Kamaladevi’s Vision of Handicraft Cooperatives: a Personal Narrative

Abstract

I write this memoir on the occasion of a celebration to commemorate the life of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, freedom fighter and visionary, for whom no hurdles were insurmountable. Kamaladeviji took upon herself many challenges, the task of rehabilitating refugees after the Partition of India being one of them. She overcame the turmoil of post-Partition to bring to life her vision of revitalising the crafts and looms of India in the spirit of cooperatives. She wanted to ensure that the refugees, for what they had gone through, lived with dignity and with self-esteem, not on charity.