Indira Anant Maydeo was an Indian parliamentarian who represented Pune South in the

1st Lok Sabha The First Lok Sabha was constituted on 17 April 1952 after India's first general election. The 1st Lok Sabha lasted its full tenure of five years and was dissolved on 4 April 1957. The First Session of this Lok Sabha commenced on 13 May 1952. To ...

as a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

Early life

Born on 7 September 1903, Maydeo attended the

Fergusson College Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by Vaman Shriram Apte, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vishnushashtri Chiplunkar, Mah ...

, from where she received her B.Sc. degree.

Career

Maydeo was actively involved in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

and was a member of the

(INC). In 1933, she joined the Maharashtra division of

Harijan Sevak Sangh Harijan Sevak Sangh, formerly All India Anti Untouchability League, is a non-profit organisation founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1932 to eradicate untouchability in India, working for Harijan or Dalit people and upliftment of Depressed Class of I ...

. She was the most prominent women member of the party in Pune (then in

Bombay State Bombay State was a large Indian state created in 1950 from the erstwhile Bombay Province, with other regions being added to it in the succeeding years. Bombay Province (in British India roughly equating to the present-day Indian state of Mah ...

) and when the first general elections of independent India were held, the INC made her its official candidate for Pune South constituency. Maydeo obtained roughly 64% of the votes cast and defeated the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

candidate Shridhar Limaye to become the first women representative of Pune in the house. She still holds this record. As a Member of Parliament, she brought a bill in the Lok Sabha concerning divorce but it was not discussed and eventually lapsed. Maydeo became the president of

National Students' Union of India The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) is the student wing of the Indian National Congress. It was established on 9 April 1971, founded by Indira Gandhi after merging the Kerala Students Union and the West Bengal State Chhatra Parishad ...

in 1952.

She then served as the secretary of the All India Women's Conference from 1953-1954.

Personal life

Indira married Anant Govind Maydeo in 1927, from whom she had one son and three daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maydeo, Indira Anant 1903 births Year of death missing India MPs 1952–1957 Women members of the Lok Sabha Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra Fergusson College alumni Politicians from Pune Indian independence activists from Maharashtra