Role of women in Independence

A note found on the body of Pritilata Waddedar who attained martyrdom on 24th September, 1932 read, “There are still many among my countrymen who may be shocked to learn how a woman brought up in the best tradition of Indian womanhood has taken up such a horrible deed as to massacre human lives... If sisters can stand side by side with brothers in a Satyagraha movement, why are they not so entitled in a revolutionary movement ”

Both Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose had called upon women to participate in the freedom movement.

But Indian women had been crossing the lakshman rekha ever since Sita led the way. The price was sometimes heavy. Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and Rani Avantibai of Ramgarhhad laid down their lives in 1857. Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadhhad valiantly defended Lucknow and later escaped to Nepal where she died in 1879. In 1829, the brave Kittur Rani Chennamma had died in a British prison.

These women warriors were essentially resisting British attempts to annexe their principalities. But the women revolutionaries of the early 20th century had a loftier ideal — they wanted to free India from Britain’s clutches, and they were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Born in a village in Chittagong district Pritilata Waddedar was educated in Dhaka and Kolkata. On 24th September 1932 she led a daring attack on the European Club at Pahar-talialong with a small group of volunteers. She was hit by a bullet and consumed cyanide.

The author is a writer and IT professional Kalpana Datta was sentenced in 1933 to transportation for life in the Chittagong Armoury Raid case. She was lucky. Surjya Sen and Tarakeswar Dastidar were hanged on 12th January 1934. Kalpana was released in 1939, married communist leader P.C. Joshi in 1943 and relocated to India after partition.

On 6th February 1932, Bina Das fired at the Bengal Governor Stanley Jackson in the Convocation Hall of the Kolkata University. She served a long sentence but never revealed the name of Kamala Dasgupta, another revolutionary, who had procured the revolver for her. Both Bina Das and Pritilata Waddedar had graduated with honours from Kolkata University but the British government had withheld their degrees.

In 1938, Accamma Cherian led a massive rally from Thampanoor in Trivandrum to the Kowdiar Palace demanding that the Maharaja revoke the ban on the Congress. When the police threatened to fire on the crowd, she shouted, “I am the leader. Shoot me first.”