From Purdah To The People – Memoirs Of Padma Shri Rani Laxmi Kumari Chundawat

From Purdah To The People – Memoirs Of Padma Shri Rani Laxmi Kumari Chundawat : “A Woman! A Rajput Rani! A Congress Ticket!” The startling news that Rani Laxmi Kumari Chundawat would contest for a seat in Rajasthan’s Legislative Assembly spread throughout the state. It was shocking that a Rajput rani was giving up purdah to the campaign, and even more astonishing that she was allied with the Congress, the party that had seized their lands and taken away their way of life. In this book, a remarkable woman who is also a gifted storyteller recounts the reminiscences of her adventurous life. Born in the feudal era, she never went to school, was married at seventeen, went to live with her husband in the Rajasthan desert, and had six children. She gives a vivid portrait of the now-vanished feudal world of her childhood and its transformation after independence.
In fulfillment of the childhood dream to serve her people, in 1956 she made the path-breaking decision to abandon purdah and contest for the Rajasthan Assembly from Deogarh – her paternal home. She served three terms in the Assembly, where she played a key role in the complicated politics of the time. During a term in Parliament, she came to know and respect Indira Gandhi. She has worked throughout her career for the cause of women’s education and development. She also became a scholar of Rajasthani literature and published many volumes of Rajasthani folk tales and verses. She was awarded Padma Shri in 1984 for her transcription and editing of the great Rajasthani folk epic, Bagravat Devnarayan. From Purdah to the People is the story of Laxmi Kumari Chundawat’s courageous struggle to leave the feudal society she was born into and make a public life for herself in modern India. Scholars of princely Rajputana, Rajasthani literature, and the creation of modern Rajasthan will all find much of importance in her account.