Sisters in struggle

All was far from quiet on the western front The most pivotal freedom bids launching from the Bombay PresidencymdashNonCooperation Home Rule Khilafat Khadi and Swadeshi movementsmdashwere propelled to a significant extent by women with rare courage of conviction Not all of them are as equally chronicled for contributions that culminated in shaking off the British yoke 75 years agoThe littleknown story of Vijya Parikh is worth the telling On marrying cotton trader Durlabhji Parikh from Limbdi the princely Gujarat state entitled to a ninegun salute during the Raj reigned by a Thakore who wilily tried impressing the British by opposing the Congress she discovered her ideals aligned firmly with those of her inlaws Fracturing the salt law Satyagrahis boiling sea water to extract the taxed mineral in the Congress House compound Pic CourtesyGetty ImagesA veritable repository of family history octogenarian Ramesh Parikh says ldquoMy father Durlabhji was the janatarsquos representative assigned to agitate outside the Limbdi palace His brother Rasiklal Parikh became the chief minister of Saurashtra State and first home minister of separately carved Gujarat State In Bombay my mother Vijyaben met Dadabhai Naorojirsquos granddaughters Perin and Goshasp Goshi Captain who further fuelled the revolutionary attitude already seeded deep in herrdquoKept out of activities initiallymdashIndian leaders fearing the English might criticise them for holding women as shields for their fightmdashIndian women grew emboldened of their own accord realising they could play a considerable role reshaping the countryrsquos fate It is acknowledged that the ladiesrsquo freedom movement was largely the doing of women of substance such as Vijyaben Parikh and Maniba Nanavati A good deal of plotting and planning hatched in their homes with the Mahatmarsquos blessingsVijyaben and Durlabhji Parikh Pic CourtesyParikh FamilyThroughout April 1930 at least 300 women enrolled for picketing would routinely start from Congress House and proceed along Girgaum Road Princess Street Mangaldas Cloth Market Mulji Jetha Cloth Market Zaveri Bazar and Bhuleshwar Reiterating the necessity to boycott British goods they entreated shopkeepers along the way to deal only in swadeshi items And pleaded with millhandsmdashldquoUnless you give up liquor and not touch foreign cloth we will have to continue our picketing demonstrationsrdquoAditi Parikh the daughterinlaw of Rameshbhairsquos older brother Nalinbhai shares interesting anecdotal memories she has heard ldquoMy fatherinlaw learnt to walk in jail Vijyaben was arrested after a protest Gandhiji requested the sentencing judge to grant leniency as she had this toddler child When he did not she took my fatherinlaw with her to Arthur Road jail Learning to take his baby steps there he fell on the hard stone but proudly bore that scar lifelongmdasha badge of honour to his mindrdquoMithuben Petit centre with Gandhiji and Sarojini Naidu Pic courtesyWikipediaRameshbhai brings forth a framed letter written in Gujarati in which Gandhiji incarcerated in Poona enquired after Vijyabenrsquos health in Bombay He goes on to narrate his plucky motherrsquos involvement with a momentous incidentIt was December 12 1930 A poor 22yearold farmerturned mill labourer took to exposing the unfair trade practices of British companies Babu Genu and his sympathisers blocked a truck loaded with a consignment of foreign materials close to the Parikh home in Kalbadevi Lying prostrate on the road he refused to let the vehicle pass The police mowed him down It was Vijyaben who roused onlookers paralysed with shock into arranging for Babu Genursquos body to be transported with dignity from the brutal scene Malatiben and Damubhai Jhaveri Pic CourtesyParul SastrildquoRight after Independence Partition refugees needed to be fed Goshi Captain put my mother in charge of logistics for the Mulund camp The group of ladies who were sent to jail with her were part of this operation ensuring there were daily rice and roti rations for the displacedrdquo remembers Rameshbhai The upswing preceding the 1930s events triggering 1947 was set into motion by the early courage of Madam Cama Backtracking some decades we encounter an irony the British took time to swallow Camarsquos community small yet known for loyalty to the Crown still succeeded in stirring strong enough ferment Not only did Parsis front the freedom struggle among the most radical antiRaj voices were women such as Bhikaiji Cama the Captains and Mithuben PetitThat Parsi women were among the countryrsquos first to be educated was a privilege they employed to advantage and one forming the raison drsquoetre for their involvement with the Independence movement They were often from households unlikely to be associated with commitment to the cause against colonialism From an affluent Patel family Bhikaiji believed women joining politics would propel their emancipation The year that excited her because of the formation of the Indian National Congress 1885 was when she married Rustomji Cama too He proved a disappointingly proBritish lawyer and ideological differences drew them apartTravelling to Europe in 1902 to fully recover from ill health on account of the plague she contacted empathetic compatriots On August 22 1907 Bhikaiji presented a strident sight at the second International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart Saree pallu crowning her head held high she strode on stage to unfurl a greenyellowred striped flag emblazoned with the words Bande Mataram before the global gathering And declared with typically passionate oratory ldquoThis flag is of Indiarsquos independence I appeal to lovers of freedom over the world to cooperate with this flag in freeing onefifth of the human racerdquoShe delivered lectures at Londonrsquos Hyde Park on famine devastation in India and on the imperative need for its autonomy got invited by Lenin to settle in Russia had her portrait splashed alongside Joan of Arc in French newspapers and travelled to America and Africa with her flag Across foreign soil during the long exile from her homeland she raised an incredibly high awareness of atrocities against Indians and the vital need to rally with their clamour against oppressionAlso eschewing great wealth to espouse nonviolence and rural activism Mithuben Petit was strongly influenced by the view that real India lives in her villages She set up Stree Swarajya Sanghs where women were instigated to peacefully picket shops selling foreign cloth Her aristocratic family members were aghast Not objecting to Mithubenrsquos constructive social work as much as her sparking opposition to the English they warned her to renounce such ldquoridiculousrdquo activities or risk disinheritance Mithubenrsquos cool retort to the clan struck fresh fervour among brave hearts of the day ldquoIt is your business to sit with the government and mine to remain with the nationrdquoAt Sorbonne University in 1905 Perin Captain was introduced to Bhikaiji agitating for Indian liberation in Paris The liaison developed into an infectious friendship which goaded Perin with audacity She burst into fiery nationalist songs at a conference in Brussels and thought nothing of defiantly visiting Veer Savarkar in jail under the assumed name of Miss ArdeshirOn Pateti day of 1906 Perin had drawn her Oxfordeducated sisterrsquos attention to ldquothat man with very nice eyesrdquo at a boat party on the Thames hosted by Jamshedji Tata That was Gandhiji in attendance He enlisted the sistersrsquo support in South Africa for Indian selfrule On his return he held a meeting of immense consequence at the Petit ancestral home in Bombay exhorting ordinary people to fight relentlessly for freedom as both a birthright and undeniable dutyInspired the Captains traded their luxurious silks for coarse khaddar sarees and spearheaded the propagation of ahimsa through womenrsquos organisations such as the Rashtriya Stree Sabha and Desh Sevika Sangh Perin galvanised her sisters in arms into expressing their displeasure to Gandhiji about merely being allowed the picketing of shopsAs the Dandi March ended on April 6 1930 growing numbers of women joined the Salt Satyagraha encouraged by Sarojini Naidu and Matangini Hazra Mithuben Petit stood behind Gandhiji when he violated the Salt Law again at BhimradKamaladevi Chattopadhyaya bunched together volunteers for prabhat pheris dawn processions and to scoop salt and brine at Chowpatty and Juhu beaches With a determined army of likeminded women she headed to Chowpatty to collect sea water to be evaporated on small chulha stoves The police arrived with rough boots and batons to beat them Even those who began witnessing the violence as mere spectators were forced to leave the balconies from where they watched events unfold to help the injured be carried away to hospital on makeshift stretchers cushioned with bedsheets they providedThe air across the city was thick with cries of ldquoNamak kaida toda hai we have broken the salt lawrdquo Lilavati Munshi marched groups of women to a wire barriernear the Wadala salt depot within dangerous distance of armed Eurasian sergeantsThe Bombay Chronicle whose first editor BG Horniman had been an azaadi supporter reported several housewives carrying clay brass and copper pots and pans joined the agitators That salt was later sold outside the Bombay Stock Exchange and High Court With characteristic insouciance Chattopadhyaya waved a packet under the nose of a startled magistrate asking if he would buy ldquothe salt of freedomrdquo This powerful symbolic march by Gandhiji warming the very soul of India presented a turning point for women to claim public space in vast numbers for the first time in the countryrsquos historyExplaining effectively used traditional literary metaphors Kunjlata Shah writes in Patriotic Songs in Gujarat 19201947 The Gandhian InspirationmdashldquoFolk literary forms of garbas kirtan garbi katha nurtured in Gujarat were utilised creatively and meaningfully to mobilise women politicallyhellip In the Bardoli Satyagraha peasant women participated in the passive resistance against British rule Special songs garbas and raasdas were composed to keep their spirits and morale uprdquoRecounting those cataclysmic years pacifist writer Horace Alexander noted ldquoDay by day the streets of Bombay would be livened in the early morning with the songs of freedom Women could be found all over the city Many had never taken part in public life beforerdquoFast forward to educationistactivist Aruna Asaf Ali saluting the Tricolour at Gowalia Tank maidan with shouts of ldquoQuit Indiardquo renting the August 1942 air She had participated in protests during the Salt Satyagraha Arrested she was not released in 1931 under the GandhiIrwin Pact which stipulated letting go all political prisoners In solidarity the other women refused to leave the premises unless she was released Post1947 she remained active in politics becoming Delhirsquos first woman mayorIn her Babulnath apartment adorned with images of Gandhiji and Ganesha Malatiben Jhaveri would greet visitors at the dining table where she spent hours translating classic epics from Hindi to Gujarati Growing up in the Nepean Sea Road mansion of her silk merchant father Sir Shantidas Askuran Malatiben dropped Sanskrit studies at St Xavierrsquos College to devotedly join the Independence struggle On August 8 1942 she wore the red khadi saree given to volunteers attending the explosive Congress session at the Gowalia Tank green soon to be christened August Kranti MaidanAs Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the Congress flag Malatiben earned a precious personal victory Teargas was released for the first time in India When a piece of shell landed on her she lobbed it right back at a British soldier Burnt but triumphant she was whisked off to jail where she won even police sympathy for unstoppably singing nationalistic lyricsThe same steadfast rootedness made Malatiben work tirelessly to promote indigenous textiles Her sister Prabha Shah and she set up the Sohan Sahkari Sangh a pioneering effort in the nongovernment sector for handlooms and handicrafts Malatibenrsquos abiding passion was theatre which she flung herself into with uncommon energy The constitution of the Indian National Theatre INT was cradled in confinement inked by patriots such as her husband Damu Jhaveri Chandrakant Dalal Rohit Dave and Mansukh Joshi Confident that the country was on the verge of liberation they were keen to script a unique cultural policy On May 5 1944 Iqbal Day commemorating the poet who memorably composed Saare jahaan se achha INT was launched to nurture the regional performing artsOver a hot thali lunch Malatiben had reminisced ldquoWe were born at the right time in this country just wanting to defy excesses of the Raj Women like me then referred to prison as lsquosaasrersquomdashour inlaw second homerdquo Jailed three times in 1942 alone she well knew the power of this truthAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at Qmiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom