Kamala, as president of the Allahabad District Congress constantly moved about the district to mobilise women and youth for the Civil Disobedience Movement. In the words of Jawaharlal Nehru: “In this upheaval Kamala had played a brave and notable part. Kamala surprised me, for her energy and enthusiasm overcame her physical ill health”.

Jawaharlal was in jail for long stretches soon Kamala too was arrested for taking part in a protest march against Jawaharlal is arrest in December 1930. She was jailed on 1 January 1931 for two months. Jawahar wrote to Indira the same day: “I thought of Mummie and you. Later in the morning came the news that Mummie had been arrested and I have no doubt that Mummie is thoroughly happy and contented....it was pleasant New Year gift to me.” But the New Year was not pleasant as Motilal Nehru, a front ranking stalwart of freedom struggle, died on Feb 6, 1931 which created a tremendous void in the lives of Kamala, Jawahar and other members of the family.

Kamala’s health shattered once again and she could not take further part in civil disobedience movement. But her mother-in-law, Swarup Rani led women from the front and, while doing so, once received lathi charges on her head and was seriously injured. Jawahar’s two sisters, Swarup (Vijaylakshmi Pandit) and Krishna were imprisoned.

The four years from 1931 to 1934 saw a sharp decline in Kamala’s health with her husband languishing in one jail or another. This was Kamala’s loneliest period of her life. Based on the recommendation of doctors in a hospital in Bhowali (in Almora) where she was admitted Kamala was taken to Europe for treatment – first in Badenweiker sanitorium in the Black Forest of Germany and later to Lausanne (Geneva) in Switzerland where she breathed her last on Feb 28, 1936.

In the Harijan dated November 25, 1939 Gandhiji wrote: “On the 19th instant I had the privilege of laying the foundation stone of the Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital in Allahabad before a large gathering. This hospital will be not only a fitting remembrance of the memory of a true devotee of her country and a woman of great spiritual beauty, it will be a redemption of the promise made to her by me that I would do what lay in my power to see that the work for which she had made herself responsible was carried on even after her death.” Earlier he had stated: “I have not known a truer, braver and more god-fearing woman.”