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Captain Lakshmi Sahgal

Lakshmi Sahgal trained as a doctor, then commanded India’s first all-women combat unit. She led the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army, and later spent decades as a practising physician and political activist.

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Modern History · ModHist0131

The doctor who commanded an all-women regiment

24 Oct 1914

Born Lakshmi Swaminathan, in Anakkara, Malabar district.

1938

Earns her MBBS from Madras Medical College.

12 Oct 1943

Forms and commands the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, in the INA.

1998

Awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honour.

“Captain,” even at Lieutenant Colonel rank

Sahgal actually held the INA rank of Lieutenant Colonel. But the popular title “Captain Lakshmi,” from her early days in the movement, stuck for the rest of her life.

📑 Contents

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

Must Know

Lakshmi Sahgal was born Lakshmi Swaminathan, on 24 October 1914, in Anakkara, Malabar district.
She earned her MBBS from Madras Medical College in 1938, and later a diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics.
She moved to Singapore in 1940, and ran a clinic for migrant Indian workers there.
Subhas Chandra Bose announced plans for an all-women regiment after arriving in Singapore in July 1943. Sahgal volunteered immediately.
She formed and led the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, an all-women combat unit of the Indian National Army, from October 1943.
She held the INA rank of Lieutenant Colonel, though she became known across India simply as “Captain Lakshmi.”
She served as Minister of Women’s Affairs in the Provisional Government of Free India, the Azad Hind government led by Bose.
British forces arrested her in Burma in 1945. She was sent to India in 1946, and later released.

Good to Know

She was the daughter of Ammu Swaminathan, a Constituent Assembly member, and the elder sister of the classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai.
In 1947, she married Prem Kumar Sahgal, an INA officer who had himself faced trial at the Red Fort in 1945.
After independence, she continued to practise medicine in Kanpur, seeing patients until close to her death.
She joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and was a founding member of the All India Democratic Women’s Association.
In 1998, she received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award.
In 2002, left-wing parties nominated her as their candidate for President of India, against A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. She lost, but polled a notable share of the vote.
She died on 23 July 2012, in Kanpur, at the age of 97.

Test Yourself

Great to Know

Sahgal’s life spans two very different kinds of service to India. An armed regiment during the war, then decades of medical care and left-wing politics afterward.
Her marriage to Prem Kumar Sahgal linked two separate strands of the INA’s story. She led its most famous all-women unit, while he stood trial as one of its most famous defendants.
She remained a practising physician for over 70 years, treating poor patients in Kanpur well into her nineties.
Running as a presidential candidate in 2002, at age 87, she remained politically active for the rest of her life.

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