Matangini Hazra: A Quit India Martyr’s Final March

Matangini Hazra was in her seventies when she led a huge Quit India procession in Bengal. Police shot her three times, but she kept walking and chanting until she died.

A statue of Matangini Hazra stands at Shahid Minar Maidan, Kolkata, erected in 1977. It was the first statue of a woman put up in independent India’s Kolkata. Source: Wikimedia Commons (Sumasa, CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Modern Indian History · ModHist0028

Matangini Hazra — A Quit India Martyr

1930

Joins the Salt Satyagraha

This Tamluk widow, in her early sixties, is arrested for breaking the Salt Act. Her Gandhian devotion earns her the name “Gandhi buri.”

29 Sep 1942

Leads the Tamluk Procession

She leads roughly 6,000 protesters, mostly women, toward Tamluk police station, carrying the flag at the front.

29 Sep 1942

Shot While Marching

Police open fire and shoot her three times. Wounded, she keeps holding the flag and chanting “Vande Mataram” until she dies.

1977

Honoured With a Kolkata Statue

A statue of Hazra at Shahid Minar Maidan becomes the first statue of a woman built in independent India’s Kolkata.

Not just the famous names

Hazra’s story shows the freedom struggle’s grassroots character — ordinary local participants, not just national leaders, faced real and immediate danger.

📑 Contents

1Must Know
2Good to Know
3Test Yourself
4Great to Know

Matangini Hazra’s Final March Need to Know

Matangini Hazra was an elderly freedom fighter from the Tamluk region of Bengal. She joined the Quit India Movement of 1942.
On 29 September 1942, she led a procession of roughly 6,000 protesters, mostly women, toward the Tamluk police station.
She walked at the front of the march, carrying the national tricolour flag herself.
British Indian police ordered the marchers to disband, then opened fire. A contemporary underground newspaper, Biplabi, reported that she was shot three times, in the forehead and both hands.
Even after being wounded, Hazra kept holding the flag high. She kept chanting “Vande Mataram” until she died at the spot, the flag still flying.
Her death made her one of the best-remembered martyrs of the Quit India Movement, especially in Bengal.

Her Life Before the Final March Good to Know

Hazra was born around 1870 in Hogla village, near Tamluk, into a Mahishya farming family. She never received formal schooling.
She was married at age twelve to Trilochan Hazra, and was widowed by eighteen. The couple had no children.
In 1930, in her early sixties, she joined the Civil Disobedience Movement and was arrested for breaking the Salt Act.
Her devotion to Gandhian ideals, including spinning and wearing khadi herself, earned her the affectionate title “Gandhi buri” — Bengali for “old lady Gandhi.”
She was also active in the local Chowkidari Tax resistance movement. She served six months in Baharampur jail for it.
In 1933, she was injured in a police baton charge at a Congress conference in Serampore.

Test Yourself

Remembering Matangini Hazra Great to Know

A statue of Hazra was erected in 1977 at Shahid Minar Maidan, Kolkata. It was the first statue of a woman built in independent India’s Kolkata.
A second statue marks the exact spot in Tamluk where she was killed.
In 2002, India Post issued a five-rupee commemorative postage stamp bearing her portrait. It was part of a series marking 60 years of the Quit India Movement.
Hazra Road in Kolkata is named after her, along with several local schools and institutions.
The Shahid Matangini Hazra Government College for Women was established in Tamluk in 2015, carrying her name forward.
Hazra’s story shows that the freedom struggle’s grassroots character extended well beyond famous national leaders like Gandhi or Nehru. Countless local participants, across many regions of India, shaped the movement through their own individual acts of courage.