Subhadra Kumari Chauhan (16 August 1904 – 15 February 1948) was an Indian poet. One of her most popular poems is '' Jhansi Ki Rani'' (about the courageous Queen of Jhansi).''

Biography

Subhadra Chauhan was born into a

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

family in Nihalpur village,

Prayagraj Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

, Uttar Pradesh. She initially studied in the Crosthwaite Girls' School in

where she was senior to and friends with Mahadevi Verma and passed the middle-school examination in 1919. She married Thakur Lakshman Singh Chauhan of Khandwa in 1919 when she was sixteen with whom she had five children. After her marriage with Thakur Lakshman Singh Chauhan of Khandwa in the same year, she moved to Jubbulpore (now

Jabalpur Jabalpur, formerly Jubbulpore, is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the 3rd-largest urban agglomeration of the state and the 38th-largest of the country. Jabalpur is the administrative h ...

Central Provinces The Central Provinces was a province of British India. It comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered parts of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Nagpur was the primary ...

. In 1921, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan and her husband joined Mahatma Gandhi's

Non-Cooperation Movement Non-cooperation movement may refer to: * Non-cooperation movement (1919–1922), during the Indian independence movement, led by Mahatma Gandhi against British rule * Non-cooperation movement (1971), a movement in East Pakistan * Non-cooperatio ...

. She was the first woman Satyagrahi to court arrest in

Nagpur Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...

and was jailed twice for her involvement in protests against the

British rule The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or dire ...

in 1923 and 1942. She was a member of the legislative assembly of the state (erstwhile

). She died in 1948 in a car accident near

Seoni Seoni, formerly spelled Seeonee, is a city and a municipality in Seoni district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. This tribal household dominated district was formed in the year 1956. Rudyard Kipling used the forests of the Satpura Ran ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

, on her way back to Jabalpur from Nagpur, the then capital of Central Provinces, where she had gone to attend the assembly session.

Writing career

Chauhan authored a number of popular works in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

poetry. Her most famous composition is ''Jhansi Ki Rani'', an emotionally charged poem describing the life of Rani Lakshmi Bai. The poem is one of the most recited and sung poems in Hindi literature. An emotionally charged description of the life of the queen of

Jhansi Jhansi ( ) is a historic city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. (Toshan) Balwant Nagar was the old name of Jhansi. It lies in the region of Bundelkhand, on the banks of the Pahuj River, in the extreme ...

(

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

) and her participation in the 1857 revolution, it is often taught in schools in India. A couplet repeated at the end of each stanza reads thus: This and her other poems, ''Jallianwala Bagh mein Vasant'', ''Veeron Ka Kaisa Ho Basant'', ''Rakhi Ki Chunauti'', and '' Vida'', openly talk about the freedom movement. They are said to have inspired great numbers of Indian youth to participate in the Indian Freedom Movement. Here is the opening stanza of ''Jhansi ki Rani'': Subhadra Kumari Chauhan wrote in the Khariboli dialect of Hindi, in a simple, clear style. Apart from heroic poems, she also wrote poems for children. She wrote some short stories based on the life of the middle class.

Legacy

The ICGS Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, an

Indian Coast Guard The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is a maritime law enforcement and search and rescue agency of India with jurisdiction over its territorial waters including its contiguous zone and Exclusive economic zone of India, exclusive economic zone. It was st ...

ship, was named for the poet. The government of

placed a statue of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan before the Municipal Corporation office of

. On 6 August 1976, India Posts released a postage stamp to commemorate her. On 16 August 2021, Google commemorated Subhadra Kumari with a

Doodle A doodle is a drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract art, abstract lines or shapes, generally w ...

on her 117th birth anniversary. Google commented: "Chauhan’s poetry remains a staple in many Indian classrooms as a symbol of historical progress, encouraging future generations to stand up against social injustice and celebrate the words that shaped a nation’s history".

Works

Collections of poems

''Khilonewala''
* ''Tridhara'' * ''Mukul'' (1930)
''Yeh Kadamb Ka Ped''
These anthologies consist some of the well-known poems like "Jhansi ki Raani", "Veeron Ka Kaisa Ho Basant" and "Yeh Kadamb Ka Ped". * "Seedhe-Saade Chitra" (1946) * "Mera naya Bachpan" (1946) * "Bikhare Moti" (1932)
"Jhansi ki Rani"

Short stories

* ''Hingvala'' (or Hingwala)

References

External links

*

Jhansi Ki Rani English Translation By Qazi Muhammad Ahkam

at ''Bharat Darshan'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Chauhan, Subhadra Kumari 1904 births 1948 deaths Hindi-language poets Poets from Uttar Pradesh People from Prayagraj district Indian women poets People from Khandwa People from Jabalpur Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh Prisoners and detainees of British India 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian poets Women writers from Uttar Pradesh