Aruna Asaf Ali: The Woman Who Raised the Flag That Launched Quit India

Priya Khaitan
2 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Overview

Aruna Asaf Ali (1909–1996) hoisted the Congress flag at Bombay's Gowalia Tank Maidan on 9 August 1942, a symbolic act that launched the Quit India Movement — and later became Delhi's first Mayor and a posthumous Bharat Ratna recipient.

Timeline

1909 — Born Aruna Ganguly in Kalka, Punjab
1928 — Marries Asaf Ali, a Muslim Congress leader, in a notable inter-faith union
1932 — Arrested for hoisting the Congress flag during the Civil Disobedience Movement
1942 — Hoists the flag at Gowalia Tank Maidan; goes underground for years
1958 — Elected first Mayor of Delhi
1992 — Awarded the Padma Vibhushan
1996 — Dies on 29 July in New Delhi
1997 — Awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously

Early Life

Born Aruna Ganguly to a Bengali Brahmin family, she was educated at Sacred Heart Convent and All Saints' College before marrying Asaf Ali in 1928 — a marriage that itself defied convention and drew her directly into the freedom movement.

Achievements

Hoisted the Congress flag at Gowalia Tank Maidan, 9 August 1942, the symbolic launch of the Quit India Movement
Coordinated underground resistance networks and edited the underground publication Inquilab
Elected first Mayor of Delhi (1958)
Co-founded and edited the newspaper Patriot and the weekly Link
Awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize (1964), Padma Vibhushan (1992), and Bharat Ratna (1997, posthumous)

Challenges

With a warrant issued for her arrest after 1942, she spent years evading capture while coordinating resistance. She had earlier gone on hunger strike in Tihar Jail protesting conditions for political prisoners, a strike other women prisoners refused to end without her — forcing Gandhi to personally intervene.

Legacy

Aruna Asaf Ali remains one of the few Indian freedom fighters honored as both a revolutionary and a civic administrator — her life tracing an arc from a single act of defiance on a Bombay street to building the institutions of a new republic.

Her act at Gowalia Tank Maidan is widely regarded as the symbolic launch of the Quit India Movement, handing the torch from the Congress old guard to the underground resistance that would carry it forward.

Sources

Britannica: Aruna Asaf Ali; Wikipedia: Aruna Asaf Ali.

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