Uncategorized
Revolutionary Sheroes
Any mention of Indian Independence struggle is incomplete without the mention of women who contributed to it. Their determination to serve and save the motherland in the face of adversity should be celebrated spectacularly. Here are some lesser known female freedom fighters who fought bravely for their motherland.
- Kittur chennamma
Kittur Chennamma was one of the earliest female freedom fighters of India. She was born in a small village Kakati , present day Belgavi in karnataka. She recieved horse riding and archery lessons from a very young age. Her bravery was well known around the village.
She was married to Mallasarja Desai, the king of Kittur, at the age of 15 and became the queen of Kittur. After a few years she lost her husband and son so she took the responsibility of the crown. She adopted Shivalingappa with an aim to make him the successor of the throne.
The British wasn’t happy with her act and demanded the exile of Shivalingappa under the pretext of doctrine of lapse according to which adoptive children of rulers cant be named as successors and the rulers had to surrender their kingdom to the British if they had no successors.
Rani Chennamma defied Shivalingappa’s exile and wrote a letter to the governor of bombay to plead the cause of Kittur But Mr. Elphinstone denied her request and it eventually came under the Dharwad administration. The collectorate in charge Mr.Thackarey and the commissioner Mr.Chaplin didn’t recognise her as a regent and Shivalingappa as a ruler. They apprised Rani Chennamma to surrender the kingdom which she denied again resulting in the war.
Two wars were fought. In the first one Rani Chennamma and her army fought bravely ,killed two officers and took another two as hostages. To avoid further destruction she released the hostages owing to the British promise that the war would be ended which turned out to be an act of deception. Humiliated by defeat by a small indian ruler, Mr. Chaplin attacked Kittur with a larger army. Rani Chennamma and her army fought valourously to protect the fort but faced defeat because of the betrayal of two of her own soldiers who mixed cow dung and mud in the gunpowder used for the canon. She was arrested by the British and sentenced to life long imprisonment. After 5 years of being imprisoned she died.
Though Kittur Chennamma didn’t win in the end, she stood as an inspiration for everyone in the upcoming years to revolt against the British. To conmmemorate her bravery and contribution people in kittur celebrate Kittur utsava. Her story is still told in the forms of drama, dance and Lavani performances.
- Sucheta kripalani
Sucheta Kripalani was an Indian freedom fighter and the first female Chief Minister of India. Shy and self conscious as a child, the time she grew up in and the situations she faced shaped her into a leader.
As a child she didn’t understand enough to hold great anger against the British but was outraged when she overheard her father speaking to someone about the Jallianwala Bagh masaccre.
Sucheta, after completing her studies went on to work closely with Mahatma gandhi during the partition riots. She is especially remembered for her role in the quit India moment of 1942.
Post independence she went on to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from the Kanpur constituency. Her crowning moment though, was on 14th august 1947 when she opened the independence session of parliament by singing vande mataram just before Nehru delivered his “tryst with destiny” speech.
She was also the founder of the All India Mahilla Congress, established in 1940.
- Lakshmi sahgal
Lakshmi sahgal born as Lakshmi Swaminathan was born into an aristocratic family in Pattambi Kerala. As a young adult, she pursued MBBS from Madras Medical College and also received a diploma in gynaecology and obestetrics.
In 1940, she left for Singapore . In 1942, during the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese by the British, she aided wounded prisoners of war. Singapore at that time had a lot of nationalist Indians working there who formed a council of action. Their Azad Hind Fauj however recieved no commitments or approval form the japanese government regarding their participation in the war .
It was agianst this backdrop that Subhash Chandrabose came to. When Lakshmi Sahgal came to know about his visit and his keen interest in drafting women into the organisatio, she requested a meeting with him and came back with a mandate to form an all women regiment called the Jhansi Lakshmi regiment . Women responded enthusiastically to join this all women brigade and she became captain Lakshmi ,a name and identity that would stay with her for life.
The INA marched to Burma with the Japanese army in December 1944, but by March 1945, with the tide of war turning against them, the INA leadership decided to beat a retreat before they could enter Imphal. Captain Lakshmi was arrested by the British army in May 1945, remaining in Burma until March 1946, when she was sent to India – at a time when the INA trials in Delhi heightened popular discontent with and hastened the end of colonial rule
In 1971, Sahgal joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and represented the party in the Rajya Sabha. During the Bangladesh crisis, she organised relief camps and medical aid in Calcutta for refugees who streamed into India from Bangladesh. She was one of the founding members of All India Democratic Women’s Association in 1981 and led many of its activities and campaigns.She led a medical team to Bhopal after the gas tragedy in December 1984, worked towards restoring peace in Kanpur following the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and was arrested for her participation in a campaign against the Miss World competition in Bangalore in 1996.She was still seeing patients regularly at her clinic in Kanpur in 2006, at the age of 92.
Dussehra: Victory of Good over evil, is celebrated on the 10th day of month Ashvina. Victory means Prabhu Rama over Ravana in famous hindu epic Ramayan. Also it means the end of Durga puja and Ramlila. In Ramayan, Ravana kidnaps god Rama’s wife Sita, as god Rama & Laxman cuted of the nose of ravna’s sister surpanakha. So to claim vengeance on them Ravana kidnapped sita. To get back maa sita Prabhu Rama and Laxman faught battle against Ravana with the help of hanuman, Subriv & other Vanar sena.
In this battle Ravana’s brother Bhibishan also helped god Ram against Ravana . At the end of Prabhu Ram wins the battle and rescues Maa Sita. Thereafter this victory is celebrated by burning the statue of Ravan, Kumbhakarn, his son Meghnath. Dusshersa is a climax of long day celebration of Navratri.
Navratri:
The nine days of Navratri is the time to reflect on oneself, observe silence & practice fasting. Fasting cleanses the body of toxins and silence purifies speech & mind. What does Dasehra means Das means ten and hara means take away. Which came after Navratri means nine nights if darkness. On each day of Navratri we pray to that form of goddess durga to take away that darkness of ignorance within us. After that on tenth day on the occasion of Dasehra we burn all the evil, bad things, thoughts, bad habits inside us in that fire in the form of Ravna as evil inside us.
Dusshera: Victory of Good over evil
Ravana is not the demon or evil, you yourself are one. In the battele of Ram and Ravana, god Ram had been invoked Durga May to help him win the battle against Ravana. We also should invoked Durga to help us in gaining back our Sita. Sita? It is awareness inside is which has been traped in maya surround us. To make our soul clean and pure we have to burn the evil in the fire by fighting and winning battle against evil. many evils and negative aura lives within us, we should overcome this with good things. This is what Dasehra symbolise.
It is a supreme festival of Hindu culture with true meaning. Furthermore it also symbolize the feminism as the battle is to bring back maa Sita from the Ravana. Whenever person crosses his limit, go beyond it and try to hurt marayda of stree. She will transform into Durga and will punish that person to death. Rama won the battles and the light and happiness spreaded. its our choice, either we want to be Ravana & get entrapped in the worldly pleasure or want to Rama (A spiritual being).To symbolise and to aware Dashera is celebrated do its called, Dussehra: Victory of Good over evil!
Priyadeep Kaur is a published author at age of 19. She is the transpiring novelist and her work has been sighted by Shri. Narendra Modi – Prime Minister of India. Priyadeep spent her antecedent days in Shiv Ki Nagari Kashi – Banaras. She is proficiently known as Kashi Ki beti in her hometown. She is awarded with Uttar Pradesh (U.P) Gaurav, Atal Samman 2018, and the title Shaan-e-Kashi.
More about Priyadeep:
Priyadeep currently is staying in the ‘City beautiful’- Chandigarh. She furthermore worked with a national TV channel of Rapper Badshah. ‘Millions Of Faces in a Face’ is her first book, which received massive love from readers especially from youngsters.
Her second book named Oscar for loving, Grammy for Not! is listed as the best-selling book on the amazon and she grabbed the best-selling author title. Apart from studies she was also highly interested in extracurricular activities during her school days and now Priyadeep Kaur is a published author at age of 19.
Q. When did your journey into writing began?
Priyadeep: “I am fond of writing back from school days. My grandmother passed away, I found dairy of dad- he had written a poem dedicated to his mom. The poem was very heart touching and emotional. So, I felt like I should also start writing, then I started writing small poems and about things happening around. Then I also started writing parodies on teachers just to express my thoughts. When I was in grade 10, then I started compiling my writings together. That time I use to read novels from ‘Chetan Bhagat’, ‘Nikita Singh’ and from many other novelists too. So, at that time I thought should try writing a book. That’s how the journey started.”
Q. When did you realised that you should be a writer and your writing should get published?
Priyadeep: “Actually, as soon I completed my first book writing, actually I started writing that book when I was in the 11th grade. So, I at that time it was bit hard for me to get things done in a commercial way to get my book published and it took lot of time for that. Then I started doing research how to get book published and I also mailed my work to many publishers. So, I got few replies and with one of the publishers I got my book published. And soon it was available for reading.”
Q. What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing novels?
Priyadeep: “I learnt my things from my novels and one thing I want to mentioned is – there is very slight difference between the things we imagine and things which really happen. I think people who are into writing are a kind of overthinkers, they think a lot. They think from different perspective and try to create an anonymous situation out from it. Being writer, I imagine many things but they are not into real life. So, its very important to keep imaginary world and real life separately and keep the things sorted.”
Q. A person can’t be a writer if he/she doesn’t have strong emotion, what are your views?
Priyadeep: “I would not agree on this personally, but a person can be a writer if they are not good grammar, even if they are not having a particular knowledge of language and to portrait things. Emotions are necessary for writing; we need to feel the situations in that particular way. Although very body has emotions it’s not necessary that to be a writer you should have strong emotions, with time and practise you can achieve it. I agree emotions play a vital role in writing and every one of us have emotions and everybody can write.”
Q. What was your childhood dream?
Priyadeep: “I wanted to be singer actually, that was my childhood dream. When I was 4 years old, my dad introduced me to pandit Anurag dixit. He uses to conduct my classical music classes and I was fond of performing in school and at many other places. So later I started to go in shows and started performing at very small age. I also used to sing local songs at that time. Since 12 grade I started performing- singing and also recorded few songs. At that time, I was also busy into writing and getting book published. So, writing made me feel somethings, like that’s what I want to be. So, I continued by writing.”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CUVXka7BAPL8t8aO0QVrxEfSI52cUc5lfAPuq00/?utm_medium=copy_link
Q. What are the techniques and strategies you keep in your mind while you are writing?
Priyadeep: “Actually I try my best to justify the title, which I have given to the book. I think title should be always justifying. Then draft your story accordingly so you can keep the track of it. So, I make the points and draft and then start writing the book, so it’s easy for me if I need to add on few things in between. Mainly I focus on the words and vocabulary add it accordingly. I prefer to sketch the character and his nature, so its easy to maintain and build the story.”
Q. Generally how long does it take to complete a book?
Priyadeep: “My first book I completed in six months. And it took lot of time to complete my second book, because I have joined the office and started working at production house in Chandigarh. Now I am launching my next book, so it took me around 3 months to complete it, which I stared writing during lockdown. So, it’s in pipeline and will be out soon. Although it depends on the time and story to complete a book, it may differ from writer to writer.”
Q. How was your experience working with Badshah sir as a creative producer?
Priyadeep: “It was a very nice experience; I had a wonderful time with the team. We also shoot few songs and I learned lot of things about real life and reel life. I determined the people are so much different in real life, then we usually see in reel life. Specifically talking about BADSHAH sir, as we see his personification in songs, he is completely different in real life. He is very sweet, innocent and humble person. In real, he is not much interested into parties. He is very hardworking and fully dedicated to his work. The whole team was amazing, I got few friends too and the overall journey was awesome for me. I learnt many things from them.”
Q. Can you tell us about the moment when you meet Shri. Narendra Modi (Prime minister of India) and you and your work recognised by him?
Priyadeep: “It was an awesome moment for me, I am very grateful for that. Talking about my family they have framed the photographs and pinned to wall everywhere in my house. For them it was a very proud moment. For me it was a very happy and different kind of adventurous moment. I wrote a letter to PM office randomly and unexpectedly I got response to launch my book by him. I think that was one of the best moments as of now in my writing journey.”
Q. What are your future plans?
Priyadeep: “My next book is coming in November and I am also doing a freelance work in Chandigarh right now, it’s a project of 6 months. So, need to go to Ahmedabad for that work. I have completed two more books in lockdown so I will be planning about there editing and publishing. Due to covid I have many projects pending, so when things will settle need to complete the projects and shoots.”
To know more about Priyadeep Kaur published author at 19- journey and about her life. And some intresting facts- Watch full Instagram interview session with her on IGTV – Paradox India.
