Aruna Asaf Ali

Aruna Asaf Ali Biography

Aruna Asaf Ali was an Indian freedom fighter. She was famous for hoisting the Indian National flag at the Gowalia Tank Maidhan in Bombay when participating in Quit India Movement in 1942. She was born on 16^th July 1909 in Kalka, in British Punjab. She belonged to Bengali Brahmo family.

Her parents are Upendranath Ganguly and Ambalika Devi. She has a sister Purnima Banerjee who was serving as the member of the Constituent Assembly in India. Her grandfather Trailokyanath Sanyal was a Brahmo leader.

She studied at Lahore and Nainital and after getting her graduation, she worked as a teacher. She was teaching at the Gokhale Memorial School in Calcutta. It was there that she met Asaf Ali who was one of the leaders of the Congress party at that time. She married him in the year 1928 and it was an inter-caste marriage. The caste difference and the age difference of 20 years between them led to the opposition by her parents.

She participated in Salt Satyagraha and was arrested. When other political prisoners were released in 1931 under Gandhi-Irwin Pact, she was not released. She went on hunger strike in 1932 for improving the conditions of Tihar jail.

During the time period just before independence arrest warrant was issued in her name and so she had to hide to evade the arrest. However her property was seized. She served as the editor of the monthly magazine Inquilab. She fell ill during this time. Only after the warrant against her was withdrawn in the year 1946 he came out of her hiding place. She supported Royal Indian Navy Mutiny.

After independence of India she served as the member of the Congress Socialist Part and joined a new party, Socialist Party in 1948. She joined the Communist Party of India in 1950. She lost her interest in politics when her husband Asaf Ali died in 1953.

She became the first elected Mayor of Delhi. She published a daily newspaper, Patriot and a weekly Link. She again joined Congress party but was not involved in active politics. She was given International Lenin Peace Prize in 1964 and Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1991. She got Padma Vibhushan award in 1992 and Bharat Ratna award posthumously in 1997. She died on 29^th July 1996. A stamp to commemorate her was released in 1998. 

Published: N/A

Updated: October 09, 2011