Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Series – Women Unsung Heroes
- October 7, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Series – Women Unsung Heroes
Oruganti Mahalakshmamma (Andhra Pradesh)
- Her first steps into the history of freedom struggle began when she actively started leading campaigns against the high revenue collections by the colonial authorities.
- Her efforts led to a major drop in the revenue collection, thereby, posing the authorities a severe challenge.
- Her husband and family, known for their patriotic zeal and charitable activities, were support pillars to her. This resulted in her active involvement in the Salt Satyagraha and Swaraj Movement.
- Her works were not limited to the periphery of political struggle but were also social struggles and empowered the vulnerable section of society.
- She vigorously publicized the cause of Home Rule and was instrumental in founding the Congress Women’s Wingin Nellore (1921).
Tileswari Barua (Assam)
- September 20 is observed in the Dhekiajuli town in Sonitpur district of Assam as Martyrs’ Day, as it is the same day in which Tileswari Barua, who was shot at the age of 12 by the British, during the Quit India Movement, when she and some freedom fighters tried to unfurl the Tricolour atop a police station.
- Tileswari went along with a mrityu vahini — a kind of suicide squad — as it marched towards the police station in Dhekiajuli. Fifteen people were killed in the shooting that day.
Chandraprabha Saikiani (Assam)
- Chandraprabha Saikiani established the All Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti in the year 1926. She was a zealous supporter of women’s and girls’ education.
- In 1918, during the Assam session of the Asom/Axom Chhatra (Assam Students) Sanmilan, she ardently spoke about the ill effects of opium consumption and demanded for its ban.
- She was against caste discrimination and attacked it with the help of the teachings of Srimanta Sankardev (a 15th-16th century social revolutionary).
- Chandraprabha Saikiani also demanded for the entry of women at religious places and rituals.
- She became a part of the Non-Cooperation Movement and participated with enthusiasm in the Indian freedom struggle.
- In the state of Assam, she was the second woman novelist. She shed light on the position of women in Assamese society by describing her own life in her novel Pririvitha.
- For seven years, she was the editor of Abhijaytri (mouthpiece of All Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti).
Tara Rani Srivastava (Bihar)
- Tara Rani Srivastava was a freedom fighter and part of Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India Movement.
- On 12th August 1942, called upon by Mahatma Gandhi, she and her husband Phulendu Babu organized a march to raise the Indian National Flag in front of the Siwan police station, an act that would be seen as “a major defiance.
- Despite her husband getting shot, she hoisted the flag.
Royal Indian Navy Mutiny, 1946
- The ratings of the RIN battleship HMIS “Talwar”, docked at Bombay, went on strike on 18 February 1946 over the issues of bad food and adverse living conditions.
- The ratings went all-out to urge the people of Bombay to rise in support of their revolt – the greatest in the naval history – spreading to 78 ships and 22 units all along the Indian coastline.
- In response to their call, several processions were taken out in Bombay, Karachi, Calcutta and other places in the subsequent days.
- Hundreds of Indian citizens were killed and thousands were injured in the British military and police firing on the demonstrators.
- Sardar Patel managed to make the ratings surrender on 24 February 1946. However, they declared if their demands are not conceded they will go on strike again.