A legend passes
India has lost a most valued link with its fight for freedom and social emancipation with the passing of Dr Lakshmi Swaminadhan, who came to be better known as Captain Lakshmi Sehgal of the Indian National Army founded by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Capt. Lakshmi and her husband, Col. Prem Kumar Sehgal, were close associates of the legendary freedom fighter and she organised the INA’s all-woman Rani Jhansi Regiment, the news of whose formation had filled the colonial authorities with dread. The young Dr Swaminadhan left for Singapore in 1940 to emerge as the heroic Capt. Lakshmi.
After Independence the intrepid fighter for freedom and justice for the poor had made Kanpur her home. She was fielded for the presidency by the Left parties in 2002 and contested against Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. With no chance of success, the fight was largely symbolic and meant to project the concerns of India’s poor, its workers and peasants.
In Kanpur, Capt. Lakshmi set up her medical practice in aid of the poor, and as a dedicated Communist did not flinch from her chosen path. She had given up a life of privilege to chart her course. In later life she was also drawn to gender issues and helped found what would become the women’s wing of the CPI(M). The pioneering work that Capt. Lakshmi did as a freedom fighter with the INA, and subsequently her dedication to the causes of poor men and women, is in some ways unique in our annals.
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