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28th, January, 2022

Two freedom fighters from Punjab in book on unsung freedom fighters.
Durgawati Devi and Gulab Kaur are among 20 freedom fighters whose lives have been chronicled in a pictorial book titled “India’s Women Unsung Heroes: The Brave Women of our Freedom Struggle”.

The book, brought out by the ministry of Culture in partnership with the Amar Chitra Katha Comics as part of the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” celebrations, was released by Union Minister of State for Culture Meenakshi Lekhi here on Thursday.

“Durgawati Devi had accompanied Bhagat Singh as his wife during his escape to Kolkata from Lahore after he shot John Saunders. For the escape Bhagat Singh had dressed up in western attire while Durgawati (known as “Durga bhavi” in revolutionary circles) wore a very expensive sari and goggles to play her part as the wife of a fashionably dressed husband. Her child ‘Sachi’, who was then an infant, was with her”, Chaman Lal, retired JNU professor and a well-known authority on the revolutionary freedom struggle.
In Kolkata, Bhagat Singh and his associates were received at the railway station by Durgawati Devi’s real life husband Bhagwati Charan Vohra, who later died in Lahore while experimenting with a bomb that they wanted to use to rescue Bhagat Singh from prison.
Gulab Kaur was a Ghadarite. She and her husband Mann Singh sailed to India from Philippines to mobilize the masses against the British rule. “When her husband developed cold feet, she abandoned him”, Chaman Lal said.
Chaman Lal added that during the recent agitation by the farmers against the controversial farm laws, a hall was named after Gulab Kaur by the farmers at their protest site at Tikri border.

(Source: Punjab Tribune)

Professor Sandhu was not only the first woman VC of Punjabi University, she was also the only woman to hold the regular charge of the university since its establishment. She remained at the top post from 1975 to 1977.
She studied at Patiala’s Victoria Girls School and later did post graduation in philosophy from Government College, Lahore.
Prof Sandhu formed Mata Sahib Kaur Dal during the Partition when people were migrating from Pakistan. The organization rehabilitated over 400 families in Patiala.
Later, she became the first woman chairperson of the Staff Selection Commission, New Delhi, in 1980.
The university officials said Prof Sandhu took charge during the initial years of its establishment. Vice Chancellor Professor Arvind expressed solidarity and said it was a major loss for Punjab and Punjabis.
Professor Nivedita of the university said, “Dr Sandhu had asked famous playwright Dr Surjit Sethi to pen a play ‘Main wi natak di ik pattar’ in 1975. Then Chief Minister Giani Zail Singh had specially come to the university to watch the play.”