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{{Short description|Indian politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2021}}
{{more footnotes|date=January 2013}}
[[File:Nellie and Jatindra Mohan Sengupta 1985 stamp of India.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Nellie and Jatindra Mohan Sengupta on a 1985 stamp of India]]
'''Nellie Sengupta''' (née ''Edith Ellen Gray''; 12 January 1884– 23 October 1973) was an Englishwoman who fought for Indian Independence. She was elected president of the [[Indian National Congress]] at its 48th annual session at [[Calcutta]] in 1933.

==Family==
Born '''Edith Ellen Gray''', she was the daughter of Frederick and Edith Henrietta Gray.<ref name="nayar02">Sushila Nayar and [[Kamla Mankekar]] (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=2P8pAAAAYAAJ ''Women pioneers in India's renaissance, as I remember her: contributions from eminent women of present-day India'']. India: National Book Trust. p. 167. {{ISBN|9788123737669}}</ref> She was born and brought up in [[Cambridge]], where her father worked at a club. As a young girl, she fell in love with [[Jatindra Mohan Sengupta]], a young [[Bengali people|Bengali]] student at [[Downing College]] who lodged at her parental home. Despite parental opposition, she married Jatindra Mohan and returned to [[Calcutta]] with him. Nellie as she was known and Jatin had two sons Sishir and Anil.

==Non-Cooperation Movement==

On returning to [[India]], Nellie's husband Jatindra Mohan started a very successful career as a [[lawyer]] in Calcutta. In 1921 Jatindra Mohan joined the Indian freedom struggle and was [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s right-hand man in Bengal apart from being the Mayor of Calcutta for three terms and the head of the Legislative Assembly. Nellie joined her husband in participating in the [[Non-Cooperation Movement]] of 1921. After his imprisonment during the Assam-Bengal Railwaymen's strike, she forcefully protested against the District authorities imposition of a ban on assembly, addressed mass meetings and courted arrest. She defied the law by selling Khadi (hand-spun cloth) door to door. In 1931 she suffered four months' imprisonment at [[Delhi]] for addressing an unlawful assembly. Jatin was imprisoned in [[Ranchi]] and died in 1933.

==Congress president==
During the turmoil of the [[Salt Satyagraha]] many senior Congress leaders were imprisoned. Pandit [[Madan Mohan Malviya]] the President elect of the Congress was arrested before the Calcutta Session of 1933. Nellie Sengupta was elected in his place, thus becoming the third woman, and the second European-born woman to be elected. She was elected president by the party for her contribution to the party and the country.<ref name="INC_Nellie">{{cite web |title=Mrs. Nellie Sengupta, Past Presidents, Indian National Congress |url=https://www.inc.in/en/leadership/past-party-president/mrs-nellie-sengupta |website=Indian National Congress |access-date=4 December 2019}}</ref>

She was also elected as an [[Alderman]] to the [[Kolkata Municipal Corporation|Calcutta Corporation]] in 1933 and 1936.<ref name="INC_Nellie" /> She was also elected on a Congress ticket to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1940 and 1946. During the [[Second World War]] she drew attention to the misbehaviour of foreign troops.

==Post-independence==
After independence, she chose to live in [[East Pakistan]], in her husband's hometown of [[Chittagong]] on the specific request of the then Indian Prime Minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] who asked her to look after the interests of the Hindu minority in East Pakistan. She was elected unopposed{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} to the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly in 1954.<ref name=Banglapedia>{{cite book |author=Ahmad Mamtaz |year=2012 |chapter=Sengupta, Neli |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Sengupta,_Neli |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> She was a member of the Minority Board and remained an active social activist. When Bangladesh came into being in 1971 she continued to live on in Chittagong and was well cared for by the Bangladesh Prime Minister [[Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]]. In 1972 she broke her hip and through the intervention of [[Indira Gandhi]] she was brought to Calcutta where she was operated on and all medical expenses were paid for by the Indian government. She was accorded a tremendous welcome in Calcutta and honoured by both the government and the people for her contribution to both the Indian Freedom struggle along with her husband Deshapriya Jatindra Mohan Sengupta and her work for the minorities in [[Bangladesh]]. She died in Calcutta in 1973.

==Awards==
* [[Padma Vibhushan]], 1973<ref name=Banglapedia/>

==References==
{{Commons category|Nellie Sengupta}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Indian National Congress Presidents}}
{{Padma Vibhushan Awards}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sengupta, Nellie}}
[[Category:Presidents of the Indian National Congress]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in social work]]
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1973 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Social workers from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Social workers]]
[[Category:Indian people of English descent]]
[[Category:Women in West Bengal politics]]
[[Category:Women educators from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Educators from West Bengal]]
[[Category:19th-century British women]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian politicians]]

Nellie Sengupta - Revision history

imported>Ebbedlila: short description