MIDNIGHT'S DAUGHTERS

The freedom struggle was a turning point for women in India. It brought them out of their homes onto the streets, up in arms, shoulder-to-shoulder, against a foreign power. But not all of them are known; many have been forgotten or only appear as footnotes. THE WEEK brings you stories of women who made India what it is today

- MANDIRA NAYAR AND REKHA DIXIT

Search for Hansa Mehta, and a black-and-white image from May 1946 in New York jumps up. She sits at the edge of a plush sofa, the only woman not in a skirt. Her eyes downcast, Hansa fits the image of the traditional Indian woman, her sari draped neatly and her head covered—not the stereotype of a firebrand committed to fundamental rights, who made space for women to be equal and free. She changed the world, literally, with a word.

On the committee to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the newly founded United Nations, Hansa is credited with altering the charter to read: all ‘human beings’ are born free and equal. The original sentence said ‘men’ instead of human beings; the shift was revolutionary. Her insistence changed the vocabulary of rights forever. It is a memory that barely exists in India. If it does, it stays firmly in diplomatic circles.

“To me, it was one of the most remarkable contributions of India on the global stage,” said diplomat Syed Akbaruddin, who served as India’s permanent representative to the UN. “She took on at that stage the US and the French constitutions, because the original wording of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drawn from the French and the US that all men are equal. For a woman coming from a traditional outlook to make that forward-looking thought, to get it done and push it through, even getting Eleanor Roosevelt, who was the wife of the [former] US president, to approve it, is one of the greatest achievements by India on the world stage.”