A constitution had to be made to define what an independent India would be like and what would be the rights of its citizens. The Constituent Assembly was formed to make it. But the question was who would make it?
Will only men make it? Women are citizens too. There were 299 members in the Constituent Assembly. Only 15 of them were women. They came from different parts of the country.
They challenged the patriarchal bondage and social customs that bound women. They took part in the freedom movement. All of them had a socio-political contribution.
They contributed to the creation of a newly independent country. Today we are presenting a brief story of these 15 women.
Dakshayani Velayudhan (1912-1978)
Dakshayani Velayudhan was the only female Dalit member of the Constituent Assembly. She was born in Kerala and the then Cochin state.
She belonged to the Dalit Pulaya community. That time was one of tremendous discrimination and inequality. Because of this, women of the Pulaya community were not allowed to cover their body above the waist.
Dakshayani’s family challenged this custom. It is believed that she was the first woman not only of her community but also among Dalits to study in college.
She was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. She married social reformer R Velayudhan on 6 September 1940 in the presence of Kasturba and Mahatma Gandhi. She was elected to the Constituent Assembly on a Congress ticket from Madras Presidency. Dakshayani was the youngest member of the Constituent Assembly.
During the debate in the Constituent Assembly, she openly expressed her views on untouchability, reservation, and Hindu-Muslim problem.
She had said in a speech that there would be no hindrance based on caste or community in the Indian Republic.
Not only this, she was against separate constituencies based on caste and community. She kept raising her voice for the rights of Dalits and the deprived throughout her life.
While living in Delhi, she worked with women sanitation workers.
Sucheta Kriplani (1908 -1974)
Sucheta Kriplani, who became the first woman Chief Minister of India (of Uttar Pradesh) in 1963, was a Gandhian and contributed significantly to underground activities during the Quit India Movement.
While being a member of the Congress, she was nominated to the Constituent Assembly.
She was in favor of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). It talked about law for every religious community on issues of marriage, inheritance, divorce, and child adoption.
Sucheta Kriplani is considered to have played an important role in the relief work carried out after the violence in Noakhali, Bengal (in Bangladesh after partition) in 1946.
Her husband JB Kriplani left the Congress and formed the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP) in 1951 and Sucheta also joined it. However, Sucheta later returned to Congress.
While in KMPP, Sucheta contested the Lok Sabha elections and won from New Delhi.
Sucheta supported the Hindu Marriage Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha, but also warned that this bill cannot change the status of women.
She became the voice of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan in Parliament and actively participated in relief work for Tibetan refugees who came in 1959.
On the eve of India’s independence, Sucheta Kriplani sang the national anthem and song in the Constituent Assembly.
Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949)
Sarojini Naidu is famous as Bulbule Hind or Bharat Kokila. She was born in Hyderabad.
Sarojini Naidu had many roles – poet, women’s rights activist, and freedom fighter.
She married Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu of her choice in the year 1898. This was one of the few inter-caste and inter-regional marriages of that time.
She was the first woman president of the Congress. She was very close to Gandhiji and worked with him all her life. The relationship between the two was very friendly.
Sarojini’s style of expression was praised by everyone. She wanted women to get the right to vote. Sarojini Naidu was a supporter of Swaraj.
She was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Bihar. Sarojini was in favor of Hindu-Muslim unity and was against partition. The speeches in the Constituent Assembly are witness to this.
She was later appointed the Governor of the United Province.
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900-1990)
Born in the Nehru family, Vijay Lakshmi Pandit was earlier known as Swaroop Kumari.
Like her father Motilal Nehru, she was a political activist and admirer of social reformer Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
The Civil Disobedience Movement was started in the year 1930.
Vijay Lakshmi Pandit was also arrested during the Congress Committee meeting in Allahabad.
It was from here that her political career started taking shape.
She won the provincial election from Kanpur.
Vijay Lakshmi Pandit was sent to America to tell about British oppression. This was done on Gandhi’s behest.
She was made the head of India’s delegation in the United Nations General Assembly.
She raised the issue of the human rights of people of Indian origin in South Africa. On returning to India, she was made a member of the Constituent Assembly.
She was also India’s ambassador to the Soviet Union and America at that time and was also elected President of the United Nations General Assembly.
After Pakistan attacked India in 1965, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri sent her to France for arms help.
After the death of her brother Jawaharlal Nehru, she contested the by-election from Phulpur seat and also won.
Begum Qudsia Ejaz Rasul (1908-2001)
The year was 1937. She was contesting the elections for the United Provinces Assembly. The maulanas issued a fatwa against her.
The fatwa was – it is un-Islamic to vote for a woman who does not observe purdah. This woman was none other than Begum Qudsia Ejaz Rasul.
She had renounced purdah. Not only this, once she had told her husband, Nawab Ejaz Rasul, “I will not accept the invitation of those who keep the women of their house in purdah. This condition will apply equally to Hindus and Muslims.”
She was associated with the Muslim League for a long time. Later she joined the Congress. After independence and partition, she decided to stay in India.
She was an advocate of women’s education. Not only this, she believed that children should be educated in their mother tongue.
She was a supporter of fundamental rights and gender equality. She was the president of the All India Women’s Hockey Association for a long time and worked continuously to get respect for women’s hockey.
Hansa Mehta (1897-1995)
Born in Gujarat, Hansa Mehta was a feminist, social reformer and advocate of equality.
An example of this is found in her role in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR).
Hansa, as the Indian representative, insisted on making the structure of the commission gender-equal.
Also read: Why is Karun Nair out of Team India despite scoring a lot of runs?
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that all men are born free and equal.
She opposed this language and insisted on the use of the sentence “All human beings are born free and equal.”
Hansa Mehta, who went to London to study, met Sarojini Naidu there and she became her mentor.
She met Mahatma Gandhi in Sabarmati Jail. Initially, she was working for women’s rights and education, but then she joined the freedom movement.
She participated in the prohibition and non-cooperation movement.
She represented the Bhagini Samaj and insisted on bringing an amendment to declare child marriage invalid.
She was also a member of the sub-committee for fundamental rights of the Constituent Assembly and advocated for the introduction of UCC.
She was also a member of the board of UNESCO.
Kamla Chaudhary (1908 -1970)
In her stories and poems, Kamla Chaudhary raised issues like patriarchal thinking, feminism, and gender equality.
Also, 80 years ago, she wrote about the importance of mental health, which has been known and understood by society only in recent years.
Kamla Chaudhary, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, was married at the age of 15.
Her husband worked for the British government. But she also encouraged her husband for the freedom movement.
During the Civil Disobedience Movement, she joined the Congress. She became the secretary of the Women’s Charkha Sangh and went to jail several times.
On becoming a member of the Constituent Assembly, she supported the Hindu Code Bill during the debate.
She said that it would be effective for women’s rights. She supported the removal of the provision of polygamy in the bill.
She did not agree with the bill being called anti-Hindu. This bill was also opposed because it also talked about equal rights of daughters in property inheritance.
In the year 1962, Kamla Chaudhary won the election from the Hapur seat of Lok Sabha.
Purnima Banerjee (1911-1951)
An active participant in the freedom movement, Aruna Asaf Ali’s sister Purnima Banerjee was very close to Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Purnima was born in Barisal in East Bengal, i.e. today’s Bangladesh.
She went to jail during the freedom movement. Her health was also affected due to the jail.
As a member of the Constituent Assembly, she actively intervened on several occasions.
Purnima Banerjee was considered to have socialist views.
She had different views on fundamental rights and religious education in schools.
She said that all religions should be taught in government-aided educational institutions. Because this will expand the scope of thinking and understanding of the students.
Not only this, she believed that there should be no discrimination against minority communities in any government-aided educational institution.
Malati Choudhary (1904-1998)
Malati Choudhary was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Orissa.
She was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.
She was one of the first girls to study in Shanti Niketan. She married Nabakrishna Choudhary of her choice.
She was an active participant in the Congress movement. Because of her, the participation of women in Orissa increased in the freedom movement.
A big farmers’ movement took place in Dhenkanal under her leadership. She went to jail during the Quit India Movement.
She remained in the Constituent Assembly for a short time. Just before independence, there was a riot in Noakhali.
Gandhiji was touring villages there for peace. Malati Choudhary resigned from the Constituent Assembly and went with Gandhiji to work in the riot-affected areas of Noakhali.
For this reason, Gandhiji called her ‘Tufaani’.
She worked for the deprived sections of society all her life. The husband and wife opposed the Emergency imposed in 1975. Both had to go to jail.
Leela Roy (1900 – 1970)
Leela Roy was the first woman to be a part of the executive and run the revolutionary group Shri Sangh.
She was originally from Sylhet (now in Bangladesh). While studying in college, she came to know about the non-cooperation movement.
She studied at the University of Dhaka. She joined the movement to give women the right to vote.
She also worked for the flood relief committee formed on the initiative of Subhash Chandra Bose in North Bengal.
She also formed a women’s association, Deepali Sangh, with 12 friends. Its work was to educate girls. After this, she joined Shri Sangh.
In this organization, women were given the task of making bombs, carrying weapons from one place to anothe,r and distributing pamphlets.
Deepali Sangh started its mouthpiece Jayshree Patrika, which was named by Rabindranath Tagore.
But then Shri Sangh and Deepali Sangh were banned.
Leela was put in jail. After her release, Leela met Subhash Chandra Bose and joined his party Forward Block.
After this, she became a member of the Constituent Assembly. But she was very sad with the idea of partition.
When she realized that there was no alternative to partition, she resigned from the Constituent Assembly.
She went to Noakhali (now Bangladesh) and set up relief camps for people affected by the riots.
Durgabai Deshmukh (1909-1981)
Born in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, Durga’s parents were social workers.
Durga was deeply influenced by their work. She raised her voice to Mahatma Gandhi against the practice of Devadasi and the practice of veiling by Muslim women.
Gandhi talked about ending the Devdasi system and reforms for Muslim women.
Seeing Durga’s impressive Hindi, Gandhi asked the organizers to appoint her as the translator in Andhra Pradesh and Madras.
Durga was so firm on principles that she refused to give entry to Jawaharlal Nehru in an exhibition when he did not have a ticket.
She was married at the age of eight and made her mark at the age of 15.
When her gauna ceremony was held at this age, she refused.
She joined the Salt Satyagraha in the South with her mother and also went to jail.
Durga took a degree in law from Madras University and became a famous face in advocacy within four years.
After becoming a member of the Constituent Assembly, she was made a member of the steering committee and Vallabhbhai Patel gave her the responsibility of reviewing the proposed amendments.
Also, in the absence of the Speaker, she could preside over the proceedings of the House. She was a member of the select committee for the Hindu Code Bill.
Durgabai Deshmukh advocated making Hindustani the national language instead of Hindi.
She was awarded many honors for her work in the field of education and the upliftment of people, including the UNESCO World Peace Medal and the Padma Vibhushan.
Renuka Ray (1904-1997)
Born in Pabna (now in Bangladesh), Renuka met Gandhi at a relative’s house in Kolkata.
This meeting changed the direction of Renuka’s life. He was there in connection with the Non-Cooperation Movement.
She left college with her friend and joined the freedom struggle and Gandhi asked her to go door-to-door to collect donations.
Renuka organized many meetings of Gandhiji, in which women also participated. But then she went to London to study.
Renuki returned and started working for the welfare of women in Burdwan and Hooghly.
Rabindranath Tagore had a great influence on her life and he nominated Renuka to the Executive Council of Vishwa Bharati University.
She credited Gandhi and Tagore for understanding rural India.
Sir BN Rao, the President of the Hindu Law Committee, gave Renuka the responsibility of representing the women’s organization in the Central Legislative Assembly.
After becoming a member of the Constituent Assembly, Renuka participated in the debates on the Hindu Code Bill, the Devdasi system, property rights, etc.
She also opposed reservation for women in the Assembly and Parliament.
She argued that reservation would hinder the development of women. She also worked for refugees after the partition.
Dr. BC Roy, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, offered her to become the Rehabilitation Minister and join the cabinet. She was elected from the Malda Lok Sabha seat.
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (1889 -1964)
Born in a royal family, Amrit Kaur worked as an associate of Mahatma Gandhi for three decades of her life.
This period was an important phase of the women’s rights and freedom movement.
Congress leaders used to visit Amrit’s house frequently. Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a close friend of her father Harnam Singh.
It was because of Gokhale that Amrit Kaur developed a passion for independence from British rule.
She met Gandhi during a Congress meeting in Bombay.
She was so deeply influenced by Gandhian ideology that she also visited Sabarmati Ashram. She was one of the founding members of the All India Working Conference.
Gandhi had sent Amrit to resolve the ongoing differences over the removal of the Dewan of Travancore.
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur also worked to create awareness about untouchability in Gujarat.
Aruna Asaf Ali had written in her book on Amrit that Amrit had criticized Jawaharlal Nehru for not including any woman in the meeting of the Congress Working Committee, after which Sarojini Naidu was included in the meeting.
She went to jail for the Salt Satyagraha and also participated in the Quit India Movement. She became a member of the Constituent Assembly, where she talked about bringing the UCC.
Amrit Kaur became the Health Minister in the Nehru Cabinet. While being the Health Minister, she ran pilot programs for malaria and other diseases like leprosy.
It was Amrit Kaur who brought the bill to establish the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in India.
Annie Mascarene (1902-1963)
Annie Mascarene became a member of the Constituent Assembly from Travancore and Cochin princely states.
She obtained two MA degrees in History and Economics. After this, she went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to teach.
After some time she returned to Travancore. There she started participating in socio-political activities.
She became a participant in the freedom movement and also went to jail.
At one place in the Constituent Assembly debate, she said that people should have the right to choose their representatives without any control, direction, and monitoring.
She said- We are making the principles of democracy. These principles are not just for elections but for the coming generations. It is for the nation.
She was also a member of the committee formed for the Hindu Code Bill. In the year 1951, she was elected as an MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala as an independent candidate.
Ammu Swaminathan (1894-1978)
AV Ammukutty or Ammu Swaminathan was born in Palghat, Kerala. In her childhood, Ammu was educated at home in Malayalam.
She married Dr. Subbarama Swaminathan in the year 1908. One of her daughters, Lakshmi, became famous as Captain Lakshmi Sahgal of Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj.
Ammu came in contact with many leaders of the freedom movement and started working on women’s issues.
She was associated with the Women’s Indian Association and the All India Women’s Conference.
Ammu was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Madras in 1946.
In one of her speeches in the Constituent Assembly, she said, “This Constitution is the fulfillment of the dreams of 40 crore people. I know that the Constitution gives us fundamental rights, equal status, adult franchise. It talks about the removal of untouchability and other such things. We have been fighting against all these for years. However, if we have to make this country happy and prosperous, then all these things visible on paper are not enough. We have to see that these ideas and ideals written on paper in the Constitution are implemented by the people of this country.”
She worked all her life to fulfill this idea and ideal.
Reference – Courtesy – The Fifteen: The Lives and Times of the Women in India’s Constituent Assembly by Angelica Aribam and Akash Satyavali
From Purdah to Parliament: Begum Qudsia Ajaz
Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic: Achyuta Chetan
Selected Speeches of the Women Members of the Constituent Assembly
