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Sucheta Kriplani: India’s first woman chief minister and founder of All India Mahila Congress

Kriplani, who died on 1 December 1974, actively encouraged women to join politics and participate in the freedom struggle.

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New Delhi: Sucheta Kriplani, India’s first woman chief minister, was a fearless fighter for the country’s independence.

Born on 25 June 1908, Sucheta’s keen interest in politics took root at a young age, when British rule was at its peak.

“I could understand enough to feel great anger against the British. We vented out anger on some of the Anglo-Indian children who played with us, (her and her sister) calling them all kinds of names,” she recalled in her autobiography, Sucheta: An Unfinished Biography.

Gandhi’s disciple

After she graduated from Indraprastha College in Delhi, Sucheta decided to participate in the freedom movement and became one of Mahatma Gandhi’s closest disciples.

In 1936, she married Acharya Kriplani, 20 years her senior. It is said Gandhi initially opposed the marriage because of this age difference, but upon Sucheta’s protests and insistence, it finally went through.

Even though they both considered themselves staunch Gandhians, Sucheta never feared taking a political stance that differed from her husband’s. A harsh critic of Jawaharlal Nehru, Acharya broke away from the Congress and founded his own party, the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, in 1951. Sucheta followed, but only briefly.

By 1957, she won from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, but on a Congress ticket. She had switched back from her husband’s party because of ideological differences.


Also read: Remembering Bal Thackeray, political cartoonist who metamorphosed into a political fanatic


Founder of Congress’ women wing

She was also responsible for a collective that has survived and grown stronger since India’s Independence — the All India Mahila Congress.

“Thousands of women have participated in the various struggles of the Congress, but women had not been properly organised so far, and there was no woman’s organisation, parallel to, or as part of, the Congress’s organisation,” she said in an interview in 1974.

“I had to go from state to state, meet the Provincial Congress Committee leaders, meet all the women workers, and set up little women’s units in each state,” she had said.

Sucheta founded the women’s wing of the Congress in 1940, actively encouraging women to join politics and participate in the freedom struggle. Later, in 1946, she worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi helping Partition riot victims in Noakhali, a southeastern district in present-day Bangladesh.

In 1947, on the eve of Independence, she sang Vande Mataram before Nehru’s famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech in the Independence Session of the Constituent Assembly. She was also one of the 15 women to be elected to the Constituent Assembly.


Also read: Remembering the Red Fort trials that tipped India towards complete freedom 


First woman CM

Finally, in 1963 — even before Indira Gandhi took office — she became chief minister of the United Provinces (present day Uttar Pradesh), which she ruled until 1967. It was a remarkable feat given the small number of women in politics during her time, and she maintained a reputation for being a firm administrator.

During her tenure, state employees went on a hunger strike demanding a pay hike. Sucheta refused, until 62 days later, when the leaders of the agitation were ready to compromise.

After her tenure in the government got over, Sucheta continued to serve the nation, retiring only in 1971 — three years before her death on 1 December, 1974.

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