Lakshmi Sehgal
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
1914-2012
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
Ronojoy Sen
A freedom fighter who never lost her zest for life
The year Lakshmi Sahgal was born, the First World War had just begun and India was years away from Independence.
Sahgal played her part in the process that would eventually win India its freedom. But unlike many nationalist heroes she hitched her wagon to the maverick Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. After qualifying as a doctor from Madras in 1938, Sahgal, born Lakshmi Swaminathan to a lawyer father and a social worker mother, took the unusual step of travelling to Singapore to practice. With war spreading to south-east Asia in end-1941, Sahgal began treating wounded prisoners of war many of whom were of Indian origin. She also became actively involved in the India Independence League, which organized Indians in south-east Asia against the British. Her life changed irrevocably with the arrival of Bose in Singapore in 1943. Electrified by Netaji’s message she took up the responsibility for setting up the Rani Jhansi regiment, the women’s brigade of the Indian National Army (INA). She was also inducted into the provisional cabinet of Azad Hind, the only woman in that position. In the end-game before Indian independence she was captured by the British in 1946 and brought back to India. Her private and public life intertwined when she married Colonel Prem Sahgal, also of the INA, in 1947. From then she was to be known as Captain Lakshmi Sahgal. After independence Sahgal settled in Kanpur, where she quietly kept serving people by treating thousands of poor patients for free. In the aftermath of the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, when refugees began pouring into India, she spent several months in West Bengal working with uprooted people. It was this experience that made her join the CPM. She was also a founder member of the All India Democratic Women’s Association. In 2002, she ran unsuccessfully against APJ Abdul Kalam as the Left parties’ candidate for India’s presidency. Sahgal often took up lost causes such as campaigning against beauty contests, but she never lost her zest for life. Even after she had a heart attack in July 2012 she continued to meet patients. It was this that endeared to millions. After independence, Sahgal settled in Kanpur where she kept serving people by treating poor patients for free
Contribution, Myanmar
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
Jayanta Gupta
Sahgal helped free 34 Myanmar nationals from Kolkata prison
“She played an active role in the release of the Myanmarese detainees. She wrote letters to the government and succeeded in convincing people that these people were not terrorists but freedom fighters opposing the military junta in Myanmar,” said Sujato Bhadra of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights in Kolkata. Sahgal was over 90 when she participated in a dharna for the Myanmarese. It was Sahgal’s initiative that made filmmaker Mrinal Sen and Malini Bhattacharya to write to the West Bengal government with an appeal to teach the nationals with dignity. It was due to this pressure that the government withdrew its order to conduct trials inside the jail and then in an open court in March, 2007.
