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She founded Gandhigram
Dr. T.S. Soundaram
On October 7 sixty years ago this year, Gandhigram was formally launched. Responsible for translating the Gandhian vision into reality was Dr. T.S. Soundaram, one of the first women in the South to campaign for the emancipation of women.
Soundaram was born the daughter of T.V. Sundaram Iyengar, who grew a local bus service into a model for public transport and goods movement and then laid the foundations for an industrial empire. She was married young. Happily, her husband, Dr. Soundararajan, encouraged her to study. But when he passed away when she was in her teens, it was her parents who urged her to continue with her studies. It was at Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi that she did her degree.
During her college days in Delhi, she became friends with Susheela Nayyar and through her met Gandhiji. She was immediately drawn to the freedom struggle, but she did not give up her studies. She was 32 years old in 1936 when she passed out as a doctor.
She then threw herself wholeheartedly into the freedom struggle and through Gandhiji met a Ramachandran who was active in the Harijan movement. They fell in love and decided to get married, but her parents were vehemently opposed to the alliance. Gandhi advised them not to keep in touch with each other for a year. After that separation, when they still felt the same way about each other, Gandhiji gave them his blessings and they got married in November 1940.
Dr. Soundaram and her husband were soon in the thick of the Quit India Movement, but as freedom neared Gandhi thought she would serve India better by not getting involved in politics. He made her the representative in South India of the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust and entrusted her with setting up an institution in a rural area that would improve the lot of the poorest of the poor. So was born the idea of Gandhigram, where villagers were taught skills and provided support to revive village industries and the economy of the rural community. Dr. Soundaram threw herself wholeheartedly into this project that focused on healthcare, education, economic development and social welfare in the rural communities in the surrounding area.
She was elected an MLA in 1952 and 1957, then an MP in 1962. With her move again to Delhi, she was appointed the Union Deputy Minister for Education. It was during her tenure as Deputy Minister that she introduced compulsory and free primary education throughout India. She also helped start the National Service Scheme (NSS), that still has a strong rural service element to it. A Padma Bhushan followed.
In 1976, the Gandhigram Rural Institute was deemed to be a University and is now one of the country’s leading institutions in rural studies.
S. MUTHIAH
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