ARUNA ASIF ALI- QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT

• Aruna Asaf Ali is a legendary revolutionary figure, celebrated for her significant contributions to India’s freedom struggle. She is particularly recognized as the heroine of the Quit India Movement, having defied even Mahatma Gandhi’s orders to surrender in late 1946.
• Born Aruna Ganguly, she was raised in a liberal Brahmo Samaj environment. Her marriage to Asaf Ali, a Muslim Congress leader who was 20 years her senior, was opposed by her family.
• In his recent book, The Circles of Freedom, T.C.A. Raghavan, former High Commissioner to Pakistan, describes Aruna’s life in 1928 Old Delhi’s Kucha Chelan as vastly different from her Anglo-Indian upbringing.
• Although she was not required to observe purdah, her Anglo-Indian background made it difficult to adjust to the domesticity and seclusion of a traditional Muslim household, necessitating separate facilities for her in Asaf Ali's mansion. Initially, her role was limited to being the wife of a public figure, often attending high teas in nationalist circles in Delhi.
• However, Aruna eventually emerged as a leader among women in the Congress, alongside figures like Sarojini Naidu and Sucheta Kripalani. She first heard the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad" when her husband visited Sardar Bhagat Singh in Lahore Jail as Gandhi's representative.
• Aruna recalled that the small room resonated with Bhagat Singh's powerful slogan, inspiring her commitment to the nationalist struggle.
• In 1932, she was imprisoned for her participation in the Civil Disobedience movement. Following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, when all political prisoners were to be released, Aruna chose to remain in jail to protest the inhumane treatment of inmates in Tihar Jail, leading to significant reforms there.
• After 1932, she endured ten years of solitary confinement in Ambala, as the British were particularly harsh on women revolutionaries, often forcing them to sacrifice family ties. Declared an offender, her property was seized and auctioned, but she avoided arrest by finding mentorship under Ram Manohar Lohia. Her long underground struggle with Socialist leaders like Lohia and Jay Prakash Narayan deepened her socialist beliefs.
• Aruna co-edited the newspaper Inquilab with Lohia and continued her activism until 1946. Moved by her resolve, Gandhi urged her to surrender, writing, “I have been filled with admiration for your courage and heroism. You are reduced to a skeleton. Do come out and surrender... Reserve the prize money for the Harijan cause.”
• Determined to pursue her socialist ideals, she only surrendered after the prize on her head was lifted. Even after resurfacing and facing arrest, she supported the Royal Indian Navy mutiny aboard the INS Talwar.
• After independence, Aruna left the Congress to join the Communist Party of India, where she established the National Federation of Indian Women, the women's wing of the party. She lost her husband in 1953, who by then had become India’s first ambassador to the United States. Despite her proximity to the capitalist camp during the Cold War, she remained true to her ideological beliefs.
• In 1965, she received the Order of Lenin, and in 1992, the Indian government honored her with the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award. In 1997, she was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor, and in 1998, a stamp commemorating her was issued. Aruna Asaf Ali Marg in New Delhi is named in her honour