The Indian Independent Movement has a rich inheritance with the contributions made by many women of distinction through different streams. They fought with true spirit and impervious courage and faced various sufferings and hardships to earn us swaraj.

   When most of the men freedom fighters were in prison many elite women came forward and took charge of the struggle.  Ammukkutty Swaminathan alias Ammu Swaminathan (1894–1978) was one among them. Mahatma Gandhi’s perception about women and their role in public life was different from those of the 19th century reformers. He visualised women as an impending force in the struggle to build a new social order.

   In 1925, Mahatma Gandhi wrote that “As long as women do not come to public life and purify it, we are not likely to attain swaraj. Even if we did, we would have no use for that kind of swaraj to which women have not made their full....