Captain Lakshmi (1914-2012)-one of the heroines of the Indian national liberation movement was known by this name. She lived through an entire era that included India's struggle for independence, the division of the country into India and Pakistan, and 65 years of independence-a very difficult period marked by ups and downs on the path to becoming a sovereign democratic state, achievements and problems in social and economic life.

Keywords: Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, S. C. Bose, Indian National Army, untouchability.

family. CHILDHOOD IMPRESSIONS

Lakshmi was born in 1914 in Madras to a wealthy family of a well-to-do lawyer, a Brahmin named S. Swaminathan, and a well-known social activist named Ammu Swaminathan. Her mother took an active part in the national liberation movement and later became a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, where the Constitution of the Republic of India was prepared under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru and with the direct participation of B. R. Ambedkar.

Lakshmi spent her childhood in Malabar (now Kerala) with her maternal grandmother. She grew up in a matriarchal family, belonging to the Nayar caste, which was dominated by her strict grandmother. She managed the house and household and the land that belonged to her. Her impact on the lives of her sons and daughters and their families was enormous. Under her influence, the character of her granddaughter Lakshmi was also formed.

Even as a child, Lakshmi felt the acute tension between the large landowners to whom her extended family belonged and the landless agricultural labourers and tenants. She witnessed the uprising of Mopla Muslims, descendants of Arab emigrants, who in August 1921 rose up against the exploitation and domination of high-caste landlords from the Nayars and Brahmins. In the areas of the uprising, martial law was declared, and government troops were introduced. The uprising was suppressed. About 2,000 mopla members were killed, several thousand were arrested, the leaders of the uprising were shot, and the rest were convicted and exiled to the Andaman Islands (Yurlov and Yurlova, 2010, pp. 113-115).

Lakshmi at this time was living in a village where there were many Mopla Muslims. When the unrest broke out, her grandmother was advised to move to Madras. However, two mopla tenants persuaded her to stay put, promising her and her family immunity. Mopla kept their promise, and the family was not touched. This family experience left a deep impression on the rest of her life. Many years later, she said that among those who protected her grandmother and prevented bloodshed in their village was a man who later became a well-known figure of the Communist Party of India.

Another notable experience that left a deep impression on Lakshmi's soul was her first exposure to the prejudice known as untouchability. One day, she spoke to a girl from the pulam caste, an untouchable girl who worked in their ho-

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zyaistve. Her grandmother noticed this, called her into the house and told her never to touch this girl. If she does, she'll go blind, " she said sternly. Lakshmi immediately decided to check if this was the case. She ran up to the girl, hugged her, and began to dance with her in a kind of dance. And then, loudly, so that everyone could hear, she screamed: "Look, nothing happened. Nothing! I knew that nothing would happen" [Ali, 2012].

Lakshmi's mother Ammu Swaminathan was one of the most emancipated women in Madras who were the first to challenge social patriarchal traditions. At first, she participated in public events, to which privileged Indian and English women were invited. Then she became a member of the Theosophical Society, headed by Annie Besant. Ammu was the first woman in Madras to get a driver's license and drive her own car.

Despite her high caste background, Ammu interacted with women from lower social strata - dancers, singers, and entertainers. Eventually, she broke with her previous lifestyle and began to speak out against social norms and customs that prevented the emancipation of women.

Lakshmi's father was also one of those who did not stop at caste barriers. He, a highly respected Tamil brahmana, married Ammu of the Nayar caste in defiance of the prohibitions of his Brahmin community. Even earlier, he was subjected to a caste boycott when he refused to attend the prayashchitta ceremony after returning from England. The father loved his two daughters and two sons equally and treated them as equals. He suggested that they all go to study in England. The sons agreed, but the girls refused.

Mahatma Gandhi's entry into active political life in the early 1920s had a huge impact on the Swaminathan family. His appeal to ordinary people, women and the outcasts of society - the untouchables-was a new word in the Indian national liberation movement. For Gandhi, the independence of the country meant equality of all classes and creeds, the emancipation of women and the liberation from slavery of the most humiliated, whom he called "the salt of Indian soil." These ideas fell on fertile ground in the family where Lakshmi grew up.

In 1921, Gandhi began a campaign of non-cooperation with the colonial authorities and a boycott of foreign goods in favor of local ones, including clothing made from khadi homespun. Seven-year-old Lakshmi and her younger sister Mrinalini took part in the boycott. They burned their European dresses and toys at the stake. Lakshmi even encouraged her school friends to do the same.

CHOOSING A LIFE PATH

In December 1928, her mother took the 14-year-old Lakshmi to Calcutta for a session of the Indian National Congress. M. K. Gandhi, Motilal Nehru and other Congress leaders considered it possible to demand that India be granted dominion status, which Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa already had. However, the party's younger, more radical leaders, such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, pushed for India's full independence. Young Lakshmi followed the discussion with interest, internally agreeing with a more radical point of view [Captain Lakshmi, 2012].

At her parents ' home, Lakshmi met many leaders of the national liberation movement, including Sarojini Naidu and her sister Suhashini, who was a Communist. In 1929, the attention of the patriotic intelligentsia was drawn to the trial of revolutionaries, which took place in the city of Meerut. Charges of conspiracy against the government of British India were brought against 31 people-communists, members of the Congress leadership, trade union leaders.

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Committees for the defense of patriots were formed in Delhi, Bombay, and Calcutta, headed by prominent Congress leaders. An important act of support for the defendants was Mahatma Gandhi's visit to the prison. The trial in Meerut lasted four years and handed down a harsh sentence. Many of the accused were sentenced to long prison terms and exile. However, under pressure from public opinion, the authorities were forced to review the sentences. By the end of 1933, all the accused were released. In essence, the Meerut trial ended with the defeat of the British authorities, who fabricated the charges [Roy, 1972, p.114-116].

Questions related to this trial were the subject of lively conversations between Lakshmi and Suhishini, who was not arrested along with the other Communists, but was under constant police surveillance. She spent a few weeks at Lakshmi's family home and shared a room with her. They talked a lot, and Lakshmi learned from her about the 1917 revolution in Russia and the nascent communist movement in India. They sang International together [AN, 2012].

BHAGAT SINGH AS LAKSHMI'S HERO

The slogans for full independence at the Congress session in Calcutta in 1928 had a huge impact on the youth. At this time, various organizations and parties began to be created, which sought to attract young people to their ranks under the slogans of the struggle for independence. In December 1928, Nehru presided over the Congress of Socialist Youth in Calcutta, and S. C. Bos spoke at other forums of congressional youth.

Gradually, young people began to get out of the moral and political control of the leaders of the older generation. Revolutionary groups began to appear, some of them preaching the cult of heroic self-sacrifice in the name of independence.

In April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Dat threw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly Hall in Delhi. The bomb didn't hurt anyone. Explaining their action, they stated that it was a protest against the murder by the authorities of a prominent congressional leader, L. L. Rai (Pande, 1985, p. 336).

They were young men from the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army, established in 1928, which included friends of Bhagat Singh from Punjab and young leaders from other provinces. Immediately after the creation of the organization, Lakshmi, who closely followed political events, began to raise funds for it. She managed to collect three thousand rupees - a very large amount at that time [Ali, 2012].

After the bomb attack in Delhi, all the leaders of the" Socialist Republican army " were arrested. They were tried in Lahore for conspiracy against the Government. On October 7, 1930, the court sentenced Bhagat Singh and two other friends to death, and seven others were sentenced to eternal exile.

On March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh and his friends were executed. Bhagat Singh, according to Nehru, has become a symbol of the struggle for Indian independence. Within a few months, his name was reverberating in every city and village in Punjab and Northern India. Countless songs were composed about him, and his popularity became truly unprecedented [Nehru, 1955, pp. 194-195].

Just a few days after the execution of Bhagat Singh and his associates on March 29, 1931, the Congress session began its work in Karachi. A group of young people met Mahatma Gandhi with black flags, protesting that he did not appeal to the authorities to pardon Bhagat Singh and his comrades and thus did not help save their lives [Bose, 1967, p.204, 205].

Many years after Bhagat Singh's execution, Lakshmi said in an interview, " In those days, Gandhiji's opposition to Bhagat Singh was a big obstacle in our path "[AHN, 2012].

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LLKSHMI HEADS THE ZHG-NSKY REGIMENT

After finishing high school in Madras, Lakshmi entered the medical College as one of the first small group of female pioneers in the field of medicine. In those years, Gandhi called for a boycott of English educational institutions, which caused a great controversy in Indian society. Rabindranath Tagore, for example, disagreed. He believed that India needed professionally trained people. Lakshmi's family and herself believed that India needed doctors to serve the poor. And this professional knowledge should be acquired in India in order to better understand the problems of such people.

In 1938, Lakshmi graduated from a medical college and became a gynaecologist, which is very popular in India, where women do not use the services of male doctors, but resort to the help of various healers and similar healers. Lakshmi set high goals to serve the common people and thus help the Motherland.

Two years later, Lakshmi was a fairly experienced doctor. She was already a mature woman, not a young girl who had been married off early by her parents. In 1940, after her marriage broke up, she went to Singapore, where she began working mainly among poor indentured Indian workers. Her interest in politics led her to meet the leadership of the Indian diaspora in Singapore, then to work with the Indian Independence League established there.

In the spring of 1942, the Japanese captured Bangkok, Malaysia, and Singapore. A few days later, they reached the borders of India. The crushing defeat of the British in Southeast Asia had a major impact on the two and a half million ethnic Indians living in this region. By that time, the Japanese had almost 55 thousand Indian prisoners of war, which they were going to use in the war against the British army. After the capture of Singapore by the Japanese, more than 40 thousand Indian prisoners were transferred under the leadership of the captain of the 14th Punjabi Regiment, Mohan Singh, who was also captured by them.

This marked the beginning of the creation of the Indian National Army( INA). On February 16, 1942, Japanese Prime Minister Tojo Hideki declared that the capture of Singapore provided India with a great opportunity to get rid of the harsh British oppression and participate in the creation of the Great East Asian Sphere of Resistance. By the end of August 1942, about 40,000 Indians had signed up for the INA. By September 10, 1942, the first Indian division of the INA, numbering 16 thousand soldiers, was ready for combat operations.

But in early December 1942, the Japanese made it clear that the Indians should not expect a declaration of Indian independence from the Government. In addition, it was stated that all Indian prisoners of war who are not part of the INA are considered ordinary prisoners and cannot count on any benefits. Finally, a further increase in the INA forces can only take place when the Japanese wish it.

Relations between the Japanese military command and the INA leadership became even more tense after Mohan Singh refused to send INA units to Burma and Dutch India. The Indians agreed to fight only for the liberation of their country. The conflict ended with the fact that on December 21, 1942, the commander-in-Chief of the INA, Mohan Singh, issued an order to disband the INA and was dismissed. The Japanese began to disarm the INA. Four thousand Indian soldiers and officers of the INA were sent to work hard in New Guinea and other Pacific islands. Mohan Singh himself was arrested by the Japanese a few days later. The situation has reached a stalemate. By the beginning of 1943, the number of Indian prisoners of war in the INA had been reduced to 8,000.

In June 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore from Japan. His appearance opened a new page in the history of INA. With the support of the Japanese, he developed an active

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activity. The number of INA quickly increased to 20 thousand people. In October 1943, Bos announced the establishment of the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind Government), in which he took all the leading positions - head of state, Prime Minister, Minister of War and even Minister of Foreign Affairs.

At the same time, in June 1943, Lakshmi met S. C. Bosh. He suggested that she create and lead a women's regiment of them. Rani Jhansi - the national heroine of India, Princess Lakshmi-bai from the Jhansi principality, who fought against the colonial troops in the people's War of 1857-1859 and died in battle. Lakshmi was awarded the title of captain, with which she made history. At the same time, she became the Minister of Women's Affairs in the Provisional Government of Free India.

To recruit young Indian women for the women's regiment, Captain Lakshmi visited Rangoon, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Shanghai, and Nanjing. She urged the girls ' parents to allow them to serve in the INA. She managed to form a regiment of 1,500 Indian women between the ages of 18 and 28. There were representatives of all religions, both highly educated, from middle-class families, and poor, illiterate plantation workers. Under the guidance of experienced Indian officers, they received military training. The Women's regiment took part in a military campaign against British troops on the India-Burma border.

In March 1944, the Japanese launched an offensive on Imphal. It was attended by about 6,000 INA soldiers. Bos insisted that his army be the first to enter Indian soil. However, by mid-May, the Japanese offensive had stalled. Much better-armed Anglo-Indian forces, equipped with aircraft and heavy artillery (which the Japanese did not have), delivered blow after blow to the Japanese army and INA soldiers. On June 3, 1944, the Japanese began to retreat. Of the 220,000 Japanese soldiers who participated in this campaign, only 130,000 survived. Bose's Indian National Army suffered heavy losses [Toye Hugh, 1959, p. 224-230]. In May 1945, Captain Lakshmi was arrested by the British Colonial Army.

The tragic and heroic life epic of S. C. Bose ended on August 18, 1945, when he died in a plane crash on the island of Taiwan [Raikov, 1999, pp. 262-274]. But in India, many still believe that his fate was different. Bos allegedly ended up in the USSR or China, or lived in the mountains as a monk, etc. Despite all this, the moral authority of Bos as a fighter for Indian independence was and remains high, and the name of Captain Lakshmi is closely associated with both INA and her collaboration with Bosh.

Meanwhile, the trial of three INA officers captured by the colonial forces began in Delhi on November 5, 1945. They were charged with treason to the British crown and murder. Prominent Indian lawyers, including J. R. R. Tolkien, defended the defendants. Nehru. The court found all three INA officers guilty, but had to give them lenient sentences. Soon after the trial, all of them were released. The British authorities wanted to avoid a situation where the soldiers of the INA and its leaders would become martyrs in the struggle for Indian independence.

Captain Lakshmi escaped the trial, but was an invisible participant in it. One way or another, her case triumphed in the eyes of the Indian public. She was detained in Burma until March 1946, when she was transferred to India. There she was greeted as a heroine.

In March 1947, Lakshmi married Colonel INA Prem Kumar Sehgal and moved from Lahore to Kanpur. There she resumed her medical practice.

SERVING ORDINARY PEOPLE

After the split of the country in August 1947 and the formation of India and Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of people were tragically displaced in two opposite directions-from India to Pakistan and vice versa. Kanpur proved to be one of the centers through which

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streams of Muslims and Hindus passed by. Many of them needed the help of a doctor. True to her vocation, Lakshmi provided medical care to hundreds of refugees, regardless of their religion.

In 1971, during India's war with Pakistan, which ended with the formation of Bangladesh, about 10 million refugees poured into the state of West Bengal. A real humanitarian catastrophe has begun. Food, clothing, and medical care were scarce in the refugee camps that had been set up. At the call of her heart, Lakshmi came to these camps with medicines and clothing for refugees and provided them with assistance for five weeks. After returning to Kanpur, she became a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). This step was just a confirmation of her commitment to the ideals of communism. She said: "By the nature of my thinking, I have always been a Communist. I have never sought to earn more money or acquire property and become rich" [Mepop, 2012; Captain Lakshmi, 2012, p. 82].

Captain Lakshmi has always been at the center of tragic events that have killed many innocent people. This happened after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by two of her Sikh guards. In Delhi and other cities, mass beatings of Sikhs, arson and looting of their homes, desecration of Sikh temples-gurdwaras-began. Four thousand Sikhs were killed in the country, and about 50 thousand were left homeless [Varadarajan, 2009]. And here Captain Lakshmi proved true to herself. This fearless, fragile woman stood up for the Sikhs and prevented many new massacres and looting.

Almost at the same time, the country experienced the largest man-made disaster in the history of India. In December 1984, a chemical plant in Bhopal, owned by the American firm Union Carbide, had a huge release of toxic gas into the atmosphere. Within a few hours, more than 400 people were killed, and eventually the number of victims reached 14 thousand (according to some estimates, up to 50 thousand) [The Times of India, 04.12.1984]. Captain Lakshmi was once again among the injured people. She led a group of medics who treated them on the spot. Later, she prepared a report on the long-term effects of exposure to this toxic gas on pregnant women. It is not for nothing that she was called the "doctor of the poor" [Venkatesan, 2010, p. 32-40].

Her main concern all these years was medical care for the poorest and most suffering people. She defended them in the country's parliament when she became a member of its upper house. She continued to fight hard for their rights when she was nominated by left-wing parties as a candidate in the 2002 Indian presidential election. She began her campaign by visiting camps in Gujarat for refugees who were victims of religious and communal clashes. While acknowledging that she had no chance of defeating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Abdul Kalam, Captain Lakshmi used the campaign platform to publicly criticize a system that has contributed to the growth of poverty and injustice [Mepop, 2012].

Captain Lakshmi took an active part in the struggle for women's equality, and from her student years she opposed the customs that enslave women - seclusion, dowry and caste discrimination. She became a founding member and Vice-President of the All India Democratic Women's Association. Her business was continued by her daughter Subhashini.

In 1998, Captain Lakshmi was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, one of India's highest awards for outstanding humanitarian service.

In her last interview (with the influential Indian Express newspaper) on November 23, 2008, Captain Lakshmi emphasized that the country's greatest achievement was to preserve the unity of an independent India and create and strengthen a democratic system. At the same time, the country's development, although accompanied by economic growth, did not lead to equality in society. The poor are poorer, and the rich are richer. Educational institution-

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education and health care have not become accessible to ordinary people. Most of the young people were ignored by the state. Unemployment continued to be an acute problem. Indian patriotism has been eroded by globalization. India must strive to become strong, she said. Then the Indians will not run away from it [Exclusive Interview, 2008].

In the last years of her life, Captain Lakshmi continued the work she had served for so many years. Every day in the morning, she came to her clinic, where patients were waiting for her. There were many of them, and they were all poor people. Dr. Lakshmi treated everyone almost free of charge. Before the appointment began, she herself swept the street near the clinic. This could have been done by others-traditional cleaners. But it was important to her - she felt part of the India she loved with all her heart. On July 27, 2012, Captain Lakshmi died of a heart attack. But until her death, she ordered that her body continue to serve people. After her death, the corneas of her eyes were transplanted to a 16-year-old girl and a 55-year-old woman. They saw the light. The surgeon who performed these operations said that the cornea was as clean as a child's, as clean as her heart, her life and her smile [Ali, 2012].

President Pratibha Patil of India called Laxmi Sehgal a great patriot, while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, " She was a model of selfless service "(Tribute, 2012).

list of literature

Nehru Jaharlal. Autobiography, Moscow: Inostrannaya literatura Publ., 1955.
Raikov A.V. The Most Dangerous Hour of India. Lipetsk: Lipetsk State Design Institute, 1999.

Yurlov F. N., Yurlova K. S. Istoriya Indii [History of India]. XX century. Moscow: IV RAS, 2010.

Аli Subhashini. Communist Captain // Frontline. August, 11-24, 2012.

Bosc S.Ch. The Indian Struggle 1920-1942. Calcutta: Asia Publishing House, 1967.

Captain Lakshmi // The Economist. N.Y., 04.08.2012.

Exclusive Interview with Lakshmi Sahgal // The Indian Express. 24.08.2008.

Mcnon Parvathy. Captain Lakshmi Sahgal (1914-2012) -A Life of Struggle // The Hindu, 23.07.2012.

Pandc B.N. (gen. cd.). A Centenary History of the Indian National Congress (1885-1985). Vol. 11. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1985.

Roy Subodh (cd.). Communism in India: Unpublished Documents 1925-1934. New Delhi: PPH, 1972.

The Times of India, 04.12.1984.

Toye Hugh. The Springing Tiger: Suhhas Chandra Bose - A Study of a Revolutionary. L.: Casscll, 1959.

Tribute: Mrinal Gore, Lakshmi Schgal // Mainstream, July 28, 2012.

Varadarajan Siddharth. India after Indira, 25 years on // The Hindu. 01.11.2009.

Vcnkatcsan V. Bhopal Gas Disaster // Frontline. December, 19, 2009-January, 1, 2010.

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