Bhikaiji Cama

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Bhikaiji Rustom Cama

Place of birth: Bombay, India
Movement: Indian independence movement
Major organizations: Indian National Congress

Bhikaiji Rustom Cama (Madam Cama, Madame Cama) (September 24, 1861 - August 13, 1936) was a prominent figure in the Indian Nationalist Movement.

Bhikaiji Rustom Cama was born Bhikai Sorab Patel on 24th September, 1861 in Bombay (now Mumbai) into a large, well-off Parsi family. Her parents, Sorabji and Jaijibai Patel, were well-known in the city, where her father Sorabji Framji Patel - a lawyer by training and a merchant by profession - was an influential member of the Parsi community. The father doted on his little girl, and affectionately called her "Munni".

Like many Parsi girls of the time, Bhikaiji attended Alexandra Native Girl's English Institution. Bhikaiji was by all accounts a diligent, disciplined child, with a flair for languages and an interest in the personalities of the nationalist movement(s).

On August 3, 1885, she married Rustom Cama, a wealthy, pro-British lawyer with a desire to enter politics. It was not a happy marriage, and Bhikaiji spent most of her time and energy in philanthropic activities and social work.

In October 1896, the Bombay Presidency was first hit by famine, and shortly thereafter by bubonic plague. Bhikaiji joined one of the many teams working out of Grant Medical College (which would subsequently become Haffkine's plague vaccine research center), in an effort to provide care for the afflicted, and (later) to inoculate the healthy.

She contracted the plague herself, but survived. Severely weakened, she set sail for Europe for subsequent medical care and recuperation in 1902. In London, she received word that her return to India would be prevented unless she would sign a statement promising not to participate in nationalist activities. She refused, and remained in exile in Europe until shortly before her death (at Parsi General Hospital in Bombay) in 1936.

While in London, she served as private secretary to Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Asian to be elected to the British House of Commons, and the first to publicly demand independence from Great Britain.

In Paris she came in contact with other notable members of the movement for Indian sovereignty, and would come to clandestinely (in Holland) publish and distribute revolutionary literature for the movement. While in France, the British Government requested her extradition, but the French Government refused to cooperate. In return, the British Government seized Cama's inheritance. Lenin reportedly [1] invited her to reside in Russia, but she did not accept.

Influenced by Christabel Pankhurst and the Suffragette movement, Bhikaiji Cama was vehement in her support for gender equality. Speaking in Cairo, Egypt in 1910, she asked, "I see here the representatives of only half the population of Egypt. May I ask where is the other half? Sons of Egypt, where are the daughters of Egypt? Where are your mothers and sisters? Your wives and daughters?"

Flag raised by Bhikaiji Cama in Stuttgart
Flag raised by Bhikaiji Cama in Stuttgart

Bhikaiji Cama is best known for having unfurled a "Flag of Indian Independence" on August 22, 1907, at the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart, Germany. That flag, a slight modification of the Calcutta Flag, was co-designed by Cama, Veer Savarkar and Shyamji Krishna Varma, and would later serve as a template upon which the current national flag of India is based.

At the conference, she described the devastating effects of a famine that had struck the subcontinent, and made an appeal for human rights, equality and for Indian independence:

“ This flag is of India's independence. Behold, it is born. It is already sanctified by the blood of martyred Indian youth. I call upon you, gentlemen, to rise and salute the flag of Indian independence. In the name of this flag I appeal to lovers of freedom all over the world to cooperate with this flag in freeing one-fifth of the human race. ”

One nationalist legend involving Bhikaiji Cama goes like this:

“ Veer Savarkar was in custody (aboard the "Morena") for his nationalist stance. As the story goes, Savarkar evaded his captors and jumped overboard in an attempt to escape. Cama saw him go overboard, but misunderstood it to be an accident. She jumped in after him (to save him as she thought), and attracted enough attention to result in Savarkar's recapture. ”

Another variation of the story (possibly true), goes like this:

“ Veer Savarkar had been arrested in London for nationalist activities and was on his way back to India for trial. Aboard the "Morena" in Marseilles Harbour, he wiggled out of a porthole window and jumped into the sea. Reaching shore, he expected to find Cama and others waiting for him (who got there late), but ran into the local constabulary instead. Unable to communicate his predicament to the French authorities without Cama's help, he was returned to British custody. ”

Several Indian cities have streets and places named after Bhikaiji Cama. On January 26th 1962, the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a stamp in her honor. The Indian Coast Guard has a ship named after her.

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Template:IndiaFreedom

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