Hansa Mehta

Others, um, turned to, uh, sort of, uh, more, uh, social service or developmental work, um, being very involved in what we would call sort of NGOs, which received, um, funding for kind of village-level development, uh, but often through the sort of national development blocks that the Nehruvian government was setting up.

Other women went into, like Hansa Mehta went into developing education or Rajkumari Amrit Kaur went into developing, um, aims and kind of medical, uh, infrastructure for the new state.

Um, so the kind of argument then sprang from what the material, the source materials provided, which was to show that this was a far more active and engaged period for this generation of women and for the Indian women's movement.

Um, and that, of course, then allowed me to make an intervention in the historiography and to say, "Well, you know, I think the historiography hasn't quite got it right, and this is an alternative picture which can be shown." Um, of course not to say that, um, you know, the aim is not to just sort of, um, unreservedly praise the contribution of this wom- these, this cohort.

They are debating with each other and losing their compatriots sometimes, and I want you to reflect on that.

But along with it, I want, uh, you to illuminate it using the idea of reservation.

Now, you write in your book that, um, Hansa Mehta has rejected reservations for women in the constituent assembly, uh, in the, in the debates, and you write that-

Mm-hmm