Leela Roy Biography 
Leela Roy was a radical leftist Indian politician, freedom fighter and reformer, best known for her activists in the pre-independent era. She lived in Assam during the 20th century, and remained a close associate of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in the pre-independent era. Deepali Sangha, Indian National Congress and Forward Bloc are the different political/social organizations with which she was associated. She lived during the period, 2 October 1900 – 11 June 1970. She passed away a few months before her 70th birthday, after a prolonged illness.
Her maiden name is Leela Naag. She was born into an upper middle class Hindu family in Assam on 2 October 1900. Goyalpara of Sylhet was her hometown. Her birthplace is now a part of Bangladesh after partition. She graduated with a gold medal in English from Bethune College in Kolkata. Later she became the first woman to be admitted to the University of Dhaka. She had to fight for her right to do her Master’s degree, at a time when higher education was reserved for boys only. She was granted the permission to study by Philip Hartog, who was then serving as VC of the university.
After studies, she got involved with social service. She was mostly associated with tasks like women education and empowerment, and she opened schools for girls in Dhaka. She also emphasized the need for girls to learn martial arts to defend themselves. She contacted Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose for the first time following the relief action of the 1921 Bengal floods which he headed. Thus she was instrumental in forming the Dhaka Women's Committee, which raised funds for the same purpose. She was the founder of Deepali Sangha, a rebellion organization in 1923. After the Partition of India, she moved to Kolkata and ran homes to help abandoned women and refugees.
Published: March 01, 2019
Updated: March 01, 2019
