24 MANUSHI

Toofani SatyawatiAn Unsung Heor of Freedom Struggle

In the annals of Indianstruggle for Independence aspirit lies buried that had

once glowed fiercely, undertakenvalorous deeds and sacrificed itselfin India’s quest for freedom. Thatselfless indomitable spirit belongedto Satyawati.

Born on January 26, 1907, inLudhiana to Dhani Ram Thapar, aneminent lawyer, Satyawati wentthrough varied influences. Hermaternal grandfather, the renownedsocial reformer Mahatma Munshi Ram,later known as Swami Shraddhanand,was one such influence. She wasbarely 12 when she saw him lead anagitation against the Rowlatt Act inDelhi and expose himself to Britishfiring at Chandni Chowk on March30,1919. This also inspired Satyawati’smaternal uncle Professor Indra Kumarand his wife to join the Satyagraha (anon-violent movement) against theRowlatt Act. Swarniji’s daughter VedKumari, along with her daughtersSatyawati, Usha and Kaushalya, toofollowed suit. Satyawati was marriedat 16 to Balbhadra Vidyalankar, whowas a dyeing master in a Birla mill inGwalior where Satyawati made her firstforay into the labour movement byworking for the upliftment of themillhands and their families. In fact, itwas Vidyalankar who moulded her inthe socialist way of thinking, whichled to her involvement in the labourmovement.

One of her better known missionsin later years was the formation of aunion of tongawallas and cart-pullersin Delhi who were harassed by animalwelfare societies. At that time there wasa vast population of horses, bullocks

Even during the freedommovement, most of the womenwho got active in the politicaldomain did so through and inthe footsteps of men of theirfamilies and tended to play asupplementary role to malepolitics. Satyawati is one oftherare examples of a womanwho chartered her ownindependent course, far moreradical than that of the malemembers of her politicisedfamily, including her well-known grandfather SwamiShraddhanand, a leading lightof the Arya Samaj Movement.Likewise she went far aheadof her husband who played aninfluential role in giving herthe initial push. This articlehas been put together bySunaina Sharma and MadhuKishwar from primary andsecondary source materialprovided by SatyawatiCollege, Delhi University. Her.rich life merits far morein depth study. We hope thisarticle will stimulate interestand motivate some of ourreaders to do a fullerbiography. —Editor

and donkeys in the city-in fact, theywere quite a lifeline. Satyawati led theirftrike for eight days, till a compromisewas reached. She also organised thestone workers in Delhi to fight for theirrights. Political freedom, Satyawatibelieved, was the first step towardsthe economic emancipation of the.poverty-stricken masses. In the late1920s, her husband was transferred tothe Birla mill in Delhi. Thus afterseveral years Satyawati, who was amother of two, returned to the citywhere her family played an active rolein the events of those turbulent times.Soon the civil disobedience movementbegan which gave her an opportunityto take a plunge in the freedomstruggle. Her involvementencompassed a vast range ofactivities. She addressed publicmeetings, spearheadeddemonstrations, advocated andpractised swadeshi (economicnationalism), as she became totallyinvolved in the boycott of foreigngoods. Not content only to picketshops that sold foreign goods, shetook the movement even to the banksof the river Jamuna, mobilising supportagainst the Marwari ladies who camethere to bathe dressed in foreignclothes.

Satyawati practised what shebelieved. Her younger sisterKaushalya recalls how after hearingGandhiji’s call to discard foreigncloth, Satyawati collected allclothes of foreign-made fabric intheir house and set fire to themwithout considering to whom theybelonged and how costly theywere. For herself, Satyawati keptonly three or four coarse khadi

No. 111 25

(home-spun cotton cloth) saris. Ifshe happened to somehow acquiremore than that she would give themaway to the poor and needy.

Kaushalya said in an article thatonce Sarojini Naidu, a mother-figureto them, who loved Satyawati verymuch, presented her a very finekhadi sari from Hyderabad. After aweek Kaushalya found the sarimissing.

When she asked her sister,Satyawati said that a poor villagewoman had come to see her in a tornand worn out dhoti (a type of sarimade of coarse cotton cloth), andshe gave away the sari to her. A sariwhich Kaushalya had painstakinglyembroidered for her also met thesame fate. Such details serve toemphasise Satyawati’s commitmentto the poor and to the swadeshimovement which was an integralpart of the Indian freedom struggle.

Satyawati’s participation in thefreedom struggle was so energeticthat Mahatma Gandhi affectionatelynamed her Too/ani (storm-like). Shewas also acclaimed as the IndianJoan of Arc. ChandraguptaVidyalankar, the renowned freedomfighter, recounts in an article howGandhiji once described her: “Sheis a very brave girl. You know that Ihad named her Tooani.

She is truly too/ani. Her whole lifeshe has been as forceful as a storm.”She was not only a freedom fighterbut also a social reformer dedicatedto the cause of the weaker sectionsof society. Such sentiments were,however, not appreciated by manyleaders, who held that such beliefswould prove divisive to the freedomstruggle. Her soci6list leanings alsoled her to consider joiningrevolutionaries like Bhagat Singh atone point of time. She organised thefirst Naujawan Bharat Sabha in Delhiwhich attracted a large number ofstudents to the struggle. This wasCooperation Movement had been

One of Satyawati'sbetter known

missions was theformation of a unionof tongawallas andcart-pullers. She

also organised thestone workers in

Delhi.

temporarily called off and (heCongress legislative programmefaUed to stimulate the youngactivists. In Bengal, Delhi and Punjabgroups of young men and womenstarted underground activities tocollect arms, manufacture bombs andto commit acts of terrorism. Satyawatiand several others were at theforefront of these activities.

J.N. Sahni recounts an incidentwhere her admiration for therevolutionaries like Bhagat Singh andher dare-devil courage are evident.Once Bhagat Singh and his comradeswere in peril, relentlessly hounded bythe British police. Motilal Nehru, whoheld a measure of affection for therevolutionaries even whileconsidering them misguided, gave Rs1,000 to Sahni to help the One ofSatyawati’s better known missionswas the formation of a union oftongawallas and cart-pullers. She alsoorganised the stone workers in Delhi.

revolutionaries. As Satyawati wasclosely associated with therevolutionaries Sahni gave the moneyto her. One day Satyawati invited himto her house. There he met a youngwoman named Durga Behn, the wifeof Bhagwati Charan, one of therevolutionaries wanted by the Britishpolice. He saw that she was sitting inan awkward fashion. On Satyawatimotioning to her she loosened herwaist band and took out tworevolvers which she had smuggledfrom the frontier. Pointing to themSatyawati said: “Now you can tellMotilalji how the money he sent hasbeen utilised.” On his protesting thatthe money was intended for food andclothes she explained that what hesaw before him was more importantto their cause than food and clothes.

Yet Satyawati soon came to preferlarger non-violent mobilisation ofpublic opinion rather than isolatedacts of terrorism. By 1930, she beganto support Gandhi’s nonviolentmovement and plunged into itwholeheartedly. It was at this time thatshe was influenced by’ Gandhi whourged women to be sabala (strong)and arbitrators of their own destiny.Satyawati exhorted women to comeout of their homes and join thefreedom struggle. Her younger sisterwrites that Satyawati often usedsongs as a means of mobilisingwomen in various neighbourhoods.

She would cajole her mother andsisters to come out in the streets andbylanes of Delhi-Nee! Ka Katra,Billimaran, Nai Sarak—even as shewent around beating drums, singingpatriotic songs, raising slogans andurging women to come out ofpurdah. Soon women startedcoming out, first hesitantly and thenboldly. By then Satyawati was alsoan active member of the Congress.Apart from leading processions andpicketing shops she also took toaddressing public rall ies andgatherings. At one such meeting on

26 MANUSHI

May 3, 1930, she urged theaudience not to retrace their stepsfrom the freedom struggle and notto be afraid of the machine guns thatwere parading the streets. On May12, 1930, at the mourning processionof Amin Lal, who had died of a gunshot, she declared, “Such things dohappen in attaining freedom; flamesof such fire would reduce the tyrantto ashes.” She was arrested and wasasked to furnish security of Rs 500and give assurance of good conductfor six months. She refused and wassent to jail. Thus began the cycle ofher successive confinements, mostlyin the women’sjail at Lahore.

Even there she did not falter in hermission and sent out messages fromthe jail to the nation. The CongressWorking Committee in a resolution inJune 1930 gave Satyawati “respectfulcongratulations” for her role. By 1931,the Congress was declared unlawful.Many of its workers and leaders hadbeen in and out of jail several times.Satyawati too had met the same fate.But she, along with countless others,continued to defy the British.

January 26, 1931 was designatedas Independence Day and Congressplanned to hoist the tricolour on theclock tower at Chandni Chowk,opposite the majestic Red Fort inDelhi. Thousands of volunteersgathered for the flag hoisting on theday. But when the police charged intothe crowd wounding many, itdispersed. Many were arrested. Thepolice too retired to the nearby policestation. It was then that a crowd ofwomen dressed in saffron appearedon the scene, singing lustily.Hundreds of passersby joined theprocession. At the head of theplOcession was a lean, tall, statelylady, Satyawati, carrying the nationalflag. The policemen who hadreturned attempted to snatch the flagfrom her but she refused to give ineven as she fell under the impact oftheir heavy blows.

Satyawati with Gandhiji

On revival of the civil disobediencemovement in 1932, Satyawati, whohad a couple of months earlier givenbirth to her third child, a daughter,was arrested on April 13 andsentenced to seven-and-a-halfmonths imprisonment. She waspunished for organising a processionto celebrate the national week. Shewas released after serving the termonly to be rearrested and sentencedto a year-and-a-half imprisonment.

During her confinement shecontracted pleurisy which laterdeveloped into tuberculosis. Irked byher activities the British tried todiscourage Satyawati and remove herfrom Delhi by seeking her husband’stransfer back to Gwalior. ButBalbhadra stood by. his wife and lefthis job. He continued to provide hermoral support even though his lossof job brought them economichardship. Her long stints in prisonand failing health took its toll on herfamily life. Nevertheless, she

continued her activities.In 1934, she became a founder

member of the Congress SocialistForum and worked along withAcharya Narendra Dev, Jai PrakashN arain, Ram Manohar Lohia andJawaharlal Nehru. For a long time sheremained an executive member of theDelhi Provincial Congress Committeeand for some time was also a memberof the All India Congress Committee.She continued her association withlabour movements as she helpedspread the ideology of socialismamong the .members of the tradeunions with the help of Farid-ul HaqAnsari, Lala Hardhyan Singh andBahal Singh. And as long as herhealth permitted and she was notincarcerated, she continued her workamong the poor and toiling masses,and the farmers in the neighbouringvillages of Delhi.

In those days, recalls one of her.co-workers, Congress had very littlemoney and there were only a couple

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Women domonstrators confronting mounted police

of cars between all the localleaders put together. The everresourceful Satyawati would makesure to invite at least one of theleaders each time a long journeyhad to be taken outside the city,so that several people could at,once pile into the car.

The authorities’ decided onceagain to put curbs on her. She wasasked to confine herself within themunicipal limits of Delhi and torefrain from any anti-governmentactivity. She, however, defied themand was once again sent to jail.

By 1938 her life had become onebig round of jails and hospitalsinterspersed with periods ofrelease, during which she pursuedher many political activities. Sheattended the Punjab conferenceheld at Madina in April 1938. ThePunjab government, however,asked her to leave the cityimmediately and not to re-enter theprovince for a year without itspermission. Satyawati, as was herwont, never took such noticesseriously. She was arrested andsent back to Delhi. There she wasonce again arrested on the chargeof an earlier seditious spe~ch shegave in a Delhi village. She wasout of jail in September 1939 butwas once again asked to givesurety for good conduct or serveanother term. She once againchose to go to jail.

During her incarceration her healthdeteriorated and prominent politicalleaders demanded her release. RajKumari Amrit Kaur wrote in her letterto the chief commissioner of Delhi:“I can say that she is too courageousa woman of too deep convictions toavail herself of the opportunity ofgiving a bond of good behaviour ather disposaL” The commissioner ofpolice also stated to Aruna Asaf Alithat though Satyawati wasimprisoned, she could easily bereleased, but for her refusal to give

such an undertaking. The jail authoritieswere also of the opinion that “hertreatment in a sanatorium is more likelyto result in a cure than her treatment injail”.

The commissioner in his letter tothe government remarked that despiteher poor health “on her return to Delhishe always seems capable of quiteremarkable exertion and is able toaddress three or four public meetingsa day”. Yet he recommended herrelease, provided she was immediatelyadmitted to a suitable sanatorium inthe hills, and she desisted frompolitical activities for the unexpiredportion of her detention. Satyaw~ti,even at the expense of her failinghealth, refused to concede.

Shortly after Satyawati came out ofjail, she took part in the Satyagrahaof 1940 and was sentenced to oneyearimpri-sonment. She took an active partin the 1942 Quit India movement andalso exhorted the students to becomea vanguard of the movement. For thisnot only she but her son KrishnaKumar and her elder daughter Kusum,her mother Ved Kumari and sisterKaushalya, were all taken into custodyby the British police.

Back in jail she maintained hercontact with the leading lights of the

freedom movement, includingGandhiji , to whom she wroteregularly. Gandhiji would replypersonally to her letters assuring herthat he had full faith in her andwhatever course of action sheundertook would be right. Sheundertook to hoist the national flagover the jail building for which shewas belaboured mercilessly andkept in solitary confinement, whichliterally broke her backbone leavingher permanently bedridden.

In 1943, she was transferred toMayo Hosp i t a l a t Lahore .Meanwhi le he r younges tdaughter Vma fell seriously ill.She was o f fe red re l ease onparole. Even though she greatlyloved her daughter, Satyawatiwas unwi l l ing to bow downbefore the British authorities anddeclined parole. The news ofVma’s death shattered an ailingSa tyawat i and he r cond i t ionworsened. She was shifted to theTB sanatorium at Kasauli. On herrelease she was prohibited fromtaking part in political activitiesand entering Delhi.

Manifesting a familiar courage,she defied and dodged the policeguard at the hospital, toaddress the

28 MANUSHI

Students Congress at Lahore.Satyawati donned the burqa of herMuslim maid, who served her tillshe breathed her last, and made itto the rally. But she was so weakthat she had to make her speechfrom a makeshift stretcher. Even intha,t condition she spoke for almostan hour till the police arrived andrearrested her. The authoritiesregistered a case against her butwiser counsel prevailed and thecase was dropped.

Notwithstanding her failinghealth, Satyawati decided to defythe unjust orders prohibiting herfrom entering Delhi. In this resolveGandhiji supported her.

She left for Delhi in February1945, but her train was stopped atShahadra on the outskirts of Delhi.

She was apprehended, detainedand taken to jail, while at Delhimultitudes were waiting to welcomeher. At this time she had a temperatureof 103!!F and when her conditiondeteriorated she was transferred tothe Kingsway Camp hospital.

The police guard remained with herand was only withdrawn when theauthorities were convinced that shewas on her deathbed. During thisperiod, despite her precariouscondition, she managed to sendmessages of political importance onvarious occasions. For instance, in amessage a few days before her deathshe cited the achievements of theIndian National Army-its leaders hadbeen detained at the Red Fort andwere soon to face trial-and calledupon the youth to be ready to shedtheir last drop of blood joremancipation of the motherland.

During her confinement in theKingsway Camp hospital, manynational leaders called upon her.These included Gandhiji, who visitedher twice, Maulana Azad and MridulaSarabhai. Shortly before her deathPanditlawaharlal Nehru came to seeher. To him Satyawati said: “My only

Satyawati leading a procession

"Do not weep for me.Preserve your tears to

kindle the fire offreedom in you. Theday British rule in

India ends will be the fittestday for myshraddh".

desire is India’s freedom.” In her lastmessage to the nation before herdeath she said: “I have reached theend of my life’s journey withoutcompleting the second score.Thousands like me have perished inthe struggle for freedom but theprocess of my death has been rathermore tortuous than t”at of martyrswho faced bullets or mountedgallows. It was my cherished ambitionto see the end of British imperialism,but my end has come earlier. I amdying in harness. Do not weep forme. Preserve your tears to kindle thefire of freedom in you. The day Britishrule in India ends will be the fittest“Do not weep for me. Preserve yourtears to kindle the fire of freedom inyou. The day British rule in India ends

will be the fittest day for my shraddh".day for my shraddh (Hinducustomary rites observed in thememory of the dead). I am grateful tothe students that at my behest theychanged their path in 1942. Myblessings to the Students Congressand to the villagers whom I served tothe best of my capacity. Alas! I willnot live to see that day when powerwill be in your hands. To thelabourers, my word is country’sfreedom first and your economicdemands afterwards.”

She died in the early hours onOctober 21, 1945. Her journey to thecremation ground was followed by ahuge crowd, and wreaths wereoffered all along the route. To payhomage to her the citizens of Delhiheld a prayer meeting at Gandhigrounds. Tributes were paid to heras a valiant daughter of Mother India,a rich glittering pearl in the crown offreedom, an embodiment ofpatriotism, valour and sacrifice.

It is sad that while many illustriousand not-so-illustrious freedomfighters have been deified andeulogised, those like Satyawati, whoworked selflessly and laid their livesat the altar of the country’s freedomhave scarcely been recognised. �