The Great Gorkha Freedom fighters of India

1/Helen Lepcha

 Helen Lepcha alias Sabitri Devi (born 1902) was one of the most prominent freedom fighters from the hills of Darjeeling. Originally a resident of Kurseong, Dist. Darjeeling, she traced her lineage to Sikkim, which honours her as their very own. Around 1917, when a Bengali man has come to propagate Gandhi’s Charkha Movement, Helen, a fresh school-dropout, resonated deeply with his speech. She was so inspired that she took off to Calcutta in 1918, to get enrolled in the Charkha school of the granddaughter of Pt. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. A skilled learner, she soon got the opportunity to be a representative of the school in the National level Khadi and Charkha Exhibition in Muzzafarpur in Bihar. 

AS HISTORY SHOWS, MANY MEN FROM THIS NORTHERN TERRAIN HAVE FOUGHT VALIANTLY, ESPECIALLY FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE NATION-STATE THEY WERE DESPERATE TO BELONG TO. BUT IT NEVER QUITE ACKNOWLEDGES THE BRAVERY OF THE MARTIAL HILL WOMEN, WHO TRIED TO MAKE GIANT GESTURES NOT ONLY FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE COUNTRY BUT ALSO FOR WOMANKIND. 

When volunteering for the Bihar floods in 1920, Helen was summoned by Gandhi, who had heard about her selfless goodwill towards the unfortunate, to Safidat’s house. Impressed by her dedication to the cause, Gandhi invited her to Sabarmati Ashram, and it was there that Sabitri Devi was born. After her rechristening, she acted as a Congress leader looking after certain parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh like Patna, Danapur, Bakipur, Muzzafarpur, and Jharia coalfields and gained immense popularity among the netizens. The British were wary about this, as they staled her every move. With an anti-British stance and a nationalist spirit, she attended almost every event which tried to topple Britannia’s hold on India, and in this process, she is said to have come in close contact with eminent political personalities such as Sarojini Naidu, Jawaharlal Nehru, Moraji Desai and the like.

With the tricolour in hand, Sabitri had led a rally of labourers of Jharia in 1921 as a part of the Non-Cooperation Movement. She carried this spirit back home when having to tend to her mother, as she gathered volunteers to start a campaign against foreign goods in Siliguri. As bonfires were lit with these goods as their fodder, despite the section 144 imposed, the nationalistic fire in their hearts burned brighter leading to rallies, till they were taken into custody. An anti-government case was opened against her, leading to 3-month imprisonment and a further house arrest, till she met with Gandhi in 1925. Rumour has it, she aided Subash Chandra Bose to escape from India. With many titles and awards given to her during her lifetime, Sabitri Devi was revered for the brave woman she was.