Matangini Hazra

Matangini Hazra (19 October 1870 – 29 September 1942 ) was an Indian revolutionary who participated in the Indian independence movement. She was leading one of the five batches of volunteers (of the Vidyut Bahini), constituted by the Samar Parisad (War Council), at Tamluk to capture the Tamluk Police Station on 29 September 1942, when she was shot dead by the British Indian police in front of the police station, becoming the first "Quit India" movement martyr in Midnapore. She was a staunch Gandhian and was fondly called Gandhi buri, Bengali for "old lady Gandhi".

Early life Not much is known of her early life apart from that she was born in a Bengali Mahishya family of village Hogla, near Tamluk on 19 October, 1870, and that because she was the daughter of a poor peasant, she did not receive a formal education. She married Trilochan Hazra when she was twelve and was widowed at the age of eighteen without children. Her father-in-law's village was Alinan, of Tamluk thana.

Participation in the freedom movement Matangini Hazra became actively interested in the Indian independence movement as a Gandhian. In 1930, she took part in the Civil Disobedience movement and was arrested for breaking the Salt Act. She was promptly released, but then participated in the 'Chowkidari Tax Bandha' (abolition of chowkidari tax) movement and while marching towards the court building chanting slogan to protest against the illegal constitution of a court by the governor to punish those who participated in the movement, Matangini was arrested again. She was sentenced to six months imprisonment and sent to Baharampur jail. Again, she was incarcerated for six months at Baharampur.

Legacy

The parallel Tamluk Government (Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar) incited open rebellion by praising her "martyrdom for her country" and was able to function for two more years, until it was disbanded in 1944, at Gandhi's request. were named after Hazra. The first statue of a woman put up in Kolkata in independent India was Hazra's in 1977. A statue now stands at the spot where she was killed in Tamluk.

In 2002, as part of a series of postage stamps commemorating sixty years of the Quit India Movement and the formation of the Tamluk National Government, the Department of Post of India issued a five rupee postage stamp with Matangini Hazra's portrait. In 2015, the Shahid Matangini Hazra Government College for Women was established in Tamluk, Purba Medinipur.