Rani Gaidinliu Biography: Rani Gaidinliu was a Manipuri freedom combatant and a political, social, and cultural activist. She was an active participant in India’s struggle for independence from British rule. She is recognized as Manipur’s first female liberation fighter.
Rani Gaidinliu was born on the 26th of January 1915 in the Longkao village of Manipur. She was the fifth child of Lothonang Pamei and Kachaklenliu among her six sisters and one brother. Manipur, like the rest of the country in the year she was born, was subject to British colonial authority.
At the age of 13 in 1927, her mind was tormented by the prevailing social and political conditions in the western highlands of Manipur under British rule. She met prominent local leader Haipou Jadonang at Puilon village during this time. In the same year, motivated by his ideologies and principles, Rani Gaidinliu launched a revolutionary movement against the British.
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Rani Gaidinliu and Freedom Movement
Rani Gaidinliu Biography: Historians commonly refer to the revolutionary movement of the western hills of Manipur as the Naga Raj movement, which gained tremendous momentum when 100 firearms were brought from Cachar, Assam, and a call was made to boycott British taxation and forced labor.
In 1931, while returning with Gaidinliu from ‘Bhubon Cave’ in Cachar, the British captured Haipou Jadonang. He was executed, after which Gaidinliu assumed leadership and challenged the British.
When the British government attempted to suppress her movement, she and her adherents went underground. Following a fierce gun conflict with the British army in Hangrum village in the North Cachar hills, the colonial rulers set fire to the large village.
Rani Gaidinliu was captured in Poliwa Village on October 17, 1932, after much pursuit, and sentenced to life in prison for conducting war against the British crown. At the time, she was only sixteen years old.
In 1937, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru met her in Shillong Jail and referred to her as the “daughter of the hills” before bestowing upon her the title “Rani Gaidinliu” or “Queen of her people.”
Rani Gaidinliu was released from Tura Jail on the instructions of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru following India’s independence in 1947. Prior to her release, she served fourteen years in numerous prisons in Guwahati, Aizawl, Tura, and Shillong, among others.
However, she was not permitted to return to her native village, so she remained in Vimrap village of Tuensang with her younger brother until 1952. In 1966, she organized a resistance movement against insurgents headed by the Naga National Council and was forced to go underground once more.
On the request of the Central Government and the State Governments of Nagaland and Manipur, she traveled to Kohima in 1966 and remained there until 1992. In addition, she conferred with Smt. Indira Gandhi in New Delhi to express her desire for a separate Zeliangrong Administrative Unit.
She also demanded that the Zeliangrong tribe be recognized in the three states of Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland. In 1980, in Tamenglong, Manipur, the Zeliangrong People’s Convention (ZPC) was established, and Rani Gaidinliu was unanimously elected as the organization’s president.
The organization then approached state ministers with their goal of gaining recognition for the tribe. Rani Gaidinliu returned to Longkao in 1991 and died at the age of 78 on 17 February 1993.
Rani Gaidinliu Awards and Honors
For her social effort, the Indian government awarded Rani Gaidinliu the prestigious Padma Bhushan award in 1981. In addition, she received the ‘Tamrapatra Freedom Fighter Award’ in 1972 and the ‘Vivekananda Seva Award’ in 1983. In her honor, the government also issued a commemorative postage.
She was also posthumously awarded the “Birsa Munda Award.” The Government of India established the Shree Shakti Puraskar in honor of five prominent women in Indian history, one of whom was Rani Gaidinliu.
