Rukmini Devi Arundale
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Rukmini Devi Arundale (February 29, 1904 - February, 1986) has perhaps done more than any other individual to enrich India's artistic and cultural heritage. As one of India’s outstanding personalities, she inherited a background full with a cultural, artistic and learned atmosphere. Rukmini Devi devoted her entire life for the revival and re-established of many of the traditional arts and crafts of India.
A pioneer and fearless crusader, she was the first highborn Indian lady, to espouse the cause of Bharata Natyam, which was considered a low and vulgar art in the early twenties. Recognizing the beauty and spiritual value of this art form, she had the courage not only to learn the dance, but also to present it on stage in spite of strong public protest. Her marriage to Dr. George Arundale was another shocking break from tradition and she faced the public outcry and ostracism with great courage.
Drawn into the Theosophical Movement, as a follower of Dr. Annie Besant, and her own husband who was a great triot and educationist, Rukmini Devi travelled all over the world as an ambassador of Indian culture. She established, Besant Theosophical High School and the Besant Arundale Senior Secondary School to impart education based on traditional Indian values. In 1936 she started Kalakshetra as a cultural academy for preservation of traditional values in Indian art, especially in the field of dance and music.
The Montessori method was first started in India, when Dr. Arundale invited Dr. Maria Montessori to start courses in the Besant Theosophical High School in 1939. Rukmini Devi was nominated as member of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) by the president of the Republic of India in April 1952 and re-nominated in 1956. Keenly interested in animal welfare, She was associated with various humanitarian organisations.
As a Member of the Rajya Sabha, she was largely responsible for the legislation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1960) and for setting up of the Animal Welfare Board under her chairmanship in 1962, to promote their welfare. She was a strict vegetarian and did much work to promote vegetarianism in the country. In 1977, Morarji Desai offered to nominate her for the post of President of India, which she turned down.
[edit] Further reading
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- India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women (ISBN 81-88086-19-3) by Indra Gupta
- Art and culture in Indian life. Kerala University Press, Trivandrum 1975
- Selections, Some selected speeches & writings of Rukmini Devi Arundale. Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai 2003
- Gupta, Indra: India's 50 Most Illustrious Women. Icon Publications, 2003; ISBN 81-88086-19-3
- Kalakshetra Foundation (Hrsg.): Rukmini Devi Arundale birth centenary volume. Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai 2004
- Kalakshetra Foundation (Hrsg.): Shraddanjali, brief pen portraits of a galaxy of great people who laid the foundations of Kalakshetra. Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai 2004
- Meduri, Avanthi (Hrsg.): Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904-1986), A Visionary Architect of Indian Culture and the Performing Arts. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 2005; ISBN 81-208-2740-6
- Sarada, S.: Kalakshetra-Rukmini Devi, reminiscences. Kala Mandir Trust, Madras 1985
