Women pioneers in the legislature since the days of Madras Presidency

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was a principal figure in the nationalist movement. (Source: The Hindu Archives )

With the recent passage of the women’s reservation Bill by Parliament, it would be interesting to recall the significant role played by pioneering women in the affairs of legislature of Tamil Nadu or the erstwhile Madras Presidency.

In fact, the Madras Legislative Council, as the legislature was called in 1921, at its first session in April that year, adopted a resolution for women franchise. In 1923, women, for the first time, voted for the Legislative Council and the Central Assembly (Parliament), according to B. Ramanathan, professor of history at Presidency College. He recorded this in a special publication brought out in 1997 on the occasion of the platinum jubilee of the Tamil Nadu legislature and the diamond jubilee of the Assembly.