#memory
Aruna Asaf Ali.
16 July is the birth anniversary of Aruna Asif Ali(1909-1996).
Aruna is called the Jhansi Rani of the Quit India Movement of 1942.
She was born Aruna Ganguli, in Kalka, Punjab, in an aristocratic Bengali Brahmo family ( her father’s younger brother was married to the daughter of Gurudev Tagore ). She was educated in Lahore and Nainital.
In 1928, she met Asaf Ali, a leading lawyer and Congress leader, in Allahabad. Despite fierce opposition from the family (he was a Muslim and 23 years her senior ), Aruna married Asaf Ali, and plunged into the freedom struggle.
Aruna participated in the Salt Satyagraha movement, and was first arrested in 1931, and again in 1932.
She came into the limelight in 1942, when, on 8 August, the Congress passed the Quit India resolution. All the leaders including Gandhi and Nehru were arrested. Aruna showed great courage and hoisted the Congress flag at the Gowadia Tank Maidan ( now Azad Maidan ) the next day, and went underground.
Aruna was a member of the Congress Socialist group, and left the Congress in 1948 to join the Socialist Party. She joined the Communist Party in 1950 but left in 1956.
Aruna Asaf Ali ran the Patriot and Link magazines, along with the legendary editor Edathatta Narayanan. She was elected the first Mayor of Delhi in 1958.
Aruna Asaf Ali was posthumously awarded the Nation’s highest honour, Bharat Ratna, in 1997.
– Joy Kallivayalil.
