Born in 1914 to S. Swaminadhan, lawyer, and A.V. Ammukutty, social worker and freedom fighter, Lakshmi was involved in the freedom struggle from an early age. She campaigned for temple entry for dalits, and against child marriage and dowry. She completed her MBBS in 1938, and went to Singapore in 1940, where she came in contact with Subhash Chandra Bose. After a five-hour meeting with him, she was tasked with setting up the Rani Jhansi regiment, the women’s wing of the INA. Dr. Lakshmi Swaminadhan became Captain Lakshmi, a name and identity that would stay with her for life. She married married Col. Prem Kumar Sehgal, a leading figure of the INA, in March 1947. The couple moved from Lahore to Kanpur, where she plunged into her medical practice and she worked for refugees who came from Pakistan. Responding to Jyoti Basu’s call to doctors, she worked in refugee camps for Bangladeshi refugees. Soon after, she joined the CPI(M), and was one of the founder members of AIDWA in 1981. During the anti-Sikh violence following Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, she confronted mobs and ensured that no Sikh person or business was harmed in her locality in Kanpur. In 2002, she was the Presidential candidate of the Left against A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. She remains one of the authentic heroines of the Freedom Movement.
Our country is facing a dangerous situation. Prices of fuel and food are soaring; unemployment is at an all-time high; workers, farmers, common people are all suffering. To divert attention away…
All India Democratic Women’s Association observed Dussehra today by burning the effigy of the so-called (religious) babas, who violate women behind the fig-leaf of religion and the anti-women VC of…
The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) condemns the brutal police violence perpetrated on all students, majority of which are girls, by the authorities of the Banaras Hindu University…
Dozens of children at the ward no. 100 of BRD Medical College hospital, Gorakhpur met their tragic death during the fatefull night of August 10-11 this year. This was not merely an accident. It was…
We oppose dilution of Section 498A”, “Violence is not a trivial issue” were slogans heard loud and clear at the Supreme Court of India on the morning of 31st July, 2017. A group of women’s…
