Subhadra Kumari Chouhan: Google Doodle honours Indian poet on birth anniversary

Subhadra Kumari authored a number of works in Hindi poetry, with Jhansi ki Rani being her most famous composition. The poem, which describes the life of Rani Lakshmi Bai, is one of the most recited and sung poems in Hindi literature.

Chauhan’s poetry and prose primarily centered around the hardships that Indian women overcame, such as gender and caste discrimination. Her poetry remained uniquely underscored by her resolute nationalism.

Subhadra Kumari was born on August 16, 1904 in a Rajpur family of Nihalpur village in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. She studied initially in the Crosthwaite Girls’ School in Prayagraj and passed the middle-school exam in 1919. She married Thakur Laxman Singh Chauhan of Khandwa in 1919 at the age of 16 and had 5 children with him. Then she moved to Jabalpur.

Subhadra and her husband joined Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921. She was the first woman Satyagrahi to court arrest in Nagpur and was jailed twice for her involvement in protests against British rule in 1923 and 1942. She was a member of the legislative assembly of the state (erstwhile Central Provinces). She died in 1948 in a car accident in Seoni, MP, on her way back to Jabalpur from Nagpur, where she had gone to attend an assembly session.

Today, Chauhan’s poetry remains a staple in many Indian classrooms as a symbol of historical progress, encouraging future generations to stand up against social injustice and celebrate the words that shaped a nation’s history.