Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1903-04-03)3 April 1903 |
| Died | 29 October 1988(1988-10-29) (aged 85) Mumbai,Maharashtra, India |
| Alma mater | Queen Mary's College,Bedford College (London) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Ramon Magsaysay Award (1966) Padma Bhushan (1955) Padma Vibhushan (1987) |
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (3 April 1903 – 29 October 1988) was an Indiansocial reformer. She worked for the promotion of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre in independent India to uplift the socio-economic standard of Indian women. She was the first woman in India to contest in elections from Madras Constituency, but lost.
She headed theNational School of Drama andSangeet Natak Akademi. In 1974, she was awarded theSangeet Natak Academy Fellowship, the highest honour conferred by theSangeet Natak Academy, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama.[1] She was conferred withPadma Bhushan andPadma Vibhushan by Government of India in 1955 and 1987 respectively. She is known as Hatkargha Maa for her works in handloom sector.
Born in aSaraswat Brahmin family[2] on 3 April 1903 inMangaluru, Karnataka, Kamaladevi was the fourth and youngest daughter of her parents. Her father, Ananthayya Dhareshwar, was theDistrict Collector of Mangalore, and her mother, Girijabai, from whom she inherited an independent streak, belonged to a land-owning Chitrapur Saraswat brahmana family fromcoastal Karnataka. Kamaladevi's paternal grandmother was well-versed in the ancient Indian epics andpuranas, and Girijabai was also well-educated, although mostly home-tutored. Together, their presence in the household gave Kamaladevi a firm grounding and provided benchmarks to respect for her intellect as well as her voice, something that she came to be known for in the future.
Kamaladevi was an exceptional student and also exhibited qualities of determination and courage from an early age. Her parents befriended many prominent freedom fighters and intellectuals such asMahadev Govind Ranade,Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and women leaders likeRamabai Ranade, andAnnie Besant. This made young Kamaladevi an early enthusiast of theswadeshi nationalist movement.
She studied about the ancientSanskrit drama tradition ofKerala -Kutiyattam, from its greatest Guru and authority ofAbhinaya, NātyāchāryaPadma ShriMāni Mādhava Chākyār by staying at the Guru's home atKillikkurussimangalam.[3]
She was married in 1917 at the age of 14, but was widowed two years later.[4]
Meanwhile, studying inQueen Mary's College inChennai, she came to knowSuhasini Chattopadhyay, a fellow student and the younger sister ofSarojini Naidu, who later introduced Kamaladevi to their talented brother,Harindranath Chattopadhyay (née Harin), by then a well-known poet-playwright-actor. It was their mutual interest in the arts, which brought them together.
Finally, when she was twenty years old, Kamaladevi married Harin, much to the opposition of the orthodox society of the times, which was still heavily against widow marriage. L[5]Harin and Kamaladevi stayed together to pursue common dreams, which wouldn't have been possible otherwise, and in spite of many difficulties, they were able to work together, to produce plays and skits.
Later she also acted in a few films, in an era when acting was considered unsuitable for women from respectable families. In her first stint, she acted in two silent films, including the first silent film ofKannada film industry,Mricchakatika (Vasantsena) (1931), based on the famous play byShudraka, also starring Yenakshi Rama Rao, and directed by pioneeringKannada director, Mohan Dayaram Bhavnani. In her second stint in films she acted in a 1943Hindi film,Tansen, also starringK. L. Saigal and Khursheed,[6] followed byShankar Parvati (1943), andDhanna Bhagat (1945).[7]
Shortly after their marriage, Harin left for London, on his first trip abroad, and a few months later Kamaladevi joined him, where she joinedBedford College, University of London, and later she received a diploma in Sociology.[8]
While still in London, Kamaladevi came to know ofMahatma Gandhi'sNon-Cooperation Movement in 1923, and she promptly returned to India, to join theSeva Dal, a Gandhian organisation set up to promote social upliftment. Soon she was placed in charge of the women's section of the Dal, where she got involved in recruiting, training and organising girls and women of all ages women across India, to become voluntary workers, 'sevikas'.
In 1926, she met thesuffragetteMargaret E. Cousins, the founder ofAll India Women's Conference (AIWC), who inspired her to run for theMadras Provincial Legislative Assembly. Thus she became the first woman to run for a legislative seat in India. Though she could campaign for only a few days, she lost by a small margin of 55 votes.
In the following year, she became a founding member of the All-India Women's Conference (AIWC) and was its first Organizing Secretary. In the following years, AIWC grew to become a national organisation of repute, with branches and voluntary programs run throughout the nation, and work steadfastly for legislative reforms. During her tenure, she travelled extensively to many European nations and was inspired to initiate several social reform and community welfare programs, and set up educational institutions, run for and by women. It contributed to the formation ofLady Irwin College for Home Sciences in New Delhi.[citation needed]
Later she was a part of the seven-member lead team, announced by Mahatma Gandhi, in the famousSalt Satyagraha (1930), to prepare Salt at the Bombay beachfront, the only other woman volunteer in the team was Avantikabai Gokhale. Later in a startling move, Kamaladevi went up to a nearby High Court, and asked a magistrate present there whether he would be interested in buying the "Freedom Salt" she had just prepared.
On 26 January 1930 she gained widespread media attention when in a scuffle, she clung to the Indian tricolour to protect it.[9]
WhenWorld War II broke out Kamaladevi was in England, and she immediately began a world tour to represent India's situation to other countries and drum up support forIndependence after the war.
While on this tour she journeyed across the southern United States. In 1941 she boarded a segregated train. In Louisiana, a conductor tried to remove her from a car reserved for white passengers. Upon realizing that she was not a Black American, the conductor reportedly grew confused about how he should proceed and asked her where she was from. To her first answer, "New York," he pressed to learn "which land [she hailed] from," to which she reportedly responded: "It makes no difference. I am a colored woman obviously and it is unnecessary for you to disturb me for I have no intention of moving from here." The conductor left her sitting in that train car.[10]
Independence of India, broughtPartition in its wake, and she plunged into rehabilitation of the refugees. Her first task was to set up theIndian Cooperative Union to help with rehabilitation, and through the Union she made plans for a township on cooperative lines.[11] At length Jawahar Lal Nehru reluctantly gave her permission on the condition that she did not ask for state assistance, and so after much struggle, the township ofFaridabad was set up, on the outskirts of Delhi, rehabilitating over 50,000 refugees from theNorthwest Frontier. She worked tirelessly in helping the refugees to establish new homes and new professions; for this they were trained in new skills. She also helped set up health facilities in the new town.
Thus began the second phase of her life's work in rehabilitation of people as well as their lost crafts. She was considered singlehandedly responsible for the great revival of Indian handicrafts and handloom, in the post-independence era, and is considered her greatest legacy to modern India.[12]
Around this time she became concerned at the possibility that the introduction of Western methods of factory-based (machinery) mass production in India as part of Nehru's vision for India's development would affect traditional artisans, especially women in the unorganised sectors. She set up a series of crafts museums to hold and archive India's indigenous arts and crafts that served as a storehouse for indigenous know-how. This included the Theater Crafts Museum in Delhi.
She equally promoted arts and crafts, and instituted the National Awards for Master Craftsmen, and the culmination of her enterprising spirit led to the setting up ofCentral Cottage Industries Emporia throughout the nation to cater to the tastes of a nation, rising to its ancient glory.
In 1964 she started the Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography (NIKC),Bangalore, under the aegis of Bharatiya Natya Sangh, affiliated to UNESCO. Its present director is dancerMaya Rao.
Chattopadhyay was a woman ahead of her time, she was instrumental in setting up theAll India Handicrafts Board, and was also its first chairperson. She helped to establish the Delhi Craft Council, the Crafts Council of India and theWorld Crafts Council (WCC). She was the first president of the WCC's Asia Pacific Region.[13][14]
Chattopadhyay chaired theNational School of Drama and later headed theSangeet Natak Akademi, and was also a member ofUNESCO. Her autobiography,Inner Recesses and Outer Spaces: Memoir was published in 1986. She died on 29 October 1988 inBombay, aged 85.[citation needed]
TheGovernment of India conferred on her thePadma Bhushan in 1955, and thePadma Vibhushan in 1987, which are among the most reveredcivilian awards of theRepublic of India.[15] She was awarded theRamon Magsaysay Award in 1966 for Community Leadership. In 1974, she was awarded theSangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Ratna Sadasya, in recognition of her lifetime's work. The Fellowship is the highest award ofSangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama.[16]
UNESCO honoured her with an award in 1977 for her contribution towards the promotion of handicrafts.Shantiniketan honoured her with theDesikottama, its highest award.[17]
On 3 April 2018, on what would have been her 115th birthday,Google honoured her with a Doodle on their homepage.[18]
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