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To mark the 75th Independence Day, here is the story and struggle of an extraordinary forgotten woman freedom fighter, Umabai Kundapur , who was born as Bhavani Golikeri and Jungabai in Mangalore in 1892. She was married to Sanjiv Rao Kundapur at a young age of 13. She breathed her last in 1992.
Umabai Kundapur was known to be a fearless leader who educated many young girls and also became the leader of the women's wing of the Hindustani Seva Dal. she kept on fighting and decided to keep her house as a shelter for women freedom fighters.
She selflessly served the people day and night, but always preferred to maintain a low profile. She refused the honours and offers that came her way, even after the country attained Independence.
After witnessing the historic funeral procession of Lokmanya Tilak in 1920, Umabai joined the freedom movement. She became a relentless crusader of Swadeshi and began to wear Khadi.
But soon misfortune struck the young Umabai and her husband succumbed to tuberculosis. To console the grief-stricken Umabai, her father-in-law took her to Hubli. He started Karnataka Press and involved her in running it. Soon she was also made in-charge of "Tilak Kanya Shala", a school for girl children.
She used to motivate the women to join social service. This was not an easy task in those times, but Umabai was persistent in her efforts and its results were visible in the historic Belgaum Congress Session in 1924.
She toured the entire state and mobilized more than 150 women volunteers for the session. They in turn motivated thousands of women to come out of their houses and join the movement.
In 1932, she was imprisoned in Yerwada jail. During the 1942 Quit India movement, she helped many underground workers with food and money, unmindful of the risk it posed to her.
Gandhiji in the year 1946 appointed Umabai as the head of Kasturba Trust. It was a challenging task to run the trust, especially when there were hardly any resources available. So, she decided to go from door-to-door to collect donations.