Thursday 23 August 2012

Role of Kalpana Datta and Lakshmi Sahgal to Freedom Fighters.


Kalpana Datta (1913-1995)
Kalpana Joshi (Datta) a revolutionary, was born at Sripur of Chittagong district on 27 July 1913 in a middle-class family. Having matriculated in 1929 from Chittagong, Kalpana Datta went to Calcutta and joined the Bethune college. Greatly subjective by the examples set by the revolutionaries Kshatriya Basu and Kanailal Datta, she soon joined the Chhatri Sangha. Purnendu Dastidar drew her into the revolutionary circle of Mastarda Surya sen.
The Chittagong Armory Raid took place on 18 April 1930 and Kalpana quick back to Chittagong and came in contact with Surya Sen in May 1931. In the interim, many of the leaders of the Raid like Ananta Singh, Ganesh Ghosh and Loknath Bal had been arrested and were pending trial.
Kalpana was entrust with the safe carrying of heavy volatile materials from Calcutta. She also secretly prepared ‘gun-cotton’ and planned to plant a dynamite fuse under the court building and inside the jail to free the revolutionary leaders, who were individual tried in a special Tribunal.
The plot was discovered and certain boundaries were imposed on Kalpana’s movements. She, however, managed to visit regularly the village of Surya Sen, sometimes even at dead of night. She also used to have ordinary training in revolver shooting, along with her comrade pritilata waddedar.
In September 1931 Surya Sen decided to entrust Kalpana and Preetilata with a plan to attack the European Club at Chittagong. A week before the action Kalpana was under-arrest while moving out for a survey work in a boy’s attire. While in jail, she was told about the Pahartali action and the heroic suicide of Preetilata. Being unrestricted on bail, she went underground at the bidding of Surya Sen and in the early hours of 17 February 1933 the police encircled their hideout. Surya Sen was captured while Kalpana, along with Manindra Datta, escaped.
On 19 May 1933 Kalpana, with some comrades, was arrested. In the second additional trial of Chittagong Armory Raid case, Surya Sen and Tarakeswar Dastidar were sentenced to death, and Kalpana was sentenced to transport for life. Being released in 1939 she graduated from the Calcutta University in 1940. Soon she joined the CPI and resumed her battle against the British rule. She turned Kalpana Joshi in 1943 when she married PC Joshi, the leader of the CPI. She went back to Chittagong and organised the Kisans’ and women’s fronts of the party. In 1946 she contested, though ineffectively, in the elections to the Bengal Legislative Assembly. After 1947 she migrate to India and submissive from active politics.
Kalpana Datta breathe her last at New Delhi on 8 February 1995.

Lakshmi Sahgal (Swaminathan) (1914)
Lakshmi Sahgal (or Sahgal) née Swaminathan, also known as Captain Lakshmi (born October 24, 1914 in Madras, Madras Presidency, British India) is an activist of the Indian independence movement, an ex-officer of the Indian National Army, and the Minister of Women’s associations in the Azad Hind Government.
Lakshmi Sahgal later became involved in politics in independent India, allocation as a member of parliament in the Upper House and later running for President as a left wing candidate. Lt Col Swaminathan is commonly referred to as Captain Lakshmi in India, referring to her rank at the time of individual taken prisoner in Burma, as widely reported in Indian newspapers at the end of the war and which captured the public thoughts, as opposed to her not widely known support in the last days of Azad Hind.
Sahgal was born as Lakshmi Swaminathan, daughter of Dr S. Swaminathan, a leading trial lawyer practicing Criminal Law at Madras High Court. Lakshmi Sahgal mother was A.V. Ammukutty, better known as Ammu Swaminathan, a social worker and freedom fighter and hailed from the famous Vadakkath family of Anakkara in Palghat, Kerala. A.V. Kutty Malu Amma was any more well known freedom fighter from the same family.
Lakshmi decided to study medicine because she wanted to be of service to the poor, particularly to poor women. As a result, she received an MBBS degree from Madras Medical College in 1938. A year later, she received her diploma in gynecology and obstetrics.
In 1940,she left for Singapore where she established a clinic for the poor, mostly wanderer labour, from India. She became one of the most popular and prosperous gynecologists in the city. She was not only a competent doctor but also played an active role in the India Independence League which contributed greatly to the freedom movement in India.
In 1942, during the historic surrender of Singapore by the British to the Japanese, she worked hard in serving the prisoners of war who were hurt during the skirmishes. In the process, she came in contact with many Indian Prisoners of War (POW’s) who were thinking of forming an Indian liberation army.
Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore on July 2, 1943. In the next few days, at all his public meetings, Netaji spoke of his determination to raise a women’s regiment, the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, which would also “fight for Indian Independence and make it complete”.
Lakshmi wasted no time in joining the new regiment, called the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. She was given the rank of a Colonel(citation needed). The unit had the strength of a Brigade. In a regular army, this women’s army unit was the first of its kind in Asia. The army fight on the side of the Axis powers beside the British.
Lakshmi was active both militarily and on the medical front. She played a heroic role not only in the fighting. Later, she became the Minister in charge of Women’s Organization in Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind (Provisional Government of Free India), led by Subhas Chandra Bose.
Lakshmi Sahgal held this portfolio over and above her command of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. Lakshmi was captured and brought to British India on March 4, 1946 where she received a heroine’s welcome. The British realised that keeping her a prisoner would prove counter-productive and she was later released.

1 comment:

  1. It is so wonderful to hear that women were equally strong and brave fighting for Indian Independence, These unsung heroes need to come into our history books for children to be inspired that whatever their professions they can fight for a cause. Today we are still in bondage but in the hands of our own people with high levels of corruption, abuse and crime against women and children.

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