1. Sarala Devi was an Indian independence activist, feminist, social activist, politician and writer.
16 Facts About Sarala Devi
1. 2.
Sarala Devi was the first Odia woman to join the Non-cooperation movement in 1921 and the first Odia woman delegate of the Indian National Congress.
3.
Sarala Devi became the first woman to be elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly on 1 April 1936.
4.
Sarala Devi was the first female Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly But only for one day and in the absence of that time speaker Mukunda Prasad Das and there are no official records present in the Odisha Legislative Assembly, the first woman Director of Cuttack Co-operative Bank, and the first female Senate member of Utkal University.
5.
Sarala Devi was the only representative from Odisha on President Dr S Radhakrishnan's Education Commission.
6.
Sarala Devi was born on 9 August 1904 in Narilo village, near Balikuda, in what was then the Orissa Division of the Bengal Presidency to a very wealthy, aristocratic Zamindar Karan family.
7.
Sarala Devi's father was Dewan Basudev Kanungo, and her mother was Padmavati Devi.
8.
Sarala Devi was adopted and raised by her father's elder brother, Balamukunda Kanungo, a Deputy Collector.
9.
Sarala Devi learned Bengali, Sanskrit, Odia and basic English from her tutor.
10.
Sarala Devi lived with her uncle until the age of 13.
11.
Sarala Devi donated a sizeable part of her large collection of jewellery and vast tracts of real estate to the fight for India's independence.
12.
Sarala Devi married well-known lawyer Bhagirathi Mohapatra in 1917, and the latter joined the Indian National Congress in 1918.
13.
Sarala Devi herself joined the Congress in 1921, following Mahatma Gandhi's first visit to Orissa.
14.
Sarala Devi was the first woman Member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly as well as its first woman Speaker for one day.
15.
Sarala Devi was very close to Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Durgabai Deshmukh, Acharya Kripalani, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Sarojini Naidu.
16.
Sarala Devi was the Secretary of Utkal Sahitya Samaj at Cuttack from 1943 to 1946.