My knowledge of Cinema is very low – have not heard of this Hindi movie ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey’ directed by Ashutosh Gowariker starring Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone BUT feel bad in not knowing Pritilata Waddedar !! – who ??- Gandhi and Congress fought Britishers and got freedom without drop of blood and Jawaharlal Nehru guided the Nation !!!!!
Today (8th March) is
International Women’s Day .. .. Appreciating all Women I know right from
my mother, wife, sister, sister-in-law, relatives, teachers, women bosses,
female colleagues – and all feminine gender known to me- my special
greetings to all of them ~ Happy International Women's Day 2023.
March 8, 2020 was a Red
letter day for Indian women's cricket. India's maiden appearance in
a T20 World Cup final, against defending champions Australia, drew 86,174
spectators at the MCG - the most ever at a women's or men's T20 World Cup final
and for a women's sporting event in Australia. India lost that match
! .. ..
In some ways this is a
western concept – marking a day and attaching all importance to it by marketing
it. Our literature has cherished place for women and traditionally we are
taught to respect women. Our moral stories are replete with instances of
obeisance to mother and femininity holding them in high regard; yet 8th Mar
would be a special day.
Any reference to women of
fame would not be complete with writing about ‘Avvaiyar’ - great tamil
poetess whose statue also stands in the marina closer to Queen Mary’s
college. She lived in the southern parts attributed to sangam period.
Reverred to be noble besides her extraordinary poetic skills, the term means '
respected old woman' or 'Grandmother'. Her works include Purananuru and
Aathichoodi. She had cordial relations with the Kings Pari and Athiaman.
According to Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad, King Janaka of Videha Kingdom held a Rajasuya Yagna and invited all
the learned sages, kings and princess of India to participate. The yagna lasted
for many days. The galaxy of scholars, included the renowned sage
Yajnavalkya. There were eight renowned sages who challenged him for
a debate, which included Gargi, the only lady in the
assembled gathering of the learned. Gargi and Yajnavalkya's exchange
centered on the ultimate "warp" of reality ("warp" means
"the basic foundation or material of a structure or entity). This is
a post on ‘wonder woman’ ~ it would not require a Nobel for a woman to be
impressive and an influencer
There are many others who
achieved, though not as famous – Reena Kaushal Dharkshaktu was the first woman
to reach South pole and Sucheta Kadethankar was the first to have walked across
Gobi desert. Devika Rani was the first recipient of the prestigious
film prize, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur from the
Princely family of Kapurthala was the first Women Cabinet minister – she was
the health minister in the Indian Cabinet for ten years after India's
independence from the British Raj in 1947.
Yet despite all the
hullabaloo – even as the World marks International Women’s Day on Wednesday,
the United Nations has warned that the world is 300 years away from gender
equality, with hard-won progress toward the goal “vanishing before our eyes.” Speaking
Monday, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres warned that “women’s rights are
being abused, threatened and violated around the world.”
In Sept 2022, a young
Kurdish woman was detained in Tehran after allegedly breaching the country’s
strict dress code. Days later, the 22-year-old died in custody — allegedly
after being beaten by police. Mahsa Amini’s death unleashed a wave of
protests under the slogan “Women, life, freedom,” which came to express decades
of discontent not only with the country’s veiling laws but with the ruling
system itself.
If you still remember that
name at the start – “Pritilata Waddedar” – here is something on that great
woman [5.5.1911 – 24.9.1932] – a mere 21 years !
She studied in
Chittagong and Dhaka, attended Bethune College in Kolkata;
graduated in philosophy with distinction and became a school teacher. She
is praised as "Bengal's first woman martyr". Pritilata joined a
revolutionary group headed by Surya Sen and led fifteen revolutionaries in
the 1932 armed attack on the Pahartali European Club, during which one person
was killed and eleven injured. The revolutionaries torched the club and were
later caught by the colonial police. Pritilata was born in a middle-class
Vaidya Brahmin family in Dhalghat village in Patiya upazila of Chittagong
(now in Bangladesh).
In 1932, Suriya Sen
planned to attack the Pahartali European Club which had a signboard that read
"Dogs and Indians not allowed". [Remember this epic instance
was clumsily captured in Rajnikant starrer Maaveeran] Surjo Sen decided to appoint a woman
leader for this mission. Kalpana Datta was arrested seven days before the
event. So, Pritilata was assigned the leadership of the attack. On
the day of the attack, Pritilata dressed herself as a Punjabi male. Her
associates Kalishankar Dey, Bireshwar Roy, Prafulla Das, Shanti Chakraborty wore
dhoti and shirt. Mahendra Chowdhury, Sushil Dey and Panna Sen wore lungi and
shirt. They attacked the club building and set it alight. There was
firing from inside by the Police officers.
An injured Pritilata was
trapped by the colonial police; She swallowed cyanide to avoid getting
arrested. In Bangladesh, she hailed as an ideal woman. A
trust named Birkannya Pritilata Trust (Brave lady Pritilata Trust) was found in
her memory. Pritilata's birthday is celebrated by the trust in different places
of Bangladesh and India every year. The last end of Sahid Abdus Sabur Road to
Mukunda Ram Hat of Boalkhali upazila in Chittagong has been named as Pritilata
Waddedar Road. In 2012, a bronze sculpture of Pritilata Waddedar was
erected in front of the Pahartali Railway School, adjacent to the historical
European Club.
Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey (transl. We Play with Passion) is
an account of the 1930 Chittagong armoury raid - an
attempt on 18 April 1930 to raid the armoury of police and auxiliary forces
from the Chittagong armoury in the Bengal Presidency of British India by armed
Indian independence fighters led by Surya Sen.
The group included Ganesh Ghosh, Lokenath Bal, Ambika
Chakrobarty, Harigopal Bal (Tegra), Ananta Singh, Anand Prasad Gupta, Tripura
Sen, Bilash Dey, Bidhubhusan Bhattacharya, Pritilata Waddedar,
Kalpana Dutta, Himangshu Sen, Binod Bihari Chowdhury, Subodh Roy, Monoranjan
Bhattacharya. Now honestly tell 3yourself
– whether you know or read about any of these personalities who sacrificed
their life for our freedom !! .. .. [Mahatma Gandhi got us
freedom without drop of blood and Jawaharlal Nehru guided the Nation!!]
Appreciations and greetings
to all Women known and those who influenced me – and pranams to those great women like Pritilata
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
8.3.2023
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