Freedom Fighters of Indian Independence - 2
Bhikaiji Rustom Cama (24 September 1861 – 13 August
1936)
Bhikaiji Rustom Cama, born as Bhikaiji Sorab Patel, also known as Madame Cama, was a prominent figure of Indian Political
movement and an advocate for women’s rights who had the unique distinction of
unfurling the first version of the Indian national flag—a tricolour of green,
saffron, and red stripes—at the International Socialist Congress held at
Stuttgrt, Germany in 1907.
She was born on 24th September 1861
in Mumbai in a well off Parsi Family and was married to Rustom Cama, a wealthy
Pro-British lawyer. However, her involvement with sociopolitical
issues led to differences between the couple forcing Bhikaiji to spend most of
her time and energy in Philanthropic and social work.
In October 1896, the then Bombay Presidency was hit by famine, and shortly thereafter by plague. Bhikhaiji joined one of the many teams working out of Grant Medical College, which later became Haffkine's plague vaccine research centre, to provide care for the affected.
Cama subsequently contracted the plague
herself but survived it. She was then
taken to Britain for medical care.
When she was just preparing
to return to India in 1908, she came in contact with Shyamji Krishan Varma,
who was well known in London's Indian community for his fiery nationalist
speeches he gave in Hyde Park.
We shall delve in detail about Shyamji Krishan
Varma, another great Freedom Fighter of Indian Independence in my ensuing blog
on 4th October, which happens to be his Birth anniversary.
Through him, she met Dadabhoy Naoroji, the
then President of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress and
for whom she came to work as private secretary l.
Together with Naoroji and S.R. Rana,
another great son of India, Cama supported the founding of Varma’s Indian
Homes Society. In London, she was told that her return to India would
be prevented unless she would sign a statement promising not to participate in
nationalist activities. She is believed to have refused it.
That same year Cama relocated to Paris where
together with other notable members of the movement for Indian sovereignty living in exile,
Cama wrote and published (in the Netherlands and Switzerland) and distributed
revolutionary literature for the movement, including Bande Mataram (founded in response to the Crown ban on the
poem Vande Mataram) and later Madan’s Talwar (in response to the execution of Madan Lal
Dhingra.
These weeklies were smuggled into India
through the French colony of Pondichery.
On 22 August 1907, Cama attended the second Socialist
Congress at Stuttgart, Germany, where she described the devastating effects
of a famine that had struck the Indian subcontinent. In her appeal for human
rights, equality and for autonomy from Great Britain, she unfurled what she
called the "Flag of Indian Independence".
Cama's flag, a modification of the Calcutta
Flag, was co-designed by Cama, and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, and would
later serve as one of the templates from which the current national flag of India was created.
In 1909, following Madan Lal Dhingra's assassination of William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, an aide to the Secretary of State for India, Scotland Yard arrested several key activists living in Great
Britain.
The British Government requested
for Cama's extradition, but the French Government refused to cooperate. In return, the
British Government seized Cama's inheritance.
Bhikhaiji Cama was a vehement support of
gender equality. Speaking in Cairo, Egypt in 1910, on observing nil female
attendance, she asked the gathering where their wives and daughters, mothers
and sisters were.
Cama is believed to have requested other fellow
Parsi women while discussing on the issue of the right
to vote, to work for Indian's freedom and Independence than anything else as she believed strongly
that once India gets her Independence, women will not only have the right to
vote, but all other rights too.
Cama remained in exile in Europe until 1935,
when, gravely ill and paralysed by a stroke that she had suffered earlier that
year, she petitioned the British government through Sir Cowasji Jehangir to be allowed to return home.
Writing from Paris on 24 June 1935, she
acceded to the requirement that she renounce the so called seditionist
activities. Accompanied by Jehangir, she arrived in Bombay in November 1935 and
died nine months later, aged 74, at Parsi General Hospital on 13 August 1936.
Bikhaiji Cama bequeathed most of her personal
assets to the Avabai Petit Orphanage for girls
Several Indian cities have streets and places
named after Bhikhaiji Cama, or Madame Cama as she is also known. On 26 January
1962, the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a commemorative stamp
in her honour.
In 1997, the Indian Coast Guard commissioned a Priyadarshini-class
fast patrol vessel ICGS Bikhaiji Cama after Bikhaiji Cama.
The high-rise office complex in South Delhi
which accommodates big companies, is also named as Bhikaji Cama Place as a
tribute to her.
Following Cama's 1907 Stuttgart address, the
flag she raised there was smuggled into British India by Indulal Yagnik and is now on display at the Maratha and
Kesari Library in Pune.
Source:
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This is my humble attempt in sharing the life of freedom fighters of Indian Independence who fought against the British rule.
ReplyDeleteGood write up. Would wait for more on carnatic and Hindi film music.
ReplyDeleteThe article on Bikhji Cama brings valuable information which we should know. The present generation must understand that the carefree life they lead now is the fruits of the sacrifice the freedom fighters done. Thanks for taking the efforts taken.
ReplyDeleteWell written KVS. It blew away some of the cobwebs from my memory.Enjoyed reading. Keep it coming.
ReplyDelete