Champion of women's rights

IN the first decade of the 20th Century, Hetuba Desai ran sewing, embroidery and cooking classes for women in Prabhaspatan, Saurashtra. It was really an excuse to get women together. Once the women were there, they first had a session of newspaper reading, often followed by a discussion on religious and political matters. Sometimes the women danced the ras-garba and at other times read poetry. Often, these get-togethers led to sharing of personal problems and resolving of domestic quarrels. Hetuba listened to them, counselled them and helped them deal with their problems. Almost always, her one advice to women was to fight it out and never to cry.

A woman once came to her in great distress and told her that she was being beaten up by her husband. She narrated her story and Hetuba listened to her and consoled her. The woman did not want to go back home as she was afraid that she would be killed by her husband. Hetuba spoke encouraging words to her and gently persuaded her to go back. The woman left. Watching this drama was her daughter Pushpa. She asked her mother why the woman had to go back. Couldn't she have stayed back? Hetuba told her, "When you grow up, you open homes for such women so they do not have to go back." Pushpa never forgot that incident and her mother's words. She did many things in her life in later years. But the one thing for which she will be remembered are the hostels she has opened for women and the work she has done to make women stand on their own feet. She did not call these hostels "shelters" or even "homes". She called them Vikasgrah - the house of progress, Pushpa, known as Pushpaben Mehta in later years, is the subject of a dissertation by Gira S. Dholakia and that is how one gets to know about the life of an amazing woman who has led an incredible life of principles, conviction and commitment. Otherwise, the details of her life may have been lost to posterity.

Pushpaben Mehta was born in 1905 as the second daughter among five children of Hetuba and Harprasad Desai. Her father was an expert administrator who had worked under various capacities in the regime of Nawab Rasul Khan. He was a great believer in education and had a library at home, which was a boon to his children. There were no schools nearby and so Puspha's mother began teaching her at home. She had a world map hung on the wall and taught Pushpa Geography and History. It was only in 1913 that she went to school. But Pushpa spent her growing years making use of her father's library reading Stribodh and Samalochak and watching her mother training and counselling women. She also watched her parents being influenced by Gandhiji and going from house to house persuading people to accept the charkha. They only wore clothes made from home-spun khadi. Names of social reformers and politicians were familiar to her and songs like "Vande Mataram", "Namiye Mohandas" and "Jaihind Maiya Tarini Besant" became the songs of her growing years. She sang them like they were nursery rhymes. Along with her brothers and sisters, she brought out a handwritten monthly magazine called Seva Mitra. In later years, she became the editor of a magazine called Bhagini. In this journal she wrote on a variety of issues like women's education, women's individual identity, reasons why women commit suicide, etc. She also wrote articles against the ritual of kanyadaan.

Since her mother suffered from asthma, Pushpa took on the household responsibilities when she was a teenager. In 1920, when she was 15, she got married to Janardanrai Mehta who was a teacher. But she did not have a long married life. In 1931, within 11 years of marriage, her husband died. Pushpaben had a nine-year old daughter to be brought up. She was only 26 -years-old. But she was not one to give in easily. The plight of widows was not an enviable one in Saurashtra at that time. Pushpaben felt that more than anything else, a woman had to stand on her own feet; only then would she be respected and have standing in society. As she would insist later in many of her articles, society had to accept a woman as an individual first. She had passed her Matric in 1930. After her husband's death she completed her B.A. as an external student and later did her M.A.

In 1934, Mridula Sarabhai started Jyoti Sangh for women and Pushpaben joined her. The establishment of Vikasgrah began as an attempt to house a few needy women in a rental place. In 1937, she rented a building with nine rooms, a kitchen and an outhouse. Pushpaben stayed in the outhouse and was the founder, trustee, guardian and warden of this small refuge which she called Vikasgrah. The banyan tree was its emblem. Many women and men joined her later in sharing the responsibilities of Vikasgrah. Similar institutions for women and children followed in Vadhvan, Junagadh, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar with her guidance. Pushpaben's name spelt terror in the hearts of many ruffians and toughies in the mill area in Ahmedabad. A number of Pathans and Bhaiyas functioned as moneylenders. The mill workers borrowed money from them. They were charged 80 to 100 per cent interest and no books of account were maintained. When the workers were unable to repay the loan, their young women were taken away and sold at Kabul. The police did not do anything about this. Pushpaben walked into one such den one day and demanded the release of some young women they had taken away. When they paid no heed, she brought the women out herself. Before they could do anything she walked away with the women. She was on their hit- list after that but no one could lay a finger on her.

As someone who believed in dignity and self-respect for the individual, she was drawn into the National Movement and in 1942 was very active in the movement involved in underground activities. In 1945, she established a federation of all social institutions in Gujarat. With the kind of relentless work she was doing for women, it was not surprising that she was elected to the Saurashtra State Legislature in 1952. In 1957 she was elected to the All-Bombay State Legislature. In 1960, when Gujarat State was formed, she became the president of the Social Welfare Board. In 1970, she was elected to the Rajya Sabha and at the age of 70, was still fighting for the cause of women. She introduced a bill for abortion that year. And all this she did amidst great personal tragedies. She lost her parents, and elder sister and her husband by the time she was 26. She decided to wear only a black sari and white blouse after her husband's death and plunged into activities meant to give a life of dignity to other women.

An illustration of how much her judgment was respected was the Junagadh incident in 1948. In 1947, after Partition, the Nawab of Junagadh wanted it to be part of Pakistan. A People's Government was formed and Pushpaben became a minister. In November, 1947, Junagadh became a part of India. Meanwhile a temple there had been turned into a masjid. The area was rife with tension with both communities claiming rights over it.

Gandhiji sent messages from Delhi saying that it would be best to hand it over to the Muslims. At this time Pushpaben suggested that the best way would be to convert the place into a museum and make it a neutral space. The advice was taken and the museum still stands in Junagadh, silently proclaiming the astute judgment of a woman and her contribution to politics.

In 1988, Pushpaben died as quietly as she had done all her work. Just a year before she lost her only daughter who was a doctor. If a Women's Day based on the history of Indian women has to be worked out, there will be not one but many Women's Days. One of them will be the birth date of a rare child who blossomed into a crusader for women - it will be Friday, March 21, 1905, the birth date of Pushpaben.

C.S.LAKSHMI

C. S. Lakshmi is an independent researcher and writer. She writes in Tamil under the pseudonym Ambai. She has two short story collections and a translated one in English called A Purple Sea to her credit. She is the founder-trustee and director of SPARROW (Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women).

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