From delivering babies to commanding battalions, she became the face of resistance, dignity, and defiance in the fight against colonial rule
Lakshmi Swaminadhan was no ordinary woman. Born in 1914 into a politically conscious family in Madras, she inherited her fiery spirit from her mother, Ammu Swaminadhan, a suffragist and social reformer. Lakshmi questioned caste prejudice before most girls her age could even pronounce the word.
When the time came, she again broke norms by walking out of a failed marriage and pursuing a career in medicine, graduating as a doctor at a time when few Indian women dared to do so.
But her white coat was never her final identity. The young doctor was destined not for the comfort of clinics but for the battlegrounds of history.
(Credit: The Statesman)
In 1940, Lakshmi left India for Singapore, where she operated a clinic for migrant Indian workers. Fate intervened when the Japanese invaded in 1942, and the winds of revolution grew stronger than ever. Indian POWs and expatriates united under the Indian Independence League, and Lakshmi joined their cause, treating wounded prisoners and attending underground meetings.
Then came the moment that changed everything: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore in July 1943. Lakshmi requested to join him—not as a medic, but as a fighter. Inspired by the Rani of Jhansi, he raised an all-women infantry regiment. He named it after the queen who had once charged into battle with a sword and her child on her back.
And Lakshmi became its commander.
As Captain Lakshmi, she led over 1,000 women into military training—drilling, marching, and mastering arms. The regiment became a symbol of fierce patriotism, and for the first time, colonial officers were terrified not just of men with rifles, but women with purpose. She wasn't a token leader—she strategised, commanded, and inspired.
In 1944, the INA's campaign moved to the Burmese front. Though the advance faltered and the INA suffered setbacks, Lakshmi's courage never wavered. Arrested by British forces in 1945, she endured over a year of imprisonment. But the icon had already been forged.
(Credit: Madrascourier)
After her release, Lakshmi returned to a divided India, devastated by Partition. She married INA officer Prem Kumar Sahgal and settled in Kanpur, where she began a new chapter—this time as a healer of social wounds.
Whether it was the flood of refugees in 1947, the ravaged survivors of the 1971 Bangladesh war, or the chaos of the Bhopal gas tragedy, Lakshmi was there. Medical kit in hand. Always first in line. She worked among the poorest and angriest, organising relief camps and raising her voice against oppression.
A committed Marxist, Sahgal joined the Communist Party in 1971, served in the Rajya Sabha, and helped establish the All India Democratic Women's Association in 1981. She campaigned for gender rights, justice, and secularism—marching in protest against Miss World in 1996 and calming communal violence in Kanpur after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
She contested the 2002 Presidential election not to win, but to remind a nation of its forgotten revolutionaries.
Until the age of 92, Captain Lakshmi continued to treat patients. Her clinic in Kanpur never closed. She believed service was not a role—it was a duty.
(Credit: Biharprabha )
Awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1998, Lakshmi Sahgal remains a towering figure of India's revolutionary history and humanitarian present. She did not seek praise; she sought freedom. And when that battle ended, she fought for justice.
She wielded both the scalpel and the sword. A woman of steel who never stopped walking the more challenging path—because she believed India deserved better.
