On February 12, 1932*, 25-year-old R. Sivabhogam reached Rattan Bazaar in George Town, in then Madras, and started picketing a textile shop that sold foreign cloth. Her act was in response to the nationwide calls to boycott foreign goods as part of the Indian freedom struggle.
Defying the prohibitory orders and warnings by the police to leave the place, she continued to dissuade the customers from purchasing foreign cloth from the shop. She was arrested and presented the next day before a magistrate, who sentenced her to one-year imprisonment.
When the magistrate asked her whether she pleaded guilty or not, she said, “I did that deliberately,” unfazed by the prospect of imprisonment and in a display of unwavering commitment to the cause she espoused. She was taken to the Vellore prison the same night.
