Nellie Sengupta

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Nellie Sengupta
President of the Indian National Congress
In office
1933–1934
Preceded byMadan Mohan Malaviya
Succeeded byRajendra Prasad
Personal details
Born
Edith Ellen Gray

(1886-01-12)12 January 1886
Cambridge, England
Died23 October 1973(1973-10-23) (aged 87)
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
NationalityBritish (till 1947)
Pakistani (1947–1971)
Indian (1971–1973)
Political partyIndian National Congress
SpouseJatindra Mohan Sengupta
Children3 sons (Sishir, Amar and Anil)
OccupationPolitician, social worker
AwardsPadma Vibhushan (1973)

Nellie Sengupta (

Calcutta in 1933.[1][2]

Family

Edith was the daughter of Frederick and Edith Henrietta Gray.

Calcutta with him. Nellie, as she became known, and Jatin had two sons Sishir and Anil.[2]

Non-Cooperation Movement

On returning to

Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921. After his imprisonment during the Assam-Bengal Railwaymen's strike, she forcefully protested against the District authorities imposition of a ban on assembly, addressed mass meetings and courted arrest. She defied the law by selling Khadi (hand-spun cloth) door to door. In 1931 she suffered four months' imprisonment at Delhi for addressing an unlawful assembly.[2] Jatin was imprisoned in Ranchi
and died in 1933.

Congress president

During the turmoil of the

Madan Mohan Malviya the President elect of the Congress was arrested before the Calcutta Session of 1933. Nellie Sengupta was elected in his place, thus becoming the third woman, and the second European-born woman to be elected. She was elected president by the party for her contribution to the party and the country.[4]

She was also elected as an

Second World War
she drew attention to the misbehaviour of foreign troops.

Post-independence

East Pakistan

After independence, she chose to live in East Pakistan, in her husband's hometown of Chittagong on the specific request of the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who asked her to look after the interests of the Hindu minorities in East Pakistan. She was elected unopposed to the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly in 1954.[5] She was a member of the Minority Board and played an active role in the social life of Chittagong. In 1970, she was injured at the her home due to a bad fall and at the initiative of then Indian PM Indira Gandhi, she shifted to Calcutta for medical treatment and care.

India

While in Calcutta with her family, the Pakistani government confiscated her residential mansion and other properties as enemy property under Enemy Property Act. When Bangladesh was liberated in 1971, she continued to live on in Calcutta while briefly returning to Chittagong in 1972. She continued her treatment in Calcutta, where she was operated on and all medical expenses being paid for by the Indian government. She was accorded a tremendous public reception in Calcutta and was honoured by the government with Padma Vibhushan by the Indian government for her lifetime contribution to freedom, humanity and society.[2] She died in Calcutta in 1973.[6]

Awards

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nellie Sengupta.
  1. ^ a b "Nellie Sengupta". amritmahotsav.nic.in. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Deshpriya Jatindra Mohan & Nellie Sengupta". The Daily Star. 1 February 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  3. ISBN 9788123737669
  4. ^ a b "Mrs. Nellie Sengupta, Past Presidents, Indian National Congress". Indian National Congress. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  5. ^ "JATINDRA & NELIE SENGUPTA". indianpost.com. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  6. ^ "The famous Sengupta family of Chattogram". dailyasianage.com. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
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