Lakshmi Krishnamurti (1 August 1925 – 14 June 2009) was an Indian author and politician. She is the daughter of Indian independence activist S. Satyamurti.

Early life

Lakshmi Krishnamurti was born on 1 August 1925. in Madras,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Her father S. Satyamurti was one of the leading politicians of the

Swaraj Party The Swaraj Party, established as the ''Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party'', was a political party formed in India on 1 January 1923 after the Gaya annual conference in December 1922 of the National Congress, that sought greater self-government and ...

at that time. While in the General Hospital in Madras and in The Penitentiary in Madras, Satyamurti wrote a series of letters to his daughter. These letters can be found in the book "At the threshold of life"S. Satyamurti. "At the Threshold of Life". 1951. Asia Publishing House, Bombay.

Political career

Lakshmi was a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

in her early days though she did not actively associate herself with the organisation. In 1964,

K. Kamaraj Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975, hinduonnet.com. 15–28 September 2001), popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras State (Tamil Nadu) ...

nominated her to the

Madras Legislative Council Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was initi ...

. As member of the council, Lakshmi championed educational reforms and was member of the committee which regularised private colleges.

During the Emergency

Lakshmi played a more active political role during the Indian Emergency of 1975 and was jailed by Indira Gandhi. She co-founded the

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

and unsuccessfully contested from Mylapore in the 1977 Legislative Assembly election.

Later years

In her later years, Lakshmi wrote a biography of her father, ''The Satyamurti Letters'' which is considered to be the most authoritative book on the leader. She also founded the Satyamurti Centre for Democratic Studies on the occasion of Satyamurti's birth centenary in 1987. Lakshmi died on 14 June 2009 after a brief illness. She was 83.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krishnamurti, Lakshmi 1925 births 2009 deaths Politicians from Chennai Writers from Chennai Indian National Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu Indian women non-fiction writers Women biographers 20th-century Indian biographers Women in Tamil Nadu politics 20th-century Indian women writers Women writers from Tamil Nadu 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians