Chandraprabha Saikiani (16 March 1901 – 16 March 1972) or Chandraprava Saikiani was an Assamese freedom fighter, activist, writer and social reformer considered to be the pioneer of the feminist movement in

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

. She was the founder of ''The All Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti'', a non governmental organization working for the welfare of the women of Assam and was a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian award of

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

for the year 1972 from the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. Three decades later, the Indian government issued a commemorative stamp on Saikiani under the series, ''Social Reformers'', in 2002. She also took proactive role in the

Civil Disobedience Movement The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a ...

of 1932 and

Non-Cooperation Movement The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.

of 1920–1921. Contesting elections for the Legislative Assembly, she became the first woman to foray in politics in Independent India. Saikiani was also a noted poet and prolific writer.

Early life

She was born as "Chandrapriya Mazumdar" (Chandrapriya Das) on 16 March 1901 to Ratiram Mazumdar (a village headman) and Gangapriya Mazumdar at Doisingari village of the

Kamrup district Kamrup Rural district, or simply Kamrup district (Pron: ˈkæmˌrəp or ˈkæmˌru:p), is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India formed by dividing the old Kamrup district into two in the year 2003; other being Kamrup Metro ...

in the Northeast Indian state of Assam. She was the seventh of eleven children and choose the name "Chandraprabha Saikiani" for herself. Accompanied by her sister Rajaniprabha Saikiani (who later on became the first woman doctor of Assam), they waded through waist deep mud to attend a boys' school (there was no girls' school) several kilometers away. Their endeavour impressed Nilkanta Barua, a school sub-inspector, and she was awarded a scholarship to the Nagaon Mission School. At Nagaon Mission School, she protested against the school authorities who did not allow a girl to stay at hostel after rejecting a proposal to convert to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. She finally saw the result of her protest: the authorities admitted induct the girl into the hostel. After school, she gathered local illiterate girls and taught them what she learnt at school at a makeshift shed near the school. Her social activism started here when she protested against the allegedly discriminatory treatment meted out to Hindu students by the hostel superintendent. She refused to honour her parents' commitment to marry her off to an elderly person and got engaged to Dandinath Kalita, an Assamese writer. The relationship resulted in Saikiani becoming a mother out of marriage and she remained a spinster for life after Kalita married another woman. She was reported to have faced strong opposition from the conservative society in bringing up her son as a single mother but her life in

Tezpur Tezpur () is a city and urban agglomeration in Sonitpur district, Assam state, India. Tezpur is located on the banks of the river Brahmaputra, northeast of Guwahati, and is the largest of the north bank cities with a population exceeding 100, ...

brought her opportunities to meet and interact with social and cultural leaders such as Chandranath Sharma,

Omeo Kumar Das Omeo Kumar Das (21 May 1895 – 23 January 1975), popularly addressed as Lok Nayak, was an Indian social worker, Gandhian, educationist, writer and a former minister at the Government of Assam. He held various ministerial portfolios such as Educ ...

Jyotiprasad Agarwalla Jyoti Prasad Agarwala (2 July 1903 – 17 January 1951) was a noted Indian playwright, songwriter, poet, writer and film maker from Assam. He was considered as Assamese cultural icon, deeply revered for his creative vision and output and is pop ...

and Lakhidhar Sarma.

Social and political life

Saikiani started her career as a teacher at a primary school in

Nagaon Nagaon (previously Nowgong; Assamese নগাঁও), is a town and a municipal board in Nagaon district in the Indian state of Assam. It is situated east of Guwahati. History This division was organised on the both banks of Kalang river ...

and later, became the headmistress of the Girls’ M. E. School,

. During her stay at Tezpur she associated with luminaries like

Jyotiprasad Agarwala Jyoti Prasad Agarwala (2 July 1903 – 17 January 1951) was a noted Indian playwright, songwriter, poet, writer and film maker from Assam. He was considered as Assamese cultural icon, deeply revered for his creative vision and output and is pop ...

, Chandra Nath Sarma, Lakhidhar Sarma. In 1918, at Tezpur session of Asom Chhatra Sanmilan, she was the only female delegate and addressed a huge throng on the harmful effects of opium eating and asked for its ban. It was the first event where an Assamese woman spoke in front of a large gathering. Affected by the rise of nationalism in 1921, she joined the non co-operation movement of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

and worked to spread the message among women of Tezpur. She was an invited speaker at the Nagaon session of the

Assam Sahitya Sabha The Asam Sahitya Sabha (; Literary Society of Assam) is a non Government, non profit, literary organisation of Assam. It was founded in December 1917 in Assam, India to promote the culture of Assam and Assamese literature. A branch of the organi ...

in 1925 where she called upon the women attendees who were seated in a separate enclosure to break the barriers and the women heeded her call to come out to the open area. Returning to her village, she joined Kaljirapara school as a teacher but resigned her job when she was denied permission to attend the Guwahati session 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 E ...

. She continued her social activism and founded Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti in 1926 to act against child marriage, polygamy and the discrimination of women at the temples and to take up issues like women's education and self-employment. Her efforts were reported in getting the

Hayagriva Madhava Temple Hayagriva Madhava Temple is situated on the Monikut hill. The hill is situated in Hajo of Kamrup District in Assam, India. Which is around 30 km to west of Guwahati. The Kalika Purana composed in the 11th century CE in Kamarupa talks ...

, Hajo, near Guwahati opened to women. Her involvement with the civil disobedience movement landed her in jail in 1930 and later in 1943, she was jailed again while participating in the non co-operation movement. After the Indian independence, she joined the Socialist Party (India), Socialist Party but returned to the Indian National Congress and unsuccessfully contested in the 1957 Assam Legislative Assembly elections. Her son, Atul Saikia, is a politician and a former member of Assam Legislative Assembly.

Literary activities, awards and recognitions

Saikiani published her first short story in a local magazine, Bahi, in 1918 at age of 17 followed by several novels such as ''Pitribhitha'' (The Paternal Home) (1937), ''Sipahi Bidrohat'' (Sepoy Mutiny), ''Dillir Sinhasan'' (Throne of Delhi) and Kavi Anav Ghosh. She served as the editor of Mahila Samiti's Assamese journal Abhijatri for a period of seven years and also headed the Al India Assam Peasants' Conference. Chandraprabha Saikiani was a noted poet and a prolific writer. She also published a novel titled Pitribhita in 1937. The Government of India honoured her with Padmashree in 1972 shortly after her death. Again in 2002, the Government of India released a commemorative stamp in her honour.

Death and legacy

Saikiani died on her 71st birthday on 16 March 1972 succumbing to cancer. A couple of months before her death, the

awarded her the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1972. She was honoured again in 2002 by the government when a commemorative postage stamp was issued by the India Posts, Department of Posts in 2002 under the series, social reformers. The government polytechnic in Kamrup, Guwahati is named after her and the Tezpur University established a women's centre in her name, ''Chandraprabha Saikiani Center for Women’s Studies'' (CSCWS) in 2009 for promoting women's education in the Northeast India. Her life has been documented in four biographies: *''Agnisnata Chandraprabha'' (1998) by Pushpalata Das, *''Chandraprabha Saikiani'' (2001) by Achyut Kumar Sharma, *''Muktixongrami Chandraprabha'' (2002) by Hironmoyi Devi and *''Chandraprabha'' [2011] by Anjali Sarma. ''Abhiyatri: One Life Many Rivers'', a novel by Nirupama Borgohain, renowned Assamese novelist and wife of Homen Borgohain, is a fictionalised account of Saikiani's life and the novel went on to win the Sahitya Akademi award in 1996. Later on Prodipto Borgohain translated Abhijatri into English and won the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Early life

Social and political life

Literary activities, awards and recognitions

Death and legacy

See also

References

Further reading