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In an age when the women
were still secondary citizens and essentially bread makers, Madam
bhikaji Cama, a Parsi lady from Gujarat flew the Indian National
Flag at the Socialist Convention held in Germany in the August of
A.D. 1907. She was a radical, who had devoted her life to the nation
and its independence and committed this act of valour and bravery
exactly 40 years before the Indian national flag of independence
adorned the skies in A.D. 1947, 15th August. This great
revolutionary was instrumental in creating awareness for India's
independence struggle and helping the revolution by way of providing
finance and publishing revolutionary literature.
This dynamic personality
was born on 24th September 1861
in an affluent Parsi family. During those times Parsis were leading
in varied fields like education, business and industry. In spite of
belonging to a very affluent family she always strived for India's
freedom.
She was married to
Rustom K.R.Cama, a rich and handsome lawyer interested in social
work. But their ideologies were too diverse to let them enjoy a
happy companionship. As she did not find happiness in her personal
life she turned towards social causes for solace. Madam Cama played
a very significant role in the early part of the freedom struggle.
While in India she
served the plague victims and in the process contracted it herself.
Luckily she survived it but later migrated to London where she spent
the rest of her life.She had the privilege of unfurling the first
Indian National Flag at the International Socialist Conference in
Germany on 3rd August 1907. This flag was a tricoloured one having
green, saffron, and red stripes having eight lotuses and was
designed by Veer Savarkar with the help of other freedom fighters.
She travelled a great
deal to promote the cause of India's independence. Madame Cama also
published books on patriotic literature and helped to finance the
freedom movement. She had become a major problem for the British and
had to reach France in order to save her life.She interacted with
revolutionaries from all over the world. She was particularly
supportive of Savarkar and his endeavour of writing the history of
the first Indian War of Independence. She helped send revolutionary
magazines to India, which were not available otherwise.
She was not permitted to
return to India, keeping in view her contribution to India's freedom
revolution. But she did finally return to her
home country as a very
old and ailing revolutionary. Unfortunately she expired on 13th
August 1936 and the nation lost a fearless leader.
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