With many firsts to its credit, Mahila Samaja hits a glorious ton

 Mahila Samaja on Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road in Lakshmipuram, the first women’s club of Mysuru, is preparing to celebrate its centenary year.

With illustrious people from different walks of life as its members, the samaja has a glorious past and will commemorate its achievements in the centenary year.

The contribution of the samaja to the overall development of women in the city is immense. At a time when women’s education was still in its infancy stage, the samaja promoted training in languages like English and Hindi, music, sports, cultural activities and also cottage industries.

Humble beginning

Founded in a couple of classrooms, lent by then principal of the Maharani’s College K D Rukmaniamma in 1917, the club got its own building in 1932. For a while, in between, it conducted its activities from a rented house at the junction of Dewan’s Road and VV Road.

It was around this time when Rukmaniamma emerged as the first woman graduate of the erstwhile Mysuru state as most  women were still illiterate. Though Ammanniamma, the founder president of the samaja, was herself illiterate, she took the initiative to convince a few women in the neighbourhood to come out of their houses and unite for a cause, recalls Sulochana Narayanaswamy, granddaughter of Ammanniamma and secretary of the samaja. She was elected along with the present president S V Vimala on August 3, 1996.

Jaya connection

Ammanniamma was the wife of palace surgeon S Ranganna, who was also a colleague of N Rangachar, grandfather of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha. Of the total Rs 12,000 spent on the construction of the building of the samaja, Rangachar donated Rs 1,000, a princely sum then. An inscribed tablet in his memory is found in the building.

The foundation stone of the building was laid by princess Cheluvajammanni, sister of Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, on December 8, 1930. It was inaugurated on March 23, 1932 by Yuvarani Kempucheluvajamanni, mother of Jayachamaraja Wadiyar. Princess Leelavathi Devi, wife of K Basavaraje Urs and daughter of dewan M Kanthraj Urs, participated in the first-ever anniversary celebrations of the club in 1933.

Maharani Tripura Sundarammanni inaugurated the silver jubilee celebrations of the samaja in 1943 and also participated in the golden jubilee celebrations of the building in 1982.

Then Municipal Engineer Y Ramaswamy was instrumental in getting land, from the erstwhile City Improvement Trust Board (now MUDA), designing and constructing the building. Administrative and financial support was extended by the erstwhile royal family.

Sulochana said, tailoring is one vocation in which training is being imparted continously since the inception of the samaja. Besides, training is provided to women in cooking, yoga, fashion designing, arts and handicrafts and music. Children are also encouraged in arts and crafts, music and other cultural activities.

“As the samaja has a heritage of a century now, many people relate to it fondly on several occasions. Jayalalithaa’s mother Vedavalli, or Vedamma as she was referred to in Mysuru then, had served as secretary of the club. Late actor Vishnuvardhan, who grew up in a house on N S Road, near Jodi Aralikatte a couple of yards behind the samaja, used to visit and play cricket here,” she said.

“Now there are 130 life members of the samaja and at least 50% of them are senior citizens. Most of them are dependent on their children or grandchildren to even visit the samaja. There is a need to infuse young blood who, under the guidance of seniors, can take the activities of the samaja forward,” she said.

‘Samaja supplied socks, gloves to army’

S Ramamurthy, brother-in-law of Mahila Samaja secretary Sulochana Narayanaswamy, recalled how his mother and grandmother used to narrate stories of manufacturing socks and gloves in the samaja, to be sold to the British Army.

He recalls his childhood, when he saw charaks and German-made machines used to make knitwear under the staircase of his house. He said, “The samaja would train women from economically backward families and employ them to knit the ware to be supplied to the army. This earned the samaja a profit of Rs 1,600, which was donated to the army to be spent on wounded soldiers,” he said.