Devaki Gopidas (1918-1973) was an Indian politician from

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. She was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, representing

in the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

the

upper house An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...

India's Parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

as a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

from 1962 - 1968. She was killed in the crash of

Indian Airlines Flight 440 Indian Airlines Flight 440 was a flight on 31 May 1973 that crashed while on approach to Palam Airport (now Indira Gandhi International Airport) killing 48 of the 65 passengers and crew on board. Accident Flight 440 was a scheduled domestic pa ...

on May 31 1973.

Education

She completed schooling from Kottayam and college education from

Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram, also known as H.H. The Maharaja's College for Women, is one of the oldest women's college located in Trivandrum, Kerala. It was established in the year 1864 under the University of Madras. Acade ...

. She entered into Congress politics in college. Later she studied law from Kolkata.

Personal life and death

She was born in an

Ezhava The Ezhavas () are a community with origins in the region of India presently known as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the population and were reported to be the largest Hindu community. They are also known as ''Ilhava'' ...

family at Karappuzha,

Kottayam district Kottayam (), is one of 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. Kottayam district comprises six municipal towns: Kottayam, Changanassery, Pala, Erattupetta, Ettumanoor, and Vaikom. It is the only district in Kerala that neither borders the ...

on 10 May 1918 to Arangaserry Narayanan and T K Narayani. She married Gopidas from Vezhapra and settled in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. Devaki died due to crash of

in 1973.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gopidas, Devaki Rajya Sabha members from Kerala Indian National Congress politicians Women in Kerala politics 1918 births 1973 deaths Women members of the Rajya Sabha