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Subhadra Kumari Chauhan सुभद्रा कुमारी चौहान
Born	1904 Nihalpur Village, Allahabad District, Uttar Pradesh, British India
Died	February 15, 1948 (aged-43/44)
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Indian

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan (1904- February 15, 1948) was an Indian poetess famous for her emotionally charged Hindi songs. She was born in Nihalpur village in Allahabad District of present-day Uttar Pradesh. Subhadra Kumari initially studied in the Crosthwaite Girls’ School in Allahabad and passed the middle-school examination in 1919. After her marriage to Thakur Lakshman Singh Chauhan of Khandwa in the same year, she moved to Jabalpur. She joined the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921 and was the first woman Satyagrahi to court arrest in Nagpur. She was jailed twice for her involvement in protests against the British rule in 1923 and 1942. She has authored a number of popular works in Hindi poetry. Her most famous composition is Jhansi Ki Rani (poem), an emotionally charged poem describing the life of Rani Lakshmi Bai. The poem is one of the most recited and sung poems in Hindi literature. This and her other poems, Veeron Ka Kaisa Ho Basant, Rakhi Ki Chunauti and Vida, openly talk about the freedom movement. They are said to have inspired great numbers of Indian youth to participate in the Indian Freedom Movement. Here is the opening stanza of Jhansi ki Rani:

Original Hindi text
[[सिंहासन हिल उठे राजवंशों ने भृकुटी तानी थी,
बूढ़े भारत में आई फिर से नयी जवानी थी,
गुमी हुई आज़ादी की कीमत सबने पहचानी थी,
दूर फिरंगी को करने की सबने मन में ठानी थी।
चमक उठी सन सत्तावन में, वह तलवार पुरानी थी,
बुंदेले हरबोलों के मुँह हमने सुनी कहानी थी,
खूब लड़ी मर्दानी वह तो झाँसी वाली रानी थी।।

]]|- Roman transliteration using ITRANS
siMhAsan hila uThe, rAjavaMshao.n ne bhRikuTI tAnI thI,
boo.Dhe bhArat me.n aa-I, phir se nayI jawAnI thI,
gumI hu-I AzAdI kI, kImat sabane pahachAnI thI,
door phirangI ko karane kI sabane man me.n ThAnI thI.
chamak uThI san sattawan me.n, wah talwAr purAnI thI,
bundele harabolo.n ke mu.nh hamane sunI kahAnI thI,
khoob la.Di mardAnI wah to jhA.nsI wAlI rAnI thI.

English translation
The thrones shook and royalties scowled
Old India was re-invigorated with new youth
People realised the value of lost freedom
Everybody was determined to throw the foreigners out
The old sword glistened again in 1857
This story we heard from the mouths of Bundel bards
Like a man she fought, she was the Queen of Jhansi

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan wrote in the Khariboli dialect of Hindi, in a simple, clear style. Apart from heroic poems, she also wrote poems for children. She wrote some short stories based on the life of the middle class too. She died in 1948 in a car accident. An Indian Coast Guard ship has been named after her. [1]

External links

• Subhadra Kumari Chauhan at Kavita Kosh
• Subhadra Kumari Chauhan on Wikisource
• Another brief biography
• Short note and recitation of the poem Jhansi Ki Rani
• Nalini Natarajan, Emmanuel Sampath Nelson (1996). Handbook of Twentieth-century Literatures of India. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313287783. http://books.google.com/books?id=vfSPI2irzUgC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=subhadra+kumari+chauhan&source=web&ots=gIEswPt640&sig=qA4sdurkWJYNDj48iRirZaQbiVg.   by Natarajan, N.

Notable Hindi Writers Rambriksh Benipuri · Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Ajneya' · Rahul Sankrityayan · Harivansh Rai Bachchan · Dharamvir Bharati · Subhadra Kumari Chauhan · Makhanlal Chaturvedi · Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' · Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi · Dushyant Kumar · Hazari Prasad Dwivedi · Maithili Sharan Gupt · Acharya Kuber Nath Rai · Bharatendu Harishchandra · Kamleshwar · Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh · Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala' · Sumitranandan Pant · Jaishankar Prasad · Munshi Premchand · Mohan Rakesh · Nagarjun · Phanishwar Nath 'Renu' · Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan · Acharya Shivpujan Sahay · Bhisham Sahni · Shivani · Krishna Sobti · Shivmangal Singh Suman · Mahadevi Varma · Pandit Nalin Vilochan Sharma · Nirmal Verma · Maitreyi Pushpa