Women and nationalism in colonial India: A case study of Sarala Devi

To date, numerous works have been done on the national freedom movement of India. Many books have been published too on the role of eminent leaders of our country and some of them have been done on the contribution of women in our freedom struggle. But there is still dearth of studies on women leaders and their specific roles. The reason for selecting Sarala Devi's role and contribution in the nationalist movement, because that serves three fold of objectives – to highlight her activities would mean reviewing a radical woman of her time, analysing the contemporary scenario and stress the dynamic role of the members of Thakurbari. Sarala Devi was able to inspire the whole nation through her radical activities. She was known as the ‘Joan of Arc’ of India and was very much associated with popular leaders like Lokmanya Tilak, M.G.Gandhi, Aurobindo etc. With Sister Nivedita and Swami Vivekananda she was acquainted. Sarala Devi a multi-faceted and analysing her leads one to an evaluation of all those spheres. However all aspects have not been focused in this study, only her concern over nationalism and how she instilled the craze for nationalism into the Indian youth is the main arena which the paper have tried to scrutinise.