Asian Descent > India Archives - Page 5 of 5

Adrian Piper

Piper’s distinctly confrontational ability to address pertinent topics around racial segregation and stereotyping have established her voice as one which is fearless, powerful, and hugely influential.

Radha Poonoosamy

Radha Poonoosamy was a Mauritian politician who served as the country’s first female cabinet minister and was a member of the executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC). She was also an activist, campaigning for women’s rights and against apartheid and anti-Indian discrimination in her home country of South Africa. She continued her activism after moving to Mauritius in 1952, and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1975. She was appointed the inaugural minister in charge of the newly formed Ministry of Women’s Affairs, a role in which she helped passed laws against gender discrimination.

Pritilata Waddedar

Pritilata Waddedar was a Bengali revolutionary nationalist who was influential in the Indian independence movement.She graduated from Bethune College in Kolkata with a degree in philosophy with distinction and became a teacher.
Pritilata joined a revolutionary group headed by Surya Sen and is known for leading 15 revolutionaries in the 1932 armed attack on the Pahartali European Club, during which one person was killed and 11 injured. The revolutionaries set the club on fire and were later caught by British police. To avoid arrest, Pritilata committed suicide by cyanide poisoning.

Begum Samru

Joanna Nobilis Sombre began her career as a Nautch (dancing) girl in 1700s India, and eventually became the ruler of Sardhana, a small principality near Meerut.

Shya Chitaley

Shyamala “Shya” Chitaley was an Indian-American paleobotanist. Her early 60-year career of teaching and research in both the United States and India including being the founder and first curator of the paleobotany department at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, winning the 2010 Botanical Society of America Award for Contributions to Paleobotany, and authoring approximately 150 publications.

Aparna Nancherla

Aparna Nancherla is an American comedian and actor who has appeared on Inside Amy Schumer and has written for Late Night with Seth Meyers and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Nancherla released her debut comedy album Just Putting It Out There through Tig Notaro’s Bentzen Ball Records on July 8, 2016. Her credits also include several web series, such as Your Main Thing with John Early. She co-created and starred in Womanhood, a satirical advice series with comedian Jo Firestone.
In 2019 Aparna was featured in Laughing Matters, a-30 minute YouTube documentary, in which various comedians discuss mental health.

Lakshmi Puri

Lakshmi Puri is a former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations and the former Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. Prior to her 15 years with the United Nations, she served as an Indian diplomat for 28 years, and was the India’s Ambassador to Hungary and accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based at the Ministry of External Affairs headquarters in Delhi, she served as the Under-Secretary for Japan and Korea, and later as Under-Secretary for Pakistan. She also served as the Joint-Secretary Economic Division and Multilateral Economic Relations (ED & MER) for six years, working on negotiating economic diplomacy initiatives such as the Look East Policy, Indo-ASEAN Dialogue Partnership, Indian-Ocean Rim Association, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation as well as Group of 15.
She joined the United Nations in 2002 as the Director of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) flagship Division on Trade in goods, services and commodities. After several years, she became Acting Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD (2007 to 2009). From 2009 to 2011, she was Director of the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.
In 2011, Puri was appointed Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, the pioneering global entity for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Lakshmi is a published author of several reports and research papers, and has received several awards, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, Novus Award for Championing the Sustainable Development Goals (Novus Summit), and the Millennium Campus Award (2015).

Jhalkaribai

Jhalkaribai was a soldier who served in the Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi’s women’s army and eventually rose to a position of a prominent advisor to the queen herself, including analysing and strategising battle tactics. At the height of the Siege of Jhansi during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, she disguised herself as the queen and fought on her behalf, at the front, allowing the Queen to escape.

Nawab Sikander Begum

Her Highness Nawab Sikander Begum Sahiba, Nawab Begum of Dar ul-Iqbal-i-Bhopal, GCSI ruled as the the Nawab of Bhopal from 1860 until her death in 1868. Initially appointed regent on behalf of her 9-year old daughter Shah Jahan Begum in 1844, she was recognized as nawab in 1860. She was made a Knight Grand Commander for her pro-British stance during the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. In 1863, she became the first Indian ruler to perform the Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj. Sikandar enacted many reforms in the state, including creating a mint, an administrative secretariat, a parliament and a modern judiciary.

Shahjahan Begum

Shah Jahan Begum GCSI CI was the Begum (ruler) of the princely state of Bhopal in central India for two periods: 1844–60 (with her mother acting as regent), and during 1868–1901. During her reign the first postage stamps of the Bhopal state were issued, in 1876 and 1878. She also published The Taj-ul Ikbal Tarikh Bhopal, Or, The History of Bhopal.