Bhikaiji Cama: Mother of the Indian Revolution

She unfurled an early version of India’s flag decades before independence. The stage wasn’t in India at all — it was a socialist congress in Germany.

MCQ Questions

MODHIST0145

Bhikaiji Cama: Mother of the Indian Revolution

From nursing plague victims in Bombay, to unfurling India’s flag on a foreign stage decades before independence.

1861

Born in Navsari

Born to an affluent Parsi family; grows up and is educated in Bombay.

1896

Plague relief work in Bombay

Nurses plague victims during the Bombay Presidency outbreak, contracting the disease herself and surviving, though weakened.

22 Aug 1907

Hoists an early Indian flag, in Stuttgart

Unfurls the “Flag of Indian Independence” at the International Socialist Congress. Her speech appeals for equality and autonomy from Britain.

1936

Dies in Bombay

Returns to India in November 1935, after 33 years in exile, and dies the following year.

The pattern: Her most famous act happened far from India, on a foreign stage, deliberately. She took India’s claim to independence international before it was even a mainstream domestic demand.

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Must Know

• Bhikaiji Cama (24 September 1861 – 13 August 1936) was born in Navsari, to an affluent Parsi family, and educated in Bombay.
• She married Rustomji Cama in 1885. The marriage was incompatible; he was a wealthy, pro-British lawyer, and she devoted herself instead to philanthropic work.
• In 1896, she nursed plague victims during the Bombay Presidency outbreak. She contracted the plague herself, and survived, though severely weakened.
• Sent to Britain for medical recovery in 1902, she connected with nationalist circles there, including Shyamji Krishna Varma and Dadabhai Naoroji. She became Naoroji’s private secretary.
• On 22 August 1907, at the International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart, Germany, she unfurled an early version of the Indian flag. Her speech appealed for equality and autonomy from Britain.
• She died in Bombay on 13 August 1936, shortly after returning to India after 33 years in exile.

Good to Know

• The flag she raised was based on the “Calcutta Flag,” designed by Hemchandra Kanungo and Sachindra Prasad Bose. Its green, yellow, and red bands represented Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
• The flag carried “Vande Mataram” in Devanagari script, along with a crescent, a sun, and eight lotuses representing British India’s provinces.
• In Paris, she co-founded the Paris Indian Society and published revolutionary literature, including “Bande Mataram” and “Madan’s Talwar,” smuggled into India via Pondicherry.
• During the First World War, French authorities interned her in Vichy, from January 1915 to November 1917, and kept her under police surveillance afterward.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Bhikaiji Cama nursed plague victims in Bombay in 1896, contracting the disease herself. What earlier work had this followed?

Teaching at a girls’ school

Practising law

Philanthropic work, after an incompatible marriage

Journalism

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Great to Know

• Her three decades in exile show how much of the early revolutionary movement operated from outside India entirely. Diaspora networks in London and Paris did real organising work, not just domestic efforts.
• She only returned to India after formally agreeing to renounce “seditionist activities,” in a 1935 petition, made while gravely ill. Her decades of defiance ended on a negotiated, not a triumphant, note.
• She is commemorated in the epithet “Mother of the Indian Revolution.” The Indian Coast Guard commissioned a vessel, ICGS Bikhaiji Cama, in her name in 1997.