Rajkumari Amrit Kaur was born on February 2, 1889, in Lucknow to a princely family of Kapurthala, a part of undivided India. She was the first Indian woman to hold the position of the cabinet minister. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, was an eminent Gandhian and a great social reformer.
She born into the royal family that ruled Kapurthala (a princely state post independence,) Rajkumari Amrit Kaur’s journey as a staunch Gandhian and advocate for social welfare began shortly after the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919.
The killings provoked her to take a more active part in the Nationalist movement in Punjab, but this princess travelled across India speaking on the cause.
She was jailed twice once along with Mahatma Gandhi during the Dandi March or the Salt Satyagraha on 12 March 1930. After seven years the British arrested her on sedition charges while in the Northwest Frontier Province of Bannu where she had gone to champion the Indian National Congress’s cause.
A Gandhian for life, Kaur renounced her material goods and lived in Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram. She is known as a fierce champion of social equality. Kaur spent most of her time fighting for gender equality and upliftment of Harijans. In 1938, she was elected as the president of All India Women’s Conference. She was the first woman member of Hindustani Talimi Sangh.
Rajkumari was, even more, active in social work than in politics. She spent most of her time promoting education for women and was equally concerned with the upliftment of Harijans.
Post independence, Kaur became of India’s first Cabinet Ministers overseeing the Health and Sports Ministry. She was also responsible for starting the construction of the All India Medical Institute (AIIMS.)
Born in Banda, near Kanpur, Raj Kumari got married at a young age. Both she and her husband were drawn towards Mahatma Gandhi and his call for joining the freedom struggle. But her zeal and conviction to fight against the British drew her closer to Chandrashekhar Azad and his line of revolutionary response.
Very few people are aware of her contribution to the famous Kakori train robbery that went on to be known as the famous Kakori Conspiracy.
She began supporting him by secretly carrying messages and materials to other revolutionaries, without the knowledge of her husband and her in-laws. She was given the charge of delivering firearms to revolutionaries. On one such trip, she hid firearms in her undergarment and was walking through the fields along with her three-year old son, when she was arrested.
On hearing the news of her arrest, she was disowned by her in-laws. Little is known about her life thereafter, but she was a true hero and deserves a remembrance of nation
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