Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, freedom fighter and close aide of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who died in Kanpur, aged 98, was born in Chennai and worked as a doctor in the city.
She was the daughter of eminent Madras advocate S. Swaminathan and social activist Ammu Swaminathan, who was later elected to the Parliament from Dindigul Lok Sabha constituency. Capt. Lakshmi’s parents belonged to Kerala and theirs was an inter-caste marriage.
Her brother Govind Swaminathan was an eminent lawyer and one of the leading members of the Chennai Bar, and her sister Mrinalini Sarabhai, wife of nuclear scientist Vikram Sarabhai, is a famous dancer.
“In Chennai, she would address meetings in Tamil. Capt. Lakshmi was a polyglot. I heard her speaking to delegates of the All India Democratic Women’s Association conference in Kanpur in their mother tongue,” said P. Vasuki, a secretary of AIDWA.
A doctor by profession, Capt. Lakshmi studied at Chennai’s Queen Mary’s College and later completed her MBBS at Madras Medical College. She then got a diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology (DGO) and worked in the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, Triplicane.
Though brought up in an Anglophile family, Capt. Lakshmi and her kin were to turn their backs on their colonial leanings after her father defended a young man, Kadambur, accused of murdering a British officer, De la Haye, the principal of Newington House in Madras, and got him acquitted.
“It created a storm in Chennai. We had to face its consequences. English friends of my mother kept a distance from us after that. In school, English teachers cursed me for being the daughter of an advocate who saved a native who murdered an honourable English officer,” Capt. Lakshmi wrote in her autobiography A Revolutionary Life: Memoirs of a Political Activist.
After this, Capt. Lakshmi and her siblings were pulled out of the English school and admitted to a government school. “We soon started conversing in Tamil and Malayalam instead of English and wore Indian costumes. Most of the servants at our home were Dalits and we shared food with them much to the surprise of others,” she wrote.
Interestingly, the principal of Queen Mary’s College was the sister of the murdered British officer De la Haye. “But she never exhibited any hatred towards me,” Capt. Lakshmi had recalled.
Her interest in politics was kindled by Subashini, the younger sister of Sarojini Naidu, and one of the accused in the Meerut conspiracy case. She was hiding in Capt. Lakshmi’s house at that time and they spent many nights discussing communism. Later, she joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Her marriage to pilot P.K.N. Rao was a failure and she left for Singapore in 1940 “to escape the marriage”. It was there that she came in contact with the members of Netaji’s Indian National Army (INA) and later formed the Rani of Jhansi regiment (an all-woman unit).
She was fielded as the Left parties’ candidate against Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in the presidential elections of 2002. Her daughter Subhasini Ali, who was elected to Parliament from Kanpur to the Lok Sabha, is also a graduate from the Madras University.
Keywords: Captain Lakshmi Sahgal death, INA, freedom fighter, activist
I just read the preface of the book "The Forgotten Army-India's Armed Struggle for
Independence" by Peter Ward Fay about Captain Lakshmi Sahgal and the INA. Given
the facts unknown to millions even today of their selfless struggle for our freedom,
it is disgraceful on the part of government to have not only ignored the sacrifices
made by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, Captain Lakshmi Sahgal and others in the
INA, but also for not disseminating their contribution to Gen Next and giving them
their due honour.Is there any Indian today whose contribution for our freedom was
anywhere close to that of Captain Lakshmi, who left us only yesterday ? Now, after
knowing so much about her,I dare say that Captain Lakshmi Sahgal deserved more
than Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to be India's President then; lot more so later on,instead
of Mrs Pratibha Patil by any standards, whatsoever.
there is one incident with capt. laxmi i will never forget.
i accompanied capt. laxmi as the ambassador of the NETAJI FOUNDATION (CHENNAI) for a march past in Velammal school (chennai) in 2002. as we approached the dias on the red carpet, the school band started playing. capt. Laxmi threw off my guiding hand and stood stiff in attention and started marching to the dias with long steps. i was shocked.... an 88-year old lady who was walking slowly suddenly comes alive to the drums and cymbals. it spoke of her legacy in leading the rani jhansi regiment of the INA.
i still show those photos to my children and hey.... those memories make me sad.
we lost a true lady who showed Indian women are second to none in physical prowess when compared to thier male compatriots.
PROF. V. ANTO
NETAJI FOUNDATION
COIMBATORE
cantov@yahoo.com
98423-63777
really inspiring and younger generation should read her autobiography
It's nice to know about the social contributoin of a lady grown up in a city which I love. My hearts and thought for the family who has lost a great person. Instead of supporting people like her we tamilians elected bad people in the last 40 years and destroyed the Tamilnadu. i hope we tamilians get some sense in the future to support good people for politics rather than the current politicians.
The Gumnami Baba, supposedly Netaji Bose, had passed on in 2010 and now Capt Lakshmi. What a loss it is for India !
The history of INA itself remains largely occluded. Though it is said that tens of thousands of INA soldiers perished in Papua New Guinea digging tunnels, the full truth will probably be never known.
The present generation should know such true patriot-nationalist, who rose above casteism, communal affiliations and regional chauvinism. The true citizen of India ,she was as per our constitutional expectations.Salutations to you madame,you are a role model to all of us.ALVIDA to you.
Its strange but true that I knew a lot of about Capt.Laxmi Sahgal after
reading this article. She was the true fighter.
Many thanks for this informative piece highlighting Laxmi's earlier years in Chennai.Though
her family was prominent and frontline in the fifties and later,Laxmi seems to have drawn
very little from their wealth or reputation but followed her own convictions in all spheres-
political,professional and importantly personal.In her thirties,she carried arms; from thirties to
late nineties,she cared for the sick and the suffering; she was an early founder of the
women's welfare movement; she steadfastly believed in the reddest of the left in politics-
now reduced to a whine from its yesteryears' roar,elsewhere.
How is it that none of the obits mention any National honour to this diminutive woman?You
mean,she had been sidelined for eighty years?
Her death raises once again the other important issue:Was it right,beyond the slightest
shade of guilt,to take the help of the most brutal and racist Japs,to fight colonialism? Ask the
Singaporeans,Malaysians,Indonesians for their savagery,if in doubt.
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