: Meet The Assam Freedom Fighter Who Dared Be A Single Mother Pioneered Women’s Rights #IndiaNEWS #History The year is 1925, and the Assam Sahitya Sabha is holding a session in Nagaon district, Assam,

Meet The Assam Freedom Fighter Who Dared Be A Single Mother Pioneered Women’s Rights #IndiaNEWS #History
The year is 1925, and the Assam Sahitya Sabha is holding a session in Nagaon district, Assam, to discuss the importance of educating women. Present at the conference are both men and women, but they’re separated by a barrier constructed from bamboo, with the women sitting behind it. It’s ironic, because here’s a gathering to discuss how women deserve equal opportunities as men, and yet, the distinction between the two could not be clearer. One woman present at the conference is quick to note this. She stands up at the mic, and tells the women to remove the barrier and sit with the men. And as the women break down the barrier in the meeting, a larger, metaphorical barrier between men and women is shattered as well.
This woman was 24-year-old Chandraprabha Saikiani. As a social activist, she spent her entire life fighting to give women the rights they deserved, but alongside, led a tumultuous life that shaped her larger fight.
Saikiani had been a pioneer in womens equality ever since she was a young girl.
Breaking down barriers
Chandraprabha was born in 1901 in Daisingari in Assam’s Kamrup district. Her father, Ritaram Mazumdar, was the village head, and she was the seventh of 11 children that he and his wife, Gangapriya had. Ritaram was a firm believer in education, and urged his daughters to work and study hard. Along with her sister Rajaniprabha, she would wade through waist-deep mud water every day to reach the closest boys’ school, as there was no girls’ school nearby.
She was all but 13 when she brought several young girls under her wing to establish a girls’ school in Akaya village. The girls studied in a shed and Chandraprabha would impart whatever knowledge she had gained from attending school herself. Here, a man named Neelkanta Barua, a school sub-inspector, spotted Chandraprabha. Moved by her dedication, awarded her and Rajaniprabha a scholarship to study in the Nagaon Mission School. Rajaniprabha would later become the first woman doctor in Assam.
At the Mission school, Chandraprabha found that there was a clear distinction between Hindu and Christian students. Girls were not allowed to stay in the hostels unless they converted to Christianity, and thus began her relentless efforts to allow the induction of Hindu students in the hostel. Her efforts proved to be successful, and authorities allowed girls in the hostel without forcing them to convert to Christianity.
At 17, she took charge to address a large crowd to call for a ban on opium. At the time, a woman speaking at a public gathering, much less expressing a strong opinion, was not just frowned upon, but even unheard of. The prevalent evils of the caste system deeply perturbed her, and she worked to successfully open the doors of the ancient Hajo Hayagriva Madhav Temple for everyone, irrespective of caste, gender or religion.

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