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Renuka Ray (4 January 1904 – 11 April 1997) was a noted freedom-fighter, social activist and politician of India.

She was a descendant of Brahmo reformer, Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee, and daughter of Satish Chandra Mukherjee, an ICS officer, and Charulata Mukherjee, a social worker and member of the All India Women’s Conference. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1988.

Early life and education

She came in contact with Mahatma Gandhi at an early age of sixteen and was greatly influenced by him. She left college to answer Gandhiji's call for boycotting the British Indian educational system. However, later when her parents persuaded Gandhiji to ask her to go to London for further studies, she joined London School of Economics in 1921. She was married to Satyendra Nath Ray at an early age.

Her maternal grandparents were the most distinguished couple of their times. Maternal grandfather Prof. P K Roy was the first Indian to receive a D Phil from Oxford University and a member of the Indian Education Service and the first Indian Principal of the prestigious Presidency College, Calcutta. Maternal grandmother Sarala Roy was a well known social worker who worked for the emancipation of women. She was the founder of Gokhale Memorial School and College and the first Indian woman to be a member of the senate, Calcutta University. Sarala Roy was the daughter of renowned Brahmo reformer Durgamohan Das and sister of Lady Abala Bose and S R Das, the founder of prestigious Doon School and a cousin of Deshbandhu C R Das.

Career

On returning to India, she joined All India Women’s Conference and worked hard to champion women's rights and inheritance rights in parental property. In 1932 she became President of All India Women’s Conference. She was also its president for the years 1953–54.

In 1943 she was nominated to Central Legislative Assembly as a representative of women of India. She was also a member of Constituent Assembly of India in 1946–47.

She was appointed as Minister of Relief & Rehabilitation, West Bengal in the years 1952–57. She was also Lok Sabha member for the years 1957–1967 from Malda Lok Sabha constituency. In year 1959 she headed a committee on Social Welfare and Welfare of Backward Classes, which is popularly known as Renuka Ray Committee.

Among her siblings Subroto Mukherjee was the first air chief marshal of Indian Air Force who died in Tokyo and was married to Sharda Mukherjee (née' Pandit) a niece-in-law of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and Prashanta Mukherjee who was the chairperson of the Indian Railway Board and was married to Keshab Chandra Sen's granddaughter Violet. Her younger sister Nita Sen's daughter Geeti sen is a noted art historian and editor-inchief of IIC, Quarterly and married to renowned Bollywood film director Muzaffar Ali.

Works

She is author of the book My Reminiscences: Social Development During the Gandhian Era and After.

References

1. Women parliamentarians in India by CK Jain, Published for Lok Sabha Secretariat by Surjeet Publications, 1993
2. ^ Srivastava, Gouri (2006). Women Role Models: Some Eminent Women of Contemporary India By Gouri Srivastava. Concept Publishing Company. p. 37. ISBN 9788180693366.
3. "Padma Awards Directory (1954-2009)" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2013.
4. ^ "LIFE LIVED IN AN AGE OF EXTREMES". Archived from the original on 23 June 2006. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
5. ^ "RENUKA RAY (1904–1997)". Retrieved 22 June 2012.
6. Shukla, Kamla Shanker; Verma, B. M. (1993). Development of scheduled castes and administration by Kamla Shanker Shukla, B. M. Verma, Indian Institute of Public Administration. Uppal Publishing House. p. 29. ISBN 9788185565354.
7. Prasad, Rajeshwar (1982). Social administration: an analytical study of a state. pp. 47, 52, 53.

v t e Members of the 1st to 10th Lok Sabha from West Bengal
Zainal Abedin Basudeb Acharia Mamata Banerjee Anil Basu Chitta Basu Kamal Basu Joachim Baxla Nani Bhattacharya Renu Chakravartty Somnath Chatterjee A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury Sachindra Chaudhuri Tridib Chaudhuri Pratap Chandra Chunder Basanta Kumar Das Mono Mohan Das Biplab Dasgupta Khagendra Nath Dasgupta Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi Sushil Kumar Dhara Ram Chandra Dome Atulya Ghosh Ganesh Ghosh Nalini Ranjan Ghosh Sudhir Kumar Giri Phulrenu Guha Samar Guha Indrajit Gupta Kansari Halder Lutfal Haque Dinesh Chandra Joarder Humayun Kabir Sanat Kumar Mandal Abha Maiti Hannan Mollah Geeta Mukherjee Hirendranath Mukherjee Samar Mukherjee Ananda Gopal Mukhopadhyay Amar Roy Pradhan Debi Prasad Pal Rupchand Pal Ajit Kumar Panja Renuka Ray Siddhartha Shankar Ray Saugata Roy Satish Chandra Samanta Nikhilananda Sar Ashoke Kumar Sen Deben Sen Prafulla Chandra Sen Atish Chandra Sinha Chowdhury Abu Taleb Pius Tirkey Tarit Baran Topdar Golam Yazdani Mahboob Zahedi
11-14th LS members

• Gandhians
• Women Indian independence activists
• 1904 births
• 1997 deaths
• 20th-century Bengalis
• Members of the Constituent Assembly of India
• Members of the Central Legislative Assembly of India
• India MPs 1957–1962
• India MPs 1962–1967
• India MPs 1967–1970
• Indian independence activists from Bengal
• Alumni of the London School of Economics
• Indian activists
• Indian feminists
• Indian women activists
• Indian women's rights activists
• Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal
• Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in public affairs
• West Bengal MLAs 1951–1957
• English-language writers from India
• Bengali Hindus
• Das family of Telirbagh
• Lok Sabha members from West Bengal
• Women members of the Lok Sabha
• 20th-century Indian women politicians
• People from Malda district
• Hindu feminists
• Activists from West Bengal
• Indian social workers
• Indian writers
• Bengali writers
• 20th-century Indian women writers
• Indian autobiographers
• Indian historical novelists
• Indian novelists
• Indian women novelists
• 20th-century Indian novelists
• Indian non-fiction writers
• Indian women non-fiction writers
• 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers
• Indian political writers
• Women members of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly