that she set up was sealed and the
staff there were blamed as illegal
workers. She fought against all the
wrong acquisition and was arrested
for protesting.
Ashalata focused on working for the
welfare of women. She set up many
organizations for women so that
they could stay conscious. Apart
from this, she wrote songs for all the
martyred freedom fighters.
No 4 - Maniben Patel
Maniben Patel was Sardar
Vallabhai’s daughter who was an
Indian leader. She was a member
of the Parliament and an Indian
Independence Movement activist.
She followed the teachings of
Gandhi Ji. She was born on April 3,
1903, in Gujarat.
During the freedom movement,
she was a staunch supporter of the
No-tax movement and encouraged
women not to support it. In addition
to this, Maniben Patel accompanied
Kasturi Gandhi to participate in the
Satyagraha movement and was
arrested for being a part of the non-
co operation movement.
After her father’s death, she was
extremely disheartened with
Jawaharlal Nehru. Before her father
passed away, he left a book that
had 35 lakhs in it and asked her to
only hand it over to Nehru, it was the
money of Congress party. She was
obedient and did as her father said.
Nehru collected the money from her
and never bothered to know about
how would she manage or offered to
help her. In fact, none of the leaders
did and this broke her heart.
Besides being a part of the
Freedom Movement, she
was associated with different
Educational Institutions.
No 5 - Rama Devi
Rama Devi was from Orissa,
born in 1894 and died in 1985.
She was a social reformer and
an Indian Freedom Fighter. She
joined the freedom movement in
1921. She followed Gandhiji and
actively participated in the non-co-
operation movement.
Rama Devi was a part of the
Congress party and would go door
to door encouraging women to
participate in the non-co-operation
movement. She was equally
a part of the Indian National
Congress and Salt Satyagraha
Movement. She was arrested a
lot of times by the British for being
a women activist and standing
against the British.
She was a mother of three
children. Her mother-inlaw did
her best to keep her away from
the freedom movement after she
lost her last son and that’s when
she lost interest in worldly affairs
and got involved in the Indian
Independence Movement.
She dedicated herself to Bhoodan
and the Gramdan Movement
after India got Independence.
Two of these movements focused
on giving land and wealth to the
poor. Additionally, she established
Teacher Training Centers and set
up a Tribal Welfare center.
JANUARY 2020 | WWW.WISHESH.NET