Muthulakshmi Reddy: India’s First Woman Legislator

Muthulakshmi Reddy’s own mother had been dedicated as a Devadasi. In 1930, Reddy introduced a bill to end that very system, then resigned her seat in protest over Gandhi’s arrest. Her bill sat dormant for 17 years before it finally became law.

Muthulakshmi Reddy as a medical student, circa 1912. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Bill That Outlived Her Seat

ModHist0264

1912

Medical Graduate

Seven gold medals, Madras Medical College

1926

First Woman Legislator

Madras Legislative Council

1930

Devadasi Bill, Then Resigns

In protest at Gandhi’s arrest

9 Oct 1947

Devadasi Act Finally Passes

17 years after her original bill

Avvai Home, 1931: founded to shelter Devadasi girls, after three came to her seeking refuge.

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📑 Contents

1Timeline
2Doctor, Organiser, Legislator
3A Record of Firsts
4Test Yourself
5A Reform That Outlived Her Seat

Timeline

30 July 1886: Born in Thirukokarnam, Pudukkottai State. Her mother came from the Devadasi tradition.
1912: Graduates from Madras Medical College with seven gold medals, among India’s first women medical graduates.
1917: Co-founds the Women’s India Association, with Annie Besant and Margaret Cousins.
1926: Appointed to the Madras Legislative Council, becoming the first woman legislator in British India. Elected Deputy President the same year.
1930: Introduces a bill to abolish the Devadasi system, then resigns from the Council in protest at Mahatma Gandhi’s arrest during the Salt March.
1931: Founds Avvai Home, to shelter and educate girls rescued from the Devadasi system.
1954: The Adyar Cancer Institute, which she founded, begins functioning.
9 October 1947: The Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act finally becomes law, 17 years after her original bill.
1956: Receives the Padma Bhushan.

Doctor, Organiser, LegislatorNeed to Know

Muthulakshmi Reddy became the first woman legislator in British India in 1926, appointed to the Madras Legislative Council.
In 1917, she co-founded the Women’s India Association in Madras, alongside Annie Besant and the Irish feminist Margaret Cousins.
In 1930, she introduced a bill to abolish the Devadasi system. She resigned from the Council the same year, protesting Gandhi’s arrest during the Salt March.
Her bill lay dormant for 17 years. The Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act finally passed on 9 October 1947, under O.P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar’s government.
In 1912, she graduated from Madras Medical College with seven gold medals, among India’s first women medical graduates.
She founded the Avvai Home (1931) for Devadasi girls and the Adyar Cancer Institute, which began functioning in 1954.

A Record of FirstsGood to Know

She held several other firsts too. She was the first woman House Surgeon at the Government Hospital for Women and Children, Madras, and the first woman Alderwoman of the Madras Corporation.
She also campaigned, alongside AIWC colleagues, for the 1929 Child Marriage Restraint Act, which raised the legal minimum marriage age nationwide.
Avvai Home began after three Devadasi girls, turned away by schools and hostels on caste grounds, came to her seeking refuge in 1930.
The Adyar Cancer Institute’s foundation stone was laid in 1952 by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It was India’s second cancer hospital when it opened.
In 1930, she published My Experience as a Legislator, documenting her work in the Madras Legislative Council.
She received the Padma Bhushan in 1956, and died on 22 July 1968, in Madras, at age 81.

Test Yourself

A Reform That Outlived Her SeatGreat to Know

The Devadasi Abolition Act finally passed under O.P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar, Madras’s first Chief Minister after independence. See ModHist0237 — O.P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar: Madras’s First CM for more on his government.
She belongs to a generation of women who used legislative office to fight for reforms only they were positioned to fully understand. See ModHist0248 — Renuka Ray: Champion of Women’s Legal Rights for another example.
Reddy resigned her own seat over a national cause, even though it meant leaving her Devadasi bill without a champion inside the Council. She still saw that bill through to law, 17 years later, just not from a position of power. Real reform sometimes outlives the person who starts it.

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