Aatukuri Molla - People's Favourite Ramayana in Telugu

Molla is considered among the greatest poets in Telugu literature although only one work of hers, Ramayanam, is known to us. Until a few decades back it was studied as a text book by school children who learnt it by heart. 

Regional versions of the Ramayana

The enduring appeal of the Ramayana through the centuries shows the common thread that runs through the cultural life of India. Scholars opine there are about 300 regional variations and iterations of the epic. Women have written many of these which are very popular and are referenced in everyday language and the arts. While Chandravati’s version of the Ramayana in Bangla is justly renowned, Molla’s Telugu Ramayanam is equally an element of daily life in Telugu speaking areas even today.

Molla’s childhood

Aatukuri Molla (1440 - 1530 CE) was born during the Vijayanagara rule in Kadapa, now in the Rayalaseema district of Andhra Pradesh. She was the daughter of a potter Keshava Setti whose wife died soon after childbirth.  

Keshava Setti and his wife were devotees of Srikantha Malleswara of Srisailam and named their daughter after the deity’s favoured flower Molla, the Jasmine. In their village they were loved and respected for their generosity and the help they extended to all. Due to this goodwill they had earned, when Keshava Setti found it difficult to bring up his daughter all alone the village got together to help him with the child. 

Molla grew up to be studious and quiet. She was educated in the village school. Even as a youngster Molla showed precocious interest in prayer and spent unusual stretches of time in the temple. When she was fourteen Keshava Setti took her to his guru at Srisailam to be initiated into the religious way of life. The guru counselled him to give Molla all the freedom to choose her own path and that she would be well-respected for her devotion. When they returned home Keshava Setti allowed her to pursue her passion for learning and prayer. 

How Molla wrote her Ramayana

At her village temple one day Molla stated that as she meditating, Sri Rama appeared to her and asked her to write the Ramayana. When she told the priest about this he immediately procured palm leaves, stylus and other equipment for her.  

She set to work and completed the Ramayana in six cantos or kanda, from the Bala Kanda to the Yuddha Kanda. Bala Kanda is the first canto or book of the Ramayana which narrates the birth and childhood of Sri Rama. Yuddha Kanda is the sixth canto which deals with the war that Rama and his compatriots waged against Ravana, and rescued Sita. This is naturally the longest section of Molla's Ramayana since the epic battle is the core of every heroic epic. Scholars consider Molla’s narration of the Sundara Kanda to be unsurpassed in the whole gamut of Telugu literature. Sundara Kanda is known for its poetic description of objects, places and people. 

What is unique about Molla’s version

Literary scholars consider Molla’s Ramayanam to be a poem of considerable excellence and literary merit.

Molla drew upon her years of study and knowledge to write her version of the Ramayana. She undertook the task so that common people would get to know not just the story but also the important values in the epic. With this audience in mind she used language that is simple and easy to understand. She commented in the text that works in regional languages should stand on their own merit and not lean on Sanskrit. Not surprisingly, Molla’s Ramayana has elegant Telugu and not high-sounding Sanskrit.

From her work it is obvious that she knew of other poets who had also written on the Ramayana. She was very aware of her limitation of not being a classical scholar, but her advantage was her years of study and her devotion. However, she credits all her work to the grace of the lord of Gopavaram, her home town.

Molla did not faithfully follow the Valmiki Ramayana but added and deleted portions to make it her own. She began by 'paying her respects to Sri Ramachandra, the Trinity, several other deities and finally Saraswati, for Her power over words and meanings' as Nabaneeta Dev Sen notes. Molla mentioned her gurus with respect and thankfulness at the beginning of her work. She departed from tradition by not dedicating it to the king Krishnadeva Raya which was contrary to the usual practice. Instead her dedication was to her chosen deity Srikantha Malleswara.

Molla described Ayodhya's commerce, its armed forces and goings-on at the battlefield in great detail, adhering to the classic epic narration.

Her belief in the efficacy of chanting Rama’s name was her reason for writing the Ramayana. It’s her clear and simple style imbued with a native flavour which attracts readers to her work to this day.

She used colloquial language. Her aim was for her version of the Ramayana to be read and to bring solace to ordinary people. Her trust was well placed, Molla Ramayanam is among the most read and quoted versions of Ramayana in Telugu.

India Post, Government of India

Molla’s well-earned fame

Not just in the present, even at the time she wrote it Molla Ramayanam became so popular for being easily relatable that Molla’s fame reached the emperor Krishnadeva Raya. Being a writer himself, he was able to appreciate her craft and asked her to appear in court.

At court she was received with all due honour but also had to face the questions of the famed ashtha diggajas, the eight literary luminaries of the Vijayanagara court. The one questioning her was Tenali Ramakrishna, an author of several literary works.

Her answers showed her presence of mind and depth of knowledge. Her poetic talent was tested in court when she was asked to compose on a theme within a few minutes. Her poem floored everybody. She was given the title ‘Kavi Ratna’ and presented gold.

Later life

Molla returned to her village, entrusted her Ramayanam and the gold to the village temple and left for Srisailam where she remained until the end of her life. She lived the life of an ascetic, performing austerities. She was always available for seekers who wanted advice. Molla died in 1530 at the age of ninety. 

Molla channelled all her learning and devotion into her one literary work Ramayanam. Such was the superior tenor and spiritual quality of her poetry that it has bridged the gap between being a classical literary work and well-loved poetry that is intricately woven into people’s daily lives. Not often do writers and poets encompass both high literature and popular adoration so completely.

References - 

1. The Ramayana in Telugu and Tamil - A Comparative Study by CR Sarma

2. http://english.kadapa.info/molla-the-saint-poetess-of-kadapa-district/

3. Great Women of India - Edited by Swami Madhavananda and Ramesh Chandra Majumdar

4. https://archive.org/details/MollaRamayanamu/mode/2up

5. Rewriting the Ramayana - Nabaneeta Dev Sen

Velu Nachiyar - Sivaganga's Queen who fought the British

 Resistance in India to foreign rule

Velu Nachiyar (1730-1796) the third ruler and queen of Sivaganga, in present-day Tamil Nadu, was among the early royalty to put up armed resistance against British rule in India. Another Indian queen who ruled nearly a century earlier and also did not allow foreign powers, the Portuguese, to gain a foothold on Indian soil was Abbakka Chowta of Ullal in the 16th century. And of course a queen who embarked on the same mission against the British, less than a century after Velu Nachiyar, was Lakshmibai of Jhansi.

The spark ignited by the spirited fight of Velu Nachiyar and her compatriots, the Marudu brothers, against the British inspired the common people to also take up arms against foreign rule. The brothers were hanged for their efforts, but the fact is that sporadic resistance efforts were on from when the first European powers tried to expand from their initial mercantile activities to exerting political influence over local rulers in India. The First War of Independence of 1857 was the stage at which many of the rulers of the time decided to act together, not individually, to have a greater impact.

Velu Nachiyar’s rule in Sivaganga

Velu Nachiyar became the de facto ruler after the death of her husband Muthu Vaduganatha Peria Oodaya Thevar and his first wife Gowri Nachiyar in 1780. His death was the successful culmination of a plot by the Nawab of Arcot to get rid of him. 

India Post, Government of India

Upbringing as heir to the throne

It seemed like Velu Nachiyar’s upbringing was tailored for this very role she would play in later life. As the sole daughter of the ruler of Ramanathapuram (also known as Ramanad) she was given a wholistic education. She was tutored extensively in scholastics and became proficient in several languages - Tamil, French, English, Urdu, Malayalam and Telugu. She even travelled to France for some medical intervention. 

Velu Nachiyar’s education included the study of classical Tamil works. She also trained in martial arts and in fighting with weapons such as the valari, a traditional lethal throwing weapon. All this education was customary for the heir to the throne and her gender made no difference. Thus she was no helpless queen but one whose confidence was bolstered with both theoretical knowledge and practical experience.

Velu Nachiyar became Vaduganatha Thevar’s second wife at the age of fifteen in 1746. The couple soon had a daughter named Vellachi Nachiyar. Velu Nachiyar took an active role in the administration of the kingdom as Vaduganatha Thevar trusted her managerial and diplomatic acumen.

Political Background

By the late eighteenth century European traders - English, French, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese - were vying for favourable trading terms from the local rulers in peninsular India. At the time South India was a chess board in which diverse pawns made their moves for the better part of a century. The  English, the French and to a lesser extent, the Portuguese were the Europeans trying to secure their mercantile fortunes. The Danes who had a few godowns for their merchandise did not expand as much territorially. 

The British and the French duplicated their war against each other in Europe at the time by aligning with rulers in India against each other. Thus Hyder Ali and the French came to the aid of Velu Nachiyar of Sivagangai against the Marathas and the English who wanted to annex her kingdom.  

Vaduganatha Thevar granted commercial facilties in his territory to the Dutch. This was after the British had earlier rejected a similar offer from him. However, now the British were uneasy about this arrangement in Sivaganga with a rival European trader. Besides, they wanted to force Sivaganga to pay tribute to their ally the Nawab of Arcot.

Opposing powers in the area

Both Mohammad Ali Khan Wallajah the Nawab of Arcot, and the ruler of Pudukottai were British allies. The local chieftains, palaigar, in the area took a stand against the oppressive taxes levied on them by the Nawab, and allied themselves with Hyder Ali in the 3rd Mysore War. The people decided to oppose the British, who were an arrogant power. To make matters worse the British has put an embargo in place that led to shortage of essentials. 

Vaduganatha Thevar was well aware of the covetous ways of the English and kept them at arm’s length, refusing to make any concessions for them. The British were in turn aware of the strength of the Sivaganga army and of the Maruthu brothers who were in charge of it. In June 1772 they decided upon attacking Vaduganatha Thevar from two sides led by two generals, Joseph Smith from the east and Benjour from the west. Vaduganatha Thevar had also made his preparations to counter the attack. He decided to take a stand in the forested area of Kalayar Koil.

First the British troops occupied Sivaganga. Then Benjour and his troops took over Kalayar Koil. Vaduganatha Thevar and his army put up a valiant fight but he died on the battlefield on 27 June 1772. Velu Nachiyar is also reputed to have fought bravely in the battle.

Velu Nachiyar and her daughter fled to Virupakshi in Dindigul district. There they were joined by the Marudu brothers. Soon, the brothers returned to Sivaganga to organise a rebellion. Velu Nachiar wrote to Hyder Ali of Mysore who was a sworn enemy of the British, met him and decided to join forces against the British East India Company.

Velu Nachiyar formed a women’s battalion ‘Udayal Padai’ in her army. It was very motivated and well trained. Kuyyili, the commander in this battalion and a close associate of Velu Nachiyar became known for her brave martyrdom while blowing up the British ammunition stock at the fort of Sivaganga.

In 1780 the combined armies of Sivaganga and Mysuru defeated the joint forces of the Nawab of Arcot and the British and reestablished the throne of Sivaganga. 

Velu Nachiyar’s rule in Sivaganga

Velu Nachiyar ruled from 1780. It is speculated she was on the Sivaganga throne until 1790. Vengum Peria Wodaya Thevar, husband of Vellachi Nachiyar, succeeded to the throne. In time it became obvious that he was a ruler in name only, the actual powers behind the throne were the Marudu brothers.

In 1793 Vellachi Nachiyar and her infant daughter died of an illness. This affected Velu Nachiyar profoundly and her own health deteriorated.

Vengum Peria Wodaya Thevar married Muthathal, daughter of one of the Marudu brothers. To stamp their authority the brothers captured the fort of Sivaganga. This turn of events was a further blow to Velu Nachiyar. She developed a heart ailment.

Velu Nachiyar decided to have surgery in France and it was performed successfully. She returned to Sivaganga six months later. However she passed away in Virupakshi on 25 December 1796.

The legacy of Velu Nachiyar

Velu Nachiyar’s fight was not just for herself or her kingdom but was also that of the common man, the palaigar and the Marudu brothers fighting against oppressive taxes and other atrocities of the British and their allies. 

At the time of Velu Nachiyar’s rule, India saw the initial rumblings of a concerted attempt to oppose the British and not succumb to their authoritarian tactics. Indians were not completely successful in their endeavour at the time for several reasons yet they did not give up without a fight. Velu Nachiyar’s fight was one more step towards emboldening Indians to gather strength and continue the struggle for freedom.

References -

https://sivaganga.nic.in/tourism/eminent-personalities/

South Indian Rebellion - K Rajayyan

Queen Velu Nachiyar: First Women against British - Jekila Antony Raj

Perin Naoroji Captain - A Life Dedicated to India's Freedom

Family Background
Perin Naoroji Captain was the granddaughter of the scholar-politician Dadabhai Naoroji, the Grand Old Man of India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, and thrice its president. Naoroji was a British MP as a member of the House of Commons. 

Perin was born at Mandvi in Kutch, Gujarat on 12 October 1888. Her father Ardeshir was a doctor and Dadabhai Naoroji’s son. He died when she was yet five years old. Perin came from a large family of eight children, many of whom took up the nationalist cause. She married the eminent lawyer DS Captain in 1925. The couple did not have children. 

Perin Naoroji Captain

The Beginnings 

As a student at Sorbonne in Paris Perin met the nationalist Bhikaiji Cama who lived there in self-exile, and was a close associate of VD Savarkar. At the time Cama was deeply involved in trying for the release of Savarkar who was in prison at London for defying the British. Perin became a close friend of Kamala Nehru there. 

Later Perin and Savarkar attended the first Egyptian National Congress at Brussels. In London Perin and her sister Gosi worked with Polish organisations against Czarist Russia and learnt from a Polish revolutionary to use firearms and assemble bombs. This activity brought her under surveillance by the British, but that did not deter her. It is interesting that despite this early exposure to how violence was being used in other parts of the world Perin, Gosi and another sister Nurgis (the Captain sisters who married three brothers) turned completely to non-violence as the path to follow under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1911 Perin returned to India. She met Mahatma Gandhi in 1915 and became convinced that his approach to securing India’s freedom from British rule was the right one. From 1920 she took to wearing khadi and began working for the nationalist cause in right earnest. In 1921 she was one of a group that established the Rashtriya Stree Sabha, a nationalist wormen’s organisation run on Gandhian principles.  

Public Life

The Civil Disobedience Movement

The Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930 was a watershed moment in the history of the struggle for freedom in India. This movement was the method that the Indian National Congress decided was the means to attain Purna Swaraj (complete independence). The movement spread all over India. In Bengal Matangini Hazra was one of the prominent activists.

Perin Captain’s leadership qualities saw her playing an active role in many other areas, but the Civil Disobedience Movement was a defining episode in her public life.

Perin Captain addressing a political meeting on Chowpatty Beach in Bombay, 1930 Source: Women of India, Tara Ali Baig

Perin had had a long association of social and political work with stalwarts working in the field, well before the call for Civil Disobedience by Gandhi. Although from an influential family and well known to the leading lights of the era, Perin was a Congress worker who served the country by taking part in the big issues of the day. She was a hands-on political worker, did not shy away from the hurly-burly of public engagement and underwent multiple jail terms like most national leaders at the time.

During the Civil Disobedience Movement Perin with several other women under Desh Sevika Sangh played a prominent role in going from shop to shop in Bombay asking the owners not to sell imported cloth. Thus far the colonizers had crippled Indian weavers and the textile segment by exporting raw cotton and importing textiles into India. This boycott of British textiles in India was a direct hit at manufactured goods from Britain. The group also made continuous appeals to shoppers to participate in the Swadeshi movement and not buy imported fabric. In the first ten months of 1930 as many as 17,000 women were convicted for this activity. Closing shops was unlawful, and now shopkeepers were also arrested along with the women for boycott of foreign goods.

Her Arrest and its Aftermath

3rd July 1930 was the fourth day of Boycott Week in Bombay. There were crowds on the streets shouting boycott slogans, lorryloads of volunteers passing around flags and pamphlets to boycott British goods, house to house collection of Swadeshi pledges (2,00,000 pledges had been signed thus far). Mahatma Gandhi sent Perin a cable to “alert Congress to scrupulously avoid all violence, direct indirect passive or active” by any of the picketers. Perin replied that the instruction would be carried out. The Bombay Chronicle of 4 July 1930 reported the arrest of Perin that morning as she was setting out to the Congress office for a day’s work. She ‘cheerfully submitted to the officers’ who came to her home. 

Once the news of her arrest spread, the Municipal Corporation of Bombay adjourned, the Sugar Merchants’ Association passed an unanimous resolution to boycott British refined sugar,  and other merchant associations went with the boycott. 

The Municipal Corporation of Bombay passed a resolution that “Mrs. Captain was an accomplished lady and was a grand-daughter of the late Dadabhai Naoroji popularly known as the Grand Old Man of India. Mrs. Captain was a lady of sound and sober views and took her education in England. It was Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji who first started the idea of swaraj for India and Mrs. Captain took her education in England under the guidance of her revered grandfather. Self sacrifice and service were the mottos of her life and she was acting upto her honest conviction with courage.” 

When Perin and other women activists were released from prison, a mile long chain of about 5,000 women led by Sevikas welcomed them back. There were crowds of women reportedly 10,000 strong at both ends of the parade. Such active participation of women in the freedom struggle was in part possible because of the example and the leadership of Perin and her compatriots.  

The struggle for freedom - The Implications for women

The wholehearted participation of women gave as much a fillip to the women’s emancipation movement as it did to the struggle for freedom. The women volunteers in the non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements had a huge impact on the general perception about women’s capabilities. The menfolk were in prison so the women took charge. Women from the most aristocratic and orthodox families to the poorest participated. They took not just the British administration but even their own menfolk by surprise. This participation opened up avenues for social and political rights for women. 

As the Congress party was in the forefront of the struggle, Perin and her sisters were in the thick of all party activities in Bombay (now Mumbai). Perin became the first woman president of the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee in 1932. 

For better clarity of purpose and organisation, many smaller bodies were merged into the Gandhi Seva Sena of which Perin became the Honorary General Secretary, a post she held until her death. The Gandhi Seva Sena promoted khadi by selling rural and khadi products from their stores. One store is still in business in Mumbai selling herbal cosmetics, oil and pulses.

Khadi, also known as khaddar, was originally from Eastern India but eventually was woven by people from all over the country. It is handwoven cloth made of natural fibre, mainly cotton, but also to a lesser degree of silk and wool. It is traditionally woven with the spinning wheel, the charkha. During the freedom movement Khadi became the symbol of India’s resistance to imported cloth and of self-reliance. Today Khadi has had a rejuvenation and is also used by fashion designers in high-end clothing. 

Greater Responsibility

In 1937 the Congress Party came to power in eleven provinces in the provincial elections held under the Government of India Act 1935. These were Madras, The Central Provinces, Sindh, Punjab, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, NWFP, Assam, Bombay Presidency and United Provinces. This development raised expectations of a greater role for the party in the future and the need to prepare for it. The Indian National Congress formed a National Planning Committee with Jawaharlal Nehru as Chairman. Perin was member of the sub-committee ‘Women’s Role in a Planned Economy’ with several others who were active in the freedom movement and in women’s associations. The committee  debated and planned policy for issues such as women’s social, economic and political status, education, marriage, maternity and succession. The committee’s report was absolutely clear that the position of women should be on an equal footing to that of men in the India of the future. 

After India’s Independence

Perin was appointed Chief Commissioner of Bharat Guides and had a hand in voluntary social welfare work among young girls. She was honoured with the Padma Sri in 1954, the first batch of civil awards presented in independent India. 

Perin Naoroji Captain died in Jahangir Nursing Home, Pune in 1958.

Reference 

1. Gandhi, Women and the National Movement 1920-47 - Anup Taneja

2. Women in Satyagraha - Aparna Basu

3. Gandhi’s Passion. The life and legacy of Mahatma Gandhi - Stanley Wolpert

4. The Bombay Chronicle, 4 July 1930

5. https://dinyarpatel.com/naoroji/family/

Saalamarada Thimmakka - The Power of One for the Environment

Environment Crusader

The environment is the focus all over the world like never before. Greening our surroundings, halting climate change are no longer buzzwords about the future, but the need of the present, here and now. Here is one individual who did not start her mission of planting trees with any lofty ideals or with any thoughts of grabbing headlines or making a statement. Thimmakka is known today for the nearly 400 Saalamara, Banyan Tree in Kannada, that she planted for a length of 4-5 kilometers from her village Hulikal to Kudur in Karnataka. But that is not all. Thimmakka has planted about 8,000 trees in over 80 years.  

Saalamarada Thimmakka

A difficult beginning

For many years, the tree planting was a joint effort by her and her husband Bekal Chikkayya. Thimmakka never went to school and had begun to work even as a ten year old. Soon, as was the custom she was also married. Thimmakka and her husband Bekal Chikkayya spent their lives in poverty as labourers at a quarry. They remained childless after many years of marriage. The thought of planting trees and looking after them like children grew from wanting to nurture, to parent.

Why the Banyan of all the trees? Because it’s saplings were easily available at the time and it was a hardy, local species that could be easily grafted. The Banyan is a shade-giving tree and hosts bird life and insects that love its deep foliage and its fruit, the Fig. Thimmakka and her husband planted the saplings in the monsoon. They looked after the young saplings by carrying water for them in two pots from their well, twice a week. It was a walk over four kilometers each time. They then built a thorny fence around each sapling to ward off animals. Some of those trees are now over 70 years old. This level of care for over 80 years is surely nothing but a labour of love.

At the time there was no value for the work the couple had put in. They often had to face the unkind jibes of others in the village over their childlessness and their care for the trees. In 1996, Thimmakka's life again took a dip. Chikkayya passed away and she was left with no assets and no support. But she had her ‘children’, all the trees she had planted over the decades. 

Recognition for her work

A journalist heard of her tree-planting efforts and wrote about her work in the Kannada daily Prajavani, which came to the attention of Prime Minister Deve Gowda. She received the National Citizens Award from him in New Delhi and then set up the Saalumarada Thimmakka Foundation, now run by her foster son. The Foundation works in the area of environment initiatives. Several other awards also came her way. An organisation for environmental conservation in the USA has been renamed Thimmakka's Resources for Environmental Education.

So today, some 24 years after her husband passed away, the wheel has turned a full circle. Her work has become well-known and she is recognised as a sterling example of a green crusader.  When one school child showed her what was written about her in their textbook, she discovered she was now Saalamarada Thimmakka - ‘Thimmakka of the Banyan Tree’.

Thimmakka was awarded the Padma Sri in 2019 by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, for ‘distinguished service in the field of environment’. The unforgettable image of this cheerful and diminutive lady blessing the President as he handed her the award comes to mind immediately. Her simplicity and sincerity shone through in the glittering ceremony at Ashoka Hall, Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

At the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi 

Next on the wish-list

Thimmakka’s wish-list now is not long. She only desire is to plant more trees and that the trees she has planted all these years not be cut. And that her village gets a hospital so that villagers don’t have to travel the distance for medical aid.

Thimmakka's focus

Thimmakka exemplifies the impact of sincere effort without thinking of short cuts or rewards. The fame she had garnered, the awards she had won are not her focus even now. Her only thought is for her trees, always her trees. As she says, she loves to plant and look after trees until they are old.

Matangini Hazra - Freedom's Champion

India won independence from British colonizers by the continuous efforts of not just the important freedom fighters who are justly remembered today, but also by the spirited defiance of people from all over the country. Each of them contributed in their own way by never being defeatist and complacent, always working towards throwing off the foreign yoke. 

Matangini Hazra

Statue at the Maidan, Kolkata

(Wikipedia, PK Niyogi)

Setbacks were no impediments

Matangini Hazra (1870-1942) was born in the village Hogla in Tamluk, Midnapore district, Bengal in the family of a poor farmer. Child marriage was prevalent at the time and Matangini was married as a young child to a rich widower Trilochan Hazra, who was 62 years old. She did not receive an education. After her husband died she returned childless to her parental home at the age of 18, to a life of poverty at the edge of society. The immediate years thereafter in her life were uneventful as she immersed herself in social service, unknowingly preparing herself for a bigger role in society. Later in life she was inspired by Gandhiji. She spun yarn and wore khadi, so much so she came to be affectionately called Gandhi Buri (Old Lady Gandhi in Bangla).

Civil Disobedience and other protests

A notable feature of the freedom movement at Midnapore was the large numbers of women who participated. Matangini’s public life has been recorded since 1930 when she took part at Alinan, West Bengal as a 62 year old in the Salt Satyagraha (March - April 1930) called by Mahatma Gandhi as a part of the Civil Disobedience movement which spread all over the country. In Bombay (today's Mumbai) Perin Naoroji Captain took a leading part.

Matangini joined the various protests despite her age. Women picketed liquor shops from which the government earned a hefty revenue. Matangini was arrested, like thousands of others at the time, for breaking the Salt Act. She was punished upon her arrest, but that did not deter her and immediately upon her release participated in the Chowkidari Tax Bandha (movement for abolition of Chowkidari Tax). 

The agitation against Chowkidari Tax

Resentment was building up among the people against the age-old practise of taxing villagers to pay for chowkidars (watchmen and caretakers). The chowkidars were ostensibly employed to support the police in far-flung areas. They were, however, detested by villagers since they additionally acted as spies and worked for the local landlords. 

Popular opinion was that this tax had to be abolished in Bengal. Resentment with the practice was high because the government regularly confiscated huge tracts of property disproportionate to the tax accrued. Once the protest began, the agitators were beaten and tortured. Matangini Hazra got fully involved in the agitation. The governor of Bengal, Sir John Anderson, constituted an illegal court to try everybody in the movement. Despite tight security Matangini sneaked into the court premises and staged a black flag demonstration. She was arrested with several others. Her sentence this time was for six months and she was lodged in Behrampur jail.

More oppression did not stop service of the needy

This arrest only served to steel Matangini’s resolve to fight harder for India’s independence from the oppressive British rule. After she was released, she joined the Indian National Congress which was in the forefront of the struggle for freedom. Matangini continued to be deeply involved in all manner of protest against British colonial rule and continued her service of the people. She was badly injured when lathi-charged by the police at the Mahakuma Congress Conference, a district-level meeting at Serampore. Soon after that a periodic small-pox epidemic hit Bengal, and Matangini worked tirelessly amongst the afflicted. This spirit of service inspite of severe personal difficulties endeared her to people.

The Quit India Movement and its aftermath

The political and social scene in India was filled with turmoil and agitations as the Quit India Movement began in August 1942. When all the leaders of the Congress Party were arrested after Gandhiji’s inspirational call of ‘Do or Die’ in the course of this agitation, several protests were launched locally all over India. Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code that prohibits the assembly of 5 or more people and the holding of public meetings was then imposed by the government. 

The plan in Midnapore, however, was to capture the police station, the court and other public buildings. In defiance of the prohibitory order, at 72 years of age, Matangini led a procession of 6,000 Congress supporters, mostly women, with a flag in her hand. The flag was saffron, white and green, with a charkha in the centre. As chants of Vande Mataram rent the air the police opened fire. Matangini was first hit on one hand and then the other. The third bullet hit her on her forehead even as she continued forward, appealing to the police to stop. 

Matangini Hazra died for her cause, with no thought for her own safety or well-being. She did not hanker for honours, nor did she care for any personal benefits. 

A people’s hero

An interesting fall-out of Matangini Hazra’s death was the impact it had on the people. The residents of Midnapore declared independence from British rule soon after, in 1942. The people remained very agitated, they took over all government offices. No British official was allowed to enter for years. It took an appeal from Gandhiji to the people - to join in fighting for a just cause, to not allow the situation to deteriorate that would lead to bloodshed if armed forces were sent by the government, that all would together fight for the independence of the whole of India - before they bowed out. This was the impact of Matangini Hazra.

Today, nearly 80 years after she lay down her life Matangini Hazra continues to be remembered by a grateful nation. A statue of hers stands in Midnapore at the spot she was shot. Hers was the first statue of a woman to be put up in Kolkata, at the Maidan, in 1977. Schools and streets in West Bengal are named after Matangini. In 2002 when India released postage stamps to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, Matangini Hazra was one of the freedom fighters honoured in the series.

Although as a young girl Matangini Hazra had the odds stacked against her in every way from the start of her life, as a woman she took charge and rewrote her life’s trajectory to emerge a role model for her can-do spirit and the refusal to accept defeat.

Ref:

Banglapedia, National Encylopedia of Bangladesh 

Bipin Chandra and others, India’s Struggle for Independence

Durgabai Kamat - The First Actress of Indian Film

Durgabai Kamat and Kamalabai Gokhale

When I came across the name of Durgabai Kamat, I was intrigued. How much of a risk-taker she must have been to be willing to participate in an absolutely new venture such as film making! I read all the available literature on her and her times, it appears she only worked in one film. Her milieu was actually the stage. Durgabai’s daughter Kamalabai, however, acted in about 35 films in her career, right up to Gehrayee (1980).

When Dadasaheb Phalke, the pioneering film maker in Indian cinema made the first Indian film Raja Harischandra in 1913 he was forced to cast male actors impersonating females. This was because it was taboo for women to work in films and theatre in the conservative society of the time.

Following the huge success of Raja Harischandra, for his second film Mohini Bhasmasur Phalke decided to cast women for female roles in defiance of societal norms. 

Beginnings

Durgabai Kamat was Phalke’s choice for the important role of Parvati. Durgabai was a pioneer female actor in a travelling theatre company who was born in 1879. She had studied upto the then-7th standard, currently the 10th standard. She married Anand Nanoskar, a History teacher at the JJ School of Arts, Mumbai. When the couple parted ways in 1903, she decided to bring up her young daughter Kamalabai on her own. Kamalabai travelled with Durgabai on the theatre circuit, being homeschooled due to their unsettled lifestyle. She began acting on stage from the age of four. 

Path-breaking role

Phalke cast Durgabai as Parvati and young Kamalabai as the lead, as Mohini in Mohini Bhasmasur. It was filmed in Nashik where Phalke had set up his studio. The mother-daughter duo could shoot at the time since the travelling theatre company Durgabai worked in had temporarily ceased operation. The film was on an episode from the Hindu epics. Essaying her role of the Goddess in this film, Durgabai had an unwitting hand in beginning the process of changing the pervading low opinion about actresses. Mohini Bhasmasur became a pioneering  film in many ways - it had the first female actor and the first child actor of Indian cinema. Another first was Phalke’s wife Saraswatibai, his tireless collaborator. She helped wash the film, among performing many essential filmmaking tasks, which effectively made her the first female laboratory assistant in Indian cinema.

Mohini Bhasmasur was released on 1st January 1914 and the entire cast was taken to Bombay (as it was then) to watch it on the big screen at Coronation Cinema. Unfortunately, the film has not survived to the present day.

Durgabai’s legacy

Durgabai had to battle social stigma at every turn in the early days due to her choice of career, but that did not deter her one bit. Her family continues to be deeply engaged today in cinema. Kamalabai Gokhle went on to have a long career in films. Her grandsons and Durgabai’s great-grandsons Vikram Gokhle and Mohan Gokhle became well recognised for their acting prowess.

                                                                 Kamalabai Gokhale

                                                                    Source: Wikipedia