DELHI, post independence, gave ample opportunity to women to blossom and play an active role in creating the new independent India with its own distinctive way of life. Women like Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Durgabai Deshmukh, Sarojini Naidu and, of course, Indira Gandhi, and many others, had rapidly matured from their active involvement in the freedom movement. These women went on to become institution builders and changed our way of life, enriching us, nurturing youthful minds and helping create a new and vibrant independent India. In the process, they also pushed forward the agenda for emancipation of women. Unlike in many other countries, where women lost status once independence was won, we in India gained greater freedom. Access to education enabled participation at every level of governance and in the resurrection of cultural pride, women working shoulder to shoulder with men.

It was Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay who initiated the movement for a living cultural tradition at the behest of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. She headed the newly formed Handloom and Handicrafts Board, which was later split-up into the Handloom Board and Handicrafts Board by Morarji Desai, India’s finance minister at the time. Pupul Jayakar was given charge of handlooms, which covered a very large number of practitioners and handicrafts was given to Kamaladevi. Divisions were made and the simple handloom weaves used by the people as apparel and household goods became Pupul’s domain, while Kamaladevi had the entire gambit of handmade crafts from carpets to khes to jewellery, lapidary to brocaded silks, kalamkaris and paithanis, to the printing industry.

 

Kamaladevi had worked with crafts and textiles from the early beginnings of the independence movement in the mid-1920s, when the Congress sessions became venues for exhibitions and demonstrations of khadi, handloom, as well as crafts. For Kamaladevi, the entire cultural field needed support. Her work on crafts was combined with the active part she played in reviving the performing arts – music, dance and folk theatre. Theatre, however, was her first love and she was among the first women to act, sing and travel with her husband Harindranath Chattopadhyay throughout India, while mobilizing women for the freedom movement. She broke the taboo that prohibited women for appearing on stage, as did Rukmini Devi Arundale who brought out traditional classical dance from the temple. The Brahmin theosophist danced and taught young girls from all walks of life the classical arts and music.

Kamaladevi always worked with a sense of urgency and despite limited support staff, without training or any example of how to organize this huge sector, she managed to build up the living cultural traditions of India. She travelled the length and breadth of the country, even to areas that had no roads. I was her constant companion as I had the ability to cope with her vast energy and shared a deep interest to help the nurturers of our traditions, who were part of the marginalized people. They lived on the fringe of society and made few demands on the governmental structures.

Whereas Kamaladevi was austere and abstemious, Pupul Jayakar was just the opposite. Being the daughter of an elite civil service officer, she belonged to the privileged class. However, she had a mixed upbringing. Pupul went to a school run by Annie Besant, the theosophist, on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi. Later, she studied at Bedford College and the London School of Economics. She belonged to an affluent westernized set in Bombay – of races and clubs. An excellent bridge player, legend has it that she won nearly Rs 5000 a month! It was not for her to live in a government bungalow; she had a well-appointed beautiful home in Sunder Nagar. She ran her operation as Chairperson of the All India Handloom Board and later of the Handloom and Handicrafts Export Corporation (HHEC) from airconditioned and well-appointed offices.

 

Pupul Jayakar selected the most accomplished artists to head the Weavers Service Centres – Jairam Patel and Hebbar, among many others. Whether they were able to forge a textile design movement is debatable, but they certainly gave prestige to the centres. Elegant and talented young men such as Martand Singh, Rajeev Sethi and others surrounded Jayakar. She put the handwoven textiles on the cultural map of the world by organizing an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, in collaboration with John Irwin and brought out a wonderful catalogue in 1972. This made the elite in Europe aware of the richness of the Indian textile tradition and how they continued to be produced with the same exquisite quality as in the past. The Festivals of India was another cultural project where the multifaceted image of India – from the maharajas to dancing bears and the extraordinary fabrics, sculptures, carpets and jewellery – were presented to showcase the country. As usual, despite the criticism and controversy, there was no getting away from the great acclaim that accompanied the festivals, and the export figures certainly went up.

 

The two cultural doyens ruled the art and culture field for many decades following independence. Kamaladevi came to be popularly known as Hastkala Mata, while Pupul Jayakar was titled the Cultural Czarina. Both their offices and homes in New Delhi were a magnet, drawing people from all parts of India and the world. Kamaladevi’s gatherings were more varied. Bala Saraswati not only dropped in for coffee, but also danced for her. Komal Kothari, the ethnomusicologist from Rajasthan, brought the folk musicians to her home. Octavio Paz spent many an evening with her and brought prominent Mexican writers and artists to the country. As he once said, ‘Kamaladevi’s mind is an ocean.’ Ali Hasan, the great Sufi jala-maker of Varanasi was welcomed to her home as was K. Natrajan, the master weaver of Kanchipuram, with whom she worked on new ideas and designs. Artists, philosophers, authors and researchers came from all over the world and as I worked with her, I too had the privilege of meeting and entertaining them at my home. Despite her many and varied accomplishments, Kamaladevi, though a gourmet, ran a very bad kitchen, and over time, came to use my home as hers.

Pupul Jayakar, on the other hand, ran a real salon where alongside discussions on high art and philosophy, delicate food was elegantly served. The two women also dressed differently – Pupul wore discreet woven silks, a rudhraksh mala, with a large carved garnet ring on her hand. Kamaladevi wore bright saris, a bouquet of flowers in her hair, silver and lacquer bangles and necklaces. My cheeky assistant looked in horror when Kamaladevi presided over a seminar wearing a chunky dangling necklace, exclaiming, ‘Oh dear, we put this kind of necklaces on our horses!’ While Kamaladevi wrote a number of books on craft, Pupul Jayakar wrote the biography of J. Krishnamurti and The Earthen Drum, a remarkable reference book on the folk traditions of India.

 

They both, however, enriched our lives by promoting the arts and crafts of the country. Another great contribution she made was to set up the World Crafts Council. She had friends from all over the world – royalty, millionaires, impoverished artists and struggling craft designers. Beatrice Webb, an heiress, was a close friend of hers and she persuaded her to start the World Crafts Council under the aegis of UNESCO. Beatrice became the figurehead president and Kamaladevi the indefatigable vice-president who reached out to both crafts organizations and individual women involved with craft. Thus was set up the World Crafts Council in the 1960s, which has become one of the most important international organizations for craft, helping retain the cultural heritage of the people and the practitioners of intangible heritage. Women from all over the world came to meet Kamaladevi, bringing their traditions, problems and insights, thereby enriching us as well as carrying her insights to their own creative people.

Kamaladevi put in as much effort in organizing the Sangeet Natak Akademi, dance and theatre schools in Manipur, Bengal, Orissa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Mysore. She had the time and inclination to listen to everyone’s dreams and helped them realize them. Amongst the older generation, each and every person who set up an institution or spearheaded a movement, always remarked, ‘It was Kamaladevi who helped us.’

 

In the midst of strong personalities such as Kamaladevi, Pupul Jayakar, Sarojini Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and Durgabai Deshmukh, there was the shy, reticent and withdrawn Indira Gandhi who came into her own only after she became the prime minister. She was an enigmatic figure and cannot be seen only as Nehru’s daughter or the estranged wife of Feroze Gandhi. She evolved into a shrewd politician, the first woman prime minister of the largest democracy, who became a legendary figure on the international political scene.

Indira Gandhi had been deeply hurt by seeing the way her mother was treated by the aunts and ignored by her father. She felt that it was her mother’s unhappiness and neglect which had led to her contracting tuberculosis and this deep hurt made her into a somewhat withdrawn person. Her marriage, which she had agreed to on her mother’s insistence when she was under treatment in a sanatorium in Switzerland, was also not what a young, sensitive and lonely woman needed. She remained aloof and rarely opened up to anyone. Many claimed to be her advisors and people cynically called them her kitchen cabinet. She however kept her independence and when she felt that the members of the kitchen cabinet were going beyond their brief, she withdrew totally, as she did with Dinesh Singh, Romesh Thapar and others. Her life appeared to revolve round her father and children. She was protective of her father and possessive too. From her childhood, she was involved in the freedom movement and though she may not have actively participated in the political scene, was an astute observer. Far from being a puppet, as some of the old Congress leaders had initially portrayed her, she was soon to outmanoeuvre them.

Before becoming totally involved in the political scene, she along with Durgabai Deshmukh, was active with the Social Welfare Board. She was appointed chairperson of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, but Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, who was vice-chairperson from the days of its inception, rode roughshod over her. Kamaladevi is reported to have told the prime minister, ‘Ask your daughter not to interfere in the working of the Akademi.’ Despite these rebuffs, India Gandhi continued to support a number of artists. She also had a lively salon where her friends met, and it was very similar to discussions held by the Fabians of England. She gathered journalists, writers and intellectuals around her. She never got along with Kamaladevi, who told me that she had come across some letters written by her to Nehru and never forgiven her for it. Pupul Jayakar, however, cultivated Indira Gandhi assiduously. Raj Thapar’s description of how Pupul paid her devout attention is quite accurate, as I too had occasion to observe this performance.

 

Indira Gandhi, despite her busy schedule, personally participated in many events associated with the arts, which brought them much needed support. She got special coats made from Helen Stavradies in Kashmir for her travel, and had time to look at saris brought for her from all over India and selected her wardrobe herself. She really was a most elegant personality, winning acclaim throughout the world for the way she was turned out.

From a nondescript showroom housed in a tumbled down barrack, the Central Cottage Industries Emporium on Janpath grew into a rich centre of Indian craft. Prem Bery, the elegant wife of the famous dentist, gave up her social commitments and totally immersed herself in building the CCIA. Teji Vir Singh, who had earlier been involved with promoting refugee handicrafts, began training both buyers and salesgirls. Prem Bery worked hard to train the staff while Teji built up the buyers department, travelling the length and breadth of the country commissioning objects for a rich clientele which came from all over the world. It was a common saying of the times that the tourists visited the Taj and then the Central Cottage Industries Emporium. The talented Sina Kaul made magical interiors without much equipment or training and displayed simple cotton saris, gold brocades and all the other handicrafts which we brought from different parts of India.

 

Durgabai Deshmukh, who was an active feminist, worked for women’s emancipation by creating support systems for women, and institutions that remain relevant and powerful even today. She single-handedly built up the Central Social Welfare Board, while Kamaladevi initiated socioeconomic programmes for women, which I helped to run in the mid-50s, much before this programme was adopted by the United Nation’s agencies. She set up vocational training centres with branches in many cities. Dr. C.D. Deshmukh and Durgabai made an odd couple. He was very much a suave gentleman, but kind and reticent and she, with her unmatched, often crushed, khadi saris worn nearly six inches above the ankles with wisps of hair escaping from her tightly bundled hair, were a sight to behold. The only thing that was always in the right place was her ‘bindi’. But Indira Gandhi never did like her and she was unceremoniously pushed out of the Central Social Welfare Board.

Beautiful Kapila Vatsayan taught us English Literature at Miranda House, Delhi University. She was to become an important official in the Ministry of Education, and also worked closely with Kamaladevi at the Sangeet Natak Akademi. Kapila evolved into an erudite scholar and creator of art institutions. She did her doctorate at the Banaras Hindu University, learning Sanskrit so that she could research from primary sources. She was the founder-director of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, which held important seminars and exhibitions on Space, Time, Calligraphy, which were scholarly and outstanding in their presentation. I remember her attending music and dance conferences and performances elegantly dressed, wrapped in a Kashmir shawl. She had admirers aplenty; many pursued her and though she never took them seriously, did not discourage them either. She developed the IGNCA into an important institution, but Kapilaji did not build up a support staff, with the result that after she left, it has been in the doldrums.

 

Aruna Ganguli Asaf Ali was from a Brahmo family and was drawn to the freedom movement, where she met her husband, who was twenty years her senior. I first saw her in 1942 when she was hiding in Biju Patnaik’s house at Hailey Road. We were staying next door with my uncle. My brother, who was studying in Hindu College and was active in the Quit India Movement, spotted her. She was anointed as the heroine of the Quit India Movement when, in the midst of firing and lathi charge, she hoisted the national flag at Gowalia Tank. Slim and willowy with fine features, she had a sense of humour which never deserted her. She became a part of the socialist caucus within the Congress of which Kamaladevi too was an active member. Someone remarked that ‘they both were political children of Gandhi, but recent students of Karl Marx.’ She, however, became a part of the Communist Party and helped establish the Democratic Women’s Wing. In 1958, she became the first Mayor of Delhi and was highly regarded.

Later, she set up an independent paper, The Patriot, and a weekly magazine, Link, which were widely read. She lived by her beliefs and refused to use the official transport provided to her. Once while travelling by bus, she was standing when a smart young lady got into the bus. A gentleman gallantly offered his seat to her, but the young lady in turn offered it to Aruna. The gentleman protested saying, ‘Sister, I gave the seat to you,’ to which Aruna responded, ‘Never mind young man, mothers come before sisters.’

 

Raj Thapar, who worked closely with Romesh, her husband, was a part of the armchair Marxist group to which most intellectuals of the era belonged. Romesh roared but Raj gently listened, observed, helped and worked actively in whatever project she undertook. They moved to Delhi from Mumbai in 1961 and began the monthly magazine, Seminar. I still remember their very first new year party, which saw out the old year and greeted the new. It was also Romesh’s birthday and all the friends gathered at their home on Kautilya Marg. This annual party soon became a regular gathering of the ‘who’s who’ of Delhi and all the year’s gossip was tossed around.

Mala, Raj’s daughter, disappointed her mother by dropping out of college and joining the National School of Drama. However, she more than made up for it when she started The India Magazine running it very successfully. ‘I saw your article in India Magazine,’ said Raj Thapar to me with a proud smile. ‘Hasn’t Mala done a wonderful job!’ Mala was quite a character, not afraid of anyone and spoke her mind. She used to do quite an extraordinary take on Pupul Jayakar and when challenged to do so in front of her, did not hesitate. Despite the fact that she was not known to have a sense of humour, it had Pupul laughing. Mala, with her association with Ashok Advani of Business India, also set up an independent TV news channel. It began with ambitious ideas, but fizzled out. She was involved in a number of activities in the cultural domain. For all this she came to be known for a while as the junior czarina. Mala still loves to take up challenges, but the flamboyance is now greatly tempered and Seminar absorbs a good bit of her energy.

 

Romila Thapar, Raj’s sister-in-law, created an extraordinary place for herself as a historian of great repute. Her book, Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300, remains one of the most important books of our times. She has made many contributions, one of the most important being the re-examination of the history written by the colonizers, who ruled not only our country but also our minds. She is critical of the communal approach to writing history and has consistently fought against it. A brilliant scholar and fearless speaker, she refused the government award of Padma Bhushan in 1992 and again in 2002.

Mira Sinha was an attractive young woman in Miranda House with a brilliant and sharp mind, which attracted many to her. The first woman to get into the Indian Foreign Service, her first posting was to China, where she learnt the language. Because of a weird rule that existed at the time, she had to resign to marry a colleague. Unfortunately, the marriage failed and Mira decided to build a career in Chinese studies and went to Harvard to study, while simultaneously looking after her daughter. Mira returned to India when it was recovering from a disastrous war with China and joined the Department of Chinese Studies when the attitude of people was: why do we need to study Chinese? The department had only four students and there was much discussion about the need for such courses. She, however, persuaded her colleagues of the importance of building the department and gave public lectures to create an interest and soon the department became an important part of the university. She also set up the China Study Group, which grew into the Institute of Chinese Studies of which she was the first director. She was also consulting editor of China Report and many Sinologists respected her greatly for her contributions.

 

Dharma Kumar, an Indian economic historian, made a special place for herself in the academic world with her work, Land and Caste in South India. She worked with the Reserve Bank of India after her return to India in 1948, before joining the Delhi School of Economics. She was also involved with the art and literary life of Delhi and participated in the bringing out the publication Civil Lines. Ram Guha wrote of her as the last of the liberals.

Sumitra Charat Ram was one of the stalwarts of the world of dance and music, and was with us until recently. She started the Bharatiya Kala Kendra which became one of the most important cultural institutions. The Shankar Lal Festival, which began in 1950, brought the finest musicians from all over India and created extraordinary events like the performance of Baba Alauddin Khan’s band, the memorable jugalbandi of Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar, and Onkarnath Thakur’s morning ragas, which made us all weep. I was then a student and got permission from my conservative parents to spend the entire night attending performances, as they too were connoisseurs of music. Being progressive, they had encouraged my sister in the ’30s to sing in music conferences in Lahore when girls were not allowed to do so. Lahore society had scoffed at my father, claiming that he had gone senile and was making singing and dancing girls of his daughters.

It was Sumitraji who was the first to set up a residential complex of artists at the Ferozshah Road barracks, which was organized and run by Naina Devi, the great thumri singer. The artists taught, rehearsed, practised and resided there. The Dagar Bandhu developed the music for the first classical ballet, ‘Kumar Sambhava’, in which Birju Maharaj and Kumudini Lakhia danced as Kamdev and Rati. The institution flourished and continues to be active in the cultural life of Delhi with Sumitraji’s daughter Shobha, carrying on the good work.

 

Sundari Shridharani was another institution builder who established the Triveni Kala Sangam complex which offered an open-air theatre, galleries, classes and teaching studios, for not only dance and music but also painting and photography. Sundari set up a well-organized and maintained institution, which has supported a number of artists over the last many decades. The galleries have attracted a lot of people and the centre has become a meeting place for artists, writers and connoisseurs. Every time one walks into the café, one can meet an old friend and share old memories and new ideas over a cup of tea.

Naina Devi Ripjit Singh, granddaughter of Keshab Chand Sen, the Brahmo Samaj leader, was a great singer who had married into the Kapurthala royal family of Punjab. Her singing of thumri, which in the 1950s was associated with tawaifs, required a great deal of courage as the society ostracized her. Nevertheless, her husband stood up for her and she became a famous artist of Delhi. Her home drew poets and musicians – Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azami, Maqbool Mohuinuddin and many others were among the regulars.

 

Qudsia Zaidi was the doyen of the Delhi theatre world. I remember visiting her one winter afternoon at her Curzon Lane residence with Kamaladevi. She was seated in the middle of the lawn on a takhat covered with white chador and goutakia, surrounded by her admirers. They were Delhi’s famed poets, painters and theatre personalities. She was a lively, brilliant person with great wit. From a Kashmiri family of Wanchoos, her father fled to Lahore where he converted. Her parents died early and she grew up in her aunt’s house, who was married to Butros Bukhari, the dynamic director general of All India Radio; he later moved to Pakistan.

Begum Zaidi, as we used to call her, married an older man who gave her the space and freedom to blossom. She wrote a number of plays in Urdu and was the first person to translate and stage Brecht. She also translated Sanskrit plays with the help of scholars and put them up. I once had the privilege of attending an evening soiree when Naina Devi, who was a close friend of hers, sang for her. The Begum of Pataudi drove down from Pataudi specially for the party, and so did Begum of Rampur. I met her daughter, the young precocious Shama Zaidi one afternoon and we developed a close friendship that has stood the test of time. Alas, Qudsia Zaidi died very young. She was just 46 and the world of poetry and theatre, of scintillating conversation and witty exchanges, and the beautiful use of Urdu was lost to us forever.

Sheila Bhatia was at the other end of the spectrum. She created vibrant Punjabi folk operas under the banner of Delhi Art Theatre. Sheila was originally a part of IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association), the cultural wing of the communist party, which specialized in Punjabi folk songs. ‘Call of the Valley’, her first opera, talked of pre-partition Kashmir. The most popular was ‘Heer Ranjha’. Sheila wrote the opera, the songs and set them to music, which was derived from folksongs. The first Heer was the great singer Shanno Khurana, with Sneh Sanyal as the mother, who created an extraordinary powerful tragic role. Amba Sanyal played the vibrant sister-in-law, whose voice resounded in the hearts of people. I created the costumes and all of us sang and acted and filled our lives with joy. Sheila also created ‘Chan Badla Da’ and ‘Ghalib Kaun Tha’, among other productions.

 

Sheila Dhar was a woman of many parts – a scholar, singer and writer. I first met her when she was doing her masters in English literature while I was only in my undergraduate years. After teaching for a while, she broke all conventions and married P.N. Dhar, who was old enough to be her father. It was a second marriage for him and we were all quite shocked. Sheila joined the Publications Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and later the Bal Bhawan during Indian Gandhi’s premiership. She belonged to an old Kayastha family of Delhi who had a great love of music, Urdu poetry and the sophistication inherited from the Mughals. Sheila from her early years was passionately fond of music, which she learnt and practised in the midst of her many activities. Besides her singing, she had two other extraordinary qualities. She was a brilliant conversationalist and had an extraordinary sense of humour. She would hold us all spellbound. Her second quality was the ability to communicate to a new initiate the intricacies and subtleties of Indian classical music and the richness of the experience of listening to music. Critics of classical music could be so snobbish as to turn people away from it, but Sheila managed to express the great qualities of the music tradition and make one yearn to hear it.

When asked to write a book on music, Sheila was very diffident. ‘How will I be able to bring the quality of expression of my conversation into writing, where I have neither the tone, the gesture or facial expression to create the effect,’ she would say. We all assured her that she could certainly do so, and which she finally did in her Someone I’d Like You to Meet and Rag a’n Josh: Stories From a Musical Life. What a rich life, what a warm and giving person, who left us too soon.

 

Amrita Pritam was a talented poet and a warm and passionate person. I met her in the early 1960s when Suresh Kohli, who translated her poetry from Punjabi into English, brought her home. A few visiting poets, P. Lal and Pritish Nandy, who was then a civilized young poet working with a bank, along with Sarojini Abraham and Carmen Kagal and their spouses, got together to hear her. Sarojini took away the translations from Suresh and began to read the poems, as they needed to be read. Amrita said, ‘Hun te kuj gal bani ji.’ ‘Now it really works!’ And even Suresh Kohli admitted, ‘Well! Well! My translation sounds much better.’ Every time P. Lal came to Delhi, Amrita Pritam would come over and they read to each other and we just revelled in their company. I regret that I never invited Imroz, her young painter friend, who lived with her and surrounded her with love and care even when he knew that her real love was Sahir Ludhianavi. Amrita Pritam’s most moving poem was an elegy to Waris Shah, the 18th century poet of Heer Ranjha, ‘Aj Akha Waris Shah Nu’, on her anguish over the massacres at the partition of the country. The poem was published in Pakistan and across borders hearts were seared and bitter tears shed for the many mothers, sisters, wives and beloveds lost in the unimaginable madness, which deprived people of any humanity.

Grace Morley was another remarkable woman, who made Delhi and India her home. She was a very special person, who came from Unesco to advise India on the National Museum. After a rich career in the US, she became a museumologist with global influence. She came to India in 1960 and helped set up the National Museum and lived here till 1985. She spent her last days encouraging people, advising them and even helping with their travel and research. She was cremated, covered by her Ramnami shawl, and her ashes were immersed in the Ganges. With her passing, we all felt a sense of loss.

 

The Constitution House on Curzon Road (Kasturba Gandhi Marg) were barracks built for American soldiers and later became a hostel to accommodate professional women and men. There was a lot of gossip and to-ing and fro-ing. There was a group of European women who lived here, among them was Elizabeth Bruner, a painter, who had come to India with her mother at the invitation of Tagore and stayed on in Delhi. She had become a good friend of Nehru and Indira Gandhi. She had a menagerie and had to be moved out of Western Court on Queensway (Janpath) as she had brought in snake charmers. Mme Morand dressed in a white sari was the head of the French Services at All India Radio. She disdainfully looked at the scene around her, but wrote long letters to family and friends in France, claiming that she was staying at an ashram. Mme Simki, a distinguished personality, also worked with All India Radio. Mme Simki had come to India with Uday Shankar at the age of sixteen as a dancer and became his inseparable partner and was written about as ‘the divine apsara’.

 

There was also the flamboyant Nilima Sanyal, the Bengali announcer, who broke a number of hearts. She had her own salon of mainly unattached women and men, who behaved as if they were all bachelors. She served delectable Bengali food, Rosa triple-x rum, Indian whisky and beer. Mira Sinha also stayed here before being posted to Beijing and there were stories that rivals fought over her in the corridors of Constitution House.

There were a number of other women on the fringe of this brilliant circle of women who dominated the cultural, social and political scene in Delhi until the 1980s. This younger group has since emerged as brilliant stars of the contemporary scene, contributing not only to Delhi, but impacting the international scene as well. To write about them, however, requires another writer and another article.