Rama Devi Choudhury

Rama Devi Choudhury (ରମାଦେବୀ ଚୌଧୁରୀ, 1899–1985), remembered across Odisha simply as Maa (Mother), was a freedom fighter and Gandhian social reformer. Rama Devi joined the independence movement in 1921, was imprisoned several times by the British, and after 1947 devoted herself to the Bhoodan and Gramdan movements, to the welfare of Harijan and tribal communities, and to women's education.

Early life and family

According to Rama Devi Women's University, she was born on 3 December 1899 in Cuttack. Her parents were Gopal Ballabha Das and Basanta Kumari Devi, and she was a niece of Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das, the leading Odia public figure of the age. At about the age of fifteen she married Gopabandhu Choudhury, who joined the national movement alongside her.

Joining the freedom struggle

The turning point in her life came on 23 March 1921, when she met Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi in Cuttack. Feminism in India notes that this was the first public meeting of its kind for women in Odisha. Rama Devi and her husband joined the Non-Cooperation Movement that year, and she began organising women to take part in the struggle, to spin khadi and to boycott foreign goods.

Imprisonment

Rama Devi was arrested several times:

• 1930: during the Salt Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience Movement; Rama Devi Women's University dates this arrest to 8 November 1930.
• 1932: arrested again, on 26 January 1932 according to the university, for her role in the movement.
• 1942: arrested on 9 August 1942 at the start of the Quit India Movement.

Some accounts also list an arrest in 1921 and one in 1936, so the exact count of her arrests varies between sources.

Constructive work

Like many Gandhians, Rama Devi combined political protest with long-term social work. Institutions and initiatives associated with her include:

• Sevaghar (Seva Ghar) ashram at Bari, in present-day Jajpur district, which the university says Gandhi inaugurated on 20 May 1934; it began as a relief effort for flood-hit villages and later became a college.
• Work against untouchability through what became the Harijan Seva Sangha.
• Utkal Khadi Mandal, promoting hand-spinning and weaving.
• A teachers' training centre and balwadi (pre-school) at Ramachandrapur.
• A tribal welfare centre at Dumburugeda, set up in 1950.
• A Shishu Vihar school and a cancer hospital in Cuttack.

Bhoodan and later life

After independence, Rama Devi joined Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan (land gift) and Gramdan (village gift) movements. From 1952 she walked, by various accounts, around 4,000 km across Odisha, persuading landowners to donate land for the landless. She remained active in peace and social work into old age and died on 22 July 1985.

Legacy and honours

• Jamnalal Bajaj Award (1981) for constructive work.
• Honorary doctorate from Utkal University (1984).
• Rama Devi Women's University, Bhubaneswar: the government women's college established in 1964 was named in her honour and was upgraded to a women's university on 30 May 2015, becoming the first women's university in Odisha. Sources differ on the year the college first took her name.
• She is regarded as one of the most important women in Odisha's freedom movement.

Timeline

Related on Odiapedia

• Madhusudan Das
• Gopabandhu Das
• Baji Rout
• Odisha history in brief
• Cuttack district