Captain Lakshmi Sahgal

Lakshmi Sahgal trained as a doctor. In 1943 she raised the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, an all-women combat unit of the Indian National Army.

After the war she went back to medicine in Kanpur. She also spent decades in left-wing politics.

1Who was Lakshmi Swaminathan?

She grew up in a family that took part in the freedom struggle.

• She was born on 24 October 1914.
• Her father, S. Swaminathan, was a lawyer at the Madras High Court.
• Her mother was Ammu Swaminathan, a social worker and independence activist.
• Her younger sister was the dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai.
• As a child she joined her mother in burning foreign clothes in the Swadeshi protest.
• Suhasini Nambiar, an early woman communist, also influenced her.
• Nambiar once hid at the family home in Madras.
• She studied at Queen Mary’s College in Madras.
• She earned an MBBS from Madras Medical College in 1938.
• A year later she earned a diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics.
• She left for Singapore in June 1940.
• There she set up a medical practice.
• Read about her mother in Ammu Swaminathan.

2How did she raise the regiment?

She met Bose and agreed to lead the women.

• Singapore fell to Japan in February 1942.
• Lakshmi helped wounded prisoners of war there.
• Many of them wanted to form an Indian army of liberation.
• Subhas Chandra Bose reached Singapore on 2 July 1943.
• He announced a women’s regiment named after Rani Lakshmibai.
• Lakshmi told him she was ready to join.
• Bose spoke to the women in Hindustani.
• Lakshmi translated his speech into a South Indian language for them.
• They spoke privately for over five hours.
• Bose gave her a few days to gather women volunteers.
• She rallied thousands of women in Singapore.
• The Rani of Jhansi Regiment took shape in October 1943 under her command.
• See Subhas Chandra Bose and Rani Lakshmibai.

3What happened in the war?

The regiment trained hard and then moved to Burma.

• Her INA rank was Lieutenant Colonel.
• Even so, people called her “Captain Lakshmi”.
• She also served as minister for women’s organisation in the Azad Hind government.
• The regiment trained in Singapore for about three months.
• It then went to Burma for field training.
• In 1944 the INA marched toward Imphal in heavy rain.
• Food was short, and many soldiers fell ill with malaria.
• Lakshmi used her medical skill to treat the sick and wounded.
• British forces arrested her in eastern Burma in May 1945.
• She was sent to India in March 1946.
• She had stayed on in Burma, caring for the wounded, until then.
• The INA trials at the Red Fort were drawing public anger at that time.
• Read more in The Indian National Army and Netaji.

4What did she do after the war?

She returned to medicine and married a fellow INA officer.

• In March 1947 she married Prem Kumar Sahgal, an INA officer.
• He had been tried at the Red Fort.
• They settled in Kanpur.
• She kept up her medical practice there.
• She treated refugees who arrived after Partition.
• They had two daughters, Subhashini Ali and Anisa Puri.
• See The Red Fort for the INA trials.

5How was her later life?

She stayed active in medicine and public life for decades.

• In 1971 she ran relief camps in Calcutta for refugees from Bangladesh.
• In 1984 she led a medical team to Bhopal after the gas tragedy.
• She joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1972.
• She helped found the All India Democratic Women’s Association in 1981.
• She worked for peace in Kanpur after the riots of 1984.
• In 1996 she was arrested during a protest against the Miss World contest.
• She received the Padma Vibhushan in 1998.
• In 2002, left parties made her their candidate for President.
• She lost to A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
• She was the first woman to stand for the post.
• She still saw patients at her Kanpur clinic in 2006, aged 92.
• She wrote an autobiography, A Revolutionary Life.
• She also recorded songs to raise funds for the INA relief fund.
• She died on 23 July 2012, aged 97.
• Her body was donated for medical research.

6What are the exam traps?

A few details are easy to mix up.

• Her popular title was Captain Lakshmi. Her real rank was Lieutenant Colonel.
• She commanded the Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
• She was not the same person as her mother, Ammu Swaminathan.
• Her mother took a constitutional path, as a Constituent Assembly member.
• Her husband, Prem Kumar Sahgal, was tried at the Red Fort.
• She was a doctor by training.
• Bose, not Sahgal, led the Azad Hind government.
• Read Sarojini Naidu and Women in the Freedom Struggle for the wider picture.