The Remarkable Journey of Sucheta Kriplani
Sucheta Kriplani was known as an Indian freedom fighter and politician. She was India’s first woman Chief Minister who hand round as the head of the Uttar Pradesh government from 1963 to 1967.
Sucheta Kriplani who was born in 1908 in Ambala, Haryana.She belonged to a Bengali family. She was the daughter of S.N. Majumdar, who was a government doctor and also a nationalist. Sucheta Kriplani inward education from Indraprastha College and St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. Then she joined Banaras Hindu University as a lecturer. In 1936 Sucheta Kriplani came into contact with a great communist leader, Acharya Kriplani and married him. She also joined the Indian National Congress and vigorously participated in the Indian Freedom Movement.
Role of Sucheta Kriplani Post-Independence
In 1946, on Gandhiji’s advice, Sucheta Kriplani was allotted Organizing Secretary of the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust. This led to her traveling over India with Thakkar Bapa, who had also been chosen Secretary of the Trust. It was also in the same year that Gandhiji sent Dada Kriplani to Noakhali following the communal holocaust that had bent mayhem there. In 1942, he participated in the Renounce India Movement along with Aruna Asaf Ali and Usha Mehta. During public violence, Sucheta Kriplani went to Noakhali with Gandhiji and worked hard. Sucheta insisted on going along with him, and even when Dada returned from there, she became a birth mother to the sufferers of carnage.
Suchetaji was a very good coordinator, and she helped Dada in organizing the various parties with which he became implicated after leaving that Congress. When she joined the Congress after the divide in the Congress in 1969, Dada Kriplani did not do the same thing. Suchetaji helped in organizing the party in Delhi and in a different place. When the student movement started in 1974, she took an active interest in it. As they were both in different parties, they were very professional, and Suchetaji did not go out to campaign votes for her husband. She was with which to see to his comfort and needs and to take care of his health.
She was a superior parliamentarian and eloquent in the Lok Sabha debates. Although, she pulled her away into local politics of UP where Congress was separated into two groups, one led by Kamalapati Tripathi and the other by C.B. Gupta for different circumstances. Their power resistance led C.B. Gupta to influence Suchetaji to leave Delhi and take the chief Minister ship of Uttar Pradesh for granted because he had already lost the election. As the role of Chief Minister, she did a very good job. She also showed herself to be a very well-organized administrator and an able politician. She was very intelligent as well as hard-working. She is also well-read and has a lot of diligent habits. Furthermore, she was an honest and truthful person. For that reason, old-timers still remember her as the best Chief Minister U .P. Her lifestyle was also very simple and improbable for a C.M.’s position.
After both of them retired from active politics, the Kripalanis built for themselves a nice house in Sarcomata Enclave in New Delhi. Suchetaji afterward discharged her duties as a very able and careful housewife. She would always make sherbets and jams and various other eatables at home to economize and divert in style. These days she also wrote three or four autobiographical articles for The Illustrated Weekly of India, which also covered her early life. It was really unfortunate that she was unable to complete her autobiography. Whatever earnings these both had earned and saved and put into the Lok Kalyan Samiti, set up for the once-over of the poor and needy in Delhi.
Achievements of Sucheta Kriplani as a First Woman Chief Minister in India
Sucheta Kriplani’s great achievement during her political career was she efficiently handled the state workers’ long strike of 62 days. She participated in the Quit India movement and worked with Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) during the Indian Independence Association. She also holds the office as the first woman chief minister of India. She is the most enthused lady in India for all the country’s women.
She had also to tackle different kinds of problems during her tenure, including the strike of the state employees for long 62 days. She was chosen to the Loke Sabha in 1967 for Uttar Pradesh. She has been resigned from her active politics in the year 1971.
However, she was very nice and active and always engrossed in political and social activities. She was always not careful about her health. Suchetaji had met with a serious accident in the Simla Hills, where she sustained a spinal injury but fully recovered from it in time. However, in 1972, she first showed signs of cardiac insufficiency. Two heart attacks came, from which she made a complete recovery.
In 1974, Dada had bronchitis and an unrelenting cough, making him irritable. But Suchetaji continued looking after his health day and night with great dedication. When he was a little better, she engaged a night nurse for him but would yet come to see him twice every night. If Dada rang for the servant, she would come herself. Although, she never told him that she was suffering from cardiac pain. But on 29 November 1974, Sucheta had a last heart attack which was very severe that she had to be shifted to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences. And on 1 December 1974, Suchetaji breathed her last breath through a massive coronary attack, leaving an older other half face down with grief and no one to look after him.
📎 Related Articles
1. Shruti: From Tea Seller’s Daughter to Judge
2. Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi: The Unsung Hero of Indian Independence
3. A Tribute to Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla: An Epitome of Bravery
4. The Defiant Rise of Begum Hazrat Mahal: A Forgotten Heroine
5. Remembering Major Acharya: Bravery Beyond Words