Meet the 15 extraordinary women who laid the foundation for a democratic and inclusive India

Sarojini Naidu 1879–1949

Till ye have battled with great grief and fears,

And borne the conflict of dream-shattering years,

Wounded with fierce desire and worn with strife,

Children, ye have not lived: for this is life.

The lyrical lilt in her poems earned Sarojini Naidu the everlasting sobriquet―Nightingale of India. A multifaceted woman, she was also a feminist, suffragist, freedom fighter and stateswoman.

Born in Hyderabad, she was homeschooled in Madras before obtaining a scholarship to study in London and Cambridge. She became the first Indian woman president of the Indian National Congress in 1925.

“We attain our own flag, the flag of free India.... Men and women, old and young, princes and peasants, Hindus and Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Zoroastrians, all of them have fought under this flag,” she told the Constituent Assembly as the new flag was being adopted.

Post independence, she served as the governor of Uttar Pradesh for two years till her death.

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur 1889–1964

Born into the Kapurthala royal family, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur could have lived a sheltered life. But she shed her royal roots to work with Mahatma Gandhi and lived an ascetic life.

Kaur was the youngest child and the only daughter of Raja Sir Harnam Singh, who had converted to Christianity. The Oxford graduate was a staunch advocate for women’s rights, opposing child marriage and the purdah and devadasi systems. She was a member of the Constituent Assembly’s fundamental rights sub-committee and the minorities sub-committee, and voted in favour of the Uniform Civil Code.

Kaur was instrumental in drafting India’s health care policies as the country’s first health minister; she was also the only woman minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s first cabinet.

She introduced the AIIMS bill, paving the way for the establishment of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Health and education remained her key focus areas, and she was the deputy leader of the Indian delegation to the UNESCO in 1945 and 1946. She was also the first female and first Asian president of the World Health Assembly.

Hansa Jivraj Mehta 1897–1995

Hansa Jivraj Mehta was introduced to the Indian freedom movement far away from home, in London, by Sarojini Naidu in 1920. She had moved to England to study journalism and sociology. She was a member of the fundamental rights sub-committee, the advisory committee and the provincial constitutional committee of the Constituent Assembly. On August 15, 1947, on behalf of the women of India, she presented the national flag to the assembly.

“It will warm the heart of many a woman to know that free India will mean not only equality of status, but equality of opportunity,” she said, supporting the ‘objectives resolution’ moved by Jawaharlal Nehru.

She also supported the Uniform Civil Code, saying, “We have too many personal laws in this country and these personal laws are dividing the nation today. It is therefore very essential if we want to build up one nation to have one civil code.”

She was vice-chair with Eleanor Roosevelt of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Committee. She was the first vice-chancellor of Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and the SNDT Women’s University, Bombay. Her husband, Dr Jivraj Mehta, was the first chief minister of Gujarat.

Dakshayani Velayudhan 1912–1978

The only dalit woman to be elected to the Constituent Assembly, she was also one of the youngest members of the assembly at 34.

Dakshayani Velayudhan with husband Raman reportedly became the first dalit couple to be members of the provincial parliament.

Born into the Pulaya community, Velayudhan’s life and politics were influenced by the rigid caste system in Kerala. The Kayal Sammelanam (meeting on the backwaters) of 1913 in Kochi shaped her politics. During the meeting, members of the Pulaya community, including her family, gathered on small boats as they were barred from assembling on land. Velayudhan reportedly requested that her biography be called ‘The Sea has no Caste.’

“When this Constitution is put into practice, what we want is not to punish the people for acting against the law, but what is needed is that there should be proper propaganda done by both the central and provincial governments. Then only there will be improvement that we want,” she said in the assembly.

In 1977, she set up Mahila Jagriti Parishad, a women’s rights organisation, in Delhi.

Durgabai Deshmukh 1909–1981

Durgabai Deshmukh caught the freedom bug quite young―at 12, she quit school to protest the imposition of English. She walked out of her child marriage, refusing to go with her husband and opting for studies instead. She studied law and practised at the Madras court.

She played a crucial role in framing India’s welfare policies, and is referred to as the ‘mother of social welfare in India’. As a member of the Constituent Assembly, she advocated for a national language, judicial independence and women’s participation in governance. She founded the Andhra Mahila Sabha, which provided education and health care to countless women. She was a member of the Planning Commission and also headed the National Committee on Girls’ and Women’s Education. She was married to C.D. Deshmukh, the first Indian governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit 1900–1990

There was no sibling rivalry here, only mutual admiration between Jawaharlal Nehru and sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.

And rightly so! Pandit was no less a political figure than her brother. In 1937, she became the first Indian woman cabinet minister in pre-independence India. As member of the Constituent Assembly, she championed the principles of democracy, secularism and human rights. “An independent India would no doubt assume leadership not only of Asia but of the world, and so when we meet here in this assembly to draw up the future Constitution of our country, we must not forget that it is not only to ourselves we owe a duty but also to the world which looks to us,” Pandit said in the assembly.

In 1953, she became the first woman president of the United Nations General Assembly. Later, she served as an ambassador to the Soviet Union, Mexico, and the high commissioner to the UK. She was also governor of Maharashtra and on Nehru’s death in 1964, she contested and won from Phulpur. She did not let her filial bond stop her from criticising niece Indira Gandhi’s Emergency years.

Sucheta Kripalani 1908–1974

She had her basics sorted―Sucheta Kripalani started out as a teacher of constitutional history at the Banaras Hindu University.

She married Acharya Kripalani, who later became Congress president, and soon found herself deeply involved in the freedom struggle. She set up the women’s wing of the Congress in 1940. She closely worked with Mahatma Gandhi during the partition riots to restore peace and help the victims.

In the Constituent Assembly, Kripalani was part of the flag presentation committee. A few minutes before Nehru’s ‘tryst with destiny’ speech, she sang Vande Mataram in the independence session of the Constituent Assembly.

She become India’s first woman chief minister, heading the government in Uttar Pradesh from 1963-1967.

Ammu Swaminathan 1894–1978

Ammu Swaminathan found good company when she joined politics and the women’s rights movement. Along with the likes of Annie Besant and Kamala Chattopadhyay, she set up the Women’s India Association.

She was vocal about reforms in laws regarding succession, inheritance and marriage. As a member of the Constituent Assembly, she spoke on fundamental rights and directive principles.

“People outside have been saying that India did not give equal rights to her women. Now we can say that when the Indian people themselves framed their Constitution they have given rights to women equal with every other citizen of the country. That in itself is a great achievement,” she said in the assembly.

She was elected to the first Lok Sabha in 1952 and later to the Rajya Sabha. She was also the vice president of the censor board. Her daughter Lakshmi Sahgal led the all-woman Rani Jhansi regiment of Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army.

Purnima Banerjee 1911–1951

Younger sister of freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali, Purnima Banerjee served as Congress secretary in Allahabad. She worked with rural communities to raise awareness about the freedom struggle and fundamental rights.

In the Constituent Assembly, she intervened in discussions around the Preamble, preventive detention and qualifications of Rajya Sabha members. As member of the sub-committee on fundamental rights, she advocated for religious freedom, women’s rights and socioeconomic justice.

She led the chorus in singing ‘Jana Gana Mana’ after its adoption as national anthem.

Begum Aizaz Rasul 1909–2001

The only Muslim woman member of the Constituent Assembly, Begum Aizaz Rasul came from a princely family but had more of a political upbringing, thanks to her father. She was a strong advocate of secularism and communal harmony. She formally gave up the purdah in 1937 when she won her first election from a non-reserved seat (in what is now Uttar Pradesh) in British India. She spoke on national language, reservation, minority rights during her stint in the Constituent Assembly. In the aftermath of the partition, she was among the few Muslim leaders who spoke against reservation for minorities. It is said that post independence her views on the same had changed. She was also against feudal practices like the zamindari system. Her stance had often invited ire from the community.

Rasul was later elected to the Rajya Sabha and the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly. She was also a sports enthusiast, known for her role in promoting women’s hockey.

Annie Mascarene 1902–1963

Annie Mascarene collected degrees like nobody’s business―she had a double master’s in economics and history, and after her return from Sri Lanka where she taught as a lecturer, she got a law degree as well. Federalism was an issue close to her heart and she spoke on the need for a strong Centre in her speech in the Constituent Assembly. “We are at the advent of democracy,” she said. “Democracy has got a tendency to let loose fickle emotions and disruptive forces. In the circumstances, without a strong Centre, I do not think we can have a successful democracy.”

Mascarene was the first woman MP to be elected to the Lok Sabha from Kerala. As member of Parliament, she talked about the under-representation of women in politics.

Renuka Ray 1904–1997

Renuka Ray came from a family of achievers―she was a descendant of Brahmo reformer Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee; her maternal grandfather was the first Indian to get a diploma in philosophy from Oxford; her grandmother was the first Indian woman on the Calcutta University senate, her father was an Indian Civil Service officer and mother was part of the All India Women’s Conference. Inspired by Gandhi, she initially left college but later on his and her parents’ persuasion studied at the London School of Economics. She championed the cause of women’s and minorities’ rights and also inheritance rights in parental property.

During her intervention in the Constituent Assembly, she spoke against reservation for women, terming it “an impediment to our growth and an insult to our very intelligence and capacity”. She served as Lok Sabha MP from Malda for two terms.

Malati Choudhury 1904–1998

Though she was born in a family of politicians, it was during her time at Visva Bharti in Santiniketan that she developed an interest in the freedom movement. Deeply influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and Gandhi, she dedicated her life to uplift the marginalised in Odisha. She was married to Nabakrushna Choudhury, who served as the state’s chief minister. She popularised the Praja Mandal movement in the state.

She quit the Constituent Assembly the year she joined, to work with Gandhi. Marxist in her outlook, she organised several movements for workers and tribals. She was also jailed during the Emergency. Her cousin, Indrajeet Gupta, later became the Union home minister. She was THE WEEK’s ‘Woman of the Year’ in 1990.

Kamla Chaudhry 1908–1970

A Hindi short story writer, she let her writing do the talking, combining her literary talent with her commitment to social reform. Kamla Chaudhry completed her Hindi literature course despite objections from her affluent family in Lucknow. Her writing focused on the oppression of women, and her work as a Gandhian was centred around empowering women through education and self-reliance. She actively worked towards educating girls in villages and backward areas. She also encouraged the khadi and village industries, which she felt had the potential to provide employment to young women.

In the Constituent Assembly, she advocated for rural development and women’s rights. She was elected to Parliament from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, in 1962.

Leela Roy 1900–1970

Academically brilliant and doggedly determined, Leela Roy fought her way to get into the all-male University of Dhaka, becoming the first woman to earn a master’s degree from there. She worked tirelessly to uplift women, and played a key role in getting women to join the freedom struggle. She set up multiple women and educational organisations like Deepali Sangha and Mahila Atma Raksha Fund, where women were taught martial arts and self-defence. She was a close associate of Subhas Chandra Bose.

She was the only elected woman member from Bengal to the Constituent Assembly. However, she resigned from her post in protest against the partition of India and dedicated herself to the relief and rehabilitation of refugees.

After her resignation from the Congress, she joined the Forward Bloc, a political party founded by Bose. She set up relief camps for families affected by the riots in Noahkhali, now in Bangladesh.