Yoshita Srivastava/Feminism in India
The Constitution of India was adopted by the elected Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 and came into effect on 26 January 1950. The total membership of the Constituent Assembly was 389. While we all remember Dr. B R Ambedkar as the Father of the Constitution and other pioneering male members who helped draft the Indian Constitution, the contribution of the fifteen female members of the Constituent Assembly is easily forgotten. On this Republic Day, let’s take a look at the powerful women who helped draft our Constitution.
1. Ammu Swaminathan
Ammu Swaminathan was born into an upper caste Hindu family in Anakkara of Palghat district, Kerala. She formed the Women’s India Association in 1917 in Madras, along with Annie Besant, Margaret Cousins, Malathi Patwardhan, Mrs Dadabhoy and Mrs Ambujammal. She became a part of the Constituent Assembly from the Madras Constituency in 1946.
2. Dakshayani Velayudhan
Dakshayani Velayudhan was born on July 4, 1912, on the island of Bolgatty in Cochin. She was the leader of the (then titled) Depressed Classes. Belonging to the Pulaya community who were severely discriminated against, she was among the first generation of people to be educated from the community and the first woman to wear an upper cloth.
3. Begum Aizaz Rasul
Born into the princely family of Malerkotla, she was married to the young landowner Nawaab Aizaz Rasul. She was the only Muslim woman member of the Constituent Assembly. With the enactment of the Government of India Act 1935, Begum and her husband joined the Muslim League and entered electoral politics. In the 1937 elections, she was elected to the U.P. Legislative Assembly.In 1950, the Muslim League in India dissolved and Begum Aizaz Rasul joined Congress.
4. Durgabai Deshmukh
Durgabai Deshmukh was born in Rajahmundry on 15 July 1909. At twelve years of age, she participated in the Non-Co-operation Movement and along with Andhra Kesari T. Prakasam, she participated in the Salt Satyagraha movement in Madras city in May 1930. In 1936, she established the Andhra Mahila Sabha, which within a decade became a great institution of education and social welfare in the city of Madras.
5. Hansa Jivraj Mehta
Born on July 3, 1897, to the Dewan of Baroda Manubhai Nandshankar Mehta, Hansa Mehta studied journalism and sociology in England. Along with being a reformer and social activist, she was also an educator and writer.
She wrote many books for children in Gujarati and also translated many English stories including the Gulliver’s Travels. She was elected to the Bombay Schools Committee in 1926 and became president of All India Women’s Conference in 1945–46.
6. Kamla Chaudhary
Kamla Chaudhary was born in an affluent family of Lucknow, however, it was still a struggle for her to continue her education. Moving away from her family’s loyalty to the imperial government, she joined the nationalists and was an active participant in the Civil Disobedience Movement launched by Gandhi in 1930.
7. Leela Roy
Leela Roy was born in Goalpara, Assam in October 1900. Her father was a deputy magistrate and sympathised with the Nationalist Movement. She graduated from Bethune College in 1921 and became assistant secretary to the All Bengal Women’s Suffrage Committee and arranged meetings to demand women’s rights.In 1923, with her friends, she founded the Dipali Sangha and established schools which became centres of political discussion in which noted leaders participated.
8. Malati Choudhury
Malati Choudhury was born in 1904 to a distinguished family in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). In the year 1921, at the age of 16, Malati Choudhury was sent to Santiniketan where she got admitted to Viswa-Bharati.
In 1933, she formed Utkal Congress Samajvadi Karmi Sangh along with her husband which later came to be known as the Orissa Provincial Branch of the All India Congress Socialist Party. In 1934, she joined Gandhiji in his famous “padayatra” in Orissa.
9. Purnima Banerjee
Purnima Banerjee was the secretary of the Indian National Congress committee in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. She was one among a radical network of women from Uttar Pradesh who stood at the forefront of the freedom movement in late 1930’s and 40’s.
She was arrested for her participation in the Satyagraha and Quit India Movement. One of the more striking aspects of Purnima Banerjee’s speeches in the Constituent Assembly was her steadfast commitment to a socialist ideology. As secretary for the city committee, she was responsible for engaging and organizing trade unions, kisan meetings and work towards greater rural engagement.
10. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
Amrit Kaur was born on 2 February 1889 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. She was India’s first Health Minister and she held that post for ten years. She was the founder of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and argued for its autonomy. She was a firm believer in women’s education, their participation in sports and their healthcare. She set up the Tuberculosis Association of India, the Central Leprosy and Research Institute, was vice chair of the board of governors of the League of Red Cross Societies and chair of the executive committee of St John’s Ambulance Society.
11. Renuka Ray
Renuka Ray was the daughter of Satish Chandra Mukherjee, an ICS officer, and Charulata Mukherjee, a social worker and member of the All India Women’s Conference (AIWC). As a young girl, Renuka lived for a while in London and completed her BA from the London School of Economics.In 1934. as legal secretary of the AIWC, she submitted a document titled ‘Legal Disabilities of Women in India; A Plea for a Commission of Enquiry’.
12. Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu was born on Feb 13, 1879, in Hyderabad, India. She was the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and to be appointed as an Indian state governor. She is popularly called “the Nightingale of India”.
13. Sucheta Kriplani
Sucheta Kriplani was born in 1908 in present-day Haryana’s Ambala town. She is especially remembered for her role in the Quit India Movement of 1942. Kripalani also established the women’s wing of the Congress party in 1940.
14. Vijalakshami Pandit
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was born in Allahabad on August 18, 1900, and she was the sister of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She was imprisoned by the British on three different occasions, in 1932-1933, 1940, and 1942-1943.
15. Annie Mascarene
Annie Mascarene was born into a Latin Catholic family belonging to Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. She was one of the first women to join the Travancore State Congress and became the first woman to be part of the Travancore State Congress Working Committee. She was one of the leaders of the movements for independence and integration with the Indian nation in the Travancore State.For her political activism, she was imprisoned for various periods from 1939—47.