Malati Devi Choudhury (née Sen) (26 July 1904– 15 March 1998) was an Indian civil rights and freedom activist and
Gandhian The followers of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest figure of the Indian independence movement, are called Gandhians.
Gandhi's legacy includes a wide range of ideas ranging from his dream of ideal India (or ''Rama Rajya)'', economics, environmentalism, ...
. She was born in 1904 in an upper middle class
Brahmo
Bengali Brahmos are those who adhere to Brahmoism, the philosophy of Brahmo Samaj which was founded by Raja Rammohan Roy. A recent publication describes the disproportionate influence of Brahmos on India's development post-19th Century as unpar ...
family. She was the daughter of Barrister Kumud Nath Sen, whom she had lost when she was only two and a half years old, and Snehalata Sen, who brought her up.
Early life and education
Malati’s family originally belonged to
brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
family of Kamarakhanda in
Bikrampur
Bikrampur ("City of Courage") was a pargana situated south of Dhaka, the modern capital city of Bangladesh. In the present day, it is known as Munshiganj District of Bangladesh. It is a historic region in Bengal and was a part of the Bhawal Est ...
,
Dhaka
Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...
, (now in Bangladesh), but her family members had settled in Simultala,
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
. Her maternal grandfather was
Behari Lal Gupta
Behari Lal Gupta was a member of the Indian Civil Service and a politician.
Early life and education
Gupta was born in Calcutta into a Vaidya family. His parents were Chandrasekhar Gupta and Rajeshwari, who was the elder sister of Narendranat ...
, ICS, who became the Dewan of Baroda. Her first cousins on her mother's side of the family were Ranajit Gupta, ICS, a former Chief Secretary of West Bengal, and
Indrajit Gupta
Indrajit Gupta (18 March 1919 – 20 February 2001) was an Indian politician who belonged to the Communist Party of India (CPI). From 1996 to 1998, he served as Union Home Minister in the United Front governments of prime ministers H. D. Deve ...
, the famous parliamentarian and former Home Minister of India. Here eldest brother, P. K. Sen Gupta, a former Income Tax Commissioner, belonged to the Indian Revenue Service, and another brother, K. P. Sen, a former Postmaster General, was from the Indian Postal Service. Being the youngest child of her parents, she was a darling of all her brothers and sister. Her mother Snehalata was a writer in her own right, and had translated some works of Tagore, as is seen from her book ''Jugalanjali''.
Malati Choudhury adopted to a completely different life style once she joined Rabindranath Tagore's
Vishva-Bharati. In an article entitled ‘Reminiscences of Santiniketan’, her mother had written: "Malati was very happy and benefited much from her residence at Viswa-Bharati as a student. The personal influence of Gurudev and his teachings, his patriotism and idealism, have influenced and guided Malati throughout her life."
She was fortunate enough to have been deeply influenced by both Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi.
[Here commitment to the teachings of Tagore was evident in her acceptance speech on receiving the Tagore Literacy Award given by the Indian Adult Education Association in 1995. She said: "I feel doubly honoured to receive the Award, which is named after Kabiguru ]Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
, to commemorate his memorable achievements in bringing a synthesis among culture, music and aesthetics in evolving and practising his unique philosophy and principles of education. Like Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
, Gurudev did not want purposefulness, belonging to the adult mind, to be forced upon the children in school. He believed that once purposefulness was introduced, it brought torture to the child, as it went against the purpose of nature. According to Tagore, nature was the greatest of all teachers for the child. He had tremendous faith in the educational value of natural objects. Natural events like the beautiful sunrise and sunset, blossoming of flowers and singing of birds are the learning resources for children possessing the natural gift of learning things very easily. He had a great faith in the children’s natural way of learning. He did not insist on forced mental feeding as a result of which lessons become a form of torture. Gurudev considered artificial feeding of the mind to be of man’s most cruel and wasteful mistakes. According to him, the greatest possible gift for children was their own freedom to grow. Tagore also wanted the children to have another kind of freedom – the freedom of sympathy with all humanity, a freedom from all national and racial prejudices. Thus, his philosophy of education is based on the ideal of the spiritual unity of all races." She had also said, " Rabindranath was always following the ideal to realize, in and through education, the essential unity of man. The way in which he achieved that unity gave him a deep insight into the object of education and its problems." It was the former at whose feet she learnt and acquired some rare values and principles of education, development, art and culture, which had been the guiding principles in her life; and it was the latter who cast a magic spell on her and at whose instance she plunged herself into the freedom struggle.
Malati came to
Santiniketan
Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...
in 1921, when she was only sixteen years old, and lived there for a little more than six years. In those days Santiniketan was small and beautiful. There were nine girls of her age living in the hostel called ''Notun Bari'' (New House). They were Manjushree, Surekha (who later on became her sister-in-law), Eva, Satyabati, Latika, Saraju, Tapasi, Amita (mother of Professor
Amartya Sen
Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...
) and herself. They attended classes in the open under trees, learnt embroidery, handicrafts, music, dancing, painting and gardening.
Leonard Knight Elmhirst
Leonard Knight Elmhirst (6 June 1893 – 16 April 1974) was a British philanthropist and agronomist who worked extensively in India. He co-founded with his wife, Dorothy, the Dartington Hall project in progressive education and rural reconstruc ...
, an Englishman, was in charge of the Agricultural Institute at Surul in
Sriniketan
Sriniketan (also spelt Sri Niketan) is a neighbourhood of Surul in Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is adjacent to Santiniketan and houses the second campus of Visva-Bharati University. The Palli Sam ...
, and he used to encourage them to learn gardening. Mr. Pearson, another Englishman, also taught them. It was he who inspired Malati to work for the tribals. Gurudev used to take classes on Balaka, when he read poems from his book ‘Balaka’, and explained the significance of the poems to them. Miss Stella Kramisch, who came to India on Gurudev’s invitation, taught them the principles of Indian Art and dancing. Malati and her friends spent very happy days at Santiniketan. As a young student there, she was quite famous for her outgoing personality, taking active part in Gurudev’s dance dramas and music sessions, as well as being the source of innocent mischiefs in the community.
At this time, a young man,
Nabakrushna Choudhuri
Nabakrushna Choudhuri (23 November 1901 – 24 June 1984) was an Indian politician and activist. He served as Chief Minister of the Indian state of Odisha. He was a freedom fighter who participated in the Non-cooperation Movement, the Civil Di ...
, from a well known family of Orissa, came to Santiniketan as a student. He came from Sabarmati Ashram at the instance of the Mahatma. He had as batchmates
G. Ramachandran
G. Ramachandran (known by Friends and Family as "Rama") is a former president of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI). He was the President during the years 1966–1968, 1973–1974, 1982–1984, 1985–1986, and was its ...
,
B. Gopala Reddy, and
Syed Mujtaba Ali
Syed Mujtaba Ali ( bn, সৈয়দ মুজতবা আলী; 13 September 1904 – 11 February 1974) was a Bengali writer, journalist, travel enthusiast, academic, scholar and linguist. He lived in Bangladesh, India, Germany, Afghanistan ...
. Malati got engaged to and later married Nabakrushna Choudhuri, who later became the
Chief Minister
A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...
of
Orissa
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sch ...
and the two left Santiniketan in 1927.This proved to be a turning point in her life.
Social work and politics
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After her marriage, Orissa became her home and her area of activities. The Chaudhuris settled in a small village named Anakhia, now in Jagatsinghpur District of Orissa, where her husband started improved sugarcane cultivation. Apart from agriculture, establishing rapport with the surrounding villages was their main concern. In their concept and scheme of rural reconstruction, people are at the center of activities. Their development depended on their empowerment, which was again the result of education. They started adult education work in the neighbouring villages. Soon came the Salt Satyagraha, and they jumped into the movement. As activists they used principles of education and communication in creating a conducive environment for Satyagraha. Even as prisoners, they taught fellow prisoners, organized choral singing and disseminated Gandhiji’s teachings.
In February 1933 the Chaudhuris organized the
Utkal Congress Samajvadi Karmi Sangh, which later became the Orissa Provincial Branch of the
All India Congress Socialist Party.
Proverbial courage, sheer dynamism and a strong zeal to fight for the rights of the oppressed and have-nots were the dominant features of her character. She was frank and outspoken, and was never afraid to speak up. In 1934, she had accompanied Gandhiji in his "padayatra" in Orissa. After a daylong walk, he was obviously too tired to visit a Harijan village which was in his itinerary. The villagers, who had waited long, were disappointed, but were prepared to forgive Gandhiji for the minor lapse. Malati Choudhury did not spare Gandhiji, and told him point blank, "Bapu, you have not done the right thing." Gandhiji apologized, and cooled her down with his disarming smile.
She was arrested several times (in 1921, 1936, 1942) with other women independence activists like Sarala Devi,
Ramadevi Choudhury
Ramadevi Choudhury( or, ରମାଦେବୀ ଚୌଧୁରୀ) (3 December 1899 – 22 July 1985), also known as Rama Devi, was an Indian freedom fighter and a social reformer. She was called Maa (Mother) by the people of Odisha. The Ramad ...
and others and was sent to jail
Even before Independence, she had established the Bajiraut Chhatravas at Angul in Orissa in 1946, and the Utkal Navajeevan Mandal, also at Angul, in 1948.
The Bajiraut Chhatravas had its genesis in the Prajamandal Movement (the resistance movement organized and sustained by the people) and its initial activities were geared towards providing residential facilities and educational opportunities to the children of the freedom fighters. Over the passage of time, there was a societal demand on the Bajiraut Chhatravas to provide educational facilities to children belonging to the "Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes" and under-privileged sections of the society coming from all over Orissa. Established in the memory of a twelve-year-old boy Bajiraut, who sacrificed his life by disallowing the British forces to cross Brahmani River by boat, the Bajiraut Chhatravas has become an institution of national importance.
The Utkal Navajeevan Mandal is a voluntary organization of repute, engaged in rural development and tribal welfare in the rural and tribal areas of Orissa. The State Resource Centre for Adult Education, which was established by the Government of India, under the auspices of the Utkal Navajeevan Mandal, at Angul in 1978, had done pioneering work in Adult Education.
She had organized the ‘Krusaka Andolana’ (Farmers Movement) as part of the freedom struggle against the zamindars and moneylenders, who exploited the poor. She had seen and experienced the untold sufferings of the people while walking through many villages in Orissa. She had also realized that women were victims of many superstitious beliefs, and they alone were to fight against superstitions for their own empowerment. As a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, she felt restless, because she was not in tune with the views of other members; when the Mahatma's famous Noakhali ''yatra'' began, she joined it at the instance of Thakkarbappa.
After independence, Malati Choudhury, as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, and as the President of the Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee, tried her best to emphasize the role of education, especially adult education in rural reconstruction. When Nabakrushna Choudhuri became the Chief Minister of Orissa in 1951, she highlighted the plight of the have-nots, particularly those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Eventually, she decided not to join politics, because Gandhiji had advised that all Congress activists need not join politics, but should work for and with the people with service as their goal.
A dynamic person like her did not slow down her efforts after the Bajiraut Chhatravas, Utkal Navajeevan Mandal and the Postbasic School at Champatimunda, near Angul, were established. She had joined the Bhoodan Movement of Acharya Vinoba Bhave. During the Emergency she raised her voice against the anti-people policy and oppressive measures adopted by the government and was imprisoned.
Malati Choudhury lived an eventful life and died at the age of ninety-three.
Honours and awards
*
National Award for Child Welfare (1987)
*
Jamnalal Bajaj Award
Jamnalal Bajaj Award is an Indian award, for promoting Gandhian values, community service and social development. Established in 1978, by the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation of Bajaj Group, it is given annually in four categories, and usually presented ...
(1988)
*
Utkal Seva Sammaan (1994)
*
Tagore Literacy Award (1995)
*Honour by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly (1997)
*Honour by the State Social Welfare Advisory Board (1997)
*Honour by the
Rajya Mahila Commission (1997)
*Deshikottama (D.Litt. Honoris Causa) from Viswa-Bharati
*In 1988, she refused to receive the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Award from the hands of the Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...
, because, according to her, Rajiv Gandhi had not done anything to promote Gandhian values.
References
Malati Chaudhury by Prof Manoranjan Mohanty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhury, Malati
1904 births
1998 deaths
Brahmos
Indian civil rights activists
Indian feminists
Social workers
People associated with Santiniketan
Members of the Constituent Assembly of India
People from Bikrampur
Gandhians
Prisoners and detainees of British India
Indian independence activists from Odisha
Indian women activists
Women in Bihar politics
20th-century Indian politicians
Activists from Bihar
Indian National Congress politicians from Bihar
Women Indian independence activists
20th-century Indian women politicians
Social workers from Odisha