{{Short description|Bengali author and reformer (1873–1942)}} {{Use Indian English|date=January 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox writer | image = Kumudini Bose.jpg | birth_date = 1873 | death_date = 1942 | occupation = writer, social reformer, freedom fighter and women's rights activist | birth_place = Calcutta, West Bengal, India | death_place = Calcutta, West Bengal, India }}
'''Kumudini Basu''' ('''{{Nee|Mitra}}''', 1873–1942) was a Bengali writer, social reformer, freedom fighter and women's rights activist in British India.
== Family == Basu was born in 1873 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India, and was the eldest daughter of the Indian nationalist Krishna Kumar Mitra.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Mitra, Kumudini |url=https://incarnateword.in/names/mitra-kumudini |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=The Incarnate Word}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pal |first=Rina |date=August 2019 |title=Role of Women in Indian Freedom Struggle (1905 – 1927) |url=https://rnlkwc.ac.in/pdf/anudhyan/volume4/Role-of-Women-in-Indian-Freedom-Struggle-1905%E2%80%931927-Dr-Rina-Pal.pdf |journal=Anudhyan |pages=32 |archive-date=2 July 2022 |access-date=17 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220702195904/https://www.rnlkwc.ac.in/pdf/anudhyan/volume4/Role-of-Women-in-Indian-Freedom-Struggle-1905%E2%80%931927-Dr-Rina-Pal.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> She had a sister named Basanti Chakravorty ({{Nee|Mitra}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Research |first=Indian Council of Historical |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8CrEAAAQBAJ&dq=Kumudini+Basu&pg=PT46 |title=Sri Aurobindo-Life and Legacy |publisher=Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting |isbn=978-93-5409-742-3 |language=da}}</ref>
Basu married the businessman Sarat Chandra Basu-Mullik.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == Basu was educated at the University of Calcutta.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Forbes |first=Geraldine Hancock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ClNEJwXLNQIC&dq=Kumudini+Basu&pg=PA70 |title=Women in Colonial India: Essays on Politics, Medicine, and Historiography |date=2005 |publisher=Orient Blackswan |isbn=978-81-8028-017-7 |pages=70 |language=en}}</ref>
Basu worked as a writer and edited the publications ''Suprabhat'' (1907–14), which she also founded,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mukherjee |first=Sreemati |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qQfEQAAQBAJ&dq=Kumudini+Basu&pg=PA91 |title=Women and the Romance of the Word: 19th Century Contexts in Bengal |date=2024-04-30 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-93-5640-604-9 |page=91 |language=en}}</ref> and ''Bangalakshmi'' ''(1925-27)''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Chakravarty |first=Pallavi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a6AQEQAAQBAJ&dq=Kumudini+Basu&pg=PT74 |title=Urbanisation in Bengal: Ideas, Institutions and Policies |date=2024 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-040-08583-7 |pages=83 |language=en}}</ref> She published several books and poems,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f0UMAQAAMAAJ&q=Kumudini+Basu |title=Studies in History |date=1998 |publisher=Sage |volume=14 |page=79 |language=en |issue=1–2}}</ref> including the book ''Sikher Balidan'' (The Sacrifice of the Sikh).<ref name=":0" />
Basu participated in the Indian non co-operation movement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mukhopādhyāẏa |first=Amitābha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FWHaAAAAMAAJ&q=Kumudini+Basu |title=Women in Indian Life and Society |date=1996 |publisher=Punthi Pustak and Institute of Historical Studies |isbn=978-81-85094-97-7 |pages=221 |language=en}}</ref>
She served as secretary of the Bharat Stree Mahamandal (The Great Circle of Indian Women), which aimed to promote female education.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Sarkar |first1=Asok Kumar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bscWEQAAQBAJ&dq=Kumudini+Basu&pg=PA25 |title=Understanding Women's Empowerment in South Asia: Perspectives on Entitlements and Violations |last2=Gupta |first2=Satyajit Das |date=2024 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-981-16-7538-6 |pages=25 |language=en}}</ref> Basu campaigned for women's right to vote and was one of the leaders, along with Kamini Roy and Mrinalini Sen,<ref name=":3">Ray, Bharati (1990). "Women in Calcutta: the Years of Change". In Chaudhuri, Sukanta (ed.). [https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Calcutta_the_Living_City_The_present_and.html?id=cGduAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y ''Calcutta: The Living City''. Vol. II: The Present and Future]. Oxford University Press. pp. 36–37. {{ISBN|978-0-19-563697-0}}.</ref> of the Nigil Bangiya Nari Votadhikar Samiti (All Bengali Women's Franchise Association) which fought for women's suffrage.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Aribam |first1=Angellica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3sQEQAAQBAJ&dq=Kumudini+Basu&pg=PT116 |title=The Fifteen: The Lives and Times of the Women in India's Constituent Assembly |last2=Satyawali |first2=Akash |date=2024-07-26 |publisher=Hachette India |isbn=978-93-91028-31-2 |language=en}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=January 2025}} On 16 August 1925, the Bengal Legislative Council passed a women's franchise resolution by majority vote,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Asthana |first=Pratima |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AxAqAAAAYAAJ&q=Kumudini+Basu |title=Women's Movement in India |date=1974 |publisher=Vikas Publishing House |isbn=978-0-7069-0333-1 |pages=113 |language=en}}</ref> granting some Bengali women to exercise their right for the first time in the 1926 Indian general election.<ref name=":3" /> In 1935, Basu wrote to the Lothian Committee, also known as the Indian Franchise Committee, to share her views on universal suffrage.<ref name=":1" /> She was the first councillor elected in the Municipal Corporation of Calcutta.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hust |first1=Evelin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6HxuAAAAMAAJ&q=Kumudini+Basu |title=Urbanization and Governance in India |last2=Mann |first2=Michael |date=2005 |publisher=Manohar |isbn=978-81-7304-609-4 |pages=88 |language=en}}</ref>
Despite her advocacy for women's voting rights, Basu feared that voting might force respectable women to mix with or perhaps be confused with "undesirable women," such as a prostitutes.<ref name=":2" /> She proposed that sex workers should register with the police and be forced to use separate polling stations to vote.<ref name=":2" />
Basu also denounced the practice of purdah as one of the principal causes of "spiritual, intellectual, and physical degeneration of both men and women."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Patil |first=V. T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qDZuAAAAMAAJ&q=Kumudini+Basu |title=New Dimensions and Perspectives in Gandhism |date=1989 |publisher=Inter-India Publications |isbn=978-81-210-0230-1 |pages=394 |language=en}}</ref>
She died in 1942 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}
== References == {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basu, Kumudini}} Category:1873 births Category:1942 deaths Category:University of Calcutta alumni Category:Bengali writers Category:Bengali educators Category:Indian feminist writers Category:Indian suffragists Category:Writers from Kolkata Category:20th-century Indian women journalists Category:20th-century Indian journalists Category:20th-century Indian women writers Category:Activists from Kolkata Category:Women Indian independence activists