Sarala Devi Chaudhurani (born Sarala Ghosal; 9 September 1872 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian educationist and political activist, who founded Bharat Stree Mahamandal in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administra ...

in 1910. This was the first national-level women's organization in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. One of the primary goals of the organization was to promote

female education Female education is a catch-all term of a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called girl ...

. The organization opened several offices in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th List of largest cities, most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is th ...

(then part of unpartitioned India), Allahabad,

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

Kanpur Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help· info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations ...

Bankura Bankura () is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bankura district. Etymology In the Mahabharata, Bankura was described as Suhmobhumi. The word or (in Nagari: rāḍh) was introduced ...

Hazaribagh Hazaribagh is a city and a municipal corporation in Hazaribagh district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It is the divisional headquarters of North Chotanagpur division. It is considered as a health resort and is also popular for Hazaribag ...

, Midnapur, and

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 ...

to improve the situation of women all over India.

Biography

Early life

Sarala was born in

Jorasanko Jorasanko is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. It is so called because of the two (''jora'') wooden or bamboo bridges (''sanko'') that spanned a small stream at this point. History Apart from the disti ...

, Kolkata on 9 September 1872 to a well known Bengali intellectual family. Her father Janakinath Ghosal was one of the first secretaries of the Bengal Congress. Her mother

Swarnakumari Devi Swarnakumari Devi (1855 or 1856 – 1932), also known as Swarnakumari Tagore, Swarnakumari Ghosal, Svarṇakumārī Debī and Srimati Svarna Kumari Devi, was an Indian Bengali writer, editor, essayist, poet, novelist, playwright, composer, an ...

, a noted author, was the daughter of

Debendranath Tagore Debendranath Tagore (15 May 1817 – 19 January 1905) was an Indian Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj (earlier called Bhramho Sabha) ("Society of Brahma", also translated as ''Society of God''). He joined Brahm ...

, an eminent Brahmo leader and father of poet

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 ...

. Her older sister, Hironmoyee, was an author and founder of a widow's home. Sarla Devi's family was a follower of Brahmoism, a religion founded by

Ram Mohan Roy Raja Ram Mohan Roy ( bn, রামমোহন রায়; 22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian reformer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a social-religious reform ...

and later developed by Sarala's grandfather Debendranath Tagore. Sarala and Hironmoyee

In 1890, she earned her BA in English literature from

Bethune College Bethune College is a women's college located on Bidhan Sarani in Kolkata, India, and affiliated to the University of Calcutta. It is the oldest women's college in India. It was established as a girls' school in 1849, and as a college in 1879. ...

. She was awarded the college's first Padmavati Gold Medal for being the top female candidate in her BA examinations. She was one of the few women of her time to participate in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal ...

. During anti partition agitation she spread the gospel of nationalism in Punjab and maintained secret revolutionary society.

Career

Upon completing her education, Sarala went to

Mysore State Mysore State, colloquially Old Mysore, was a state within the Dominion of India and the later India, Republic of India from 1947 until 1956. The state was formed by renaming the Kingdom of Mysore, and Bangalore replaced Mysore as the state's c ...

and joined the Maharani Girls' School as a school teacher. A year later, she returned home and started writing for ''Bharati'', a Bengali journal, while also beginning her political activities. From 1895 to 1899, she edited ''Bharati'' jointly with her mother and sister, and then on her own from 1899 to 1907, with the goal of propagating patriotism and to raise up the literary standard of the journal. In 1904, she started the Lakshmi Bhandar (women's store) in Kolkata to popularize native handicrafts produced by women. In 1910, she founded the Bharat Stree Mahamandal (All India Women's Organization), which is regarded by many historians as the first All-Indian organization for women. With several branches around the country, it promoted education and vocational training for women without consideration of class, caste and religion.

Personal life

In 1905, Sarala Devi married Rambhuj Dutt Chaudhary (1866–1923), a lawyer, journalist, nationalist leader and follower of

Arya Samaj Arya Samaj ( hi, आर्य समाज, lit=Noble Society, ) is a monotheistic Indian Hindu reform movement that promotes values and practices based on the belief in the infallible authority of the Vedas. The samaj was founded by the sann ...

, the Hindu reform movement founded by Swami

Dayananda Saraswati Dayanand Saraswati () (born Mool Shankar Tiwari; 2 February 1824 – 30 October 1883) also known as Maharshi Dayanand is an Indian philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. His Magnum Opus is the book ...

. After her marriage, she moved to

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

. There, she helped her husband edit the nationalist

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' 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.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- ...

visited her home in

as a guest. Gandhi quoted her poems and writings in his speeches, and in Young India and other journals. She travelled with him all over India. When apart, they frequently exchanged letters. According to Rabindra Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Professor Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, the relationship between the two, although close, was nothing more than mutual admiration. Her only son, Dipak, married Gandhi's granddaughter Radha.

Later life

After her husband's death in 1923, Sarala Devi returned to Kolkata, and resumed editing responsibilities for ''Bharati'' from 1924 to 1926. She established a girls' school, Siksha Sadan in Kolkata in 1930. She retired from public life in 1935 and indulged religion, accepting Bijoy Krishna Goswami, a

Gaudiya Vaisnava Gaudiya Vaishnavism (), also known as Chaitanya Vaishnavism, is a Vaishnava Hindu religious movement inspired by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) in India. "Gaudiya" refers to the Gaura or Gauḍa region of Bengal, with Vaishnavism meani ...

, as her spiritual teacher. She died on 18 August 1945 in Kolkata. Her autobiography ''Jivaner Jhara Pata '' was serialized in ''Desh'', a Bengali literary magazine, during the later period of her life, in 1942–1943. It was later translated into English by Sikata Banerjee as The Scattered Leaves of My Life (2011).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudhurani, Sarala Devi Indian feminists Indian women's rights activists 1945 deaths 1872 births Bengali Hindus Bengali educators 20th-century Bengalis 19th-century Bengalis Bethune College alumni University of Calcutta alumni Indian educational theorists Indian women educational theorists 19th-century Indian educational theorists 20th-century Indian educational theorists Indian women scientists 20th-century Indian women scientists 19th-century Indian women scientists Indian educators 20th-century Indian educators 19th-century Indian educators Indian women educators Educationists from India Women educators from West Bengal 19th-century women writers 20th-century women writers 19th-century women educators 20th-century women educators Indian social reformers Indian social workers Indian activists Indian autobiographers Indian academics Indian women academics Founders of Indian schools and colleges Women scientists from West Bengal Women writers from West Bengal Activists from West Bengal Indian women activists Indian political scientists Indian reformers Swadeshi activists Indian political writers