Debasish swain at 11:45, 12 August 2025

2025-08-12T11:45:45Z

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{{Infobox person
| image = Indian Suffragettes on the Women's Coronation Procession.jpg
| caption = Indian suffragists on the Women's Coronation Procession of 1911, including Nauth on the far left
| birth_date = c. 1882
| birth_place = [[Lahore]], British India
| occupation = social reformer, activist and suffragist
}}
{{Short description|Indian social reformer, activist and suffragist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}

'''Bhagwati Bhola Nauth''' (born c. 1882) was an Indian social reformer, activist and [[Suffrage|suffragist]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Khan |first=Mariam |date=2023-02-27 |title=Forgotten Indian women who dedicated their lives to fighting for women's rights |url=https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/gallery/forgotten-ground-breaking-indian-women-26320156 |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=My London |language=en |archive-date=10 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250310002148/https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/gallery/forgotten-ground-breaking-indian-women-26320156 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Life ==
Nauth was born in [[Lahore]], British India, around 1882. She married Major Bhola Nauth,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Mukherjee |first=Sumita |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JfxdDwAAQBAJ&q=Bhagwati+Bhola+Nauth |title=Indian Suffragettes: Female Identities and Transnational Networks |date=2018-04-16 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-909370-0 |pages=33–35 |language=en}}</ref> a doctor who worked in the [[Indian Medical Service]], and they had two sons.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Crawford (historian) |date=2018-02-11 |title=The black and Asian women who fought for a vote |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-42837451 |access-date=2025-01-28 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB |archive-date=19 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250319164051/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-42837451 |url-status=live }}</ref> She lived in England from 1908.<ref name=":0" />

Nauth was the honorary secretary of the [[Indian Women’s Educational Fund]] was also a member of the Eastern League''.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoque |first=Nikhat |date=2019-02-03 |title=Meet 7 Indian Suffragettes Of The British Suffrage Movement |url=https://feminisminindia.com/2019/02/04/7-indian-suffragettes-british/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Feminism in India |language=en-GB |archive-date=19 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250119204747/https://feminisminindia.com/2019/02/04/7-indian-suffragettes-british/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 17 June 1911, the [[Women's Social and Political Union]] (WSPU)<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Lolita Roy and Indian Suffragettes, Coronation Procession - Museum of London |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/lolita-roy-and-indian-suffragettes-coronation-procession-museum-of-london/cgEtCMXce-TcPg |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}}</ref> organised a Women's Coronation Procession, using the coronation of [[George V|King George V]] to demand the vote for white women.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mukherjee |first=Sumita |date=2017-10-30 |title=Black History Month: Diversity and the British female Suffrage movement |url=https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/blog/diversity-british-female-suffrage-movement |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=[[The Fawcett Society]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Have Women of Color Been Written Out of The Women's Movement ? |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/story/JgWBmw1uoojs9w |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en |archive-date=11 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250311234105/https://artsandculture.google.com/story/JgWBmw1uoojs9w |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Jane Cobden]] and [[Lolita Roy]] gathered an Indian contingent in advance of the procession, forming 'part of the 'Imperial contingent'. Nauth was among the group of Indian women who marched.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h7vrDwAAQBAJ&dq=Bhagwati+Bhola+Nauth&pg=PT40 |title=Essex Girls: For Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere |date=2020-10-01 |publisher=Serpent's Tail |isbn=978-1-78283-821-0 |language=en}}</ref>

The women were invited to attend to appear "exotic"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Santos |first=Inês |date=2021-03-17 |title=On the trail of the Indian suffragettes – Dr Sumita Mukherjee, Associate Professor in Modern History at the University of Bristol |url=https://www.womanthology.co.uk/on-the-trail-of-the-indian-suffragettes-dr-sumita-mukherjee-associate-professor-in-modern-history-at-the-university-of-bristol/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Womanthology |language=en-US}}</ref> and to demonstrate "the strength of support for women's suffrage throughout the [[British Empire|Empire]]."<ref name=":2" /> Their "beautiful dresses" ([[Sari|saris]]) drew admiring glances from the public.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Raw |first=Louise |date=2020-07-12 |title=Standing on the shoulders of giantesses: working-class women suffragettes: Louise Raw |url=https://womansplaceuk.org/2020/07/12/standing-shoulders-giantesses-working-class-women-suffragettes/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Woman's Place UK |language=en-US |archive-date=5 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250305185940/https://womansplaceuk.org/2020/07/12/standing-shoulders-giantesses-working-class-women-suffragettes/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Nauth has been identified as one of the women marching with an appliquéd banner in a photograph from the procession.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2018-02-06 |title=Plinth to mark centenary of women's suffrage includes South Asian and Jewish women |url=http://religiousreader.org/plinth-to-mark-centenary-of-womens-suffrage-includes-south-asian-and-jewish-women/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Religious Reader |language=en |archive-date=12 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250212142351/https://religiousreader.org/plinth-to-mark-centenary-of-womens-suffrage-includes-south-asian-and-jewish-women/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cowman |first=Krista |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNkTEQAAQBAJ&dq=Bhagwati+Bhola+Nauth&pg=PT76 |title=The Routledge Companion to British Women's Suffrage |date=2024-07-31 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-36571-0 |language=en}}</ref>

Nauth was later involved in petitioning the British government for the enfranchisement of Indian women.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mukherjee |first=Sumita |date=2022-07-04 |title=Mobility, race and the politicisation of Indian students in Britain before the Second World War |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0046760X.2021.2010815 |journal=History of Education |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=560–577 |doi=10.1080/0046760X.2021.2010815 |issn=0046-760X|hdl=1983/b1e10f74-5e23-400f-8552-e5ecb8ef6eb7 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Her date of death is unknown.

== References ==
{{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nauth, Bhagwati Bhola}}

[[Category:1880s births]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]

[[Category:Date of death unknown]]

[[Category:Activists from Lahore]]
[[Category:People from British India]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women]]
[[Category:Indian suffragists]]
[[Category:Women's Social and Political Union]]

Bhagwati Bhola Nauth - Revision history

Debasish swain at 11:45, 12 August 2025