KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA, MUZAFFARPUR

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KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA, MUZAFFARPUR
Social Science

• A.P. SHARMA
• TGT(S. Sc.)
• Topic - Role of Women in Freedom struggle of
  India

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Women of the freedom struggle

• India has for a long time produced of most as
  feckless female as she did male ones. Unlike in
  most other civilizations and contrary to popular
  belief, Indian women played politically and
  socially important roles since times unknown.
  HERE is a look at a few such forgotten women
  heroes of the Indian freedom struggle.
• Womens participation in Indias freedom struggle
  began as early as 1817 when BHIMA BAI HOLKAR
  fought bravely against thebritish colonel and
  defeated them in gorilla warfare. In 1824 rani
  Channama of kittur resisted armed might of the
  east indian company. The role played by women in
  the Great Revilt of 1987 invited the
  administration even leaders of the revolt Rani of
  Ramgarh, Rani Jindan Kaur etc. daringly led their
  troops into the battlefield.

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Kamala Nehru
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Kamala Nehru

• Kamala Nehru was the wife of Pandit Jawaharlal
  Nehru. Brought up in a traditional Hindu Brahmin
  family, she felt alienated amongst the more
  Westernized Nehrus. It was only with the
  involvement of the Nehrus in the national
  movement, did she emerge into the forefront.
  Kamala Nehru gave full support to her husband in
  his desire to work actively for the freedom
  struggle. In the Non Cooperation movement of
  1921, she organized groups of women in Allahabad
  and picketed shops selling foreign cloth and
  liquor. When her husband was arrested to prevent
  him delivering a "seditious" public speech, she
  went in his place to read it out. She was twice
  arrested by British authorities.She played a
  prominent part in organizing the No Tax Campaign
  in United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). Kamala
  Nehru took part in the Civil Disobedience
  Movement. Among other activities, Kamala set up a
  hospital in the premises of Swaraj Bhavan. She
  defied the advice of doctors, family and friends
  to lead processions, picket foreign cloth shops
  and visited women in their homes to convince them
  to join the struggle for Independence. Kamala
  Nehru and her associates wore only khadi clothes
  and made bonfires of imported goods. As Kamala
  was the member of Desh Sevika Sangh, she joined
  others in picketing foreign cloth shops

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Sister Nivedita
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Sister Nivedita

• Her real name was Miss Margaret Noble. Sister
  Nivedita was one of the hosts of foreign women
  who were attracted towards Swami Vivekananda and
  Hindu philosophy. Born in Ireland on 28 October
  1867, she arrived in India in January 1898, in
  search of truth. She was impressed by the ideals
  of Womanhood in India. She once remarked that
  India was the land of great women. She, however,
  felt that Indian women needed, to cultivate among
  themselves a wider and broader concept of the
  nation, so that they could participate along with
  men in building a free and strong nation. She
  propagated for the cause of India throughout
  America and Europe. Swami Vivekananda described
  her as a real Lioness. Rabindranath Tagore
  regarded her as Lok-Mata whose name is very
  familiar in Bengal. Her writings on Indian
  history and philosophy, on religious customs,
  festivals, her lectures on multi faceted
  subjects, her travel interactions with eminent
  persons have given a new depth, and added a new
  dimension, to the socio-cultural history of
  India.

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Lakshmibai

• Lakshmibai Rani of Jhansi (1835-1858), a leader
  of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Born in varanasi in
  nothern India, Lakshmibai was married to
  Gangadhar Rao, the ruler of Jhansi. The Raja died
  in 1853, learning no direct male their, but had
  adopted a son without the consent of the British
  East India Company. Lord Dalhousie annexed the
  state under doctrine of lapse, incurring ranis
  emmity. When Jhansi fell, she joined the rebel
  leader Jantia Tope to fight at Kalpi. When
  Kalphi, too, fell to the British, they escaped to
  the forest and captured gwalor fort in, 1858.
  Here, supported by the Gwalior forces, she
  continued to fight the British until shot dead
  during a battle close to the fort. She
  Romanticized as a heroine and freedom fighter,
  and apparently gaining the respect of her enemies
  for her bravery. She resulted in considerable
  loss of life and frutalities on both sides.

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Sarojini Naidu

• Naidu, Sarojini (1879-1949), Indian poet and
  prominent figure in the Indian independence
  struggle. Naidu was born into a Bengali Brahmin
  family in Hyderabad, India her father was a
  scientist and her mother a poet, and she grew up
  surrounded by artists, intellectuals, and
  revolutionaries. A brilliant student, she entered
  Madras University at the age of 12, about which
  time, also, she began to write poetry. In 1895,
  she was sent to England, studying at King's
  College, London and Girton College, Cambridge,
  before a breakdown in health forced her to
  abandon her studies and return home. During this
  period, nevertheless, she came into contact with
  some of the great literary figures of the day,
  and formed particular friendships with Edmund
  Gosse and Arthur Symons.

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• On her return to India in 1898, she married
  Govindarajulu Naidu, a non-Brahmin. She soon came
  into contact with Gopal Krishna Gokhale,
  Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohandas Gandhi, Rabindranath
  Tagore, and Annie Besant. Encouraged by Gokhale,
  she entered politics and, with her remarkable
  powers of oratory, soon emerged as an admired
  leader. She campaigned vigorously for women's
  rights and for improvement in the conditions of
  workers. Ill health took her back to England,
  where she was fired by the enthusiasm of the
  young Muhammad Ali Jinnah, then an ardent Indian
  nationalist who had founded the London Indian
  Students' Association. By 1918, after the death
  of Gokhale and her meeting with Gandhi, she had
  become an important figure in the nationalist
  movement, actively participating in Gandhi's
  civil disobedience campaign and travelling widely
  across the country promoting Hindu-Muslim unity
  and the nationalist cause as well as continuing
  her fight for the rights of women and the
  depressed classes. In 1919, she returned to
  London as part of the Home Rule Deputation,
  becoming involved in the woman suffrage movement
  while there. During the 1920s she travelled to
  South Africa and represented Gandhi in the United
  States.

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• In 1925, Sarojini Naidu became the first Indian
  woman to be elected President of the Indian
  National Congress. She took part in the round
  table conferences in London in the 1930s and,
  continuing her active participation in Gandhi's
  satyagrahas, was jailed on several occasions by
  the British. Deeply disappointed by the partition
  of India with independence, ending her hopes for
  Hindu-Muslim unity, and by the assassination of
  Gandhi, she nevertheless accepted the
  Governorship of United Provinces (now Uttar
  Pradesh), a post she held till her death in 1949
  at Lucknow. Her published poetic works include
  The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird of Time
  (1912), The Broken Wing (1917), Selected Poems
  (1930), The Sceptred Flute (1937, edition with
  introduction by Joseph Auslander), and The
  Feather of the Dawn (1961). Many of her speeches
  have also been published.

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Annie BesantBritish Mystic Annie Besantworked in
the Indian Nationalist movement in India. From
1907 to 1933 she was President of the
Theosophical Society, a mystical organization
that followed elements of Eastern religions.
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Annie Besant

• Besant, Annie (1847-1933), British theosophist
  and nationalist leader in India, born in London.
  Besant became interested in socialist and
  free-thought movements early on, and wrote
  pamphlets defending them. She became closely
  associated with the British social reformer
  Charles Bradlaugh and later with the Fabian
  Society. She and Bradlaugh republished an old
  pamphlet, The Fruits of Philosophy, which
  advocated birth control for this, they were
  brought to trial on a charge of obscenity. In
  1889 she joined the Theosophical Society, serving
  as president from 1907 until her death.

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• Shortly after joining the society Besant moved to
  India, where she later became a leader of a Hindu
  nationalist movement. She founded Central Hindu
  College at Varanasi in 1898 and organized the
  Indian Home Rule League, becoming president in
  1916. She was elected president of the Indian
  National Congress in 1917, and general secretary
  of the National Convention of India in 1923.
  Besant lectured frequently on theosophy and in
  1926 travelled widely with her Indian protégé
  Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom she declared to be the
  new Messiah. Her works include Reincarnation
  (1892), The Basis of Morality (1915), A World
  Religion (1916), and India, Bond or Free? (1926).

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Aruna Asaf Ali
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Aruna Asaf Ali was born as Aruna Ganguly on July
16 1908 at Kalka (Haryana) in an orthodox Hindu
Bengali family. Aruna Asaf Ali was a legendary
heroine of Indias freedom struggle. Her first
major political action was during the Salt
Satyagraha in 1930 when she addressed public
meetings and led processions. British Government
charged her for being a "vagrant" and sentenced
her to one years imprisonment. When political
prisoners were released in the aftermath of
Gandhi-Irwin pact, Aruna was not released. But a
public agitation in favour of her release, forced
British government to release her. She was again
arrested in 1932 and put in Tihar Jail. In Tihar
Jail she went on a hunger strike against the
treatment done towards political prisoners. Her
protest caused an improvement in conditions, but
she herself was moved to lonely imprisonment in
Ambala. Aruna Asaf Ali was a dedicated
sociologist. She was elected the first Mayor of
Delhi. She devoted her entire life for the
betterment of the country without any selfish
means. Her contribution in liberating Goa had
tremendous impact in achieving the freedom for
Goans. She was a true patriot. The Bharat Ratna
was honoured to Aruna Asaf Ali with a stamp
issued by the Indian Postal Service in 1998.
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Madam Bhikaji Cama
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Madam Cama was born on 24th September 1861 to
rich Parsi parents. Young Bhikaji received good
English education, but from the beginning she was
a rebel, and a nationalist. She had good flair to
learn languages and became expert in arguing her
countrys cause in different circles at a young
age. She fought for the freedom of the country
till the last in her own way, and helped many
revolutionaries with money and materials. Madame
Bhikaji always believed that British had looted
India, and practiced worst form of imperialism.
She had thousand and one reasons to show how
India was kept in abject poverty by the British
to help them to become the most powerful country
in the world of that period. Bhikaji Cama always
stood for swaraj or self-rule. She fought for
unity of Hindus and Muslims. She continued
financing revolutionaries in and out of India.
British were not happy with her activities and
there was a plan to finish her off. Madam Cama
also fought for the cause of women. She published
many books on Indian freedom struggle, which had
writings against the British rule
Madam Bhikaji Cama
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Sister of JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU, and leader of
CONGRESS party of India. Mrs. Pandit was first
women to having been appointed minister in the
political history of India.
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Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

• Vijayalakshmi came from a prominent family. Her
  father Motilal Nehru was the president of
  Congress, and brother Jawaharlal Nehru went on to
  become Indias Prime Minister. She was inspired
  by the persona of Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi and
  impressed by Sarojini Naidu. She entered the Non
  Co-operation Movement to fight against the
  British rule. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit represented
  India in many of the conferences abroad. She was
  present in San Francisco when the U.N first met
  there. She attended numerous public lectures and
  challenged the British dominated delegates rights
  to represent India therein. National and
  international affairs were part of the air she
  breathed at home and her own interest in these
  woke up early. At the age of sixteen she wanted
  to join Annie Besants Home Rule League but being
  too young, she was only allowed to enroll as a
  volunteer. She was a great fighter and took parts
  in many of the freedom movement. She was elected
  to Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 1936. The political
  career made her Indias first women cabinet
  minister in 1937.