A pioneering legacy

Fearlessness was the cornerstone of Muthulakshmi’s life, a quality she had imbibed from mother Chandrammal. It was this fearlessness developed painstakingly, that energised and awakened her. She was able to bravely take on with ease, not just a medical career, but also combined it with motherhood, simultaneously working on myriad pioneering social reforms. Muthulakshmi became one of the most influential women in education and healthcare in

the Madras Presidency, and saved countless lives. The institutions she founded continue to do so.

Among the first things she began campaigning for was to change the system of wet nursing that had been a matter of prestige among upper class families. A woman who could afford it, hired a woman from the economically lower class to breastfeed her newborn. Muthulakshmi and her siblings had been breastfed by wet nurses. She felt this was the reason for her ill health as a child. Even as a medical student, she had made up her mind to address this issue of parenting.

As a doctor, she examined and treated adolescent girls who had torn membranes, a sign of violent intercourse. Most of them were frail and suffered from malnutrition. They had several miscarriages as their wombs were not strong enough to retain the foetus to full term. Repeated occurrences made the girls anaemic and weak, and many of them developed tuberculosis. It was no surprise that there was a high rate of young girls dying during childbirth. The husband married again, and the new bride, perhaps even younger than the previous one, was expected to take care of the motherless infant and brace up for her own delivery.

This relentless cycle was nauseating for Muthulakshmi, and she agonised over it. In her autobiography, she cited the case of a 12-year-old, married to a man aged 40 who had lost three wives. He consummated the marriage even before

the girl attained puberty.

Muthulakshmi pleaded with

the husband to have some patience but he would not listen. No one was surprised when a year later the girl also died at childbirth.

Muthulakshmi had seen young widows at Sister Subbalakshmi’s Sharada Illam where she served as an honorary medical consultant. The two women had a lot in common, born in the same year 1886, and dying within a year of each other—Muthulakshmi in 1968 and Sister Subbalakshmi in 1969. Both served as members of the Legislative Council of the Madras Presidency, though at different times. When the philanthropists of Mylapore objected to admitting non-Brahmin girls in the Young Widows’ Home or the school they went to, Muthulakshmi decided that when she would establish a home for girls and a school, it would be for all castes.

Both women were hands-on in their management of their institutions and their practice. For instance, Sister Subbalakshmi noticed the girls were finicky about food, having been accustomed to eating the left-overs in their homes. She complained to Muthulakshmi who made a nutrition chart for the girls and insisted they eat greens and grains every day.

The two women also shared a deep belief in the power of education to change women’s lives. Sister Subbalakshmi’s efforts were aimed at getting the young widows an education and campaigning for their remarriage. Muthulakshmi felt the answer to problems with early marriages lay in the education of the girls.

Sister Subbalakshmi was an educationist by every definition of the word. Her students at the P.T. School in Egmore wept copiously when she bade them good bye before moving the widows to the Widows’ Home in Mylapore. She founded several educational institutions all over the Madras Presidency. In 1920, she set up the Kuppam School, later renamed Lady Willingdon High School, near Ice House so that it would be within easy reach of the children of the fishermen who lived near the beach. In 1927, she established Sarada Vidyalaya, which was later handed over to the Ramakrishna Mission. The last institution she established was Vidya Mandir in the heart of Mylapore.

As the eldest, Muthulakshmi had taken on the responsibility of educating and looking after her younger siblings, besides her two sons and an adopted daughter. Her values were shared by her siblings. When the girls in the sixth form at the P.T. School were asked to write an essay on what they thought should be the next step forward in the education of Indian girls, Muthulakshmi’s younger sister Nallamuthu won the prize for her essay in which she had pleaded for a college for women in Madras. A few days later, a member of the governing Executive Council for education was visiting the school, and Nallamuthu was asked to read the essay in his presence. He was impressed but skeptical about any Indian girl wanting to spend around five years studying in a college. When he jocularly asked how many girls in the room would want to go to college, every hand went up. Madras Women’s College was set up the following year in 1914. The name was changed to Queen Mary’s College in 1917. Nallamuthu studied and also taught there, and went on to becoming its first Indian principal. Most girls from the Widows’ Home graduated from Queen Mary’s College and found their vocation.

Muthulakshmi kept abreast of all the socio-political events and changes being brought about in the country. In 1913 she met Lady Whitehead, who was organizing a social service league to improve the conditions of women and children in the slums of Madras. Muthulakshmi became a member and gave free consultations to women and children in the slums.

The Theosophical Society, taking cognizance of the interest of girls in education and social emancipation, decided to form the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) to bring women together for mutual assistance. Annie Besant, Dorothy Jinarajadasa, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Margarette Cousins, Muthulakshmi Reddy and others were involved in its activities of promoting the education of girls, equal property rights for women and the advancement of the age of marriage of girls. Equal voting rights, reservations in legislatures,

the de-linking of women’s franchise from their marital status, and a non-discrimination clause were part of their demands. For those times, these were remarkable and bold articulations of constitutional arrangements that were intended to protect and promote the rights of Indian women.

Muthulakshmi was the first Indian member of the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) and also served as the editor of its journal Stri-Dharma for many years since its first publication in 1918. Although predominantly an English publication, this journal was multilingual,

with sections in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. The in-house journal, whose name could be translated as ‘Sphere of Women,’ ‘Women’s Duty’ or ‘Justice for Women,’ aimed to become the voice of the Indian women’s movement.

One way the ‘woman question’ was addressed was through channelling public opinion. Women began to use journals such as Stri-Dharma to give women’s issues and consequently the Indian women’s movement a voice. Stri-Dharma established its own role in informing the public on issues of employment, health, and education, including child marriage, divorce, purdah system, women’s property and inheritance rights and the physical health and wellbeing of Indian women.

Muthulakshmi agreed totally with the WIA that India would gain in power for good if it developed a woman’s side to its activities. She believed freedom and independence had to be given equally by law to women as changing the social customs and attitudes would be slow and difficult. Then women would at least have the recourse of law if they found the courage to fight the situations they were in. It was through Stri-Dharma that the demands of the WIA linked to the constitutional future of India were made. The journal put forward particularly important goals and principles of a future constitution:

1. Women should be free to contest seats in the general constituencies, subject to the same qualifications to apply as men.

2. In addition to any seats thus secured by women, a certain proportion of seats—say 5 per cent, as suggested by

the Nair Committee—should be reserved for women in each

provincial council, at least for a trial period of three general elections.

3. Reservation should be filled in any suitable way that may be determined by the next Round Table Conference.

4. Full adult franchise is secured for both men and women. Any woman—married or unmarried— possessing any one of the general qualifications for the franchise would have the vote.

In 1917, the Montague Chelmsford Commission for constitutional reforms was touring India. A WIA delegation met the Commission and argued that women be given the franchise. Many men opposed this and the Commission rejected the demands, but the WIA did not give up, and made the demand for equal voting rights a focus of its work.

(Excerpted with permission from VR Devika’s ‘Muthulakshmi Reddy’; published by Niyogi Books)