In October 1896, the
Bombay Presidency was hit first by famine, and shortly thereafter by
bubonic plague. Cama joined one of the many teams of nurses working out of
Grant Medical College (which would subsequently become
Haffkine's plague vaccine research centre), in an effort to provide care for the afflicted, and (later) to inoculate the healthy. Cama subsequently contracted the plague herself but survived. As she was severely weakened, she was sent to Britain for medical care in 1902. Together with Naoroji and
Singh Rewabhai Rana, Cama supported the founding of Varma's
Indian Home Rule Society in February 1905. She refused. including
Bande Mataram (founded in response to the
Crown ban on the nationalist poem
Vande Mataram) where she described the devastating effects of a famine that had struck the Indian subcontinent. In her appeal for human rights, equality and autonomy from Great Britain, she was the first person to unfurl what she called the "
Flag of Indian Independence". It has been speculated that this moment may have been an inspiration to African American writers and intellectuals
W. E. B. Du Bois in writing his 1928 novel
Dark Princess. Cama's flag, a modification of the
Calcutta Flag, was co-designed by Cama, and would later serve as one of the templates from which the current
national flag of India was created. After the second Socialist Congress at Stuttgart, Cama travelled to America to raise awareness of the Indian nationalist campaign and non-cooperation movement. Her activities in the United States included addressing members of the
Minerva Club in New York. She returned to England in 1908. Influenced by
Christabel Pankhurst and the
suffragette movement, Cama was vehement in her support for
gender equality and she often stressed on the role of Indian women in building the nation. ==Exile and death==