More images

1.
2.

Lakshmi Sahgal
Lakshmi Sahgal was a revolutionary of the Indian independence movement, an officer of the Indian National Army, and the
Minister of Women's Affairs in the Azad Hind government. Wikipedia

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Born: October 24, 1914, Chennai

Died: July 23, 2012, Kanpur
Spouse: Prem Sahgal (m. 19471992)
Education: Madras Medical College
Children: Subhashini Ali
Siblings: Mrinalini Sarabhai

Affairs in the Azad Hind government. Sahgal is commonly referred to in India as "Captain Lakshmi", a reference to her rank when
taken prisoner in Burma during the Second World War.

Early life[edit]
Sahgal was born as Lakshmi Swaminathan in Madras Presidency (now known as Tamil Nadu) on 24 October 1914 to S.
Swaminathan, a lawyer who practiced criminal law at Madras High Court, and A.V. Ammukutty, better known as Ammu
Swaminathan, a social worker and independence activist from the Vadakkath family of Anakkara in Palghat, Kerala.[3]
Sahgal chose to study medicine and received an MBBS degree from Madras Medical College in 1938. A year later, she received her
diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics.[4] She worked as a doctor in the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital located
at Triplicane Chennai.[3]
In 1940, she left for Singapore after the failure of her marriage with pilot P.K.N. Rao.[3] During her stay at Singapore, she met some
members of Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army.[3] she established a clinic for the poor, most of whom were migrant
laborers from India.[citation needed] It was at this time that she began to play an active role in the India Independence League.

The Azad Hind Fauj[edit]

In 1942, during the surrender of Singapore by the British to the Japanese, Sahgal aided wounded prisoners of war, many of whom
who were interested in forming an Indian liberation army. Singapore at this time had several nationalist Indians working there
including K. P. Kesava Menon, S. C. Guha and N. Raghavan, who formed a Council of Action. Their Indian National Army, or Azad
Hind Fauj, however, received no firm commitments or approval from the occupying Japanese forces regarding their participation in
the war.[5]
It was against this backdrop that Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore on 2 July 1943. In the next few days, at all his public
meetings, Bose spoke of his determination to raise a women's regiment which would "fight for Indian Independence and make it
complete".[citation needed] Lakshmi had heard that Bose was keen to draft women into the organisation and requested a meeting with him
from which she emerged with a mandate to set up a womens regiment, to be called the Rani of Jhansi regiment. Women responded
enthusiastically to join the all-women brigade and Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan became Captain Lakshmi, a name and identity that
would stay with her for life.[5]
The INA marched to Burma with the Japanese army in December 1944, but by March 1945, with the tide of war turning against
them, the INA leadership decided to beat a retreat before they could enter Imphal. Captain Lakshmi was arrested by the British army
in May 1945, remaining in Burma until March 1946, when she was sent to India at a time when the INA trials in Delhi heightened
popular discontent with and hastened the end of colonial rule.[5]

Later years[edit]

In 1971, Sahgal joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and represented the party in the Rajya Sabha. During
the Bangladesh crisis, she organized relief camps and medical aid in Calcutta for refugees who streamed into India from
Bangladesh. She was one of the founding members of All India Democratic Women's Association in 1981 and led many of its
activities and campaigns.[6] She led a medical team to Bhopal after the gas tragedy in December 1984, worked towards restoring
peace in Kanpur following the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and was arrested for her participation in a campaign against the Miss World
competition in Bangalore in 1996.[5] She was still seeing patients regularly at her clinic in Kanpur in 2006, at the age of 92.[5]
In 2002, four leftist parties the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party,
and the All India Forward Bloc nominated Sahgal as a candidate in the presidential elections. She was the sole opponent of A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam, who emerged victorious.[7]

Personal life[edit]
Sahgal married Prem Kumar Sahgal in March 1947 in Lahore. After their marriage, they settled in Kanpur, where she continued with
her medical practice and aided the refugees who were arriving in large numbers following the Partition of India. They had two
daughters: Subhashini Ali and Anisa Puri.
The Sahgals' daughter, Subhashini, is a prominent Communist politician and labor activist. According to Ali, Sahgal was an atheist.
The filmmaker Shaad Ali is her grandson.[8] Her sister was Mrinalini Sarabhai (born 11 May 1918)is a celebrated Indian classical
dancer, choreographer and instructor.Mrinalini was married toVikram Sarabhai, who is considered as father of Indian Space
program.

Death[edit]
On 19 Jul 2012, Sehgal suffered a cardiac arrest and died on 23 July 2012 at 11:20 A.M. at the age of 97 at Kanpur.[9][10] Her body
was donated to Kanpur Medical college for medical research.[11] Captain Lakshmi Sehgal International Airport is proposed at Kanpur
Dehat district.

Awards[edit]
In 1998, Sahgal was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by Indian president K. R. Narayanan.
The fight will go on, said Captain Lakshmi Sehgal one day in 2006, sitting in her crowded Kanpur clinic where, at 92, she still saw
patients every morning. She was speaking on camera to Singeli Agnew, a young filmmaker from the Graduate School of Journalism,
Berkeley, who was making a documentary on her life.
Each stage of the life of this extraordinary Indian represented a new stage of her political evolution as a young medical student
drawn to the freedom struggle; as the leader of the all-woman Rani of Jhansi regiment of the Indian National Army; as a doctor,
immediately after Independence, who restarted her medical practice in Kanpur amongst refugees and the most marginalised
sections of society; and finally, in post-Independence India, her life as a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the
All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA), years that saw her in campaigns for political, economic and social justice.
Freedom comes in three forms, the diminutive doctor goes on to say on camera in her unadorned and direct manner. The first is
political emancipation from the conqueror, the second is economic [emancipation] and the third is social India has only achieved
the first.
With Captain Lakshmis passing, India has lost an indefatigable fighter for the emancipations of which she spoke.
First rebellion

Lakshmi Sehgal was born Lakshmi Swaminadhan on October 24, 1914 in Madras to S. Swaminadhan, a talented lawyer, and A.V.
Ammukutty, a social worker and freedom fighter (and who would later be a member of independent Indias Constituent Assembly).
Lakshmi would later recall her first rebellion as a child against the demeaning institution of caste in Kerala. From her grandmothers
house, she would often hear the calls and hollers from the surrounding jungles and hills, of the people who in her grandmothers
words were those whose very shadows are polluting. The young Lakshmi one day walked up to a young tribal girl, held her hand
and led her to play. Lakshmi and her grandmother were furious with each other, but Lakshmi was the one triumphant.
After high school in Madras, she studied at the Madras Medical College, from where she took her MBBS in 1938. The intervening
years saw Lakshmi and her family drawn into the ongoing freedom struggle. She saw the transformation of her mother from a
Madras socialite to an ardent Congress supporter, who one day walked into her daughters room and took away all the childs pretty
dresses to burn in a bonfire of foreign goods. Looking back years later, Lakshmi would observe how in the South, the fight for
political freedom was fought alongside the struggle for social reform. Campaigns for political independence were waged together
with struggles for temple entry for Dalits and against child marriage and dowry. Her first introduction to communism was through
Suhasini Nambiar, Sarojini Naidus sister, a radical who had spent many years in Germany. Another early influence was the first
book on the communist movement she read, Edgar Snows Red Star over China.
Meeting Netaji
As a young doctor of 26, Lakshmi left for Singapore in 1940. Three years later she would meet Subhash Chandra Bose, a meeting
that would change the course of her life. In Singapore, Lakshmi remembered, there were a lot of nationalist Indians like K. P.
Kesava Menon, S. C. Guha, N. Raghavan, and others, who formed a Council of Action. The Japanese, however, would not give any
firm commitment to the Indian National Army, nor would they say how the movement was to be expanded, how they would go into
Burma, or how the fighting would take place. People naturally got fed up. Boses arrival broke this logjam.
Lakshmi, who had thus far been on the fringes of the INA, had heard that Bose was keen to draft women into the organisation. She
requested a meeting with him when he arrived in Singapore, and emerged from a five-hour interview with a mandate to set up a
womens regiment, which was to be called the Rani of Jhansi regiment. There was a tremendous response from women to join the
all-women brigade. Dr. Lakshmi Swaminadhan became Captain Lakshmi, a name and identity that would stay with her for life.
The march to Burma began in December 1944 and, by March 1945, the decision to retreat was taken by the INA leadership, just
before the entry of their armies into Imphal. Captain Lakshmi was arrested by the British army in May 1945. She remained under
house arrest in the jungles of Burma until March 1946, when she was sent to India at a time when the INA trials in Delhi were
intensifying the popular hatred of colonial rule.
Captain Lakshmi married Col. Prem Kumar Sehgal, a leading figure of the INA, in March 1947. The couple moved from Lahore to
Kanpur, where she plunged into her medical practice, working among the flood of refugees who had come from Pakistan, and
earning the trust and gratitude of both Hindus and Muslims.
CPI(M) activist
By the early 1970s, Lakshmis daughter Subhashini had joined the CPI(M). She brought to her mothers attention an appeal from
Jyoti Basu for doctors and medical supplies for Bangladeshi refugee camps. Captain Lakshmi left for Calcutta, carrying clothes and
medicines, to work for the next five weeks in the border areas. After her return she applied for membership in the CPI(M). For the
57-year old doctor, joining the Communist Party was like coming home. My way of thinking was already communist, and I never
wanted to earn a lot of money, or acquire a lot of property or wealth, she said.
Captain Lakshmi was one of the founding members of AIDWA, formed in 1981. She subsequently led many of its activities and
campaigns. After the Bhopal gas tragedy in December 1984, she led a medical team to the city; years later she wrote a report on the
long-term effects of the gas on pregnant women. During the anti-Sikh riots that followed Prime Minister Indira Gandhis
assassination in 1984, she was out on the streets in Kanpur, confronting anti-Sikh mobs and ensuring that no Sikh or Sikh
establishment in the crowded area near her clinic was attacked. She was arrested for her participation in a campaign by AIDWA
against the Miss World competition held in Bangalore in 1996.
Presidential candidate
Captain Lakshmi was the presidential candidate for the Left in 2002, an election that A. P. J. Abdul Kalam would win. She ran a
whirlwind campaign across the country, addressing packed public meetings. While frankly admitting that she did not stand a chance

of winning, she used her platform to publicly scrutinise a political system that allowed poverty and injustice to grow, and fed new
irrational and divisive ideologies.
Captain Lakshmi had the quality of awakening a sense of joy and possibility in all who met her her co-workers, activists of her
organisation, her patients, family and friends. Her life was an inextricable part of 20th and early 21st century India -- of the struggle
against colonial rule, the attainment of freedom, and nation-building over 65 tumultuous years. In this great historical transition,
Captain Lakshmi always positioned herself firmly on the side of the poor and unempowered. Freedom fighter, dedicated medical
practitioner, and an outstanding leader of the women's movement in India, Captain Lakshmi leaves the country and its people a fine
and enduring legacy.
Lakshmi Sehgal is survived by her daughters Subhashini Ali and Anisa Puri; her grandchildren Shaad Ali, Neha and Nishant Puri;
and by her sister Mrinalini Sarabhai.(parvathi.menon@thehindu.co.in)

Captain Lakhmi,s paasing away immediately reminds us

of the freedom movement led by Nethaji . she joined nethaji national
army in which she was the captain. Her dedication to the cause of
freedom is unparalleled. She now joined Nethaji and she has equal
reputation . She will be a role model to inspire the young generation
to safeguard our hard one freedom at all cost. The nation stood still
and salutet the captain Laxmi for all her sacrifices.

I feel ashamed that we were not aware of such great patriotic

personswho were
living among us. Even the elders did not know about her then what
isabout younger generation.
documentary pictures should be made about these great veterans and to
be
telecasted between the tv episodes then only the fire for democartic
India will remain in all our hearts.I felt patriotic when I read about
her in newspapers.State Govt should give subsidy to tamil films only
when each film producer is making documentary of our veterans of our
state/country(during every film produced) as mandatory and have the
duty of spreading awareness of freedom.BHARAT MATA KI JAI/
It feels sad when some idols , the people who can be called as changemakers of modern India leave us in this world full of
commotion and dissatisfaction along with inefficient administration ... A graceful contributor in Indian Independence..

After all the hooplah about the need for a consensus on our next
President, we are going to have an election after all! However, the
fact that Dr. Kalam is going to win handsomely takes nothing away
from Dr Lakshmi Sahgal's service to the society. Her life has been a
saga of unwavering commitment to egalitarianism and gender
equality. Handpicked by Netaji to lead the Rani of Jhansi regiment of
the Indian National Army (INA), she recruited and trained the Ranis
in Singapore and Burma. She also headed the Department of
Women's Affairs in the provisional government of the Azad Hind, and
stayed with her comrades in the jungles of Burma until the British
caught up with her in 1945. After a month of intensive interrogation,
when the restrictions were slackened, she even managed to hold an

INA meeting and hoist the Indian flag in British-ruled Burma! This
created a splash in the Indian newspapers, and she was promptly
put under house arrest. Her offer to serve honorarily as a doctor in
Govt.Hospital,Kanpur was turned
down by Vijayalakshmi Pandit, the then Minister of Health, she
established her own clinic in Kanpur which she runs to this day. In
1971, when West Bengal was facing a deluge of refugees from
Bangladesh, she volunteered for the People's Relief Committee in
Calcutta. And when the All India Democratic Women's Association
(AIDWA) was started in 1980, she was elected one of its VicePresidents. Last year, she was elected patron of the UP state unit of
AIDWA, after three terms as president. During the 1984 Kanpur riots
(in the aftermath of the Indira Gandhi assassination), along with a
few other committed people, she took to the streets to contain
violence. The state finally took note of her services to the society
and in 1998, awarded her the Padma Vibhushan. Not one to rest on
her laurels, this angry young lady continues to fight against
feudalism and the omnipotent caste system. She personally
cleans the place in front of her clinic, for she doesn't want to leave
these jobs to the menials
THE GOOD DOCTOR

Dr Sahgal's autobiographyWe talked about the junior doctors who were striking in Lucknow

and Kanpur that day. "The doctors should not take it out on the poor patients," she rued, going on to express her disappointment at
the degeneration of the medical profession. "Doctors are more concerned with making money. In many nursing homes, they admit
practically dead patients, keeping them alive using gadgets, milking the families for money."
The scene was not very different in politics either, she complained. "The politicians these days are more interested in netagiri than
in patriotism." Looking at the country now, did she expect things to be this way when they struggled for freedom, I asked her. "We
had expected a more egalitarian society with social justice," she said, looking me directly in the eye. We are hardly moving towards
it. Otherwise, why should I still be working at the age of 91?" she asked.
Her voice held a strength that came from the courage of convictions, which guided her throughout her life.
She had sustained her clinic for decades. She spoke of how her clinic did not contain a surgical unit, which she wished she could have
had. There was a shortage of space and she could only admit a few patients. "It is not doing so well since the last two years," she told
me then. Every day of the week she would be at the clinic by 9 am. When she passed away on July 23, 2012, it was reported that she
saw patients until the end.
By Vinutha Mallya

Dr Lakshmi Sahgal in her youthThe queue of women, most of them

pregnant, kept growing at the clinic in the corner of a narrow street in Aryanagar, Kanpur. It was a day in January 2006, and the
morning held a mild chill despite the bright winter sun. I sat at a distance on one of the wooden benches in the veranda. The old
house located in a labour colony, which served as a clinic and maternity home, belonged to a bygone era. The veranda was not an
ideal waiting room, but the anxious women did not seem to care. I was struck by the obscurity of the setting, where we were all
waiting to meet the same woman: the legendary Col (Dr) Lakshmi Sahgal.
I had to wait until the women, who had come from all over Kanpur and some from nearby Lucknow, had finished their turn. Unlike
them, I was there to interview the doctor. Although her staff received me politely, I knew better than to expect to receive any
preference in her schedule.
Then 91, Lakshmi Sahgal had been attending to patients at this clinic since 1951, three years after she had moved to Kanpur. Her
career as an obstetrician and gynaecologist was dedicated to providing medical help to poor women, like the ones I was sitting with
on the wooden benches.
Many of her patients came from families who were struggling for employment after the mills of Kanpur had shut. The loss of
livelihoods has not just affected their access to healthcare facilities, but it had also affected the education of their children. "As my
fees are little, my clinic is always full," she said to me later.
Each time the door of the consultation room opened, I would catch a glimpse of the doctor inside, getting ready to attend to her next
patient with the help of two other doctors. The room was small, with a table, two chairs, and a bed on which patients were examined.
I sat there wondering how many of her patients knew that the sprightly nonagenarian was a celebrated warrior of India's freedom
movement; that she had held command of the Rani Jhansi Regiment of Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army; and she was
the first Indian woman to contest the Presidential elections, in 2002, when President A P J Abdul Kalam was elected.
When I was a school student, I was enamoured by the heroines of history that had made their way into our textbooks, perhaps also
because they were so few. History textbooks of that time ended with India's long and glorious freedom struggle, in which Netaji and
the INA were a small mention. Lakshmi Sahgal was perhaps the last heroine to be mentioned. I hadn't foreseen then that I would get
to meet her some day.
I had first met her in 2005, when she visited her sister Mrinalini Sarabhai in Ahmedabad. By then I had heard many stories firsthand from Mrinalini, of their childhood years in Madras (now Chennai). Although they had a "very British" upbringing, their
exposure to political life began at the height of India's struggle for freedom. Their mother, Ammu Swaminadhan, a prominent figure

in Madras society was active in the Congress. She became a member of the All India Women's Conference when Lakshmi was
entering college after SSLC.

Lakshmi (R) with mother Ammu

Swaminadhan and sister Mrinalini (Courtesy of Mrinalini Sarabhai, Darpana Academy,

Born on October 24, 1914, Lakshmi was the second child of Ammu and Subbarama Swaminadhan. Her father was a radical lawyer,
from the Palghat Iyer community, who defied caste rules to marry her mother, a Nair girl from the Vadakkath family in Anakkara,
Palakkad district. She grew up in an environment free from caste and religious prejudices, and the sisters were never treated
differently than their brothers Govind and Subbaram. Her mother was involved with the Congress and the nationalist movement. By
the time they were in their youth, Lakshmi and Mrinalini had interacted with many prominent personalities in her home at Gilchrist
Gardens in Madras.

A young Dr Lakshmi

Over her two-week stay in Ahmedabad at the Sarabhai home, in 2005, I had the opportunity to meet her a few times. Unlike in the
photos of her youth, where her hair was worn long, she was wearing it short now a shock of grey. It gave her a youthful look. Her
twinkling eyes and charming smile were captivating. Her contagious enthusiasm, and her interest in the world around her was
enough to easily draw one into a conversation with her. She was clearly enjoying the time she was spending with her sister and her
family. Lakshmi was known to have been a beauty in her youth, and there was every trace of it radiating in her face at age 90.
A year later, I was waiting for my turn with her at her clinic in Kanpur. My timing was not great: there was a wedding in the family
the following week. Nevertheless, she agreed to meet me for the interview. After arriving by the Shatabdi from Delhi, I made my way
to her clinic directly, in the hope that I would get some time with her there. "She leaves the clinic at 2 pm every day," her daughter
Subhashini had alerted me in an email ahead of my visit.
At around 2 pm, Dr Sahgal and I set off in her car to go to her home in Civil Lines, where she lived with Subhashini. Along the ride,
she quizzed me on the political drama unfolding in Karnataka, my home state. The government led by the then chief minister
Dharam Singh was facing a precarious future, and she was following the developments keenly. My experience of having spent time
with her sister, too, had shown me that their deep interest in national politics and development issues, and their active participation
in it, was a family legacy.
EARLY INFLUENCES


Col (Dr) Lakshmi Sahgal, who passed away at the age of 97 in Kanpur on July 23, was a distinguished freedom fighter best remembered as
the leader of the womens regiment of the Indian National Army ...more
1 / 14
Mail Today | Photo by Deshabhimani
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Pinterest

Close

Previous image
Next image
Lakshmi had always known that she would dedicate her life to serving the underprivileged and poor. "From an early age, both
Mrinalini and I knew what we wanted to do. She was passionate about dance and I about service to the people," she told me during
our conversation that afternoon.
One of her earliest influences was Comrade Subhashini Chattopadhyay, Sarojini Naidu's youngest sister, who was the first Indian
woman to join the Communist Party. She had spent some of her underground years at Ammu Swaminadhan's house. "I used to sit
up night after night while the rest of the household slept, and listen to her," Lakshmi wrote in her autobiography, A Revolutionary
Life: Memoirs of a Political Activist (Kali for Women, 1997). By the time we met in Kanpur, I had read the book, which chronicles her
INA days, for most part.
However passionately Lakshmi had felt about fighting for freedom, she did not respond to Gandhiji's call to students to leave their
studies and join the Civil Disobedience Movement. She felt that India would need well-educated and trained professionals once
freedom came. She qualified for the MBBS degree in 1938 and obtained her diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics a year later. Soon
after, she moved to Singapore and worked as a doctor there.

INA AND THE WAR YEARS

Capt. Lakshmi Sahgal with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and other members of INA (Wikimedia Commons)

She joined the Indian National Army in 1943, after being drawn to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and to his idea of raising a women's
regiment named after Rani Lakshmi Bai. She was soon offered the command of the Rani Jhansi Regiment with the rank of a captain
(she was later promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel). In Netaji she found a leader in whom she placed her absolute trust and
loyalty. Like him, she felt, "that the final blow for independence would have to come from armed struggle".
Although her regiment never went into active combat when the INA fought alongside the Japanese against the British, the Ranis
experienced the harshness of the war. She was taken prisoner in the Karen Hills (eastern Burma) in early1945. The region was in war
chaos and the British commander decided to send the prisoners of war and refugees to Toungo, a 100-mile journey by foot, which
took 10 days. Lakshmi's description of this walk captures the horrors of the war, but to touching detail like how difficult it was for
her Keralite blood to not bathe and change clothes for 10 days! She remained in Burma to provide medical care for the troops.
Upon her return to India in March 1946, she became disillusioned with the Congress and the political environment, and she decided
not to be drawn into the public arena "come what may". While the Congress wanted to patronise the INA, the communists would not
have anything to do with them. "They just branded us fascists and didn't give us another chance," she said. Lakshmi was also upset
at the journalists who glamourised Netaji, and INA officials like her, instead of trying to understand the movement that he had built.
She continued her medical work and got involved with the welfare of returning troops, and after Independence, with refugees'
rehabilitation.
KANPUR

With niece Mallika, sister Mrinalini, husband Prem, mother Ammu and daughter Subhashini Dr Sahgal's autobiography mentions little about her

personal life. She married P K N Rao, a pilot with Tata Airlines, while she was still studying for the MBBS degree. Within three
months she felt it was a mistake, and returned from Bombay to Madras to continue with her studies. Rao, who didn't forgive her, did
not give her a divorce. So, when she fell in love with a classmate at Madras Medical College, unable to marry and live together, the
couple left for Singapore. But that friend, who also joined the INA, did not like her getting involved in it, and the relationship ended.

Greeted by her sister on her return from Singapore In Singapore she met

Prem Sahgal, a soldier from the Indian Army who had joined the INA. She said that it was he who decided more than her that they
should spend the rest of their life together. He supported her in everything that she did. "He was the kind of person who when he
took up something, give it his all," she said. They married in March 1947. Col Prem Sahgal had accepted a job as a junior executive in
a textile mill in Kanpur. "After a quiet wedding we came to Kanpur, a dirty, disease-ridden city from which there seems to be no
escape," she felt.
Lakshmi settled down in Kanpur to a non-political life. "I would have liked to settle down in the south, in Madras. But you know how
it is. Being a north Indian, Prem would have found it difficult to adjust to the south. We south Indians can adjust more easily to the
north," she told me knowingly, as I was a south Indian too. (Col Prem Sahgal passed away in 1992.) I was again reminded then that
despite having lived in north India for nearly 60 years, her Hindi was not strong. Her accent revealed the flavour of mellifluous
Malayalam.

Lakshmi with her mother Ammu Swaminadhan, sister Mrinalini, grandmother and brother Govind Their house was always open to progressive,

non-communal people. Lakshmi had begun her medical work to serve underprivileged women and children. Her daughters,
Subhashini and Anisa were born soon. After she opened the clinic, she also started working in a municipal dispensary, which, for
several years, had not been able to get a woman doctor. She also trained several women as medical aides and midwives. For a while
she also tried her hand at farming in the foothills of Nainital, and became an expert in driving a tractor, and supervising sowing and
other operations.
The couple unhappily watched the INA disintegrate, even though they tried to set up an independent non-political welfare
organisation to preserve its identity.
COMRADE LAKSHMI

Comrade Lakshmi addresses a CPI (M) meeting (Wikimedia

Commons)

Lakshmi became restless politically, unsatisfied with the way things were going. "The fruits of independence were benefiting only a
few the white rulers had been replaced by darker ones."
When her daughter Subhashini (Ali, now a prominent labour activist) joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Lakshmi got
involved with the Party's activities, and later opened a clinic for families of workers. Gradually, she was accepted by the Party in her
own right and received her membership in 1972. She was one of the founding members of the All India Democratic Women's
Association (AIDWA), set up by the Party. "My own belief was, and still is, that only some form of socialism suited to our ethos can
help towards solving our problems," she wrote.
The Government of India presented Col (Dr) Lakshmi Sahgal with the Padma Vibhushan in 1998, in recognition for her service to
the nation. The Left parties nominated her candidacy for the Presidential election in 2002, during which time she said, "My onepoint objective would be to maintain the unity and integrity of this great nation."

India lost the Rani of Jhansi all over again. At 11.20 am on July 23, Captain Lakshmi Sehgal, who commanded the
Rani of Jhansi Regiment of Netaji Subhash Chandra Boses Indian National Army (INA), died in Kanpur at the age of
97. Sehgal has been admitted to a private hospital on July 19 after she suffered a heart attack. She had been kept on
life support.
The gynaenocologist was born Lakshmi Swaminathan to lawyer Dr S Swaminathan and social worker Ammu
Swaminathan in Chennai on October 24, 1914. In 1940 she left for Singapore to pursue academics, and it was during
the surrender of Singapore by the British to the Japanese in 9942, that Sehgal helped wounded prisoners of war,
several of them keen on forming an Indian liberation army. When Bose arrived in Singapore in July 1943, he
expressed his dream of forming a womens regiment, and Sehgal found the opportunity to become Captain Lakshmi.
Doctor by profession but soldier by choice, Captain Lakshmis stint with the INA was translated to film by Bollywood
filmmaker Kabir Khan. The Forgotten Army (1999) retraced the INAs journey as it marched from Singapore to Imphal,
where it was finally defeated in 1945. The first thing that struck me about her was how tiny she was, says Khan,
who interacted with her for several months while they shot in Burma. She was a dainty lady with the spirit of giant;
forceful and articulate when she spoke about ideologies. Khan says Captain Lakshmis role was significant since she
was responsible for enlisting women from Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, all girls who were of Indian origin, but
had never been to India. She inspired them to fight for a concept called India, says Khan.
Captain Lakshmis time in Burma during the shoot was a sort of a pilgrimage since she hadnt returned to the country
after the Second World War. She hasnt imagined shed go back at 85, Khan says. Her visit to Mount Popa where
the INA was defeated in April 1945, was especially moving. Her husband, Colonel Prem Kuma Sahgal, along with
Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Gen Shah Nawaz Khan, were tried for their activities at Mount Popa, says
Khan. But Captain Lakshmi had never been there. Her husband would talk about it incessantly. In fact, she joked
that she feared that if she ever had a son, hed name him Popa!
Maymo, the city that served as the provisional headquarters of the INA, threw up a surprise for Sahgal. She was
positioned there during the war, thus and keen on revisitng Netajis home. As we approached it, a man came out and
went straight to her saying, If it isnt the most beautiful woman in the world. He turned out to be Netajis doctor, who
had stayed on after the war. After 65 years, he still recognised her! remembers Khan. Another magical moment came
when they were shooting in a jungle. Col. Dhillon insisted on finding the cave that had served as their headquarters.
We found it after four days of searching, and in it was the little Buddha idol that Colonel Sahgal had left behind, and
believed would protect them, says Khan. Lakshmi Sahgal is survived by her daughter Subhashini and filmmaker
grandson Shaad Ali.