Bhabini Mahato (c. 1925–24 June 2014) was a Bengali freedom fighter and activist who participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942[1] and the Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum).[2]
Biography
Mahato was born about 1925 in Majhihira village, Purulia, West Bengal, British India to a Kurmi family.[3] She was married to Baidyanath Mahato when aged eight or nine.[1][3] Three decades after she married, her husband Baidyanath married her younger sister Urmila as his second wife. Each sister had three children.[4]
During the Quit India Movement, her husband Baidyanath was imprisoned for 13 months in Bhagalpur camp jail.[3] Mahato cooked and fed fugitive revolutionaries hiding in Purulia's jungles[5] and collected funds for the cause.[6]
After Indian independence, Mahato participated in the Bengali Language Movement, which demanded the establishment of Bengali as one of the official languages. She was arrested after a march to Dalhousie, Kolkata in 1956 and spent 11 days in jail.[1]
In 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on behalf of the Government of India, awarded her a Tamrapatra.[1]
Mahato died in 2014 in Manbazar, West Bengal.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d Pal, Soumen. "Bhabini Mahato". Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Government of India. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ^ ইশতিয়াক, আহমাদ (2023-02-21). "এক পলাশ রাঙা অধ্যায়". The Daily Star Bangla. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ^ a b c Sainath, P. (2022-11-30). "Bhabani Mahato: feeding the revolution in Puruliya". The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. ISBN 978-93-5492-827-7.
- ^ Sainath, P (2022-04-18). "When Bhabani Mahato fed the revolution". People's Archive of Rural India. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ^ a b Sainath, P (2024-08-30). "The humble heroism of Bhabani Mahato passes". People's Archive of Rural India (in Bengali). Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ^ Ghosh, Niranjan (1988). Role of Women in the Freedom Movement in Bengal, 1919-1947: Midnapore, Bankura, and Purulia District. Tamralipta Prakashani. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-8364-2428-7.
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