This transcript of this interview was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-45, Mar-Apr 1988)
Most of the women who were politically active in the freedom movement came into it through the prior involvement of male members of their families and, after independence, some of them rose to politions of prominence. Ratnamayi Devi is one of the very few women who was drawn into the movement on her own, through her search for a livelihood and the wherewithal to educate her children. After independence, the compulsions that had brought her into political activity drew her out of it. Her life is remarkable for the tremendous courage and endurance with which she raised her large family of real and adopted children. A crucial factor in the family’s achievement of upward mobility were the strong bonds of continuing support between mothers and daughters, who sustained each others’ attempts to get an education and become self reliant…