Madeleine Slade (22 November 1892 – 20 July 1982), also known as Mirabehn or Meera Behn, was a British supporter of the Indian Independence Movement who in the 1920s left her home in England to live and work with Mahatma Gandhi.

was an officer in the Royal Navy who was posted in Mirabehn's early years as the Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Squadron, later becoming director of the Naval Intelligence Division.

[1] She spent much of her childhood with her maternal grandfather who owned a large country estate, and was from an early age a nature and animal lover,[2] having developed a love for horses, and for riding them.

Rather than embarking for India right away, Mirabehn decided to prepare herself for the change by studying material on the Sabarmarti Ashram, sitting cross-legged, and adopting a vegetarian diet.

[3] She then continued training herself for all the demands of an ascetic's life in India, giving up all wine, beer, and spirits, eliminating meat from her diet, and learning to spin and weave wool.

Declining to spend the day sightseeing, she set off to Ahmedabad,[3] where she was received by Mahadev Desai, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Swami Anand on 7 November 1925.

[7] Mirabehn had hopes that Gandhi would take her with him after the Jubilee Celebration at Gurukul Kangri, but to her dismay he sent her to Bhagwadbhakti Ashram of Rewari for a better learning experience.

[3] After returning to Sabarmati, she decided to become a celibate, began wearing a white sari, and cut her hair short.

[6] In September 1928, Gandhi asked her to travel through North, South, and East India alone with the hope of her gaining experience to start a training center for spinning and weaving in Sabarmati.

[3][5] Mirabehn also took an active interest in the establishment of the Sevagram Ashram, and worked among the people of Orissa to non-violently resist a potential Japanese invasion in the beginning of 1942.

She then moved to Pashulok in 1946, at the request of Govind Ballabh Pant, who wanted to involve her in agriculture extension programs.

[3] Despite living in an ashram, she maintained correspondence with Gandhi through 1947, and spent three months with him in Delhi after she fell ill towards the end of the year.

[3] Throughout her life, she was a witness to the Simla Conference, Cabinet Mission, Interim Government, Constituent Assembly, Partition of India, and assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

In the 1980s, these areas witnessed a large Gandhian environmental campaign to save the forests called the Chipko Movement.

Nonetheless, she continued to voluntarily live a simple life, eating only natural foods and abstaining from using labor saving devices.