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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Durgabai Deshmukh

Congress worker in Madras, one of the Telugu leaders who ran the salt satyagraha in the city in 1930. She led women volunteers, made salt at the Santhome beach on 5 May 1930 and was sentenced to a year's simple imprisonment. Sarojini Regani writes that she was held for a time in solitary confinement in Madurai jail.

Durgabai Deshmukh was one of the Telugu Congress leaders who organised the salt satyagraha of 1930 in Madras city.1 Sarojini Regani’s Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh, the source for this page, also calls her Durgabayamma.2 She led women volunteers in the city and was sentenced to a year in jail.34

The salt satyagraha in Madras, 1930

Regani writes that the salt satyagraha in Madras was organised mainly by Telugu leaders.1 She names K. Nageswara Rao Pantulu, V. L. Sastri, Durgabai Deshmukh and Gadde Rangaiah Naidu.1 The salt laws were first broken in the city on 13 April 1930.1

Under Durgabai and Mrs. Prakasam, many women joined the satyagraha and gave their jewels to its fund.13 Regani writes that Durgabai helped to plan the campaign in the city with T. Prakasam and K. Nageswara Rao Pantulu.2

On 5 May 1930 she led nine women volunteers to the Santhome beach at Mylapore.4 While they were making salt, the police arrived, broke their pots and overturned their stoves.4 The women went back to the camp at Vedavanam carrying sea water in bottles.4

Jail

She was sentenced to nine months’ simple imprisonment under Section 117 of the Indian Penal Code.3 She received a further three months under Section 188.3 Regani writes that she was not properly treated in jail.5 For some time she was kept in solitary confinement in Madurai jail, where only criminals were held.5

Footnotes

  1. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 116 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 120 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 117 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 121 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 133 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

References

Sources (1)
  1. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (opens in a new tab), Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, 1956, pp. 116–117, 120–121, 133. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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