Great freedom fighter Lakshmi Sehgal passes away

23 July, 2012

Lakshmi Sehgal, the first captain of the women's wing of the Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj founded by Subhas Chandra Bose, died at a private hospital in Kanpur at an age of 97. She has willed her body to be donated for medical education and research.

VETERAN FREEDOM fighter, Lakshmi Sehgal, was in coma for the past three days and she died after suffering a massive cardiac attack this morning. Her body has been kept at her home at Mac Robertsganj in Kanpur for people to pay their respects and it would be taken in a procession Tuesday to the S.N. Medical College for donation for medical research.

Lakshmi Sahgal (1914 – 2012) was a freedom fighter and officer of Azad Hind Fauj and the Minister of Women's Affairs in the Azad Hind government. She married Colonel Prem Kumar Sahgal in March 1947, settled in Kanpur, where she continued with her medical practice till very recently.

She was born as Lakshmi Swaminathan in Chennai and her father Dr. S. Swaminathan, was a lawyer at Madras High Court. Her mother, A.V. Ammukutty belonged to a well known family of Anakkara in Palghat, Kerala. She received an MBBS degree from Madras Medical College in 1938.

In 1940, she left for Singapore, where she established a clinic and also played an active role in the India Independence League.

In 1942, when Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore, she joined the new regiment, called the Rani of Jhansi Regiment and fought on the side of the Axis powers against the British during the World War II.

In 1971, Sahgal joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and represented the party in the Rajya Sabha. In 2002, four leftist parties nominated her as a candidate in the presidential elections against A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in which the latter emerged victorious.