She persuaded Gandhiji to give a call for women to participate in the Salt Satyagraha.
She campaigned with Jawaharlal Nehru.
She argued with Sardar Patel, and convinced him.
She worked with the Kanchi Shankaracharya to defeat temple bureaucracies.
She complained against Indira Gandhi (and paid the price!).
She toured with her theatre company and mesmerized audiences.
She acted in the first Kannada silent movie.
She was the first woman to run for a legislative assembly seat in India
She pioneered thinking on legislation with regard to women in the workforce, and the safety of children.
She led international thinking on women’s Right to Health, and for the first time, brought to attention the economic value of women’s work in the house.
She revived Indian crafts and ensured their survival.
She founded institutions that are part of our national fabric even today.
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay whose birth anniversary we mark this week on 3 April, was a woman of her times and before her time. She accomplished in one lifetime what many will not dare to attempt in three!
Born in Mangalore in 1903, her parents were immersed in the nationalistic cause and were a major influence on her. Freedom fighters and thinkers like Mahadeva Ranade, Ramabai Ranade, Gopalakrishna Gokhale, Annie Besant were family friends and set the course of her life. While her father died early, her mother pushed, supported and moulded her into a redoubtable force.
She was married at 14 and widowed two years later. After this, she married Harindranath Chattopadhyay. After several years, they were divorced.
There were three distinct phases to her life’s work for the nation:
Her contribution to the Freedom Struggle: She heard of Gandhiji’s Non-cooperation movement in 1923 when she was in England, and promptly returned to India to join it. She joined the Seva Dal, was a founding member of the All India Women’s Conference, and helped organize the Salt Satyagraha movement in Bombay.
Her work with Refugees: Seeing the plight of the people coming in from Pakistan after the Partition, she became active in their cause. Convinced that self-help and cooperatives were the way forward, she set up the Indian Cooperative Union to work on resettlement and rehabilitation of refugees, and built the township of Faridabad on these lines, rehabilitating over 50,000 refugees from the North West Frontier, building not only homes but their livelihoods through training them in new skills.
Her work with Artists and Craftspeople: Passionately committed to arts and crafts in every form, she recognized how fundamental they were to India’s way of life and the livelihoods of crores of people. She understood that the mechanization route that India was taking would impact these negatively, to a point where they might disappear, and she took on the mission to revive, revitalize and conserve these crafts and livelihoods.
Among the institutions she played an active part in setting up were the Sangeet Natak Academy, Central Cottage Industries Emporia, the Crafts Council, All India Handicrafts Board, National School of Drama, and the India International Centre.
Kamaladevi was a prolific writer too, and her works, including her autobiography Inner Recesses, Outer Spaces: Memoirs may be the best way to learn more about her. A great starting point however is the lovingly written biography by Jasleen Dhamija’s Kamaladevi Chattopadyay. Brought out by the National Book Trust, it is a publication of less than 200 pages, which amazes you with how much can be packed into such a little book. And currently costing Rs. 100!
–Meena
Millennial Matriarchs 