Women Revolutionaries of India

While discourse surrounding the freedom struggle has not entirely discounted the role of women, it has certainly not given enough recognition to the women in proportion to their integral roles in the war against the British. The women were not merely passive workers following in the footsteps of celebrated men; they were active revolutionaries, taking up arms, launching underground organisations, publishing anti-British literature, being subjected for years to torture and imprisonment. Many revolutionaries like Pritilata Waddedar and Matangani Hazra were wounded in battle and chose to end their lives for the cause of freedom than be captured by the British. Others like Bina Das and Labanya Prabha Ghosh fought for their homeland, only to die in abject poverty, largely forgotten by the very homeland and the people they had liberated from centuries of occupation and oppression.

On Women’s Day, indianexpress.com brings to you the stories of ten of Bengal’s most remarkable revolutionaries.