Sucheta Kripalani (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Majumdar) (; 25 June 1908 – 1 December 1974) was an Indian politician and independence activist. She was India's first female

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

, serving as the head of the

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

government from 1963 to 1967.

Early life

She was born in

Ambala Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab (India), Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

(now in

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

) into a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Brahmo Bengali Brahmos are those who adhere to Brahmoism, the philosophy of Brahmo Samaj which was founded by Raja Rammohan Roy. A recent publication describes the disproportionate influence of Brahmos on India's development post-19th Century as un ...

family. Her father Surendranath Majumdar, worked as a medical officer, a job that required many transfers. As a result, she attended a number of

schools A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...

, her final degree is a Master’s in

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

from

St. Stephen’s College St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of Delhi University. It awards both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. Established in 1881, it is one of the oldest liberal arts and sciences colleges in India. The college has an acceptance r ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. This was a time when the country’s

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

was charged with

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

sentiments and the

freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

struggle was gaining momentum. She was a shy child, self-conscious about her appearance and intellect, as she points out in her book, An Unfinished Autobiography. It was the age she grew up in and the situations she faced that shaped her personality. Sucheta recounts how, as a 10-year-old, she and her siblings had heard their father and his friends talk about the

Jallianwala Bagh Jallianwala Bagh () is a historic garden and memorial of national importance close to the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab, India, preserved in the memory of those wounded and killed in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre that took place on t ...

massacre. It left them so outraged that they vented their anger on some of the

Anglo-Indian children Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Anglo-Indian" has a ...

they played with, by calling them names. She studied at Indraprastha College and

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a state university in Kapurthala, Punjab * Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Techn ...

before becoming a professor of Constitutional History at

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

. In 1936, she married J. B. Kripalani, a prominent figure 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 ...

, who was twenty years her senior. The marriage was opposed by both families, as well as by

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...

himself, although he eventually relented.

Freedom movement and independence

Like her contemporaries Aruna Asaf Ali and

Usha Mehta Usha Mehta (25 March 1920 – 11 August 2000) was a Gandhian and independence activist of India. She is also remembered for organizing the Congress Radio, also called the ''Secret Congress Radio'', an underground radio station, which functione ...

, she came to the forefront during the Quit India Movement and was arrested by British. She later worked closely with

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

during the Partition riots. She accompanied him to

Noakhali Noakhali District (), historically known as Bhulua (), is a Districts of Bangladesh, district in southeastern Bangladesh, located in Chattogram Division. It was established as a district in 1821, and officially named Noakhali in 1868. The distr ...

in 1946. She was one of the few women who were elected to the Constituent Assembly of India. She was elected as the first woman CM of state of Uttar Pradesh from the Kanpur constituency and was part of the subcommittee that drafted the

Indian Constitution The Constitution of India is the supreme legal document of India, and the longest written national constitution in the world. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and ...

. She became a part of the subcommittee that laid down the charter for the constitution of India. On 14 August 1947, she sang ''

Vande Mataram Vande Mātaram (Bengali language, Original Bengali: বন্দে মাতরম্‌ ''Bônde Mātôrôm'' Devanagari script: वंदे मातरम्; , Transcreation: I Bow to Thee, Mother) is a poem that was adopted as the nati ...

'' in the Independence Session of the Constituent Assembly a few minutes before

Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a prin ...

delivered his famous "

Tryst with Destiny "Tryst with Destiny" was an English-language speech by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in the Parliament House, on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947 ...

" speech. She was also the founder of the All India Mahilla Congress, established in 1940.

After independence

After independence, she remained involved with politics. For the first Lok Sabha elections in 1952, she contested from

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

on a KMPP ticket: she had joined the short-lived party founded by her husband the year before. She defeated the Congress candidate

Manmohini Sahgal Manmohini Sahgal (née Zutshi, 1909–1994) was an Indian freedom fighter and politician. She was a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family. Biography Her father was a nephew to Motilal Nehru, and she was therefore Jawaharlal Nehru's first cousi ...

. Five years later, she was reelected from the same constituency, but this time as the Congress candidate. She was elected one last time to the Lok Sabha in 1967, from Gonda constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, she had also become a member of the

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, also known as Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Indian state Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house. Member of the Legislative Assembl ...

. From 1960 to 1963, she served as Minister of Labour, Community Development and Industry in the UP government. In October 1963, she became the

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is the head of the Government of Uttar Pradesh. As per the Constitution of India, the Governor (India), governor is the state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minis ...

, the

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

woman to hold that position in any Indian state. The highlight of her tenure was the firm handling of a state employees strike. This first-ever strike by the state employees continued for 62 days. She relented only when the employees' leaders agreed to compromise. Kripalani kept her reputation as a firm administrator by refusing their demand for a pay hike. When Congress split in 1969, she left the party with Morarji Desai faction to form NCO. She lost 1971 election as NCO candidate from Faizabad (Lok Sabha constituency). She retired from politics in 1971 and remained in seclusion till her death in 1974.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kripalani, Sucheta 1908 births 1974 deaths Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh Quit India Movement Brahmos Bengali politicians People from Ambala Politicians from Kanpur Indian National Congress politicians from Uttar Pradesh Indraprastha College for Women alumni Delhi University alumni Women chief ministers of Indian states Indian rebels Indian women in war Chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh Members of the Constituent Assembly of India India MPs 1952–1957 India MPs 1957–1962 India MPs 1967–1970 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1962–1967 Gandhians Women in Delhi politics Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha members from Delhi Women in war 1900–1945 Women in Uttar Pradesh politics Chief ministers from Indian National Congress Indian people of World War II Indian women in World War II Women in Haryana politics 20th-century Indian women politicians Women Indian independence activists Women members of the Lok Sabha People from Gonda district Women members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Prisoners and detainees of British India Indian National Congress (Organisation) politicians Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party politicians