National Women’s Day – #Steps to Fearless Women (1)

All through the freedom struggle which lasted around a hundred years, it was always stated for freedom of women. Millions of women sacrificed in this struggle and lacs of martyrs. In the ‘Namak Satyagraha’, out of about one lakh Satyagrahis imprisoned, seventeen thousand were women. From this it can be inference that a large number of women must have participated in the freedom struggle. Similarly, the saga of martyrdom and sacrifice of women in the 1857 war

of independence is scattered in many historical documents and is enshrined in folk memories. Overall it can be said that the saga of the freedom struggle is partial without discussing the role of women.

But even 75 years after the independence the cherished dreams of millions of freedom fighter are not realized and women are still fighting for freedom. The written history of the freedom struggle (1857 - 1947) is spread over lakhs of pages, but there is almost blank about the role of women.

Wrote about the bravery and sacrifices of some queens like Rani Lakshmibai, Begum Hazrat Mahal. And popular too. But there is almost no discussion about the queens of many small princely states like Talaash Kuvari, queen of the princely state of Amodha in Basti district, Rani Ishwari of the princely state of Tulsipur in Gonda district, Rani Tai Bai of Jalaun etc. While they played a very important role in this struggle. Apart from the queens of these princely states, a large number of common women fought and martyrdom in 1857 and led the struggle. For example – Uda Devi, Ajijan Bai, Jhalkari Bai, Sheela Devi, Tapaswani Devi, Mahaviri Devi, thousands of unnamed women from Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli in western Uttar Pradesh, etc. need to be mentioned.

Red Brigade has been celebrating National Women's Day (13th February, the birth anniversary of the eminent freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu) for the last five years. In 18 days activism (from of 13th February, the birth anniversary to 2nd March, death anniversary of the eminent freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu) on National women’s day, Red Brigade has been trying to popularize the  pride saga of the women warriors of the freedom struggle. In 2018 Red Brigade Lucknow, for the

first time in the history of the independent India celebrated the “National Women’s Day” at the irthplace of Sarojini  Naidu. This year as well, in order to carry this momentum ahead, we are organizing 18 days march in Uttar Pradesh.