Hansa Jivraj Mehta (3 July 1897 – 4 April 1995)[1] was a reformist, social activist, educator, independence activist, feminist and writer from
India.[2][3] She was one of only two women delegates working alongside
Eleanor Roosevelt in the UN
Human Rights Commission 1946-48 ensuring the wording "all human beings" instead of "all men" in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[4]
She graduated with Philosophy in 1918. She studied journalism and sociology in England. In 1918, she met
Sarojini Naidu and later
Mahatma Gandhi in 1922.[6][7]
She was expelled from the Nagar Brahmin caste for her marriage to Jivraj Mehta.[8]
Career
Politics, education and activism
Hansa Mehta organized the picketing of shops selling foreign clothes and liquor, and participated in other freedom movement activities in line with the advice of
Mahatma Gandhi. Later She established Desh Sevika Dal in 1930. She was even arrested and sent to jail by the
British along with her husband in 1932. she was elected to
Bombay Legislative Council.[2]
After independence, she was among the 15 women who were part of the
constituent assembly that drafted the
Indian Constitution.[9] She was a member of the Advisory Committee and Sub Committee on Fundamental Rights.[10] She advocated for equality and justice for women in India.[11][6][12]
Hansa was elected to Bombay Schools Committee in 1926 and became president of
All India Women's Conference in 1945–46. In her presidential address at the All India Women's Conference convention held in
Hyderabad, she proposed a Charter of Women's Rights. She held different posts in India from 1945 to 1960 - the vice-chancellor of
SNDT Women's University, member of All India Secondary Board of Education, president of Inter University Board of India and vice-chancellor of
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda,[7] among others.
She wrote several children's books in
Gujarati including Arunnu Adbhut Swapna (1934), Bablana Parakramo (1929), Balvartavali Part 1-2 (1926, 1929). She translated some books of ValmikiRamayana:
Aranyakanda,
Balakanda and
Sundarakanda. She translated many English stories, including Gulliver's Travels. She had also adapted some plays of
Shakespeare. Her essays were collected and published as Ketlak Lekho (1978).[2][7]
Post-war educational reconstruction: with special reference to women's education in India. (----) Bombay : Pratibha
OCLC48328021
The Woman under the Hindu Law of Marriage & Succession. (1944). p. 52, Bombay : Pratibha Publications.
OCLC752614477
Hansa, Mehta. (ed.) "Civil liberties". (1945). for the All-India Women's Conference, Aundh : Aundh Pub. Trust,
OCLC62614613
Indian woman. (1981). New Delhi : Butala
OCLC987877729(in English)
Translation
into English
King of Ujjainī; VIKRAMĀDITYA Haṃsā; Mehta, Hansa. The Adventures of King Vikrama. (Selections from Ṣāmala Bhaṭa's Gujarati version of Siṃhāsana-batrīsī. With plates.) (1948). Bombay : Oxford University Press, pp.vii, 150.
OCLC503783112
Mehta, Hansa; Shukla, V. K. Adventures of King Vikrama. (1954) London : Oxford Univ. Press,
OCLC551829319
Sarma, D.S.; Mehta, Hansa. The prince of Ayodhya. New Delhi : National Book Trust, India : Chief stockists in India, Thomson Press (India) (1974).
OCLC7609419(in English)
Une femme d'aujourd'hui: roman. (1966). Paris : Albin Michel.
OCLC58992586(in French)