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{{Short description|Female leader in the Indian independence movement}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2022}}
'''Khurshedben Naoroji''' (1894–1966) was an accomplished soprano and an early part of the [[Indian independence movement|Indian Independence Movement]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Functioning Anarchy?|url=https://penguin.co.in/book/the-language-of-history/|access-date=2021-06-28|website=Penguin Random House India|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-06-26|title=Khurshedben Naoroji: The singer who preached nonviolence to bandits|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57523456|access-date=2021-06-28}}</ref> She was the grand daughter of India's first nationalist leader and the first Indian to serve in the British Parliament [[Dadabhai Naoroji]].

== Early life ==
She was born in Bombay (now [[Mumbai]]) and became an accomplished [[Soprano|classical soprano]]. Family and friends dubbed her "bul" or nightingale. In the early 1920s, she relocated to Paris to study music, but found herself culturally adrift in Europe until she crossed paths with another expatriate woman, [[Eva Palmer-Sikelianos|Eva Palmer Sikelianos]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691171722/eva-palmer-sikelianos|title=Eva Palmer Sikelianos|date=2019-03-05|isbn=978-0-691-17172-2|language=en}}</ref>

Sikelianos, a New York aristocrat, had relocated to Athens where she became one of the principal architects of a revival of classical Greek culture. Their conversations about Greek and Indian musical traditions resulted in the setting up of a school of non-Western music in Athens. Khurshedben left classical music behind in Paris and flourished in Greece, donning Indian saris and holding impromptu Indian music concerts.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691171722/eva-palmer-sikelianos|title=Eva Palmer Sikelianos|date=2019-03-05|isbn=978-0-691-17172-2|language=en}}</ref> Khurshedben spoke wistfully about India and about joining [[Mahatma Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi's]] movement for freedom from the British colonial rule. When Sikelianos solicited her help for the first [[First Delphic Festival|Delphic Festival]], Khurshedben turned down the offer, instead returning to Bombay.{{fact|date=June 2022}}

== Role in India's Independence movement ==
Soon, she moved to Gandhi's [[Sabarmati Ashram|Sabarmati ashram]] in Gujarat where she encouraged Gandhi to widen women's involvement in nationalist activities. Gandhian activism, she told a newspaper, allowed for "the great awakening of women" - and women were "not going to stop their work so well begun".

Khurshedben, focussed her work on the [[North-West Frontier Province]] (NWFP - now in Pakistan and called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). By the early 1930s, this [[Parsis|Parsi]] woman<ref>{{Cite web|title=Remembering a forgotten Gandhian|url=https://zoroastrians.net/2019/10/12/remembering-a-forgotten-gandhian-khurshedben-naoroji/|url-status=live|website=Zoarastrians.net}}</ref> became a well-known figure in NWFP politics. She befriended [[Abdul Ghaffar Khan|Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan]], the "[[Frontier Gandhi]]" who led a nonviolent pro-nationalist movement amongst Pashtuns. Khurshedben was imprisoned by the British several times, once writing to Gandhi from a prison in [[Peshawar]] that "the fleas and I kept each other warm". In 1930, Khurshedben was arrested along with other revolutionaries for attempting to hoist the [[Flag of India|Indian flag]] in a [[Government College (disambiguation)|Government College]] in [[Ahmedabad]].<ref>{{cite news|date=21 August 1930|title=Millionaire's daughter arrested|work=[[Portsmouth Evening News]]|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000290/19300821/079/0004|access-date=2 December 2014|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}{{subscription|date=April 2019}}</ref>

Gandhi had encouraged her to promote Hindu-Muslim unity and grow support for the [[Indian National Congress - Freedom Era|Indian National Congress]]. This was impossible, however, while local Hindus remained terrorised by Muslim dacoits - bandits who conducted kidnapping raids from nearby Waziristan. These bandits, who terrified British and Indian policemen, stoked communal tensions. For Khurshedben, the answer to this dilemma was obvious - she would approach the dacoits, encourage them to desist from banditry and embrace Gandhian nonviolence.

In late 1940 she began long tours on foot, meeting and conversing with locals. She counselled women about the evils of banditry, turning the mothers or daughters of dacoits against the practice. Remarkably, her approach yielded results. By December 1940, kidnappings had plummeted, improving communal harmony. Even local British authorities, her former incarcerators, now praised her.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-06-26|title=Khurshedben Naoroji: The singer who preached nonviolence to bandits|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57523456|access-date=2021-06-28}}</ref>

=== Arrest at the border with Waziristan ===
A group of kidnapped Hindus were being held in [[Waziristan]]. Khurshedben decided to go even though she was conscious of the risk to her life: and if she was captured alive, she told Gandhi that dacoits would ask him for a ransom or "chop off a finger or a(n) ear".

Unfortunately, she was unable to reach the kidnappers. British authorities arrested and jailed her before she crossed the Waziristan border. She cycled through prisons until 1944.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Functioning Anarchy?|url=https://penguin.co.in/book/the-language-of-history/|access-date=2021-06-28|website=Penguin Random House India|language=en-US}}</ref>

Following Indian independence, she worked for various government commissions and even resumed her singing career before passing away, most likely in 1966.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-06-26|title=Khurshedben Naoroji: The singer who preached nonviolence to bandits|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57523456|access-date=2021-06-28}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Indian Independence Movement}}

[[Category:Parsi people]]
[[Category:Parsi people from Mumbai]]
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]

Khurshedben Naoroji - Revision history

UpdateBot at 02:46, 24 June 2022