Our 'Independent Woman' : Aruna Asaf Ali

During Independence Day week we bring you the women who led the fight to free India. Aruna Asaf Ali was born Aruna Ganguly in an orthodox Hindu Bengali family, but broke many boundaries. She chose to go to college, work, marry outside her community, and become the frontforce for the Congress during the Independence Movement.

She married Asaf Ali and joined the freedom struggle along with him. Aruna was part of the Salt Satyagraha in 1930, she address rallies, she went to jail for being tagged as a 'vagrant' by the British. She is widely remembered for hoisting the Indian National Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India Movement, 1942 which many claim was the start of the wave of India's march to freedom.