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{{Short description|Indian independence activist and politician}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Leela Naag
|image = Lila Nag.jpg
|image_size =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1900|10|2}}
|birth_place = [[Goalpara]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British India]]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1970|6|11|1900|10|21}}<ref>শতকন্ঠ-১৯৯৮-৯৯, শেরে বাংলা বালিকা মহাবিদ্যালয়</ref>
|death_place = [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], India
|nationality = Indian
|other_names = Leelaboti Roy
|organization = Deepali Sangha, [[Indian National Congress]], [[Forward Bloc]]
|movement = [[Indian Independence Movement]]
|spouse = Anil Chandra Roy
}}

'''Leela Roy''' {{née|'''Nag'''}} (2 October 1900 – 11 June 1970), was a radical leftist Indian woman politician and reformer, and a close associate of [[Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Nag,_Lila|title=Nag, Lila |website=Banglapedia|language=en|access-date=2017-12-21}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite book|title=Sansad Bangali Charitavidhan (Bengali)|last1=Sengupta|first1=Subodh|last2=Basu|first2=Anjali|publisher=Sahitya Sansad|year=2002|isbn=81-85626-65-0|location=Kolkata}}</ref> She was born in [[Goalpara]], [[Assam]] to Girish Chandra Naag, who was a deputy magistrate, and her mother was Kunjalata Naag. She was the first female student of [[University of Dhaka|Dhaka University.]]

==Family==
She was born into an upper middle class [[Kayastha]] family in [[Sylhet]] in [[Bengal]] (now in [[Bangladesh]]) and educated at the [[Bethune College]] in Calcutta, graduating with a gold medal in English. Her father was Girischandra Nag. He was the tutor of Subhas Chandra Bose. She fought with university authorities and became the first woman to be admitted to the [[University of Dhaka]] and earned her M.A. degree. Co-education was not permitted in Dhaka University. The then Vice Chancellor [[Philip Hartog]] gave a special permission for her admission.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://roar.media/bangla/biography/leela-nag-the-first-female-student-of-dhaka-university/|script-title=bn:ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের প্রথম ছাত্রী লীলা নাগ ও তার সংগ্রামী জীবন|last=Amin|first=Rubayet|date=2017-03-12|work=Roar বাংলা|access-date=2017-12-21|language=bn-IN}}</ref>

==Social work==
[[File:Leela Roy alone with other founder member of Samaj Sebi Sangha.jpg|thumb|Leela Roy alone with other founder member of ''Samaj Sebi Sangha'', 1946]]
She threw herself into social work and education for girls, starting the second girls school in Dhaka. She encouraged girls learning skills and receiving vocational training and emphasized the need for girls to learn martial arts to defend themselves. Over the years, she set up a number of schools and institutes for women.

She contacted Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose when he was leading the relief action after the 1921 Bengal floods. Leela Nag, then a student of the Dhaka University, was instrumental in forming the Dhaka Women's Committee and, in that capacity, raised donations and relief goods to help Netaji.

In 1931, she began publishing ''[http://jayasreepatrika.org/ Jayasree]'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jayasree Patrika – Jayasree Patrika|url=http://jayasreepatrika.org/|access-date=2020-10-30|language=en-US}}</ref> the first magazine edited, managed, and wholly contributed by women writers. It received the blessings of many eminent personalities including [[Rabindranath Tagore]], who suggested its name.<ref name=":0" />

==Political activity==
Leela Nag formed a rebellion organization in December 1923 called [[Deepali Sangha]] (''Dipali Sangha'') in Dhaka where combat training were given. [[Pritilata Waddedar]] took courses from there. She took part in the [[Civil Disobedience Movement]] and was imprisoned for six years. In 1938, she was nominated by Congress President, [[Subhas Chandra Bose]] to the National Planning Committee of the Congress. In 1939 she married [[Anil Chandra Roy]]. On Bose's resignation from the Congress, the couple joined him in the [[Forward Bloc]].

In 1941, when there was a serious outburst of communal rioting in Dhaka, she along with [[Sarat Chandra Bose]] formed the Unity Board and National Service Brigade. In 1942, during the [[Quit India Movement]] both she and her husband were arrested and her magazine was forced to cease. On her release in 1946, she was elected to the [[Constituent Assembly of India]].

During the partition violence, she met [[Gandhi]] in [[Noakhali]]. Even before Gandhiji reached there, she opened a relief center and rescued 400 women after touring on foot 90 miles in just six days. After the [[Partition of India]], she ran homes in [[Calcutta]] for destitute and abandoned women and tried to help refugees from [[East Bengal]].<ref name=":0" /> From 1946 to 1947, Roy set up seventeen relief camps in [[Noakhali riots|Noakhali]], following the riots which took place there - activist [[Suhasini Das]] worked at one.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ghosh|first=Biswaroop|title=Religion and Politics in Bengal: The Noakhali Carnage 1946-47|date=2011|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44146785|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=72|pages=936–946|jstor=44146785|issn=2249-1937}}</ref>

In 1947 she founded the Jatiya Mahila Sanghati, a women's organisation in West Bengal.

== Later years ==
In 1960 she became the chairwoman of the new party formed with the merger of the [[All India Forward Bloc (Subhasist)|Forward Bloc (Subhasist)]] and the [[Praja Socialist Party]] but was disappointed with its working. After two years she retired from active politics.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.streeshakti.com/bookL.aspx?author=11|title=StreeShakti - The Parallel Force|website=www.streeshakti.com|access-date=2017-12-21}}</ref>

Leela Roy's letters were recovered from the items of an ascetic named [[Bhagwanji]], who died in Faizabad in 1985. The letters reveal, that Leela Roy came in touch with Bhagwanji in 1962, at Neemsar, Uttar Pradesh. She stayed in touch with him till her death in 1970, and kept providing for him.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Roy|first=Leela|title=the-disappearance-of-netaji-conspiracy-theories-over-the-last-70-years|url=https://www.news18.com/news/india/the-disappearance-of-netaji-conspiracy-theories-over-the-last-70-years-1098032.html|website=news18.com}}</ref>

She died in June 1970, after a prolonged illness.<ref name=":1" />

== Homage paid ==
On December 22, 2008, The Vice President, Shri. [[Mohammad Hamid Ansari]], the Speaker, Lok Sabha, Shri [[Somnath Chatterjee]], the Prime Minister, Dr. [[Manmohan Singh]] and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Shri [[L. K. Advani]] were present during unveiling of Leela Roy's portrait in Central Hall of Indian parliament.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Roy|first=Leela|title=Leela Roy's portrait|url=https://archivepmo.nic.in/drmanmohansingh/photogallery_next.php?pageid=1127|website=archivepmo.nic.in}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Pritilata Waddedar]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Leela}}
[[Category:Indian independence activists from Assam]]
[[Category:People from Sylhet]]
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1970 deaths]]
[[Category:Bethune College alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:University of Dhaka alumni]]
[[Category:All India Forward Bloc politicians]]
[[Category:Members of the Constituent Assembly of India]]
[[Category:Women Indian independence activists]]
[[Category:Social workers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian educational theorists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women]]
[[Category:Women educators from Assam]]
[[Category:Educators from Assam]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian politicians]]
[[Category:Indian social reformers]]
[[Category:Activists from Assam]]
[[Category:Scholars from Assam]]
[[Category:Women in Assam politics]]
[[Category:Social workers from Assam]]
[[Category:20th-century women educators]]
[[Category:Hindu feminists]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Female revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists from West Bengal]]

Leela Roy - Revision history

Bot at 12:49, 12 November 2022