Article List

Moturu Udayam
01 Nov 2017
Born on October 13, 1924 into a progressive family, she was married at 14 to communist activist Moturu Hanumantha Rao. The couple faced financial hardships and lost two of their children. Udayam worked as daily wage labourer even as she was active in the movement to support her family. In 1948, during second Andhra Mahila Sangam meet, Udayam was arrested for opposing police banishment and sent to Nandigama jail along with 70 other women protesters. After Independence, she worked as a medical representative to support her family.
Niruben Patel
01 Nov 2017
Born in 1926, Niruben Patel abandoned her school at the call of Gandhiji, to later rejoin. She went on to complete her MA from Elphinston College, Bombay. She became a member of the Communist Party, leading the movement against the raise in sales by the Saurashtra Government, as well as against the ‘betterment levy’ which infuriated the peasantry. The Saurashtra Government had issued a ‘permanent arrest warrant’ against her, but she could not be arrested.
Kalpana Dutta
01 Nov 2017
Born in Chittagong district (now Bangladesh) on 27 July 1913. While studying at Bethune College in Calcutta, she was inspired to join the Chhatri Sangha, and was drawn into the revolutionary circle in Chittagong led by Surya Sen, known as ‘Master-da’. After the Chittagong Armory Raid (April 1930) Kalpana and Pritilata Wadedar persuaded Master-da to train them for direct action. Kalpana planned to plant a dynamite fuse under the court building and inside the jail to free the revolutionary leaders.
Janaki Ammal K P
01 Oct 2017
One of the first women in South India to be arrested by the British, Janaki Ammal, born in 1917, was already an accomplished performer at age 12. Her early life was spent in penury. She lost her mother when she was eight and was brought up by her grandmother. An eighth-grade school drop out, she joined Palaniappa Pillai Boys Company as a singer for a salary of Rs.25 per month. Later, she went on to become the lead actress and earned over Rs. 300 per performance. She married Gurusamy Naidu, a harmonium player in the troupe.
Geeta Mukherjee
14 Sep 2017
Born on 8 January 1924 in Calcutta, was secretary of Bengal Provincial Students Federation from 1947 to 1951. Was at the forefront of mass-movements in Calcutta in 1945-6 demanding liberation of INA prisoners and against the brutal suppression of the Naval Mutiny in Bombay. She played a leading role in the Post and Telegraph employees’ strike in July 1946, and was an important organizer in the peasant movement in Medinipur after Independence.
Communist Ramulamma
14 Sep 2017
Popularly known as Communist Ramulamma, she was active in the struggles against bonded labour, agrarian struggles, guerrilla squad strikes against razakars and deshmukh landlords. She was well versed in horse riding and shooting. Ramulamma was jailed for three years and was released in 1952. During the Telengana armed struggle, Mantrala Adi Reddy, a squad leader, proposed marriage to her.
Chityala Ailamma
14 Sep 2017
Chityala Ailamma (1919-1985) was a participant in the Telangana peasant armed struggle. She revolted against the feudal landlord Visunoori Ramchandra Reddy to protect her 4 acres of land, which she had leased from another landlord.
Aruna Asaf Ali
14 Sep 2017
Recipient of the Lenin Prize for Peace and the Bharat Ratna, Aruna Asaf Ali was Delhi’s first Mayor. Born in 1909 in Kalka (now Haryana) in an orthodox Hindu Bengali family, she was educated in Lahore and Nainital. She married prominent Congressman Asaf Ali, 23 years her senior. Her family opposed the match on both religious and age grounds. She was first arrested during the Salt Satyagraha in 1930. She was again arrested in 1932.
Amiya Dutta
13 Sep 2017
Amiya Dutta came from a poor family in Bikrampur in Dhaka district (now Bangladesh). Was married off while still in her early teens. Amiya was deeply influenced by the underground activities of freedom fighters in her village – Bajrayogini– a hub of the Freedom Movement. With the encouragement by her brother, she became a member of the Communist Party in 1943.
Ahilya Rangnekar
08 Sep 2017
Ahilya came from a family influenced by the values of the social reform and all the four daughters and daughter-in-law completed their graduation. On 8th August 1942, in response to the declaration of the ‘Quit India’ movement, Ahilya joined the students in enforcing a strike in the college. On 15th August, hearing of the death of Gandhiji’s secretary Mahadevbhai Desai in jail, Ahilya led her student friends in a protest march, resulting in them being arrested. They were sent to Yeravda jail for three months as Class B prisoners.