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Bengali freedom fighter and activist
Bhabini Mahato (Bengali: ভাবিনী মাহাতো, c. 1925–24 June 2014) was a Bengali freedom fighter and activist who participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942[1] and the Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum).[2]
Biography
Mahato was born about 1925 in Majhihira village, Purulia, West Bengal, British India to a Kurmi family.[3] She was married to Baidyanath Mahato when aged eight or nine.[1][3] Three decades after she married, her husband Baidyanath married her younger sister Urmila as his second wife. Each sister had three children.[4]
During the Quit India Movement, her husband Baidyanath was imprisoned for 13 months in Bhagalpur camp jail.[3] Mahato cooked and fed fugitive revolutionaries hiding in Purulia's jungles[5] and collected funds for the cause.[6]
After Indian independence, Mahato participated in the Bengali Language Movement, which demanded the establishment of Bengali as one of the official languages. She was arrested after a march to Dalhousie, Kolkata in 1956 and spent 11 days in jail.[1]
In 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on behalf of the Government of India, awarded her a Tamrapatra.[1]
Mahato died in 2014 in Manbazar, West Bengal.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Bhabini Mahato, Pal, Soumen. Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Government of India. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ↑ এক পলাশ রাঙা অধ্যায়, ইশতিয়াক, আহমাদ. The Daily Star Bangla(2023-02-21). Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom{{#if:Sainath|, Sainath}. Penguin Random House India Private Limited(2022-11-30). ISBN 978-93-5492-827-7
- ↑ When Bhabani Mahato fed the revolution, Sainath, P. People's Archive of Rural India(2022-04-18). Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The humble heroism of Bhabani Mahato passes, Sainath, P. People's Archive of Rural India(2024-08-30). Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ↑ Role of Women in the Freedom Movement in Bengal, 1919-1947: Midnapore, Bankura, and Purulia District{{#if:Ghosh|, Ghosh}. Tamralipta Prakashani(1988). ISBN 978-0-8364-2428-7