“The Old Lady Gandhi”

“Matangini led one procession from the north of the criminal court building; even after the firing commenced, she continued to advance with the tricolour flag, leaving all the volunteers behind. The police shot her three times. She continued marching despite wounds to the forehead and both hands.”

Reads a quote from the Biplabi newspaper, which was an initiative by the parallel Tamluk National Government exemplifying the courage and valour of Matangini Hazra during the Quit India Movement 1942.

Matangini Maity(maiden name)was an active woman participant in the Indian National Movement. She was born in an impoverished peasant family of a small village of Hogla near Tamluk and it was such dire poverty that unfortunately ensured that Matangini was never to receive a formal school education. As a child she was married off to Trilochan Hazra but by the age of 18 was widowed. However her story had only begun and the tale of her life was so extraordinary that it found its place in the pages of history.

A remarkable feature of the national struggle in Midnapore(Bengal) was the active participation of women and Matangini was one of them. She became devoted to the cause of Indian freedom from 1905 when the Swadeshi Movement was at its peak in Bengal. With time, she became inspired by Gandhi and followed his teachings so religiously that she came to be known as “Gandhi Buri”, Bengali for old lady Gandhi.

The turning point in her life came in 1932 when the Independence Day processions were carried out on the 26^th of January. As part of these processions men took to the streets to create awareness in the villages about the existing conditions in the country and when one such procession passed by her hut, Matangini joined and from then on she vowed to fight for India’s freedom.

Matangini was a vigorous participant of the Salt Satyagraha launched by Gandhi as part of the Civil Disobedience movement in 1932. She took part in salt manufacturing at Alinan, her late husband’s village, following which, she was arrested for violating the British salt laws. She later participated in the movement for the abolition of the chowkidari tax. During a march towards the court building, to protest against the Governor’s harsh decision to punish all agitators, Matangini was arrested again and made to serve a six-month prison term at Baharampur jail. After being released, she became an active member of the local unit of Indian National Congress. She resorted to spinning khadi (coarse cotton fabric) on her own charkha – despite her failing eyesight and advancing age. Following the outbreak of a smallpox epidemic, she tirelessly nursed the sick men women and children. In 1933, she attended the Sub-divisional Congress Conference at Serampore (West Bengal) and sustained injuries when the police unleashed baton charge on the protesters.

A stellar moment in the lifetime of Matangini came in 1933 when Sir John Ander, Governor of Bengal visited Tamluk to address a gathering. Despite tight security, Matangini shrewdly made her way to the dias on which the British official was giving a speech and waved a black flag to the crowd. This action met with the arrest and imprisonment of the frail lady with  a brave soul.

Matangini’s martyrdom came in 1942 during the Quit India movement when she led six thousand supporters to the Tamluk Police Station as a sign of protest against the British. The  Police of the British Raj, asked the procession to disband following which they openly fired on the peaceful assembly.

An account from the Biplabi newspaper states that Matangini had stepped forward to appeal to the Police to not shoot at the crowd and that was when she was hit by a bullet and with Vande Mataram on her lips, the brave soul had succumbed to her wounds.

Matangini Hazra’s statue can be found in Tamluk as well as in Kolkata. In fact, hers was the first statue of a woman put up in Kolkata, in independent India. A number of educational institutes and housing colonies too are named after her. In 2002, when the nation celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, the Department of Posts of India brought out a commemorative five rupee postage stamp with her portrait.

Megha Singh

Intern