Manikuntala Sen

She is best known for her Bengali-language memoir Shediner Kotha (published in English as In Search of Freedom: An Unfinished Journey),[1] in which she describes her experiences as a woman activist during some of the most turbulent times in India's history.

The family stopped wearing imported fabrics and patronised the Bangalakshmi Mills, owned and run by Indians and an icon of the nationalist movement.

Sen took up teaching at a girls' school where she met Shantisudha Ghosh, a member of the Jugantar party, whose circle read and shared the writings of Marx and Lenin.

Sen persuaded her family to allow her to go to Calcutta to complete her studies and, she secretly hoped, to make contact with the Communist Party.

The conservatism and narrowmindedness of the established families she sometimes encountered rather disgusted her, and she also writes with remarkable frankness for her time about the harassment that she and her friends often faced from men.

Living on a nominal party stipend, from 1942 Sen began to travel the country, staying in small villages and addressing the people.

She was elected to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from the Kalighat constituency in 1952, campaigned for the Hindu Code Bill and clashed with rightwing leaders such as Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.