Women and India

Part 2

Women Rulers in India:

India for all its patriarchal society, India has had multiple women rulers in the country throughout history.
Even in Puranas we have strong female rulers who were known as wise and bold such as Draupadi and Sita etc.

Chandragupta I, founder of the Gupta Empire, ruled the kingdom jointly with his queen Kumara Devi.
Prabhavatigupta was the daughter of Chandra Gupta II of the Gupta Empire and the wife of Rudrasena II of the Vakataka dynasty, and performed administrative duties in her kingdom.
In the 2nd century BCE, Queen Nayanika (or Naganika) was the ruler and military commander of the Satavahana Empire.

Rudrama Devi was a monarch of the Kakatiya dynasty in the Deccan Plateau with capital at Warangal of present-day Telangana from 1263 until her death.
The Gond Rani Durgavati (1524–1564) ruled for fifteen years before losing her life in a battle with Mughal emperor Akbar’s General Asaf Khan in 1564.
Chand Bibi defended Ahmednagar against the powerful Mughal forces of Akbar in the 1590s.
Jehangir’s wife Nur Jehan effectively wielded imperial power, and was recognised as the real power behind the Mughal throne.
Raziya Sultana was the daughter of Mamluk Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish who ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1236 to 20 April 1240.

Velu Nachiyar, a queen of Sivaganga estate, was one of the earliest Indian queens to fight against the British colonial power in India.
Kittur Chennamma was the Rani of Kittur, who led an armed force against the British East India Company in 1824 in defiance of the doctrine of lapse.
Rani Lakshmi Bai, the Queen of Jhansi, led the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British in defiance of the doctrine of lapse.
Begum Hazrat Mahal, the co-ruler of Awadh, was another ruler who led the revolt of 1857 who refused deals with the British and later retreated to Nepal.

Indira Gandhi who was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966.
She also holds the distinction for being the first and, to date, only female prime minister of India.
Pratibha Patil served as the 12th and first female President of India spanning from 2007 to 2012.
Droupadi Murmu who is serving as the 15th president of India since 25 July 2022.
She is the first person belonging to the tribal community and also the second woman after Pratibha Patil to hold the office.