Manmohini Zutshi Sahgal

Manmohini Zutshi Sahgal was a member of Jawaharlal Nehru's family and an Indian writer. Sahgal's father grew up in Nehru's childhood home. Without this influential though tangential association, it is doubtful her memoir would have more than routine interest. Sahgal was an active participant in India's struggle for independence, but her emotionless story proves her a flawed observer, unable or unwilling to convey any feeling for the characters or events she witnessed. A leader in student politics during her college years, Sahgal followed her mother and sisters in brief prison terms for demonstrating against the British Raj. Between 1930 and 1935, Sahgal finished college, became a teacher and was a member of the revolutionary Indian National Congress. In 1935, she married a government bureaucrat and, she explains, had to give up politics as well as active association with her old friends. Her story loses steam as she describes following her husband to various posts, supervising a growing household. With her husband's permission, Sahgal joined various ladies clubs and volunteer welfare organizations: as a member of the Catering Advisory Committee for the North Eastern Railway, she investigated charges against crooked vendors at train stations. She did run for public office, but lost, blaming her defeat on Nehru's unwillingness to support her.

External links

• http://www.netstoreusa.com/babooks/156/1563243407.shtml
• http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Fighter-Recalls-Foremother-Legacies/dp/1563243393/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233153109&sr=1-1
• http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=An+Indian+Freedom+Fighter+Recalls+Her+Life
• http://www.getcited.org/pub/103192765

See also

• Nehru-Gandhi family