Bhabini Mahato

Bhabini Mahato (Bengali: ভাবিনী মাহাতো, c. 1925–24 June 2014) was a Bengali freedom fighter and activist who participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942^[1] and the Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum).^[2]

Bhabini Mahato
ভাবিনী মাহাতো
Born	c. 1925 Majhihira, Purulia, British India
Died	24 June 2014 Manbazar, West Bengal
Occupation(s)	Bengali freedom fighter and activist
Children	3

Biography

Mahato was born about 1925 in Majhihira village, Purulia, West Bengal, British India to a Kurmi family.^[3] She was married to Baidyanath Mahato when aged eight or nine.^[1][3] Three decades after she married, her husband Baidyanath married her younger sister Urmila as his second wife. Each sister had three children.^[4]

During the Quit India Movement, her husband Baidyanath was imprisoned for 13 months in Bhagalpur camp jail.^[3] Mahato cooked and fed fugitive revolutionaries hiding in Purulia's jungles^[5] and collected funds for the cause.^[6]

After Indian independence, Mahato participated in the Bengali Language Movement, which demanded the establishment of Bengali as one of the official languages. She was arrested after a march to Dalhousie, Kolkata in 1956 and spent 11 days in jail.^[1]

In 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on behalf of the Government of India, awarded her a Tamrapatra.^[1]

Mahato died in 2014 in Manbazar, West Bengal.^[5]