Chandraprava Saikiani

Chandraprava Saikiani (aka Chandraprabha Saikiani) (1901–1972) was an Indian social reformer, writer and freedom fighter from Assam.^[1][2][3] She was the founder of The All Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti, a non governmental organization working for the welfare of the women of Assam^[4] and was a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri for the year 1972 from the Government of India.^[5] Two decades later, the Indian government issued a commemorative stamp on Saikiani under the series, Social Reformers, in 2002.^[6]

Biography

Chandraprava Saikiani, née Chandrapriya Das, was born on 16 March 1901 at a small hamlet, Daisingari, in the Kamrup district in the Northeast Indian state of Assam^[1] to Ratiram Mazumdar, a village headman and his wife, Gangapriya^[2] as the seventh of their eleven children.^[7][8] Due to the absence of a girls' school, she did her early education at a boys' school, away from her village.^[1] After school, she gathered local illiterate girls and taught them what she learnt at school at a makeshift shed near the school.^[9] Getting a scholarship, she joined Nagaon Mission School along with her younger sister, Rajaniprava, who would later become the first woman medical doctor from Assam.^[9] Her social activism started here when she protested against the allegedly discriminatory treatment meted out to Hindu students by the hostel superintendent.^[2] Later, at the age of 17, she attended the Asom Chhatra Sammelan, a students' convention at Tezpur in 1918 where, being the only woman speaker, she called for ban on opium.^[2]

Saikiani started her career as a teacher at a primary school in Nagaon and later, became the headmistress of the Girls’ M. E. School, Tezpur.^[2] During this time, she refused to honour her parents' commitment to marry her off to an elderly person^[10] and got engaged to Dandinath Kalita, an Assamese writer.^[7] The relationship resulted in Saikiani becoming a mother out of marriage and she remained a spinster for life^[8] after Kalita married another woman.^[9] She was reported to have faced strong opposition from the conservative society in bringing up her son as a single mother^[1] but her life in Tezpur brought her opportunities to meet and interact with social and cultural leaders such as Chandranath Sharma, Omeo Kumar Das,^[11] Jyotiprasad Agarwalla and Lakhidhar Sarma. In 1921, she joined the non co-operation movement of Mahatma Gandhi and worked to spread the message among women of Tezpur.^[2] She was an invited speaker at the Nagaon session of the Assam Sahitya Sabha in 1925 where she called upon the women attendees who were seated in a separate enclosure to break the barriers and the women heeded her call to come out to the open area.^[2] Returning to her village, she joined Kaljirapara school as a teacher but resigned her job when she was denied permission to attend the Guwahati session of the Indian National Congress.^[2] She continued her social activism and founded Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti in 1926^[12] to act against child marriage, polygamy and the discrimination of women at the temples and to take up issues like women's education and self-employment.^[1] Her efforts were reported in getting the Hayagriva Madhava Temple, Hajo, near Guwahati opened to women.^[2] Her involvement with the civil disobedience movement landed her in jail in 1930^[1] and later in 1943, she was jailed again while participating in the non co-operation movement.^[7][8]

Saikiani published her first short story in a local magazine, Bahi, in 1918 at age of 17 followed by several novels such as Pitribhitha (The Paternal Home) (1937), Sipahi Bidrohat (Sepoy Mutiny), Dillir Sinhasan (Throne of Delhi) and Kavi Anav Ghosh.^[1] She served as the editor of Assamese magazine, Abhijatri for a period of seven years^[2] and also headed the Al India Assam Peasants' Conference.^[7] After the Indian independence, she joined the Socialist Party but returned to the Indian National Congress and unsuccessfully contested in the 1957 Assam Legislative Assembly,^[2] becoming the first Assamese woman to contest an election.^[7] Her son, Atul Saikia, is a politician and a former member of Assam Legislative Assembly.^[7]

Saikiani died on her 72nd birthday on 16 March 1972^[1][2] succumbing to cancer.^[7] A couple of months before her death, the Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1972.^[5] She was honoured again in 2002 by the government when a commemorative postage stamp was issued by the Department of Posts in 2002 under the series, social reformers.^[6] The government polytechnic in Kamrup, Guwahati^[13] is named after her^[9] and the Tezpur University established a women's centre in her name, Chandraprabha Saikiani Center for Women’s Studies (CSCWS) in 2009 for promoting women's education in the Northeast India.^[14]

Her life has been documented in four biographies, Agnisnata Chandraprabha (1998) by Pushpalata Das,^[15] Chandraprabha Saikiani (2001) by Achyut Kumar Sharma, Muktixongrami Chandraprabha (2002) by Hironmoyi Devi and Chandraprabha [2011]^[16] by Anjali Sarma.^[10] Abhiyatri: One Life Many Rivers,^[17] a novel published in 1999 by Nirupama Borgohain, renowned Assamese novelist and wife of Homen Borgohain,^[18] is a fictionalised account of Saikiani's life^[8] and the novel went on to win the Sahitya Akademi award in 1996.^[19] The books has since been translated into English by Pradipto Borgohain.^[8]

See also

References

Further reading

• Basavaraj Naikar (2005). Literary Vision. Sarup & Sons. p. 390. ISBN 9788176255660. 
• Nirupama Bargohain (Author), Pradipto Bargohain (Translator) (2000). Abhiyatri: One Life Many Rivers. Sahitya Akademi. p. 168. ISBN 978-8126006885.