Nellie Sengupta

Nellie Sengupta (1886-1973) was an Englishwoman who fought for Indian Independence and was elected President of the Indian National Congress

Family

Born Edith Ellen Gray, she was the daughter of Frederick and Edith Henrietta Gray. She was born and brought up in Cambridge, where her father worked at a club As a young girl, she fell in love with Jatindramohan Sengupta, a young Bengali student at Downing Collegewho lodged at her parental home. Despite parental opposition, she married Jatindramohan and returned to Calcutta with him.Nellie as she was known and Jatin had two sons Sishir and Anil.

Non Cooperation Movement

On returning to India ,Nellie's husband Jatindramohan started a very successful career as a lawyer in Calcutta . However in 1921 he joined the Indian freedom struggle and was Mahatma Gandhi's right hand man in Bengal apart from being the Mayor of Calcutta for three terms and the head of the Legislative Assembly. Nellie joined her husband in participating in the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921. After his imprisonment during the Assam-Bengal Railwaymen's strike, she forcefully 'protested against the District authorities' imposition of a ban on assembly, addressed mass meetings and courted arrest. She defied the law by selling Khadi(hand spun cloth) door to door. In 1931 she suffered four months' imprisonment at Delhi for addressing an unlawful assembly.Jatin was imprisoned in Ranchi and died in 1936 .

Congress President

During the turmoil of the Salt Satyagraha many senior Congress leaders were imprisoned. Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya the President elect of the Congress was arrested before the Calcutta Session of 1931. Nellie Sengupta became the third woman, and the second European-born woman to be elected in his place.

She was also elected as an Alderman to the Calcutta Corporation in 1933 and 1936. She was also elected on a Congress ticket to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1940 and 1946. During the Second World War she drew attention to the misbehaviour of foreign troops.

Post-independence

After independence, she chose to live in East Pakistan, in her husband's hometown of Chittagong on the specific request of the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who asked her to look after the interests of the Hindu minority in East Pakistan. She was elected unopposed to the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly. She was a member of the Minority Board and remained an active social activist.When Bangladesh came into being in 1971 she continued to live on in Chittagong and was well cared for by the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.In 1972 she broke her hip and through the intervention of Indira Gandhi she was brought to Calcutta where she was operated on and all medical expenses were paid for by the Indian Govt. She was accorded a tremendous welcome in Calcutta and honoured by both the Govt and the people for her contribution to both the Indian Freedom struggle along with her husband Deshapriya Jatindramohan SenGupta and her work for the minorities in Bangla Desh. She passed away peacefully in Calcutta in 1973

Persondata
Name	Sengupta, Nellie
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1886
Place of birth
Date of death	1973
Place of death