Iconic Women Project

Her magnum opus in Marathi, ‘Stri-Purush Tulana’ (‘Comparison of Women and Men’, published in 1882) tears down the patriarchy, and the systemic exploitation and subjugation of women in India. Outraged by an incident where a widow was sentenced to execution for choosing to abort for having ‘loose morals’, Tarabai minced no words when she said “What’s good for a man ought to be good for the woman as well.” Writing in a time when there was scant public discourse on basic rights for women and girls like education, safety from physical and sexual abuse, and child marriage, Tarabai blazed through the double standards with her powerful prose. She thereafter became a close associate of social reformers Savitribai and Jyotiba Phule, and a part of the Satyashodhak Samal (‘Truth-finding Society’), espousing education and basic rights for women and Dalits, among other traditionally subjugated groups. A strong believer in agency for all women by right, from widows to sex workers, her social adv

A Sanskrit scholar, social reformer, writer and educator, Pandita Ramabai Saraswati was steadfast in her advocacy of equality for women at a time when these concepts were anathema. Although extreme personal tragedy followed her through her life, she remained a fighter for reform, working fervently for education and the abolishment of child marriage. In 1889 she founded Sharda Sadan, a school for young widows in Mumbai that taught curricular and vocational courses. Even her strongest opponent, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, finally praised her, declaring society could do with more women like Pandita Ramabai. She decided to convert to Christianity because of her personal convictions, a move that drew strong criticism back home. In 1886 she was invited to the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania for the graduation of her distant cousin Anandibai Joshi, where she was welcomed as an important voice for feminism in India. Her seminal book ‘The High Caste Hindu Woman’, where she describes the pli

Rukmini Devi Arundale’s first inspiration to learn dance came when she met the celebrated ballerina Anna Pavlova after being enthralled by her performances. At 24 years old, her apprehension was that she was ‘too old to start learning dance.’ A dwindling dance from in the 1930s, Bharatanatyam had for many decades been falling apart from disrepute and neglect. In Rukmini Devi’s words, “it was almost extinct…and there was discouragement from almost all quarters…The dancers had no status or recognition.” Her mind made up, Rukmini Devi managed to convince greats like Mylapore Gowri Amma and M. Sundaram Pillai to become her gurus. At the age of 31, she debuted with the Arangetram that would change Bharatanatyam forever. She founded Kalakshetra in Chennai along with her husband George Arundale; a school of dance and music based on the Gurukul system. She continued to refine the dance form, removing from it certain elements of eroticism, while innovating on costume, lighting and instrument

Even today, women percussionists are almost unheard of. Heavily stereotyped to be a ‘man’ thing, it didn’t seem to stop Ranganayaki Ammal, all of 17 when she first performed at the All India Congress Session in Madras in 1926, with an all-male group of players. As most girls from South Indian families, Ranganayaki too was trained in classical dance and music as a child. Drums of all kinds however, were the domain of young boys in their initiation into Carnatic music. Always drawn to percussion, and with an innate sense of musical rhythm, she gravitated towards the Mridangam. Dispelling the usual misogyny around women percussionists probably came with its challenges, but Ranganayaki, with her mastery of mathematically complex rhythms, thrived and enthralled. The ‘Ranganayaki Ammal Award’ was announced by CM of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi, to honour mridangam artists who have come after her. An award that, as of now, has been given to very few women.

A woman whose life had many ‘firsts’ , Muthulaksmi Reddi’s first real victory was probably to beat the odds and get an education. Brilliant and feisty, she was the first woman to join an all-male college in 1907 where she studied medicine, then the first female surgeon, and in a later avatar, British India’s first female legislator in 1926. Faced with ridicule and trauma in her formative years for being born to a woman from the Devadasi community, she would become highly empathetic to the community’s plight and as a lawmaker was instrumental in passing a bill against the trafficking of women and children. (The only woman in a panel of over 100 members). Avvai Home and Orphanage was founded by her in 1931, when 3 girls from Devadasi families knocked on her door one night, having run away from home with nowhere to go. It still stands today as a shelter for women and girls, irrespective of caste or religion. At the age of 28, her mother succeeded in convincing Muthulakshmi to get marr

As anyone familiar with Lucknow will agree, Begum Hazrat Mahal was a woman whose name every child today will know. Born Muhammadi Khanum in Faizabad (c.1820) in the Kingdom of Awadh, she was sold to royal agents as a child, becoming a courtesan, and eventually the wife and Begum of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. In the lead-up to 1857 and the First War of Independence, the Kingdom of Awadh was annexed by the British, and the Nawab exiled to Kolkata. What started as a ‘sepoy mutiny’ soon spread like wild fire, with many regions simultaneously taking up arms against the British. The Begum decided she was staying in Lucknow, and that she was going to put up a fight. Appointing her 12 year old son Birjis Qadr king, she became the regent and, uniting Hindus and Muslims as well as encouraging women to take up arms, she began to gather troops and mobilise masses, turning the rebellion into a people’s movement to reckon with. Laying siege to Lucknow, her troops continued to exert pressure on the Bri

Although she was from one of India’s most prominent families, Kamala Nehru was that quiet fighter whose presence and contribution can easily go unnoticed. Born in 1899 into a Kashmiri Pandit family, Kamala was just a teenager when her marriage was arranged to Jawaharlal Nehru. She quickly threw herself into the Freedom Struggle, tenaciously taking on the fight against British rule. She even converted a section of her house in Allahabad into a dispensary for wounded fighters (later renamed Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital). At the forefront of the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921, Kamala’s popularity among local women helped her launch a strong protest against shops that sold British liquor and cloth in Allahabad. Realising that she was fast becoming a threat, the British arrested her on two occasions. Frail and ailing for years, she spent much of her time between hospitals and sanatoriums, only to succumb to tuberculosis at the age of 36 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her family was by her

Almost a goddess in India’s collective memory, Rani Lakshmibai is that singular woman whose life has become a symbol of heroism and patriotism. Working through the deification, perhaps one can get a glimpse of the real woman. Manikarnika had an unusual childhood for a girl in her time. Losing her mother at 4, she frequented the court of Peshwa Bajirao II, taking easily to horse riding, fencing and the rules of battle. She was also literate, confident and opinionated. A teenage bride of the much older Gangadhar Rao, King of Jhansi, she would soon face her next great loss: the death of their infant son Damodar Rao, and soon, her husband. Tragedy was only starting to unfold in Rani Lakshmibai’s life. Although the rulers had adopted an heir, Jhansi was annexed by the British in 1854 using the infamous Doctrine of Lapse, thus usurping her right to her kingdom. With war raging across the plains, she set up and trained her own army in 1857 to defend Jhansi. When all seemed lost, she escape

'India's Freedom Struggle' was that chapter from our history textbooks that's actually stuck with many of us into our adult lives. Those of us who did school (and history lessons) in the 80s and 90s will probably recall the bits about a handful of freedom fighters - mostly men - who bravely defied a cruel, oppressive and blatantly exploitative system, to win India her freedom in 1947. Looking back, i can't help feeling that the Freedom Struggle was taught - somehow - as a movement essentially led and won by men, with the rare great woman who got a paragraph-mention in our thin-paged, single-colour history textbooks. We live in a polarised place in polarised times. Maybe now more than ever, it helps to look back at our collective past, and see if there's any context we can derive from it. Here are my tributes to a few great women, those whose words, thoughts and actions contributed immensely to India's Freedom Struggle (and who sadly didn't get a dece