Shining women in Indian freedom movement

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 12 August 2011, 19:38 IST   |    5 Comments
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Kasturba Gandhi
She was the wife of Mahatma Gandhi. She joined her husband while he was in South Africa and worked with him for many years there. She was a leader of Women's Satyagraha for which she was imprisoned. She helped her husband in the cause of Indigo workers in Champaran, Bihar and the 'No Tax Campaign' in Kaira, Gujarat. She sometimes took Mahatma Gandhi's place when he was under arrest. In 1915, when Gandhi returned to India to support indigo planters, Kasturba accompanied him. She taught hygiene, discipline, reading and writing to women and children. Aruna Asaf Ali
She became an active member of Congress Party after marriage and participated in public processions during the Salt Satyagraha. She was arrested on the charge that she was a vagrant and hence not released in 1931 under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact which stipulated release of all political prisoners. In 1932, she was held prisoner at the Tihar Jail where she protested the indifferent treatment of political prisoners by launching a hunger strike. Her efforts resulted in an improvement of conditions in the Tihar Jail.

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