Chandraprabha Saikiani  Chandraprabha Saikiani (16 March 1901 – 16 March 1972) or Chandraprava Saikiani was an Assamese freedom fighter, activist, writer and social reformer considered to be the pioneer of the feminist movement in Assam. She was the founder of "The All Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti", a non governmental organization working for the welfare of the women of Assam and was a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri for the year 1972 from the Government of India. Three decades later, the Indian government issued a commemorative stamp on Saikiani under the series, "Social Reformers", in 2002. She also took proactive role in the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1932 and Non Cooperation Movement of 1942–43. Contesting elections for the Legislative Assembly, she became the first woman to foray in politics in Independent India. Saikiani was also a noted poet and prolific writer. She was born as "Chandrapriya Mazumdar" (Chandrapriya Das) on 16 March 1901 to Ratiram Mazumdar (a village headman) and Gangapriya Mazumdar at Doisingari village of the Kamrup district in the Northeast Indian state of Assam. She was the seventh of eleven children and choose the name "Chandraprabha Saikiani" for herself. Accompanied by her sister Rajaniprabha Saikiani (who later on became the first woman doctor of Assam), they waded through waist deep mud to attend a boys school (there was no girl's school) several kilometers away. Their endeavour impressed Nilkanta Barua, a school sub-inspector, and she was awarded a scholarship to the Nagao Mission School. At Nagao Mission School, she protested against the school authorities who did not allow a girl to stay at hostel after rejecting a proposal to convert to Christianity. She finally saw the result of her protest: the authorities admitted induct the girl into the hostel. After school, she gathered local illiterate girls and taught them what she learnt at school at a makeshift shed near the school. Her social activism started here when she protested against the allegedly discriminatory treatment meted out to Hindu students by the hostel superintendent. She refused to honour her parents' commitment to marry her off to an elderly person and got engaged to Dandinath Kalita, an Assamese writer. The relationship resulted in Saikiani becoming a mother out of marriage and she remained a spinster for life after Kalita married another woman.