In this booklet, published on occasion of the 10th Conference of All India Democratic Women’s Association, we pay our homage to some of the pioneers of the women’s movement in India who also laid the foundations of our Association. The leaders whose lives and activities are commemorated in these few pages are Jyoti Chakraborty from West Bengal, Janaki Ammal from Tamil Nadu, Manikonda Suryavathi from Andhra Pradesh, Devaki Warrier from Kerala, Niruben Patel from Gujarat and Sukhamati Debbarma from Tripura. Apart from the last-mentioned, the rest are no more with us. But at a time when our Association is engaged in grim struggles against the present neo-liberal regime in our country, which also presides over the unleashing anew of forces of social reaction like communalism, casteism and aggravated gender violence, it is necessary for us to recall the fighting tradition represented by these women that is our glorious heritage. As Manikonda Suryavathi said in 1993 in the last public meeting attended by her, “We have no other way but to start another struggle for Independence!”
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