The Multifaceted Contribution of Aruna Asaf Ali to India's Freedom

64 £UP® kupah fiy kw;Wk; mwptpay; (kfspu;) fy;Y}up> jpUney;Ntyp gz;ila tuyhWk; jkpou; gz;ghLk; The Multifaceted Contribution of Aruna Asaf Ali to India’s Freedom Dr. I. Jayakumari Assistant Professor, Department of History and Research Centre Sarah Tucker College (Autonomous), Tirunelveli Introduction  The Freedom Struggle in India was a long and determined fight against British colonial rule, spanning nearly two centuries. It was driven by the desire of Indians to regain their political, social, and economic independence. This struggle was marked by various movements, both peaceful and revolutionary, led by remarkable leaders. Even today we remember the numerous martyred souls. The knownandtheunknownfreedomfightersandleaderswholeheartedlysacrificed their lives so that their fellow Indians could live in a free nation. There are many womenfreedomfighterswhomadeagreatsacrificetoensureIndiathefreedom and independence it deserves. Among them, Aruna Asaf Ali was one of the most courageous and iconic leaders of India’s struggle for independence. She actively participated in Salt Satyagraha and Quit India Movement is praise worthy. She is popularly known as the “Grand Old Lady” of the Indian Independence Movement and the “Heroine of 1942”. This paper attempts to explore “The multifaceted contribution of Aruna Asaf Ali to India’s Freedom”. Early Life of Aruna Asaf Ali Aruna Asaf Ali was born as Aruna Ganguly on 16th July 1909, in Kalka, Punjab (now in Haryana) into a progressive and well-educated family. Her parents Upendarnath Ganguly and Ambalika Devi. She was the eldest child of her family. She was educated at Sacred Heart Convent in Lahore, and then in Nainital. In times when, women were not really given either education or the liberty to work, Aruna was a graduated who even worked and was an independent woman with an independent mind. After graduating from school, she taught at the Gokhale Memorial School in Calcutta. From her early twenties, she took an interest in politics, and like many other middle class women, she joined the mass movements of the anti-imperial struggle. Married life In Allahabad, she met her future husband, M. Asaf Ali, a prominent Congressman, and they were married amidst parental opposition, both on the grounds of religion and age. Aruna had a maturity that went beyond her nubile 19-year age. She had chosen a man 23 years her senior for marriage. She went against her family and the entire society and all the communal beliefs to stand up for what she believed. Their marriage caused much comment and was against the wishes of her parents, since he was a Muslim. ©»º: 13 ]Ó¨¤uÌ: 2 ©õu®: ö\¨h®£º Á¸h®: 2025 P-ISSN: 2321-788X E-ISSN: 2582-0397 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.17313565 http://www.shanlaxjournals.com 65 £UP® Shanlax International Journal of Arts, Science and Humanities Political Contribution Following her marriage to Asaf Ali, she adopted the life of her husband and became an increasingly active member of the Congress party. She turned to Indian politics and aimed at making a valuable contribution. Gandhiji’s ideas and belief greatlyinfluencedher,asdidtheopinionofothers in the Indian National Congress. Her first ever active venture into politics started with the active participation in public processions during the Salt Satyagraha in 1930. She was arrested on the charge that she was a vagrant and put in jail. Unlike other prisoners who were released on account of the Gandhi Irwin Pact in 1931, she wasn’t released, but a public agitation secured her release. In 1932, she was yet again arrested and put in Tihar Jail in Delhi for participating in the freedom movement. While in jail, instead of mourning over the incarceration and awaiting release, she organized political prisoners and protested against the ill treatment being meted out to them by launching hunger strike. Her active stand made jail authorities wary of her. She was transferred to Ambala Jail, which only had male prisoners and as a result, she had to live insolitaryconfinementandisolation.However,in the aftermath of her protests, the state of political prisoners improved considerably. After being released from jail, she switched to socialism instead of concentrating on Congress doctrine. She aimed at educating the lower downtrodden class about caste hierarchy, poverty and gender oppression. Along with her husband, she attended the 45th session of the Indian Congress held in Bombay and became an important participant of the event. Remarkably, until the 1942 Quit India Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Indian nation, Aruna Asaf Ali was entirely a political, though she was married to a prominent Congress leader of undivided India, who subsequently served as Nehru’s ambassador to the United States and as governor of Orissa state. The summer of 1942 changed all that. Britain was then fightingtheSecondWorldWarandneededIndia’s willing support. Stafford Cripps was sent to Delhi to parley with the Indian National Congress. He tried to persuade Gandhi, Nehru and other nationalist leaders to agree to join an interim government to conduct the war against Germany and Japan in return for a promise of self-rule after the victory. Nehru was responsive to the British offer because of his burning opposition to fascism, but Gandhi, disillusioned with the British failure to live up to an identicalpromiseduringthefirstworldwar,called it a ‘post-dated cheque on a crashing bank’, and declared that while independent India would fight Japan,independentIndiawouldfight‘bothBritain and Japan’ He then launched the famous Quit India Movement and told his countrymen to ‘Do or Die’. Aruna Asaf Ali was among the tens of thousands of young Indians who immediately responded to Mahatma’s call. She was, in fact, given the honour of hoisting the Congress tricolour in Bombay at the meeting on August 1942 where Gandhi asked the British to pack up and go. She attended the Bombay Congress Session with her husband, where the historic Quit India resolution was passed on 8th August. When the Congress leaders were arrested on the day after this resolution was passed, Arunapresidedovertheflag-hoistingceremonyat Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay. She provided the spark that ignited the movement. She became a full-time activist in the Quit India movement and went underground to evade arrest. Her property was seized by the Government and sold. The Government also announced Rs. 5000 reward for her capture. Meanwhile, she fell ill and on hearing this Gandhiji advised her to surrender. However, Aruna Asaf Ali surrendered herself only when the warrants against her were cancelled on 26th January 1946. It was this gallant behaviour that earned her the title of ‘Heroine of 1942’ movement or ‘Grand Old Lady’ of the Independence Movement. It was while being underground that she edited Congress party’s monthly magazine ‘Inquilab’. In 1944, he urged the Indian youth to stop the futile discussion of violence and non-violence and participate actively in the freedom struggle. It was in 1946 when the warrant against her was finally withdrawn that she came out of her hiding. Having an inclination towards socialism, she soon became one of the members of the Congress Socialist Party. Post India’s Independence, while Asaf Ali took over as the Minister of Communication, she worked towards upliftment of the state of women. She 66 £UP® kupah fiy kw;Wk; mwptpay; (kfspu;) fy;Y}up> jpUney;Ntyp gz;ila tuyhWk; jkpou; gz;ghLk; encouraged women’s education and saw it as the only way to emancipate women from the clutches of the male-dominated society. To achieve this objective, she started the weekly journal, ‘Link’ and the daily newspaper ‘Patriot’. In 1954, she formed the National Federation of Indian Women and served as its President, but left the party in 1956. In 1955, the Congress Socialist Party merged with the Communist Party of India of which she became a member of the Central Committee and Vice President of the All India Trade Union Congress. However, in 1958 she left the Communist Party. Sameyear,sheservedasthefirstelectedMayorof Delhi. In the position, she closely worked with other reputed leaders for the social development of the state. In 1964, she re-joined the Congress Party but did not participate actively in the political pursuits. In 1964, she received the prestigious International Lenin Peace Prize. The Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding was awarded to her in 1991. In 1992, she received the India’s second highest civilian honour Padma Vibhushan. The country honoured her with its highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously. She had died on July 29, 1996 at the ripe age of 87 marking the end of a dedicated life. She is also the third woman after Indira Gandhi and Mother Teresa to be conferred with the Bharat Ratna. References 1. N.P. Srivastava, Famous personalities of India, Abhijeet publications, New Delhi, 2012. 2. G.N.S. Raghavan, Aruna Asaf Ali, A compassionate Radical, National Book Trust. ISBN 9788123727622. 3. Man Mohan Kaur, Women in India’s Freedom Struggle, Sterling publisher’s, Delhi, 1992, ISBN 8120713990. 4. R.C. Mishra, Women in India towards Gender equality, Delhi, 2006, ISBN 81-7273-306-2. 5. The Tribune, February 1946. 6. Pati, Biswamoy. “From the Parlour to the Streets.” Economic and Political Weekly 44.28 (2009):24-27.Print. 7. Daya, Pratik. “A Short Biography of Aruna Asif Ali.” Preserve Articles. Web. 10 Feb.2017. 8. Sarkar, Sumit. “The Communists and 1942.”Social Scientist 12.9 (1984): 47-48. Web. Sarkar, Sumit. 10 Feb.2017. 9. Malhotra, Inder. “Aruna Asaf Ali.”Guardian 30 July 1996. Web11. Feb.2017.