Krishnammal Jagannathan

Krishnammal Jagannathan (born 16 June 1926) is an Indian social activist from the state of Tamil Nadu. She and her husband, Sankaralingam Jagannathan (1912 – 12 February 2013), protested against social injustice and they are Gandhian activists. Her work includes upliftment of the landless, and the poor; she has sometimes fought against governments as well as big industries. She was earlier involved in the Indian independence movement, along with her husband, and was also a close associate of Vinoba Bhave. In 2008 she received the Right Livelihood Award, which she shared with her husband. She was given the Padma Bhushan; India's third highest civilian award; in 2020.

Early life Jagannathan was born into a Dalit family in 1926. She encountered social injustice and poverty in her daily life as she observed her mother Nagammal who toiled hard and had to continue working even as she was in the advanced stages of pregnancy. Sankaralinga later joined the Quit India Movement in 1942 and spent years in jail before India gained its independence in 1947.

Land to the landless Sankaralingam and Krishnammal believed that one of the key requirements for achieving a Gandhian society is by empowering the rural poor through redistribution of land to the landless. For two years between 1950 and 1952 Sankaralingam was with Vinoba Bhave in Northern India on his Bhoodan (land-gift) Padayatra (pilgrimage on foot), the march appealing to landlords to give one sixth of their land to the landless. Meanwhile, Krishnammal completed her teacher-training course in Madras (now renamed Chennai). When Sankaralingam returned to Tamil Nadu to start the Bhoodhan movement the couple, until 1968, worked for land redistribution through Vinoba Bhave's Gramdan movement (Village Gift, the next phase of the land-gift movement), and through Satyagraha (non-violent resistance). Sankaralingam was imprisoned many times for this work. Between 1953 and 1967, the couple played an active role in the Bhoodhan movement spearheaded by Vinoba Bhave, through which about of land were distributed to thousands of landless poor across several Indian states. following a wage-dispute with the landlord

Further achievements and honours Jagannathan, either independently or together with her husband, has established a total of seven non-governmental institutions for the poor. In addition to this she has also played an active role in wider public life. She has been a Senate member of the Gandhigram Trust and University and of Madurai University. She was also a member of a number of local and state social welfare committees and a member of the National Committee on Education, the Land Reform Committee and the Planning Committee. and Padma Shri in 1989. In 1996 the couple received the Bhagavan Mahaveer Award "for propagating non-violence." In 1999 Krishnammal was awarded a Summit Foundation Award (Switzerland), and in 2008 she was awarded 'Opus Prize' by the University of Seattle. She also received the Right Livelihood Award along with her husband "for two long lifetimes of work dedicated to realising in practice the Gandhian vision of social justice and sustainable human development, for which they have been referred to as 'India's soul'". She plans to use the award money for her projects rather than for herself. Inspired by Amma's contribution of enabling more than 11000 poor and landless women to become landowners, a M.Phil research dissertation is dedicated to Amma. The dissertation is titled as Aspects of Agrarian History of Tamilakam:Region, Women and Technology during 16th and 17th centuries AD, submitted to Department of History, University of Hyderabad in 2009.