As the country is celebrating the 75 years of the Independence, Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport, Agartala recalls the contribution of Bhikaiji Rustom Cama, also known as Madam Cama. She was the first persons to hoist the first version of flag of independent India in Germany.
“Bhikaiji Rustom Cama was one of the prominent figures in the Indian independence movement. She was the first person to hoist the Indian flag in foreign land. On her death anniversary on 13th August, MBB Airport remembered her contribution in Indian freedom struggle. Jai Hind!”, a Tweet by MBB Airport read.
According to Britannica, Madam Cama was born on September 24, 1861 in Bombay (Now Mumbai) and died on August 13, 1936 – at the age of 74 years.
She had the unique distinction of unfurling the first version of the Indian national flag—a tricolour of green, saffron, and red stripes—at the International Socialist Congress held at Stuttgart, Germany, in 1907.
Madam Cama was drawn toward political issues at an early age. In 1885 she married Rustomji Cama, a well-known lawyer. Cama had to leave India for London due to her poor health and other family issues.
According to Britannica, During her stay there, she met Dadabhai Naoroji, a strong critic of British economic policy in India, and began working for the Indian National Congress. Cama also came in contact with other Indian nationalists, including Vir Savarkar, Lala Har Dayal, and Shyamji Krishnavarma, and addressed several meetings in London’s Hyde Park.
Details collected from Wikipedia read, Cama remained in exile in Europe until 1935, when, gravely ill and paralyzed by a stroke that she had suffered earlier that year, she petitioned the British government through Sir Cowasji Jehangir to be allowed to return home.
Writing from Paris on 24 June 1935, she acceded to the requirement that she renounce “seditionist activities”. Accompanied by Jehangir, she arrived in Bombay in November 1935 and died nine months later, aged 74, at Parsi General Hospital on 13 August 1936.
