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Journalism of Courage
On Constitution Day (November 26), President Droupadi Murmu recalled the role of women members in the Constituent Assembly of India, the body tasked with formulating the Constitution of independent India.
The 299-member body had 15 women members (of whom two later resigned), including prominent figures such as Sarojini Naidu, Sucheta Kripalani, and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. But it also had lesser-known women from different parts of the country, who participated in debates on gender, caste and reservations. We recall five of them.
In the book The Fifteen: The Lives and Times of the Women in India’s Constituent Assembly, authors Angellica Aribam and Akash Satyawali wrote that Swaminathan hailed from Palakkad, Kerala. She married the much older Subbarama Swaminathan in her teens. However, she also presented a few “conditions” before doing so, such as not being asked “what time she would reach home”.
Among her four children was Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, who joined the Indian National Army.
Swaminathan became interested in politics and strongly opposed the rules imposed on widows, such as shaving the head and renouncing jewellery, after seeing her mother deal with those restrictions. She also contested elections on a Congress ticket from Madras. In the Constituent Assembly, she spoke about the Hindu Code Bill and gender equality, even though “When she mentioned that the Bill affects the women of the country more than the men, the male-dominant House erupted into laughter,” the book said.
Post-independence, she was elected from Dindigul in Tamil Nadu and served as India’s goodwill ambassador to countries like Russia, China and the US.
Mascarene was born in Travancore (now Thiruvananthapuram) in a Latin Christian family, considered to be at the lowest rung of the caste system. Her academic brilliance led her to study and teach law. The Travancore royals also ushered in some reforms against caste restrictions and for women’s education in that period.
The political upheaval in Travancore led her towards activism. Voting rights in the legislature were limited, excluding lower-caste Ezhavas, Christians and Muslims. The groups together formed the All Travancore Joint Political Congress, which she joined. Mascarene also became a part of the Travancore State Congress, advocating for a government based on universal adult franchise. Her house was pelted with stones by her opponents and intruders assaulted her in her home, but she persisted in her work.
She later joined the Congress. As part of the Constituent Assembly, she spoke about the need for a strong Centre in the early days of the republic, while simultaneously emphasising the autonomy of local governments. Amid factionalism in the state, she resigned from the Congress and contested as an independent candidate in 1952, winning from Thiruvananthapuram.
Qudsia’s father was an accomplished politician, with roots in the royal family of Malerkota in Punjab. Her privileged background led her to a path of formal education few girls could follow at the time. But even then there were objections, with an ulema issuing a fatwa against her convent schooling.
After her marriage to Nawab Aizaz Rasul, she decided to discard the purdah, a decision her husband came around to only later. Both of them decided to join politics and contest elections in 1936. While conservative groups criticised her candidature, she eventually emerged victorious from a non-reserved seat.
Qudsia joined the Muslim League, campaigning for causes linked to women. She was also among the few members opposing separate electorates based on religion. However, her views on the idea of Pakistan were more complex. On one hand, she believed the move would help uplift Muslims, but she also held concerns about the plight of poor Muslims in India following such a division. Ultimately, she and her husband decided to stay in India.
She then joined the Congress. Post-independence she was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in 1952 and later helped promote women’s hockey.
Velayudhan marked several firsts – she was the first Dalit woman to graduate in science in Cochin (now Kochi) and the first Dalit woman in the Cochin Legislative Council.
Belonging to the Pulaya community, considered a “slave”, assertions were being made against oppressive caste-based rules around the time of her birth. She once recalled how her decision to go to college led to a “commotion”, as people attempted to catch a glimpse of her. But she continued facing discrimination, as upper-caste teachers refused to show her practical experiments.
After working as a teacher, she married a social worker at the Sevagram Ashram in Wardha. “The wedding was officiated by a leprosy-afflicted person in the presence of [Mahatma] Gandhi and Kasturba”, the book said. Dakshayani later filed her nomination for the Cochin Legislative Council. In 1946, she was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Malabar at the age of 34. Here, she disagreed with Ambedkar on the need for separate electorates, saying the provision highlighted differences and was against nationalism. She added, “He (Ambedkar) is the only leader of the Harijan community and his non-co-operation with the nationalist forces is a great tragedy…”
Unlike many of her peers, she could not continue a career in politics due to financial difficulties. She only returned in 1971, but came fourth in the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate. Her withdrawal from politics nonetheless saw her actively participate in the Dalit movement.
Ray was born in Pabna, present-day Bangladesh, in an illustrious family. Her father qualified for the prestigious Indian Civil Services, while her mother was one of the first two women students at Calcutta’s Presidency College in 1897.
A meeting with Gandhi in 1920 led her to quit college and join the freedom struggle, where she went door-to-door to raise awareness. She briefly stayed in the Sabarmati ashram, before studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In London, she met another student named Satyendra Nath Ray, who she later married.
After returning to India, she was engaged in activism for women’s issues, such as the rights to divorce and inheritance. Ray also represented women’s organisations in the Central Legislative Assembly in 1943. In 1946, she was elected to the Constituent Assembly and discussed issues like the Hindu Code Bill and opposed women’s reservation in legislatures, saying it would be “an impediment to our growth and an insult to our very intelligence and capacity”.
Ray lost the 1952 general election from Hooghly but won in 1957, and worked with the Bengal government in the interim. Subsequently, she returned to social work.
