Lakshmi Sahgal, often referred to as Captain Lakshmi, a tribute to her rank when she was imprisoned in Burma during the Second World War, was born on 24th October 1914 to Subbarama Swaminathan, a lawyer who practised criminal law at Madras High Court and A.V. Ammukutty, a social worker and independence activist.
Early Life And Education
She had two brothers Govind Swaminathan, who was an eminent lawyer, and one of the leading members of the Chennai Bar, Subram, her younger brother, and a sister Mrinalini Sarabhai, wife of nuclear scientist Vikram Sarabhai, who was a famous dancer. Lakshmi studied at Queen Mary’s College, after which she had the option to study abroad. Still, she was determined to become a doctor to serve people experiencing poverty and chose to pursue medicine.
She received her MBBS degree from Madras Medical College in 1938. The following year, she received her diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics. She worked as a doctor at the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Triplicane, Chennai.
Brought up in an Anglophile family, the turning point in her life was when her father, Swaminathan, defended a young man, Kadambur, accused of murdering a British officer, De la Haye. It created a storm in Chennai, an advocate that saved a native who murdered an honourable English officer! After this incident, she was pulled out of her English school, and she attended a government school with her siblings. Her family started to converse in Malayalam and Tamil instead of English. This incident made Lakshmi and her family plunge into the ongoing freedom struggle. She saw her mother go from a Madras socialite to an ardent Congress supporter.
Her mother was a strong woman who walked into her daughter’s room and took away all the child’s foreign clothes to burn in a bonfire of foreign goods supporting the Swadeshi movement. In the South, the fight for political freedom was fought alongside the struggle for social reform. Campaigns for political independence were waged together with struggles for temple entry for Dalits and against child marriage and dowry. In due course, her interest in politics was kindled by Subashini, a radical who had spent many years in Germany and the younger sister of Sarojini Naidu, one of the accused in the Meerut conspiracy case. She was hiding in Lakshmi’s house then and introduced the young lady to communism. Later, this influenced her to join the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Her marriage was fixed with pilot P.K.N. Rao. Her marriage was cancelled for some reason, which was yet another turning point in Lakshmi’s life.
Journey To Singapore And The Indian National Army
In 1940, at the age of 26, she left for Singapore, where she met some members of Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army, The Azad Hind Fauj. She established a clinic for the poor, mostly migrant workers from India. During this time, she began to play an active role in the India Independence League. In 1942, when Britain surrendered Singapore to Japan, Lakshmi aided wounded prisoners of war, many of whom were interested in forming an Indian independence army. Several nationalist Indians worked in Singapore during this time, including K. P. Kesava Menon, S. C. Guha, and N. Raghavan, who formed a Council of Action. Still, unfortunately, the Indian National Army received no proper response from the occupying Japanese forces regarding their participation in the war.
Subhash Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore on 2nd July 1943 after dramatically escaping house arrest through Afghanistan and Central Asia to Europe. The India Independence League in Singapore organised a massive rally on 6th July 1943. As Subhash was now known, Netaji made an inspiring speech in which he promised them their freedom in exchange for blood. He also appealed to the Indian community to contribute generously so that the INA could indeed be Indian and not an army of Japanese stooges. He determined that raising and training a regiment of Indian women was the best way to move forward and proposed the same to the India Independence League.
Rani Of Jhansi Regiment
Over a few days, Bose spoke of his determination to raise a women’s regiment that would “fight for Indian Independence and make it complete” at all his public meetings. Lakshmi, hearing this, requested a meeting with him, and soon enough, Dr Lakshmi Swaminathan became Captain Lakshmi, the Commanding officer of The Rani of Jhansi Regiment. This title became her identity for the rest of her life. She went on to join Netaji’s Council of Ministers of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind as its only woman minister. The recruitment of the ‘Ranis’ for the women’s regiment is an inspiring illustration of what the most ordinary women can do when given the slightest opportunities.
When news spread in Singapore, hundreds of young women offered themselves for training and battle. The numbers were so large that many had to be turned away, weeping. Training started with an initial batch of 300 women in Singapore. But by the end, there were more than 1200 recruits. Unlike what most thought, expecting the regiment to be a nursing unit, only 200 were trained as nurses, though all received military training as demanding as that of the male soldiers. The regiment was trained for combat and sent to fight on the Burma front.
Wartime Experiences and Arrest
The Indian National Army (INA) marched to Burma with the Japanese army in December 1944, but by March 1945, the tide of war was turning against them. The INA leadership decided to beat a retreat before they could enter Imphal. Lakshmi was arrested in July 1945 and kept under house arrest in the jungles of Burma until March 1946. Many British Army officers stationed in Rangoon were Indians and were either friends of Lakshmi’s family or extremely sympathetic towards her. When she addressed a public meeting commemorating the anniversary of the formation of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind on 21st October, the event received comprehensive coverage, much to the distaste of the then British rulers; hence, orders were issued for Lakshmi to be transferred to Kalaw in the interior. The British arrested Captain Lakshmi in Burma from May 1945 till March 1946, after which she was sent to India; this was when the INA trials in Delhi heightened popular discontent with and hastened the end of colonial rule.
In the world outside, the Constitution Assembly began its sessions in Delhi. Her mother, Ammu Swaminathan, then elected member from Dindigul and several others, pressed for her early release. Finally, in August 1946, the Red Fort trial was over. The accused, who were sentenced to hanging, were given royal pardons because of popular pressure.
Lakshmi was brought to Calcutta from Rangoon by plane and set free at Dum Dum airport. Not a penny in her pocket, she took a taxi and told the driver that her brother would pay the fare as she did have her younger brother Subram’s address in the city. The driver, recognising her, said with delight, ‘I will drive you around anywhere you like for as long as you like as my guest!’ On reaching Subram’s flat, she found it locked. Her sister-in-law had left for Lahore to have a baby, and Subram was on tour. After perhaps a few hours, she was discovered by Aurobindo Bose, a relative of Netaji, who rushed sitting on the steps of Subram’s flat, looking quite desperate. She learned afterwards that her mother had been going to the airport daily for the past ten days with her son, hoping to receive Lakshmi, giving up the evening before and returning to Delhi.
Post-Independence Life
Lakshmi married Colonel Prem Kumar Sehgal in March 1947 in Lahore and settled in Kanpur. Even after her marriage, she continued practising medicine and aided the refugees who arrived in large numbers following the Partition of India. They had two daughters: Subhashini Ali and Anisa Puri.
One of the founding members of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) in 1981, Captain Lakshmi led many activities and campaigns. After the Bhopal gas tragedy, she was one of the first to move forward with her medical team in December 1984. She worked towards restoring peace in Kanpur following the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. Even when she was 92, if one were to look for her, they would first and foremost go to her clinic, such was her dedication. In 2002, four leftist parties – the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and the All India Forward Bloc – nominated Captain Lakshmi as a candidate in the presidential elections. She was the sole opponent of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who emerged victorious. She was the first woman nominated as a presidential candidate in India!
In 1998, for her selfless services in pre- and post-independent India, Sehgal was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by Indian President K. R. Narayanan. Lakshmi Sehgal wrote her autobiography titled A Revolutionary Life: Memoirs of a Political Activist. She wrote about her time spent with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and other members of the Indian National Army.
Captain Lakshmi suffered a cardiac arrest in a private hospital on 19th July 2012 and died on 23rd July 2012 at the age of 97 in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Lakshmi Sehgal was survived by her daughters, Subhashini Ali and Anisa Puri; her grandchildren, Shaad Ali, Neha, and Nishant Puri; and her sister, Mrinalini Sarabhai. Her body was donated to Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Kanpur Medical College for medical research as per her wish. Her eyes would give vision to a visually impaired person, and her body would still help save lives. Even in death, she was a doctor.
Dr Shyam Sundar is a Senior Neurosurgeon.
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