Contribution to the Indian independence movement Aruna Asaf Ali had a major role in the Indian independence Movement. She became a member of
Indian National Congress after marrying Asaf Ali and participated in public processions during the
Salt Satyagraha. She was arrested at the age of 21 on the charge that she was a
vagrant and hence not released in 1931 under the
Gandhi–Irwin Pact which stipulated the release of all political prisoners. Other women co-prisoners refused to leave the premises unless she was released and gave in only after
Mahatma Gandhi intervened. A public agitation secured her release. In 1932, she was held
prisoner at the
Tihar Jail where she protested the indifferent treatment of political prisoners by launching a hunger strike. Her efforts improved conditions in the Tihar Jail but she was moved to
Ambala and subjected to solitary confinement. She was politically not very active after her release, but at the end of 1942, she took part in the underground movement.
Rise to prominence during the Quit India movement On 8 August 1942, the
All India Congress Committee passed the
Quit India resolution at the
Bombay session. The government responded by arresting the major leaders and all members of the
Congress Working Committee and thus tried to pre-empt the movement from success. Young Aruna Asaf Ali presided over the remainder of the session on 9 August and hoisted the Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. This marked the commencement of the movement. The police fired upon the assembly at the session. Aruna was dubbed the
Queen of the 1942 movement for her bravery in the face of danger and was called
Grand Old Lady of the Independence movement in her later years. Despite the absence of direct leadership, spontaneous protests and demonstrations were held all over the country, as an expression of the desire of India's youth to achieve independence. An arrest warrant was issued in her name but she went underground to evade the arrest and started an underground movement in the year 1942. Her property was seized and sold. In the meanwhile, she also edited
Inquilab, a monthly magazine of the Congress Party, along with
Ram Manohar Lohia. In a 1944 issue, she exhorted the youth to action by asking them to forget futile discussions about violence and
non-violence and join the revolution. Leaders such as
Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali were described as "the Political children of Gandhi but recent students of
Karl Marx." The government announced a reward of 5,000
rupees for her capture. She fell ill and was for a period hiding in Dr Joshi's Hospital in Karol Bagh in Delhi. Mahatma Gandhi sent her a hand-written note to her to come out of hiding and surrender herself – as her mission was accomplished and as she could utilize the reward amount for the
Harijan cause. However, she came out of hiding only after the warrant against her was withdrawn in 1946. She treasured the note from the Mahatma and it adorned her drawing room. However, she also faced criticism from Gandhi for her support of the
Royal Indian Navy mutiny, a movement she saw as the single greatest unifying factor of Hindus and Muslims at a time that was the peak of the movement for Pakistan.
Post-Independence and mayorship She was a member of the
Congress Socialist Party, a
caucus within the
Congress Party for activists with
socialist leanings. Disillusioned with the progress of the Congress Party on socialism she joined a new party,
Socialist Party in 1948. She, however, left that party along with
Edatata Narayanan and they visited
Moscow along with
Rajani Palme Dutt. Both of them joined the
Communist Party of India in the early 1950s. On the personal front, she was bereaved when Asaf Ali died in 1953. In 1954, she helped form the
National Federation of Indian Women, the women's wing of CPI but left the party in 1956 following
Nikita Khrushchev's disowning of Stalin. In 1958, she was elected the first
Mayor of
Delhi. She was closely associated with social activists and secularists of her era like Krishna Menon, Vimla Kapoor,
Guru Radha Kishan, Premsagar Gupta, Rajani Palme Joti, Sarla Sharma and Subhadra Joshi for social welfare and development in Delhi.
Goa liberation movement In December 1960, she was part of a delegation that met with then
Home Minister of India Pandit Pant in
New Delhi, urging the Indian government to take action for the freedom of Goa. Others in the delegation were Eclito D’Souza,
Irene Heredia,
Vishwanath Lawande,
Lambert Mascarenhas,
George Vaz and
Bertha Braganza.
Career in publishing She and Narayanan started Link publishing house and published a daily newspaper,
Patriot and a weekly,
Link the same year. The publications became prestigious due to the patronage of leaders such as
Jawaharlal Nehru,
Krishna Menon and
Biju Patnaik. Later she moved out of the publishing house due to internal politics, stunned by greed taking over the creed of her comrades. Despite reservations about the
emergency, she remained close to
Indira Gandhi and
Rajiv Gandhi. She wrote a book called
Ideas of A Nation, which was later also published by
Penguin in their
Words of Freedom series to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of India's independence.
Death She died in
New Delhi on 29 July 1996, aged 87. ==Legacy==