ARCHIVE: BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS WOMEN POLITICIANS OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY HANSA JIVRAJ MEHTA (1897-1995) After the Indian constitution was finally made; on November 22, 1949, just a few weeks before our ‘Samvidhan’ was formally adopted, each member of the Constituent Assembly gathered in the Parliament and shared snippets of the incredible journey they had while drafting the Constitution for what was going to be the biggest and the most diverse democracy in the world. In this gathering, a member from the Assam Province, Mr. Rohini Kumar Chaudhuri, in quite a distasteful spirit said, “We have in this constitution cow protection to some extent, but there is no provision at all for protection against cows…..We really need protection against women because in every sphere of life they are now trying to elbow us out. In the legislatures, in the embassies, in everything they try to elbow us out.” Not only was this a highly regressive statement, but it also clearly portrayed the fact that some men, due to their patriarchal mindset and the lack of belief in the capabilities of women; needless to say, stemming from their gender biases, had not taken the inclusion of women in the legislature and other aspects of the Indian socio- political life, in a positive temperament. However, the way the member put up his views, comparing women to ‘cows’ and how they were, yet, apparently, ‘elbowing men out’ had to be countered well. And perhaps, none could have done it better than this witty lady, an embodiment of intellect and an epitome of humility, who said, “The world would have thought very little of men if they had asked for protection against women in this constitution; I am very happy to see that the Constitution does not include that provision. Otherwise, men would have had to hide their faces before the world.” That is Hansa Jivraj Mehta for those who might not know much about her or perhaps, have never even heard of her. EARLY LIFE AND CAREER: Born in an affluent household, on the 3rd of July, 1897, in Surat, Hansa was the daughter of Manubhai Nandshankar Mehta, the Dewan of Baroda and later Bikaner as well. He was a professor of Philosophy at the Baroda College and also a passionate supporter of promoting education amongst women. It was this strong desire to educate young girls that led him to start a girls’ high school and also ensure that his own daughters learned well. Hansa belonged to an upper caste Brahmin family of well read individuals. One of her grandfathers was an administrator of East India Company and insisted all his children receive modern education. Her paternal grandfather was a social reformer and author of the first Gujarati novel, ‘Karan Ghelo’. Due to her family’s inclination towards education, she was encouraged to pursue academics from early on. She received her early education from Baroda University in Gujarat and later proceeded to London, to study sociology and journalism. On a self appointed mission she travelled to the US as an exchange student. She did so in order to coordinate with various American colleges interested in offering full scholarships to Indian women. Being a keen learner, she also wanted to study their educational and social institutions as well as systems, and was equally eager to get suggestions or advice regarding the establishment of women’s colleges in India based on the example of America’s colleges for women. RETURN TO INDIA: After completing her higher studies from the UK, Hansa decided to return back to her motherland, India and contribute towards the emancipation and betterment of its people. However, it was in London that she came in contact with Sarojini Naidu, who later introduced her to Gandhi. She met Mahatma Gandhi in 1918, while he was in Sabarmati Jail and it was a massive turning point in her life. This meeting left her “visibly moved”, as she later wrote in her book ‘Indian Woman’. Her encounters with people involved in India’s struggle for independence, especially women like Naidu, and of course, Mahatma Gandhi, influenced her to step into the country’s politics and thus, she joined the freedom struggle against the British. She got involved in the Non-Cooperation and Swadeshi movements, organising protests against establishments that sold foreign-made goods, and courted arrest accordingly. Her mentor was Gandhi, on whose directions she participated in the picketing of liquor and foreign-goods shops. DEFYING CASTE BARRIERS: In 1924, she married Jivraj Narayan Mehta, who had been Gandhi’s one-time physician and had served as the chief medical officer of Baroda. Jivraj Mehta later went on to become the dean of King Edward Memorial Hospital. The issue with their courtship was the difference between their castes, as Hansa was a Nagar Brahmin and Jivraj a ‘Vaishya’ Mehta, a caste lower than hers. Her own father, despite being highly educated, was initially diffident to openly accept her relationship. Nevertheless, she decided to marry the love of her life, much to the chagrin of her entire ‘upper caste’ community. Her recalcitrance led the people of her caste to berate her and blame it all on her English education and ‘modern’ upbringing. But such castigation could do nothing much to change her opinions about caste and the institution of marriage, which she believed had to lay on the edifice of ‘love’ and ‘mutual respect’ rather than on some social constructs like the ‘caste system’. It was finally the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, who had to step in to convince Hansa’s father to bless the couple. HANSA MEHTA’S ROLE IN THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE: During the Civil Disobedience Movement, Hansa Mehta played an active role in mobilising women and conducting mass activities like Satyagrahas, picketing, demonstrations etcetera. In accordance with Gandhi’s advice, Hansa led Desh Sevika Sangh (a women’s group which fought against the British) in a satyagraha campaign that picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops in Bombay. With time she organised many more protests and was appointed the President of the Bombay Congress Committee. As her popularity increased, it resulted in her first arrest. She was sentenced to three months in prison, and was only released when the Gandhi-Irwin pact was signed. This lit a spark within her which encouraged her to contest and thereby win the provincial elections from the Bombay Legislative Council seat in 1937, where she was the first woman to be elected to the council. Hansa Mehta stood for the Bombay legislative council seat in the general category, after refusing to contest from a reserved seat. Hansa Mehta, categorically rejected reserved seats, quotas or separate electorates. “We have never asked for privileges. What we have asked for is social justice, political justice and economic justice,” she said in December 1946. She served two terms on the council (1937-39 and 1940-49) and later went on to represent Bombay in the Constituent Assembly as well . She was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary of the Education and Health Departments. Hansa Mehta through the department brought various proactive changes such as setting up vocational,commercial and technical schools. The department also transferred control of secondary school education from the university to the state, which led to the creation of the Secondary school certificate examination board, a structure that exists today. She became closely involved with the All India Women’s Conference along with Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and became its president in 1946. During her presidency, she proposed as well as drafted the Indian Women’s Charter of Rights and Duties, which called for gender equality and civil rights for women. She also demanded in the charter for equal pay, equal distribution of property and fair marriage laws. AIWC aimed to educate, empower and raise the position of women as well as children in society. Further, she became the first female Vice-Chancellor in India with her appointment at SNDT University in Bombay. INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE: At the same time, in 1946, Mehta served as a member of the United Nations sub- committee on the status of women. She was the vice-chair with Eleanor Roosevelt of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Committee. She played a significant role in ensuring that Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (‘UDHR’) was made inclusive and is credited to changing the phrase “All men are born free and equal” to “All human beings are born free and equal” in 1948. Hansa Mehta and Eleanor Roosevelt ensured marriage equality to women through Article 16 of UDHR. She also appeared before the Cripps Mission to speak on the behalf of Indian women. Thus, Hansa Mehta had become a crusader of change as an educationist, feminist as well as a reformist. WORK IN THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY: Within the Constituent Assembly, she was one of the only 15 women members and served as a: a.) Member of the Advisory Committee; b.) Member of the Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights; and c.) Member of the Provincial Constitution Committee. Her inclusion in the Constituent Assembly’s Fundamental Rights sub-committee was essential as it allowed her to champion the cause of gender equality and progressive common civil code instead of personal laws that have come to define minority religious communities today. She argued for social, political and economic justice for women, she presented her views in the assembly on the affect fundamental rights will have on women, “ The average woman in this country has suffered now for centuries from inequalities heaped upon her by laws, customs and practices of people who have fallen from the heights of that civilisation of which we are all so proud.