“Once upon a time, there was a freedom fighter called Amma.” Mothers and grandmothers of Rajputana and the Indian freedom movement

Abstract

The stronghold of patriarchal and feudal restrictions in Rajputana made participation in Indian freedom struggle more difficult for women than in British India. This paper draws from an intimate recollection of varied associations of the author's great-grandmother, Kalavati Devi, with the movement to scrutinize the lack of recognition to women in the history of Indian freedom movement. The paper argues for an intertwined understanding of public participation and domestic roles of women in the light of their nationalist consciousness. The narrative of Kalavati documents her contribution to the nationalist cause beyond her public role to explore whether her role as a wife and a mother can be viewed as part of the nationalist movement. The paper also makes a case for using family memories, oral narratives, and non-formal sources to document political activism of women and bring attention to the domestic sphere in the history of the freedom movement.