Chandraprava Saikiani

Chandraprabha Saikiani (16 March 1901 – 16 March 1972) or Chandraprava Saikiani was an Assamese freedom fighter, activist, writer and social reformer considered to be the pioneer of the feminist movement in Assam. She was the founder of The All Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti, a non governmental organization working for the welfare of the women of Assam and was a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri for the year 1972 from the Government of India. Three decades later, the Indian government issued a commemorative stamp on Saikiani under the series, Social Reformers, in 2002.

She also took proactive role in the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1932 and Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920–1921. Contesting elections for the Legislative Assembly, she became the first woman to foray in politics in Independent India. Saikiani was also a noted poet and prolific writer.

Early life She was born as "Chandrapriya Mazumdar" (Chandrapriya Das) on 16 March 1901 to Ratiram Mazumdar (a village headman) and Gangapriya Mazumdar at Daisingari village of the Bajali district in the Northeast Indian state of Assam. She was the seventh of eleven children and choose the name "Chandraprabha Saikiani" for herself.

Accompanied by her sister Rajaniprabha Saikiani (who later on became the first woman doctor of Assam), they waded through waist deep mud to attend a boys' school (there was no girls' school) several kilometers away. Their endeavour impressed Nilkanta Barua, a school sub-inspector, and she was awarded a scholarship to the Nagaon Mission School.

After school, she gathered local illiterate girls and taught them what she learnt at school at a makeshift shed near the school. Her social activism started here when she protested against the allegedly discriminatory treatment meted out to Hindu students by the hostel superintendent. and got engaged to Dandinath Kalita, an Assamese writer. Jyotiprasad Agarwalla and Lakhidhar Sarma.

Social and political life Saikiani started her career as a teacher at a primary school in Nagaon and later, became the headmistress of the Girls' M. E. School, Tezpur. In 1918, at Tezpur session of Asom Chhatra Sanmilan, she was the only female delegate and addressed a huge throng on the harmful effects of opium eating and asked for its ban. to act against child marriage, polygamy and the discrimination of women at the temples and to take up issues like women's education and self-employment. Her efforts were reported in getting the Hayagriva Madhava Temple, Hajo, near Guwahati opened to women. is named after her

Her life has been documented in four biographies: Agnisnata Chandraprabha (1998) by Pushpalata Das, Chandraprabha Saikiani (2001) by Achyut Kumar Sharma, Muktixongrami Chandraprabha (2002) by Hironmoyi Devi and Chandraprabha by Anjali Sarma. a novel by Nirupama Borgohain, renowned Assamese novelist and wife of Homen Borgohain, is a fictionalised account of Saikiani's life Later on Prodipto Borgohain translated Abhijatri into English and won the Sahitya Akademi Award.