India seems to have forgotten the role played by 'Gandhian' women in our Independence struggle, writes Sanjoy Ghose while 'rehabilitating' his great-grandmother. .—.JALPAIGURI is a small town perilously close to the chicken's neck of North Bengal from where, on a clear winter's day, morning walkers such as my Dadu and Thakuma could easily catch a glimpse of the majestic and breathtaking Kanchenjunga range!.An enterprising Gopal Chandra Ghose migrated from East Bengal and set up home here and started dabbling in tea which was, until then, very much an English domain..Gopal's son Jogesh Chandra Ghose inherited his father's business and acquired tea gardens in dooars (from the term 'dwar' or 'door', used to refer to the gateway to Tibet or Bhutan) nestled between the River Teesta and the Darjeeling Hills. My story is about Jogesh's better half, Subhashini— my great-grandmother..What has this got to do with the Mahatma, one may ask. For that, you will simply have to read on..“What has this got to do with the Mahatma, one may ask. For that, you will simply have to read on..Well, it goes back to me being shown decades ago an autograph book by my father's elder brother—Jethu. The autographs were of visitors to our ancestral house— Gopal Bhavan. The autographs of Netaji (Subhash Chandra Bose) and his brother Sarat, even that of Bengal's tallest Chief Minister Bidhan Roy did not impress me as much as that of a wily Gujju politician.."What is the back story?" I demanded of my Jethu. Did he also visit our house?.Jethu said that his grandmother, Subhashini, had heard that a holy man had come to town. She insisted that he make a home visit. The holy man refused..Subhashini was willing to pay any price to secure such a visit. The holy man asked, "Will she be willing to give 300 gold guineas?" Subhashini's ego was now in play. She said, "Yes, tell baba she will.".Also read: Experiments with truth, Part 6: Gandhi on how to read— and boycott— newspapers.Thus came the holy man to Gopal Bhawan. The holy man's autograph is what stands captured in that autograph book..The great Teesta Floods of the 1960s and 1970s had ravaged the region and while Gopal Bhawan was one of the few buildings which had a floor above the water level, sadly, all photographs and memorabilia of times past had been washed away. It is a surprise that the autograph book survived..I had no hesitation in digesting and accepting this Nita Ambaniesque impression of Great Gran Subhashini and, in fact, I have narrated this version a number of times with great pride..My complacency was shattered when a lawyer shared with me a screenshot of a government of India site that was celebrating India's freedom— Amrit Mahotsav— with a write-up titled, 'Role of Tea Planters in the Swadeshi Movement at Jalpaiguri'..It read, "The district Jalpaiguri played a prominent role during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal and the tea planters of the region showcased their revolutionary zeal during this period.."The support of the Swadeshi movement in the district began with the boycott of British goods. It started with the Banga–Bhanga (Bengal partition) movement. Prominent tea planters of the locale like Jogesh Chandra Ghosh led the movement.".Having been thus educated that my own great-grandfather was a "prominent" person involved in Gandhi's Swadeshi Movement, I somehow could not hold onto the 'ignorant entitled lady' view of Great Gran Subhashini..Surely, the wife of a swadeshi activist would at least know that Gandhi was not an ordinary 'holy man'. I shared this new information on the family Whatsapp group and probed about Subhashini..I was schooled by an aunt who said, "Good god you didn't know that Subhashini herself was a key player in the Swadeshi Movement. She was every step of the way by the side of her husband Jogesh and, in fact, had organised the women of Jalpaiguri in the boycott of British goods!".Also read: Experiments with truth, Part 5: How is Gandhi relevant today?.I had to now resurrect and rehabilitate poor Subhashini. For that, I had to dig into Gandhi's fabled Jalpaiguri visit. Not Gandhi the holy baba who was summoned by the ignorant tea planter's wife with the lure of gold guineas but the Mahatma who had awoken a sleeping nation in her quest for freedom!.“Jethu said that his grandmother, Subhashini, had heard that a holy man had come to town. She insisted that he make a home visit. The holy man refused..The debating body that Octavian Hume had founded on December 28, 1885, had come a long way and at its 39th session, held on December 26–27, 1924, at Belgaum (now Belagavi), the Indian National Congress had elected Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as its President..At this session, Gandhi gave out his message for swaraj (self-governance) and swadeshi (self-reliance) was a key to achieving this goal. We know from contemporary records that this wily Gujarati politician used to charge a fee for giving autographs in the pre-selfie era..The noted journalist Kuldeep Nayyar has lamented about his inability to cough up that one rupee that Babu would extract for his signature. Of course, the proceeds would go towards the Congress Party and not fill his own coffers..In May, 1925, Bapu, who had travelled extensively the length and breadth of India, made his way to North Bengal. We know that on May 21, 1925, when our man arrived at the Dinajpur railway station and got out of his train to meet his adulating fans, the first thing he said was "rupiya deyo" (give money) and people immediately rushed to follow the master's command..Therefore, Mahatma could safely be considered as one of India's best fund raisers. We also know from his secretary Mahadev Desai's writings that Bapu visited Darjeeling on June 9, 1925..En route to Darjeeling on the famous Hill Cart Road, Bapu had stopped at Siliguri. There, Mahadev notes, one Shuimangal Singh was excited that Mahatma had agreed to spare him an hour at his house, on the way back on his arduous climb down the hill..At this 'home-visit', Singh was ready with a purse of 450 rupees which he had collected. So we clearly see a pattern of home visits and donations..Mahadev bhai wrote in his diary, "Reached Jalpaiguri on June 10, 1925". Bapu was accompanied by Satish Dasgupta and Prafulla Ghosh, who would go on to serve as West Bengal's first Chief Minister..Also read: Experiments with truth, Part 3: The moral and political dilemmas of housing rights.The Jalpaiguri District Congress Committee had formed a reception committee to welcome Gandhiji. The president of that committee was Dr Tarini Prasad Roy, the vice president was Jogesh Chandra Ghose, secretary was Annadacharan Sen and the volunteer members were Dr Charuchanda Sanyal, Madhusudan Dasgupta and Nani Roy..“Having been thus educated that my own great-grandfather was a "prominent" person involved in Gandhi's Swadeshi Movement, I somehow could not hold onto the 'ignorant entitled lady' view of Great Gran Subhashini..Having thus found out that my great-grandfather was also the vice president of the reception committee for the Mahatma, time had now come to bury forever the unfair image I had so long nurtured about poor Subhashini!.At Gandhi's public rally in Jalpaiguri, men and women in unison sang, "Mahatma Gandhi amra khaddar dhariachi." (Mahatma Gandhi we have adopted the khadi.).Gandhi's one hour speech at Ambagan had filled up the Congress coffers with seven thousand rupees, an astronomical sum in the 1920s. I am now fairly confident that this is where Subhashini's gold guineas had gone!.As we are poised to celebrate another Gandhi Jayanti and I was mulling about doing justice to the memory of Subhashini who, as it turns out, was a freedom fighter in her own right and not some ignorant entitled housewife with a Gandhi autograph from his house visit, I chanced upon The Fifteen— a brilliant book by Angellica Aribam and Akash Satyawali sketching the biography of India's founding mothers..My takeaway was that most of the women who found themselves in India's Constituent Assembly had been touched by the inspirational life of the Mahatma and had been personally encouraged and handpicked by the Mahatma to have a voice in drafting India's future Constitution..Many, such as Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Sarojini Naidu, had the courage to openly disagree with Bapu. Vijayalakshmi Pandit and the rajkumari were certainly uncomfortable with Gandhi's experiments with austerity. The rajkumari preferred her chiffons to the ashram's khadi. Yet, Mahatma wanted India's women to play an important role in determining India's future..“Many, such as Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Sarojini Naidu, had the courage to openly disagree with Bapu..Be it the small-towner Subhashni or the great Sarojini— India seems to have forgotten the role played by these 'Gandhian' women in our Independence struggle..The time has now come to relook at history and focus on the role played by India's women in securing her the freedom she so cherishes. They, I feel, have been shortchanged in our historical narratives and time has now come to remedy that wrong. Gandhi would have had it no other way!
