Satyavati Devi

Satyavati Devi (28 February 1905 – 26 October 2010) was an Indian freedom fighter and Gandhian. At the time of her death on 26 October 2010, she was India's oldest living freedom fighter.

She was born in a Punjabi Hindu family in Tarn Taran district. She did her schooling from Kanya Maha Vidyalay, Jalandhar. She married Lala Achint Ram in 1925. Her marriage was a dowry-less one and she wore no veil, which was the condition set by Achint Ram for marriage. She also had two daughters Nirmala and Subhadra.

On 26 August 1942, she was arrested along with her children for participation in the Indian freedom movement. Along with other women prisoners she hoisted the Indian tricolour in Lahore Jail where she was imprisoned by the British. In prison she protested against the condition of barracks of political prisoners and went on a satyagraha. In 1965, she donated all her jewels to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

She was always respected by everyone who came to her home. Her son Krishna Kant became the Governor of Andhra Pradesh in 1989 and continued there until 1997, when he was elevated to the post of Vice President. Krishna Kant took his mother to his home during both occasions. When her son died in 2002, she was sitting beside his body until it was taken for cremation. She outlived him for eight years, dying on 26 October 2010 aged 105, outliving many of her younger co-workers. She was cremated with all state honours at her native village on the next day. A year before death on 9 August 2009, she was honoured by the then President Pratibha Patil as a part of the 67th anniversary commemoration celebrations of the Quit India Movement.