Lakshmi Sahgal was an extraordinary woman, who after playing a spectacular role as Captain Lakshmi in Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army during India's freedom struggle, served humanity as a physician catering to the poor and deprived.
An officer of the INA and Minister of Women's Affairs in the Azad Hind government, Sahgal was taken prisoner in Burma.
Captain Lakshmi Sahgal was not only a firebrand revolutionary, but also a dedicated physician, freedom fighter, and commander of the world's first women's military regiment, the Rani of Jhansi regiment in Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. On top of all that she was also artistically talented.
She was born Lakshmi Swaminadhan in Madras on 24 October 1914 to S Swaminadhan, a lawyer who practised criminal law at the Madras High Court and AV Ammukutty or Ammu Swaminadhan, a social worker and freedom fighter from a prominent family in Palghat, Kerala. Swaminadhan was a Tamil brahmin and Ammu was a Nair lady of matrilineal stock, a teenage daughter of Swaminadhan's mentor when the young man decided he must marry her.
Lakshmi's brother Govind Swaminadhan was an eminent lawyer and one of the leading members of the Chennai Bar, and her sister Mrinalini Sarabhai, wife of nuclear scientist Vikram Sarabhai, is a famous Bharatanatyam exponent. Their daughter Mallika Sarabhai is a classical dancer, too, and social activist. Lakshmi's daughter Subhashini Ali is a politician and labour activist, while her son-in-law Muzaffar Ali and grandson Shaad Ali are filmmakers.
According to Subhashini writing in Frontline magazine, “Lakshmi was a true child of the era that her life spanned. Born in 1914, the year that saw the start of the First World War, her infancy witnessed that most tumultuous of the last century's upheavals, the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. The 97 years that she lived were years of incredible transformations. Movements for democracy, for national liberation, for social justice, for women's emancipation and for revolutionary change dominated the years of her childhood and adulthood and the idealism and commitment that fired them entered her spirit and became part of her being.”
Even as a child, Lakshmi showed signs of the social rebel and fiery freedom fighter she was to become in adulthood when set fire to her English frocks and the clothes of her English dolls. She and her younger sister, Mrinalini, abandoned their Western clothes for Indian ones and Lakshmi converted many of her classmates and friends to her cause, organising bonfires of their clothes and toys. “Anyone who ever met Lakshmi, fell in love with her and, no matter what she did or did not, could never fall out of love with her.”
Though Lakshmi admired Mahatma Gandhi, she refused to give up medical studies to join the freedom movement, because she felt strongly that independent India would need doctors to minister the poor and that by studying in India she would learn first hand the problems of the sick in India. She, therefore, joined the Madras Medical College, one of a small group of women pioneers in the field, declining an opportunity to study in England.
Lakshmi completed her MBBS in 1938. A year later, she earned a diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics, and worked in the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, also known as the Gosha Hospital at Triplicane, Chennai.
In 1940, she left for Singapore after the failure of her marriage with pilot PKN Rao. During her stay at Singapore, she met the members of Netaji's Indian National Army, established a clinic for the poor, mostly migrant labourers from India. She soon began to play an active role in the India Independence League.
In 1942, during the surrender of Singapore by the British to the Japanese, Lakshmi aided wounded prisoners of war, many of whom were interested in forming an Indian Liberation Army. Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore on 2 July 1943. Netaji's call for volunteers to a women's regiment which would “fight for Indian Independence and make it complete” met with enthusiastic response. Soon Dr Lakshmi Swaminadhan became Captain Lakshmi.
The INA marched to Burma with the Japanese army in December 1944, but by March 1945 the INA leadership decided to beat a retreat. Lakshmi was arrested by the British army in May 1945, remaining in Burma until March 1946, when she was sent to India. There she received a true hero's welcome everywhere.
In 1971, Lakshmi joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of which Subhashini was already a member. She represented the party in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's Parliament. She organised relief camps and medical aid in Calcutta for refugees who streamed into India from Bangladesh. She led a medical team to Bhopal after the gas tragedy in December 1984, worked towards restoring peace in Kanpur following the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and was arrested for her participation in a campaign against the Miss World competition in Bangalore in 1996. She was also a founder member of the All India Democratic Women's Association, of which she was the Vice-President.
In 2002, the Left parties nominated Sahgal as a candidate in the presidential elections opposite APJ Abdul Kalam, who emerged victorious.
Lakshmi received the Padma Vibhushan, one of India's highest civilian awards, from the President of India.
Lakshmi Sahgal breathed her last on 23 July 2012. She was seeing patients regularly at her clinic in Kanpur almost till the very end.