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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bibi Amtus Salam
| image =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = 
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{Death date|1985|09|29|df=y}}
| death_place =
| monuments =
| nationality = Indian
| occupation = [[Social worker]]
| known_for = Disciple of [[Mahatma Gandhi]]
| notable_works =
| awards =
}}

'''Bibi Amtus Salam''' (died 29 September 1985) was a social worker and disciple of [[Mohandas Gandhi]] who played an active role in combating [[Communal violence in India|communal violence]] in the wake of the [[Partition of India]] and in the rehabilitation of [[refugees]] who came to [[India]] following partition.

== Early life ==
Bibi Amtus Salam was born the daughter of Abdul Majid Khan and belonged to a conservative but aristocratic Muslim family of [[Patiala]]. She was denied an education owing to the family's observance of ''[[purdah]]'' which she shunned in 1925.<ref name="books.google">{{cite book|last=Mohan|first=Kamlesh|title=Towards Gender History: Images, Identities, and Roles of North Indian Women|year=2006|publisher=Aakar|location=New Delhi|pages=177, 90|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aO5zXUD6chgC&pg=PA177|isbn=9788187879657}}</ref>

== Gandhi's associate ==
Bibi Amtus Salam was a close associate of Gandhi's and he saw and addressed her as his daughter. Writing to [[Sardar Patel]] in 1934, Gandhi noted that the frail Salam's "heart is gold, but her body is brass".<ref>{{cite journal|title=164. LETTER TO VALLABHBHAI PATEL|journal=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|date=18 January – 19 May 1934|volume=63|issue=18|page=153|url=http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL063.PDF|access-date=20 June 2013}}</ref> Salam was an advocate of Hindu-Muslim amity and channeled her efforts to attaining that goal.<ref>{{cite news|last=Guha|first=Ramachandra|title=They Too Wrote Our History|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?228341|access-date=20 June 2013|newspaper=Outlook|date=22 August 2005}}</ref>

In 1947, as riots occurred throughout India, Gandhi toured [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]] to try and calm tempers. Amtus Salam accompanied him on that trip and fasted with him for 21 days at [[Noakhali]] to bring peace there.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shukla|first=A K|title=Women Chief Ministers in Contemporary India|year=2007|publisher=APH Publishing Company|location=New Delhi|page=12|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NMocKFODKxkC&pg=PA12|isbn=9788131301517}}</ref> Gandhi left her there to continue with the efforts of re-establishing communal harmony in Noakhali and later observed that "you are the moving spirit behind whatever peace has been achieved in Noakhali. It was and still is your most significant work. Only you can sustain it. Wherever you stand, you stand in the capacity of my daughter, do you not?"<ref name="tribuneindia">{{cite news|title=Salam Bibi|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050731/society.htm|access-date=20 June 2013|newspaper=The Tribune|date=31 July 2005}}</ref>

Amtus Salam had wanted to stay in Patiala during the Partition and its accompanying violence, as a young and single Muslim woman, to further the cause of communal harmony. She opted to stay on India even as her brothers and most of her extended family chose to move to Pakistan and their action both dismayed and angered her. Gandhi arranged for their safe passage to [[West Pakistan]].<ref name="tribuneindia" />

In his ''[[India Wins Freedom]]'', [[Maulana Azad]] notes that [[Mohammed Ali Jinnah]]'s title of [[Quaid-e-Azam]] (Great Leader) was first popularised by Gandhi who had followed Amtus Salam's suggestion that he address Jinnah thus since the [[Urdu]] press referred to him by that title. Azad writes that in following Salam's advice without considering the consequences of his letter, which was published in the newspapers, Gandhi ended up legitimizing Jinnah's image as the [[Quaid-e-Azam|Quaid]] before [[Indian Muslims]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Abdelhalim|first=Julten|title=Spaces forJihād: Indian Muslims and Conceptions of Citizenship|year=2012|publisher=Ruprechts-Karls Universitat Heidelberg|location=Heidelberg|page=94|url=http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/14323/1/Julten_Abdelhalim_PhD%20Thesis_Januar_2013.pdf}}</ref>

Amtus Salam was one of the women to take part in his controversial celibacy tests..<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/UdayMahurkar/status/1129935484069785606?s=20|title=Gandhiji did many great things like his celibacy experiments by sleeping naked with young girls. With Sushila Nayar n a Muslim lady Amtus Salam it went beyond. He used to bathe with them naked.|last=Mahurkar|first=Uday|date=2019-05-18|website=@UdayMahurkar|language=en|access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref> She used to sleep and bathe with him naked with another disciple, [[Sushila Nayyar]] also serving him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/thrill-of-the-chaste-the-truth-about-gandhis-sex-life-1937411.html|title=The truth about Gandhi's sex life (See 12th para)|date=2010-04-07|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref>

== Life in independent India ==
During 1947-48, she worked on the evacuation and rehabilitation of thousands of women kidnapped during the melee that followed Partition. Here she was assisted by Lajjawati Hooja, a member of the [[Indian National Congress|Congress]] and the All-India Women's Congress and Salam made several trips to [[Pakistan]] to help with the evacuation of refugees.<ref name="books.google" /><ref name="tribuneindia" />

She established the Kasturba Seva Mandir and settled down in [[Rajpura]] where she worked on the resettlement of Hindu migrants from [[Bahawalpur]]. When the [[Government of India]] began constructing a township at Rajpura for the rehabilitation of refugees, she was involved in the work there along with the [[Hindustani Talimi Sangh]] who worked on the education of the children in the refugee camps.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jain|first=L C|title=The City of Hope: The Faridabad Story|year=1998|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|location=New Delhi|page=40|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mrLNEnirPfwC&pg=PA40|isbn=9788170227489}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=THE STORY OF NAI TALIM|url=http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/naitalimmarjoriesykes.htm|access-date=20 June 2013|archive-date=26 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120726034602/http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/naitalimmarjoriesykes.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the 1980s, Amtus Salam served as a permanent invitee on the All India Committee on Jail Reforms.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kumar|first=Virendra|title=Committees and Commissions in India: 1980 (Vol.18 Part B)|year=1994|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|location=New Delhi|page=389|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nke9axQYlKQC&pg=PA389|isbn=9788170225119}}</ref> She died in September 1985.<ref name="tribuneindia" />

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Mohandas K. Gandhi}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salam, Bibi Amtus}}
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Patiala]]
[[Category:Gandhians]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]

Bibi Amtus Salam - Revision history

->Citation bot at 00:15, 28 November 2021