https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Bhabini_MahatoBhabini Mahato - Revision history2026-07-31T17:59:53ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Bhabini_Mahato&diff=490595&oldid=prevAuroraMackellar at 16:33, 19 April 20262026-04-19T16:33:36Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Bengali freedom fighter and activist (1925–2014)}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=March 2025}}<br />
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{{Infobox person<br />
| image = Freedom Fighter and participated in Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum) Bhabini Mahato.jpg<br />
| native_name = ভাবিনী মাহাতো<br />
| native_name_lang = Bengali<br />
| birth_date = c. 1925<br />
| birth_place = Majhihira, [[Purulia]], British India<br />
| death_date = 24 June 2014<br />
| death_place = [[Manbazar]], West Bengal<br />
| occupation = Bengali freedom fighter and activist<br />
| children = 3<br />
}}<br />
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'''Bhabini Mahato''' ([[Bengali language|Bengali]]: ভাবিনী মাহাতো, c. 1925–24 June 2014) was a [[Bengalis|Bengali]] freedom fighter and activist who participated in the [[Quit India Movement]] of 1942<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Pal |first=Soumen |title=Bhabini Mahato |url=https://cmsadmin.amritmahotsav.nic.in/district-reopsitory-detail.htm?27149 |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Government of India}}</ref> and the [[Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum)]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=ইশতিয়াক |first=আহমাদ |date=2023-02-21 |title=এক পলাশ রাঙা অধ্যায় |url=https://bangla.thedailystar.net/literature/history-tradition/history/news-453416 |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=The Daily Star Bangla |language=en |archive-date=2024-11-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241104020838/https://bangla.thedailystar.net/literature/history-tradition/history/news-453416 |url-status=live }}</ref><br />
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== Biography ==<br />
Mahato was born about 1925 in Majhihira village, [[Purulia]], [[West Bengal]], British India to a [[Kurmi]] family.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Sainath |first=P. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IneeEAAAQBAJ&dq=Bhabani+Mahato&pg=PT134 |title=The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom |date=2022-11-30 |publisher=Penguin Random House India Private Limited |isbn=978-93-5492-827-7 |language=en |chapter=Bhabani Mahato: feeding the revolution in Puruliya}}</ref> She was married to Baidyanath Mahato when aged eight or nine.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Three decades after she married, her husband Baidyanath married her younger sister Urmila as his second wife. Each sister had three children.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sainath |first=P |date=2022-04-18 |title=When Bhabani Mahato fed the revolution |url=https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/when-bhabani-mahato-fed-the-revolution/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=People's Archive of Rural India |language=en}}</ref><br />
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During the Quit India Movement, her husband Baidyanath was imprisoned for 13 months in Bhagalpur camp jail.<ref name=":1" /> Mahato cooked and fed fugitive revolutionaries hiding in Purulia's jungles<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Sainath |first=P |date=2024-08-30 |title=The humble heroism of Bhabani Mahato passes |url=https://ruralindiaonline.org/bn/articles/the-humble-heroism-of-bhabani-mahato-passes/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=People's Archive of Rural India |language=bn}}</ref> and collected funds for the cause.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghosh |first=Niranjan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xYtAAAAAMAAJ&q=Bhabani+Mahato |title=Role of Women in the Freedom Movement in Bengal, 1919-1947: Midnapore, Bankura, and Purulia District |date=1988 |publisher=Tamralipta Prakashani |isbn=978-0-8364-2428-7 |pages=310 |language=en}}</ref><br />
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After [[Indian Independence Act 1947|Indian independence]], Mahato participated in the Bengali Language Movement, which demanded the establishment of [[Bengali language|Bengali]] as one of the [[official language]]s. She was arrested after a march to Dalhousie, [[Kolkata]] in 1956 and spent 11 days in jail.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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In 1972, Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]], on behalf of the [[Government of India]], awarded her a [[Tamrapatra]].<ref name=":0" /><br />
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Mahato died in 2014 in [[Manbazar]], West Bengal.<ref name=":2" /><br />
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== References ==<br />
{{reflist}}{{Bengali Language Movement in India}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahato, Bhabini}}<br />
[[Category:2014 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:People from Purulia district]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian women]]<br />
[[Category:Bengali activists]]<br />
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of British India]]<br />
[[Category:Indian independence activists from Bengal]]<br />
[[Category:Indian prisoners and detainees]]<br />
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]<br />
[[Category:Women Indian independence activists]]</div>AuroraMackellar