Kailash Radhabai Subbarayan, ''nee'' Kudmul (22 April 1891 - 1960) was an Indian politician, women's rights activist and social reformer. She was the wife of Indian politician

P. Subbarayan Paramasiva Subbarayan (11 September 1889 – 6 October 1962) was an Indian politician, freedom fighter and diplomat and was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, India's ambassador to Indonesia and Union Minister of Transport and Communica ...

and mother of

Mohan Kumaramangalam Surendra Mohan Kumaramangalam ( ta, சுரேந்திர மோகன் குமாரமங்கலம்) (1 November 1916 — 30 May 1973) was an Indian politician and communist theorist who was a member of the Communist Party of ...

, P. P. Kumaramangalam and

Parvathi Krishnan Parvathi Krishnan (15 March 1919 – 20 February 2014) was an Indian politician from the Communist Party of India. She was a three time former Member of Parliament representing Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency and Rajya Sabha member. She was ...

Early life and education

Radhabai Kudmul was born to Rao Sahib Kudmul Ranga Rao of

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka– ...

. She belonged to the

Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin Chitrapur Saraswats are a small Konkani-speaking community of Hindu Brahmins in India. They are traditionally found along the Kanara coast and call themselves ''Bhanaps'' in the Konkani language. This is a small community from India spread t ...

community. She had her schooling in Mangalore and graduated from Presidency College, Madras. Widowed at an early age, in 1912, Radhabai married P. Subbarayan, ''

zamindar A zamindar (Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

'' of

Kumaramangalam Kumaramangalam is a village in Namakkal district in Tamil Nadu state in India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, a ...

. The couple had three sons and one daughter. She did her post graduation from

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

Public life

Radhabai was an elected member of the

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

of the

Madras University The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

. She also served as a member of the All India Women's Conference. In the

Round Table Conference The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in Dec ...

of 1930, she and

Jahanara Shahnawaz Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz (7 April 1896 – 27 November 1979) was a politician and Muslim League activist. She was the daughter of Sir Muhammad Shafi. Her husband was Mian Shah Nawaz. She studied at Queen Mary College, Lahore, British Indi ...

were the only two active members of women's organisations nominated to the conference; they argued unsuccessfully for a 5 per cent reservation for women in the legislatures. She also participated in the Second Round Table Conference. The Lothian Committee was appointed, with Radhabai being a part of it, to gauge public opinion over reservations. In 1937, Radhabai wanted to contest a general seat as a candidate of the Indian National Congress. But the Chairman of the Madras Provincial Reception Committee refused to support her. When Subbarayan questioned C. Rajagopalachari about this, he replied: However, Radhabai was elected unopposed to the Council of States from a general constituency in 1938 and became the first woman member of the Council of States.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Subbarayan, Kailash Radhabai Presidency College, Chennai alumni Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford 1891 births 1960 deaths Politicians from Mangalore Indian social reformers Kumaramangalam family University of Madras faculty Women in Karnataka politics Indian women's rights activists Indian women activists 19th-century Indian women 19th-century Indian people 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians Activists from Karnataka