A RARE photograph discovered in the Women’s Library archives at the London School of Economics has highlighted the significant, but often unrecognised, role undertaken by Indian women in the suffrage movement.
The photograph, taken by Muriel Darton of a Church League for Women’s Suffrage meeting in Brighton in 1913, shows two Indian women in the group.
Further research revealed one of the women to be Dr Susila Anita (Susie) Bonnerjee, who was secretary of the Ealing branch of the Church League for Women’s Suffrage.
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The other woman is thought to either be her sister Nellie (Nalini) Blair or possibly a sister-in-law, Amiya (Kitty), who visited Susila in 1912-13.
Discovered by Clare Wichbold, a research volunteer at Hereford Cathedral, the photograph is important as very few images exist of Indian women in the suffrage movement.
Clare contacted historian Dr Sumita Mukherjee, of Bristol University, to help identify the women.
Dr Mukherjee said: “Britain was very racially and ethnically diverse in the 1910s, but very few women of colour were encouraged to join the British suffrage movement.”
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