Margaret Cousins

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For the American editor and writer, see Margaret Cousins (editor).

Margaret Cousins
suffragist, writer
Known forFounder and 11th president of All India Women's Conference
SpouseJames Cousins

Margaret Elizabeth Cousins (

Theosophist, who established All India Women's Conference (AIWC) in 1927.[1] She was the wife of poet and literary critic James Cousins, with whom she moved to India in 1915. She is credited with preserving the tune of the Indian National Anthem Jana Gana Mana based on the notes provided by Tagore himself in February 1919, during Rabindranath Tagore's visit to the Madanapalle College.[2] She was a member of the Flag Presentation Committee which presented the National Flag to the Constituent Assembly on 14 August 1947.[3]

Early life and education

Margaret Gillespie, from an

psychical research
together.

Activism

In 1906, after attending a National Conference of Women meeting in

occultists in London.[4]

Cousins was a vegetarian and was a speaker for the

Holloway Prison.[4]

Vacationing with

political prisoners, and went on hunger strike to achieve release.[4]

In 1913, she and her husband moved to Liverpool, where James Cousins worked in a vegetarian food factory. In 1915 they moved to India.

India

James Cousins initially worked for

Madanapalle College, where Margaret taught English.[4]

In 1916, she became the first non-Indian member of the

Poona.[6] In 1917 Cousins co-founded the Women's Indian Association with Annie Besant and Dorothy Jinarajadasa. She edited the WIA's journal, Stri Dharma.[4] In 1919–20 Cousins was the first Head of the National Girls' School at Mangalore. In 1922, she became the first woman magistrate in India. In 1927, she co-founded the All India Women's Conference, serving as its President in 1936.[4]

In 1932, she was arrested and jailed for speaking against the Emergency Measures.[6] By the late 1930s she felt conscious of the need to give way to indigenous Indian feminists:

I longed to be in the struggle, but I had the feeling that direct participation by me was no longer required, or even desired by the leaders of India womanhood who were now coming to the front.[10]

She was a member of the Flag Presentation Committee, which was a committee of 74 Indian women led by

Hansa Mehta at the Constituent Assembly. The committee presented the National Flag of India on behalf of the women of India to the House on 14 August 1947.[11][3]

A stroke left Cousins paralysed from 1944 onwards. She received financial support from the Madras government, and later Jawaharlal Nehru, in recognition of her services to India.[6]

She died in 1954. Her manuscripts are dispersed in various collections across the world.[12]

Works

  • The Awakening of Asian Womanhood, 1922
  • The music of Orient and Occident; essays towards mutual understandings, 1935
  • Indian womanhood today, 1941
  • (with James Cousins) We Two Together, Madras: Ganesh, 1950

See also

References

  1. ^ History Archived 18 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine AIWC website.
  2. ^ "Home". 1950.
  3. ^ a b "CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA DEBATES (PROCEEDINGS)- VOLUME V: PRESENTATION OF THE NATIONAL FLAG" (PDF). loksabha.nic.in. Lok Sabha. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-91104-7
    . Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  5. ^ "Irish Genealogy". civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-1-55553-421-9
    . Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  7. S2CID 144004487
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-7130-4045-6
    . Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  9. ^ ""You never saw such excitement" - Richmond Barracks". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  10. ^ Margaret Cousins and James Cousins, We Two-Together, 1950, p.746. Quoted in Jayawardena.
  11. ^ "Flag presented". The Hindu. 14 August 2015.
  12. ^ Alan Denson, ed. (1967). James H. Cousins (1873–1956) and Margaret E. Cousins (1878–1954): A Bio-bibliographical Survey. Kendal: published by the author. Retrieved 10 October 2012.

Further reading

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