Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya: A Life of Activism and Social Reform PDF

# KAMALADEVI CHATTOPADHYAYA Today the whole world knows, loves, and uses Indian handicrafts. Who was responsible for this? It was Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya. She travelled the length and breadth of India constantly trying to help some troupe of traditional dancers in Manipur, or going to some misera...

# KAMALADEVI CHATTOPADHYAYA Today the whole world knows, loves, and uses Indian handicrafts. Who was responsible for this? It was Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya. She travelled the length and breadth of India constantly trying to help some troupe of traditional dancers in Manipur, or going to some miserable village near Qutab Minar to help poor families make decorations for an honourable living. Rightly called "The High Priestess of Indian Culture," Kamaladevi, a legend of modern India, was a social rebel. The energetic fighter that she was, Kamaladevi was active upto her last days. Her lifelong affair with the fine arts, theatre, and culture started very early. For the sensitive Kamaladevi, the natural fusion of the seasons with festivals, and the festivals with Indian life appeared to be most significant. ## Childhood A truly remarkable personality who, perhaps, more than anyone in India deserves the label - "A Renaissance Person", Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya was born on April 3, 1903, in a Saraswat family of Mangalore. She was the fourth child born to Ananthiah Dhareshwar and his wife Girjabai. Only the eldest child, a girl, was living; two boys had died before Kamaladevi was born. It was an affluent household in which Kamaladevi grew up. Her father, a self-made man, had retired as Collector - a very important post at that time - and her mother came from one of the richest landed families of Karnataka. Though the immediate family itself was small, the large house was overflowing with dependents and poor boys, who were being educated by Kamaladevi's father at his own expense, as was common in those days. Girjabai, Kamaladevi's mother, was a woman of unusually strong views and firm convictions. She insisted on certain rules being followed. This, from the very beginning, brought Kamaladevi in conflict with her. As a child Kamaladevi had more than her normal share of will power and could never see why she should have to do certain things which her mother insisted upon, but which she did not feel like doing. Girjabai had made a rule that the children should be dressed in white so that any dirt would be immediately noticed. Then there was the routine of gargling with hot water after each meal, and washing one's feet thoroughly before going to bed. Kamaladevi, being a high-spirited child, found this very irksome. But when she was older, she followed this routine every night. Kamaladevi loved the outdoors. She would wander around in the huge grounds surrounding the house, playing with the servants' children and eating with them. The vast gardens surrounding the house, with their wealth of trees, shrubs, and undergrowth, were an enchanting world for an imaginative child. For Kamaladevi, they offered both a fairyland and a refuge from the constant conflicts at home. She especially loved the cowshed where she could pet the new-born calf and play with it. Towards all these pranks, Ananthiah, her father, was tolerant. He had a special way with children and was able to talk to them at their own level. He enjoyed Kamaladevi's acts of rebellion. Ananthiah, unlike Girjabai, never insisted that she should give up the study of nature and put her mind to her books. Studies she disliked, but she loved reading, which her mother had taught her at a very early age. ## Influences Then suddenly, the carefree years were over. For, Ananthiah fell ill and was soon gone. He left all his property to his son by a previous marriage. Girjabai was, naturally, very hurt and upset. She would repeatedly tell Kamaladevi that since inheritance was still not available to Hindu women, education was the answer to all their problems. Kamaladevi, shocked by what had happened, now turned seriously to her studies. Girjabai's mother used to live with them. She had a library of her own, and every evening scholars, mostly men from all walks of life, came to the house. Kamaladevi was hypnotized by the Sanskrit verses, and when the old lady was away from the room, she would sit in her chair holding the largest book she could find, pretending to read it. Slowly the idea of becoming a teacher came to her mind. She was greatly influenced by her grandmother's ability to sit quietly for hours, absorbed in a world of her own. This quality of stillness became hers for life. Girjabai read national papers like Kesari and Kal, which carried the message of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Many years later, when Kamaladevi visited the jail in Mandalay, Burma, now Myanmar, she remembered all that she had read about him. She was heart-broken when he died - on August 1, 1920 - just when Mahatma Gandhi planned to launch the Non-cooperation movement. Another person who left a deep impress on Kamaladevi was her mother Girjabai. Thanks to her, Kamaladevi knew no fear of darkness, ghosts or even gossiping tongues. She spent her time reading and avoiding idle chatter. She also inherited her mother's total disregard of convention. Things which were a must for others meant nothing to her. ## Marriage In 1920, Kamaladevi went to Madras with her sister and her mother. This visit was to change her whole life. She met Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, a poet and writer of great promise, a scion of a brilliant Bengali family, settled in Hyderabad. He saw Kamaladevi at a large public gathering and the same evening, he told the friend with whom he was staying that she was the girl whom he was going to marry. Kamaladevi took much longer to decide. She admired his works, but felt that he was unstable. Finally she agreed. The marriage, a most orthodox civil ceremony, took place with Girjabai insisting that Kamaladevi's education should continue even after the marriage. She was determined to make her daughter free through knowledge. But it did not work out that way. Harindranath went off to England three months later, and Kamaladevi returned to Mangalore. This was a fateful period in the life of the young girl, for here she met Margaret Cousins, known as Gretta, one of the band of British women who played a great part in educating Indian women in liberal ideas. She had a very strong influence on Kamaladevi. All Kamaladevi's yearnings to be of service to society, and especially to women, now began to take a concrete shape in her mind. Gretta made the trail of women's emancipation, and service to mankind. Love of books, music, poetry and painting also formed a bond between Kamaladevi and Gretta. Kamaladevi would often sing while Gretta played the piano. Thus it was that Kamaladevi learnt to sing the 'Jana Gana Mana' that Gretta learnt from poet Rabindranath Tagore himself. They had no idea that the song they both loved would one day be adopted as free India's national anthem. Soon after, Kamaladevi decided to join Harindranath in England. She looked forward to her studies again. She had never thought of herself as a career woman. Girjabai's and Gretta's influence had filled her with a deep desire to serve and be of benefit to the society. At Cambridge, a family friend advised her to do Sociology. What Kamaladevi wanted was to be equipped to serve her fellow beings in her country. So she joined the Bedford College, London, where Sociology was offered as a subject. She spent half the day in the classroom, and the other half in practical work in the poor East End of London. ## Theatre movement One love which Harindranath and his young wife shared equally was that of the theatre. While in England, they decided to start a theatre movement on their return to India. As soon as they were back, in 1918, Kamaladevi played a leading role in a comic skit called 'Returned from Abroad'. They met Gandhiji and under his inspiration, they both went to his ashram. Both did spinning regularly; Kamaladevi also learnt weaving. Gradually, their plan to start a nationwide theatre movement began to take shape. Harindranath wrote the plays and composed the music, Kamaladevi helped with the sets and the costumes. He played the hero, and she played the heroine. Kamaladevi said, "We felt the drama and the theatre were important social factors in life." The plays revolved around social problems such as the caste system and untouchability. In 1923, Kamaladevi's first and only child, Rama, was born. He was named after Ramakrishna Paramhansa, the great religious leader and reformer. Rama inherited a fine singing voice from his mother and a flair for acting from both parents. As soon as he was old enough, he went with his parents on their tours, playing child roles and singing. The group would have become a permanent organization but Harindranath went abroad again. When he came back, the 1930 struggle had started and they were plunged into politics. Kamaladevi joined the national struggle first as a volunteer. Later she became an organizer of women workers in the Indian National Congress. Finally she became a member of the Working Committee of the Congress. In 1928-29, Kamaladevi played a minor role in a film 'Vasantsena'. But she loved the theatre much more. She set up the Indian National Theatre in 1945 at Bombay. When, in 1946, the International Theatre Institute was set up by UNESCO with its headquarters in Paris, Kamaladevi organized the Indian unit later called the Bharatiya Natya Sangh. ## In politics Kamaladevi heard that Gandhiji was starting a Satyagraha Sabha (February 1919), members of which took a pledge to oppose and disobey the Rowlatt Act by which the Government could imprison anyone without trial and conviction in a court of law, and to court imprisonment. He was to be in Bombay on April 6, 1919, to launch the movement. It was here that she had her first glimpse of the great man and heard him speak. She enrolled as a humble volunteer for work at the Belgaum Congress in 1924, over which Gandhiji presided. She was very proud of the fact that her political life started with a broom and a basket. There were long marches, vigorous exercises and standing on guard over the camps at night. A few months later when she was in bed recovering from typhoid, she recorded her experiences as a volunteer. This was her first effort at serious writing, which gave her a lot of comfort. Kamaladevi began to give a lot of time to the Seva Dal. She joined the central training academy where physical culture was taught. In this were the old exercises like lathi, Danda, Bhala, sword and dagger play, Surya-namaskars and various yogasanas. No volunteer was paid. They were only provided food and clothing. The Seva Dal gave the Congress flag a national status and a regular ceremonial was worked out for hoisting and lowering it. Singing songs of the pride and glory of the flag became an integral part of the ceremony. In 1927 the Congress asked Kamaladevi to organize a volunteer corps in Madras. She now became a member of the party, and was elected to the All India Congress Committee in December 1928. She was also elected Secretary of the Indian Social Conference. Kamaladevi gave up the secretaryship after a year because her work was disrupted by the political happenings within the country as a preparation for the Civil Disobdience movement of 1930. For some time now Kamaladevi had made Pune her base. It was the centre of nationalistic activity. It was the home of great reformers like Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and M.G. Ranade who fought hard for improving the status of women. The Poona Seva Sadar was headed by Janakibai Bhat and Yamunabai Bhat, both quiet and highly disciplined women on whom Kamaladevi came to rely more and more. Her stay in Pune also brought her in contact with the Servants of India Society. She had heard of it as a young girl, of Gokhale and this organization he had set up to serve the country. Kamaladevi had never met Gokhale but had read his speeches and writings which her mother got from Pune. She was deeply impressed and got her first idea of service from this source - that while one lived one must serve one's fellow beings. The first important member of the society she met was V.S. Srinivasa Sastri. When he was touring the country, in 1923, talking about the plight of Indians in South Africa, he pressed her to speak with him. Naturally, Kamaladevi was very nervous. She was barely twenty, and apart from debates at school, she had never made any speech. When she did summon enough courage to address a meeting and saw the praise in the local papers ("She came, she spoke, she conquered" blazed the headlines the next day), Kamaladevi knew that she had the gift. ## Women's cause Pune was selected as the venue for the conference on the new educational policies in 1927 since at that time it was a very busy centre of women's education. Most of the activities came to be centred around the Seva Sadar whose leaders took on the everyday chores. Kamaladevi offered her services as a volunteer to do the humblest chores and took up her post at the railway station on night duty to meet the arriving delegates. She realized the importance of the occasion for, from this conference was born the All India Women's Conference which was to play a key role in the national affairs of the country, especially in the changing position of Indian women, for about thirty years. Here Kamaladevi met most of the women leaders of her time. As the conference drew to an end, Sarojini Naidu gave her the invitation from the general assembly to accept the General Secretaryship. Before she could protest and refuse, Sarojini Naidu was on her feet to deliver the vote of thanks. Kamaladevi was in a panic. She confided to Gretta her fear of disgracing herself in front of all the grand ladies. Kamaladevi took her secretaryship very seriously. She managed the office herself. In fact, she was the office. She took lessons in shorthand and taught herself typing. She did all the work, including the mailing of letters at the post office. She said, "I am very glad I did all that because it made me very self-reliant." For travel to various conferences, Kamaladevi persuaded the railway authorities to give a concession so that a double journey could be made on a single ticket which held good for the whole month. Freed from the burdens of home and children, the women enjoyed taking long trips on their own. Constant contact with women of low income groups made Kamaladevi aware of the kind of life they led. She took a keen interest in the problems of women workers. In Madurai, the big textile mill owners had put notices asking the workers to dissolve their union. Kamaladevi's speeches encouraged the women to refuse to do so and they dissuaded their husbands, in turn. She was the first organizer of trade unions in Mangalore district. The Women's Conference took up the problems of women labour. Kamaladevi conducted surveys in Bengal and Assam. In the 1930s, when India began to export cashewnuts, much attention was paid to the smooth surface of the kernel. To avoid chipping it, the workers, all of whom were women, were not permitted to use knives. This meant that they could only use their finger nails. Mangalore was a big cashew centre; Kamaladevi organized a strike in protest. It was successful and the knife was introduced. Kamaladevi's position as General Secretary had many unusual side effects. She became a frequent visitor to the Assembly building in New Delhi, now known as the Parliament House. Here she met noted personalities of the day such as Lala Lajpat Rai, Dewar Chunarlal, Tulsi Goswami, R.K. Shanmukham Chetti and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Once she went to Motilal Nehru with some literature to ask for his help. He replied, "Do you really expect us to take all this seriously from a slip of a girl like you?" Kamaladevi was struck dumb. She wished the floor would open and swallow her. But courageously she replied, "If you wish, I can bring many elderly, grey-haired women in my place." This first meeting resulted in an invitation to Anand Bhavan at Allahabad and Kamaladevi's friendship with the Nehru family. ## Impetus to tradition In 1929 Kamaladevi went to Europe to attend several international conferences. This European tour was for her, full of exciting events. In Berlin, Kamaladevi felt unhappy that while the other countries had their own flag, Indians were huddled under the British Union Jack. She complained to the organizers that the flag of her country was missing. They replied that they did not know that India had a flag. Kamaladevi insisted that India did have a flag and she would produce it for hoisting. The Indian delegates cut up bits of their saris to make up the colours of the Indian flag - white, green, and orange. After her tour of Europe, Kamaladevi came back with new and fresh ideas. Folk dances were encouraged in schools. It had become a tradition to have an exhibition of handicrafts produced by women and an entertainment programme by the delegates. Kamaladevi sought out dramatic forms and tried to encourage the troupes performing them. So also with crafts. In particular, she collected traditional textile designs, many of which she made into khadi. This put her on the path which, many years later, she could pick up and work into with quite spectacular results. The burning issue of the day in 1929 was the fight for 'Purna Swaraj' (complete freedom). Kamaladevi spoke at a gathering of five thousand people. At this time she was at the height of her beauty. Small built, with large, lustrous eyes, long, fine hair, small hands and feet, she was called the 'supremely romantic figure of the freedom struggle'. She wore a typical Maharashtrian saree, pearl ear-rings and a big bindi. The audience listened to her, spellbound. January 26, 1930, was the day for taking the pledge to work towards Independence. Azad maidan (open ground), on that afternoon, was a seething mass of people assembled in hundreds of thousands to take the pledge. All faces were turned towards the flagpole on which the beloved tricolour had been hoisted. Kamaladevi was very close to the pole when a small group with a red flag bearing the sickle and hammer made a dash for it and tried to put their flag next to the national flag. The red flag tore in the confusion and its bearers rushed to tear the tricolour in revenge. Conscious of nothing but the urgency of the immediate task, Kamaladevi threw her body against the flagpole and held it tightly with both hands, unmindful of the bruises on her hands from which the blood was soon trickling. The crowd was singing wildly around her and the flag when she heard a voice saying, "Bravo! Well done! She saved our flag from dishonour." A man gently wiped the blood from her hands. He was Chandra Bher Johri, who was the real founder of the Vanar Sena, the Monkey Army, consisting of children trained to carry messages and perform many other tasks that adults could not. As the Civil Disobedience movement gathered force, 'salt' suddenly became a powerful word. The country watched as Gandhiji launched the movement with his historic march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi on the Gujarat sea coast, a distance of about 200 miles, to break the salt laws on March 12, 1930. When preparations for the march were being made, it was suggested that women should be included among the volunteers. Kamaladevi met Gandhiji and requested him to allow some women to join the march. She said, "If women are allowed to join the march, it will give them a sense of responsibility and dedication." Sure enough, Kamaladevi and Anartikabai Gokhale were included in the first batch of law breakers. The salt was prepared and the next step was to sell it. Kamaladevi arrived at the Bombay Share Bazaar to sell the salt by auction. The first packet sold for Rs. 501. In half an hour she made Rs. 4,000. One day she twisted the tail of the British lion by selling the packets of salt within the High Court itself. A mass raid on the salt pans just outside Bombay was planned by Kamaladevi. Her task was to bring in large numbers of people. On the eve of the raid, June 1, 1930, Kamaladevi was arrested. Her representative was Rama, only seven years old, who proudly carried the banner. The magistrate before whom she appeared sentenced her to six months simple imprisonment. He said that she had been responsible for more people breaking the law than almost anybody else! There was unrest all over the country in 1930. The Satyagraha movement carried on along with more violent activity. After her release in 1931, Kamaladevi was put in charge of the Sewak Dal volunteers. She had to train women for a variety of jobs, from first-aid to fire-fighting to facing lathis and bullets. By this time the separation from her husband, Harindranath, had become final. Kamaladevi felt she could not carry on her fight for Independence if she was hindered at every step by his family. Around the time that Kamaladevi was in jail, Harindranath went to Aurobindo Ashram and stayed there for three years. Rama was in Mangalore. He passed around from his father to his maternal grandmother and then to his father's family; he was well-adjusted and enjoyed being wherever he was. Rama passed the High School examination in 1939. As there was a lull in the political movement, Kamaladevi took the opportunity to see him settled in a good college abroad. They visited the Scandinavian countries where cooperatives were strongly developed. Kamaladevi studied their working. Having crossed the Arctic Circle, Rama and she watched the midnight sun. They did some trekking and mountain climbing. Kamaladevi, meanwhile, was invited to tea at the White House with Mrs. Roosevelt. On January 12, 1941, The Bombay Chronicle carried a picture of a party given in Kamaladevi's honour in Hollywood. The general impression about India in the United States was that it was a land of yoga, snakes, and fortune-tellers. Once in New York, a young girl came up, stretched out her palm, and said, “Ma'am, please read my palm." ## Writings On her return to India, she wrote about her experiences in addition to many other works. Among them were America-The Land of Superlatives, Uncle Sam's Empire, Towards a National Theatre. Besides this, she began to organize a camp for the All India Women's Conference at Abrama, Surat. Kamaladevi was elected President of the Conference. It was 1942, and the country was going through momentous political events. For two years, Kamaladevi was put in prison, where she spent her days reading and writing. When she was released in 1944, she undertook an extensive tour of India. Many orphanages and homes, which had been set up during the Bengal famine in 1942-43, had been neglected. Now Kamaladevi, with the slogan "Save the Children", made these her special concern, and started institutions where children were looked after and also given some education. She was responsible for young people getting scholarships for training in care and education of children. Next, finding that no proper medical facilities existed outside Bombay city, Kamaladevi hit up on the idea of mobile health vans. She also mooted the idea of hostels for working girls. To this Kamaladevi gave her full attention and working girls' hostels were set up not only in the big cities but in district towns as well. Her contribution in this field has been recognized by naming the All India Women's Conference hostel in Delhi after her. In 1946, Kamaladevi was made a member of the prestigious Congress Working Committee. But she refused to sit in the Assembly. She had no interest in politics as such. Her involvement in it had been for a cause - that of freedom - and once achieved she was not going to let anyone persuade her to stay with it. As she wrote in an article, 'Reflections After Sixty' in the Bharat Jyoti of January 23, 1966, "When India was freed, I personally was freed. I left the highway of politics to step into the side-lane of constructive work, with the artisans, the artists, those who create and produce things of beauty." Many important posts were offered to Kamaladevi. She refused a Cabinet post, and later Ambassadorship to Moscow and Cairo. Now that she was free, she could use her freedom to do things which were after her own heart. The grandeur and pagentry of the ceremony of transfer of power from Britain to India at one minute past midnight on August 15, 1947, was a great joy to every Indian. But with the partition of India and Pakistan, millions had to flee from their homes. Kitchens and hospitals were set up for their immediate need. Kamaladevi alone thought of the future of these people. She visited Kingsway Camp everyday, asking, "What is being done to help these people put down roots?" It was the month of September 1947. Kamaladevi watched with tears in her eyes the thousands of poor people pouring into the Capital. Then the idea struck her, "Could not all those scattered from their perches like leaves by a high wind come together, pool their talents and gifts, and make a new life for themselves?" The answer, to her, was co-operation. She wrote: "From childhood, I had longed to create something new. I had played with crayons and paints, with clay and wood; written hymns and songs; designed and made little things; above all, I had dreamed of a great drama and to act in it. Here was what I had waited for all my life - a vast canvas, human clay, and the stage provided by life itself." ## Handicrafts Today, the Indian Co-operative Union has 25 agricultural societies attached to it, with a membership of 1,500 families! Another first to Kamaladevi's credit, which has often been copied, was the integrated credit system. Loans were made to farmers and they were given expert advice. Kamaladevi insisted that vegetables, fruits, and flowers be grown along with agricultural crops and dairy and poultry development. The women had Kamaladevi's special attention and she organized a number of women's co-operatives which covered everything from making garments, processing foodstuffs and spices; making pickles, chutneys and paper; embroidery and toy-making. She brought the weavers together, arranged credit and other facilities for them and organized handloom co-operatives. She received the Ramon Magasaysay International Award for community leadership in 1966. The All India Handicrafts Board came into being in 1952. Kamaladevi, who had given many designs for making khadi attractive and had fallen into the habit of collecting handicrafts from every place she visited, was the obvious choice for Chairman. She took over the Cottage Emporium, and it became the most exciting handicrafts shop in the Capital. Kamaladevi felt that these handicrafts helped India to progress. She set out to identify the crafts. This again involved endless travel - this time to small villages, unexplored corners of the country. No place was too remote and no craftsman too humble for her to visit. Once Kamaladevi wished to visit a woman in Chamba, who was famous for her embroidery. "But you cannot go there. It is a dirty and poor locality," the officials told her. Nevertheless she went to meet the talented woman, who cried with gratitude. Kamaladevi recommended her for an award and the next year the lady stood up in the midst of a large gathering to receive her prize. In Paithan, famous for its beautiful sarees, Kamaladevi found only a few weavers. She collected them into a group, and brought their work to Delhi. In Kashmir, the craftsmen called her "Hastakala Ma" (Handicrafts Mother), and showed her their best work. She also helped revive the lovely weaves of Balucher and Tanchoi, as well as the rich, heavy Jamawar shawls of Kashmir. Once the crafts and craftsmen had been located, the next step was to preserve and develop the craft. Exhibitions were held in India and abroad. Design centres were set up in areas famous for their crafts, and traditional designs were collected. Kamaladevi, a great lover of music, and a musician herself, was very unhappy at the poor appearance and tone of Indian musical instruments. She set up a centre for their manufacture on genuine traditional lines in Madras. Centres for puppetry, and Kalamkari paintings were set up. In 1962, as Chairman of the Handicrafts Board, Kamaladevi toured the North East Frontier Agency (Arunachal Pradesh) and Nagaland, again the first Indian woman to do so. She was motivated by wanting to do something for the tribal people. All this exposed the great wealth of crafts in the country, making handicrafts the single largest industry providing employment to over a million people. Kamaladevi's greatest effort was towards raising the status of craftsmen. She felt that they were artists. When she received the fellowship of the Sangeet Natak Akademi she felt that thanks should be given to the artisans. ## Awards She started national awards for craftsmen. Every year since then, they come to Delhi to receive awards from the President of India. In 1956, she toured West Africa to study their crafts. When the Negro Arts Festival was held in 1967, in Dakar, Senegal, she was invited as a guest of the President. In 1964, the World Crafts Council was being set up, with its headquarters in New York. Kamaladevi was asked to bring in the Asian countries as participants. She was made the Vice-President of the Council. Kamaladevi represented India at many international conferences. She was the Indian Government's delegate to UNESCO and the Human Rights Commission. In between all this, she found time to send two baby elephants to the children of Los Angeles, U.S.A., and Australia. They were presented on behalf of the Bharatiya Natya Sangh. One elephant was called Geeta, and the other Kamala, after its donor. Now awards came to Kamaladevi thick and fast. In 1962 she received the Watumull Foundation Award instituted in Honolulu, Hawaii, for service in social and economic fields. The President of Czechoslovakia awarded her the country's gold medal for promoting International Understanding. The Vishvabharati University honoured her with its Desikottama degree. She was so modest that when in 1966 she heard that the Magasaysay Award was to be given to her, she was very surprised. "There must be some mistake," she said. "It is given only to great people." Kamaladevi's life covered more than half a century of the most exciting period of Indian history and her activities have ranged from politics, through theatre, women's rights and crafts to co-operation. The freedom struggle brought women out of their homes, and en masse to take part in the epic battle underway. This did not happen naturally, but was the result of great effort on the part of social reformers and trend-setters like Kamaladevi. Kamaladevi had been a lonely child. She grew up into a shy, retiring girl who hated facing crowds and even asking her way around. Fate willed otherwise. She carried her ideal of service to the craftsmen and their crafts to the point of gifting all her immovable property and the major part of the cash that came with the Magasaysay Award to the Srinivas Malliah Trust for Theatre Crafts. Her constant travels kept her in touch with the latest world trends in the realm of theatre, design and crafts. She worked closely with young people, not only guiding them but, as she says, "Learning from them. It is not a one-way traffic." In a very touching radio talk entitled 'Ah, if I were 21 again', Kamaladevi gave a glimpse of all that she missed in life. She said, "...but if I were 21, starting life, I would hold the little things to my bosom, and let the big things go by. I would keep loads of time for reading and writing, spend time with my son, have lots and lots of music; play and sing and dream music." She married Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, whose musical and histrionic talents were matched only by his poetic idealism. They married for "sharing of dreams and ambitions" and to devote themselves to create a new theatre in India. A leading spirit behind India's cultural renascence, she worked hard throughout her life to make the crafts of India famous. Travelling to nooks and corners of Indian villages, she personally contacted the crafts-persons, gave them new patterns and ideas on how to mix tradition with modern trends. Kamaladevi died in Bombay on October 29, 1988, at the Breach Candy Hospital where she was admitted after she felt unwell at the Shilpi Utsav, an All India Exhibition of Handicrafts. She was eighty-five.