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K.P. Janaki Ammal

(1917 – 1992) – (Tamilnadu)

K. P. Janaki Ammal (Aged 75) a politician from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, was born in 1917. She represented Madurai East in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly in 1967. Janaki Ammal was the only child of Padmanabhan and Lakshmi, and her early life was spent in poverty. When she was eight years old, her mother died, and she was raised by her grandmother.

Janaki dropped out of school in the eighth grade to pursue music. She started working in Palaniappa Pillai Boys Company and earned a salary of Rs. 25 per month. Later, she became the lead actress in the company and earned over Rs. 300 per performance. She teamed up with S.S. Viswanathadas on stage to engage with the issue of caste-based untouchability. She eventually married a harmonium player from the troupe, Gurusamy Naidu.

Janaki Ammal was known as the first South Indian woman to be arrested by the British. She was first arrested in 1930 while performing in Tirunelveli and spent one year in jail. She was arrested for participating in anti-war propaganda in Trichy under the Defence of India Rules. She was one of the active political members of the Individual Satyagraha Movement. In 1936, she joined the Congress party and worked as an office bearer in the Madurai Congress Committee. She then shifted to the Congress Socialist Party before joining the Communist Party of India in 1940.

After the party’s split, she moved to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Janaki Ammal and Ponmalai Paapa Umanath were the founders of the Tamil Nadu Democratic Women’s Association in 1974, where the former became its first president.

During the Emergency, Janaki Ammal sold off her jewelry and silk clothes to raise money for food for party cadres. Repeated arrests and unending hard work took a toll on her health. She passed away on March 1, 1992.