Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Remembering Matangini Hazra, fondly known as ‘Gandhi Buri’

New Delhi, Aug 10: Affectionately called Gandhiburi, which is Bengali for old lady Gandhi, Matangini Hazara was a true patriot. She took part in various movements organised for attaining complete freedom for India.

Hazra was an Indian revolutionary who participated in the Indian independence movement until she was shot dead by the British Indian police in front of the Tamluk Police Station on 29 September 1942.

Not much is known of her early life apart from that she was born in the small village of Hogla, near Tamluk in 1869, and that because she was the daughter of a poor peasant, she did not receive a formal education. She was married early(at the age of 12) and became widowed at the age of eighteen without bearing any offspring.

She became actively interested in the Indian independence movement as a Gandhian.[5] A notable feature of the freedom struggle in Midnapore was the participation of women.

In 1905, she became actively interested in the Indian independence movement as a Gandhian. A notable feature of the freedom struggle in Midnapore was the participation of women.

In 1932, she took part in the Non-Cooperation Movement and was arrested for breaking the Salt Act. She was promptly released but protested for the abolition of the tax.

Arrested again, she was incarcerated for six months at Baharampur. After being released, she became an active member of the Indian National Congress and took to spinning her own Khadi.

In 1933, she also attended the subdivisional Congress conference at Serampore and was injured in the ensuing baton charge by the police.