Dehradun: Vimla Bahuguna (93), a veteran Gandhian and wife of eminent environmentalist Sunder Lal Bahuguna, who was said to be “the real inspiration” behind him, died early morning on February 14, 2025, in Dehradun.
A veteran ‘Sarvodaya’ worker, she celebrated the 98th birth anniversary of her husband, Sunder Lal Bahuguna, on January 9, 2025. She is survived by her daughter Madhuri Pathak, son in law B.C. Pathak and two sons, Rajeev Nayan Bahuguna and Pradeep Bahuguna, both journalists.
Vimla Bahuguna, a recipient of the Jamna Lal Bajaj Award for Development and Welfare of Women and Children in the year 1995, remained steadfast on her ideals and never wavered facing hardships in struggles that she participated in along with her husband.
Recalling his association with Vimla, Sunder Lal Bahuguna when alive before 2021, had said that belonging to a highly respectable family of Tehri, she went to study under the well-known Gandhian Sarla Behn at her Kausani Ashram.
Sarla Behn (born Catherine Mary Heilman; April 5, 1901 – July 8, 1982) was an English Gandhian social activist who, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, went to jail during the freedom struggle and later worked in the Kumaon region to help create awareness about environmental destruction in the Himalayan forests of the state till her death.
Vimla, her student, had come with her to Tehri to stage a play in support of the ‘Bhoodan Andolan’ (land donation) of Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Sunder Lal Bahuguna had said that he was conducting on stage and both, his father and Vimla’s father were in the audience. The elders of both the families decided to get them married but there was a big ‘no’ from Vimla. Since Sunder Lal Bahuguna at that time was also dabbling in Congress politics, Vimla put a condition that he would have to leave politics forever for social service, for which he finally agreed. Even Sarla Behn was reluctant on this marriage, but later agreed.
Sunder Lal Bahuguna and Vimla stayed at Silyara Ashram set up by Bahuguna as per the directions of Mahaama Gandhi for the uplift of the poor, downtrodden and Dalits and to protect the environment. Working for the ‘Sarvodya Andolan’, the couple plunged into environment protection following the reckless destruction of forests in the Himalayas. Sunder Lal Bahuguna died in 2021,
Vimla Bahuguna participated in the ‘Bhoodan Movement’ in Bihar in 1953- 55 where she came in contact with Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Jayaprakash Narayan and Dada Dharmadhikari, who were all impressed by her work. A constant companion and inspiration for Sunder Lal Bahuguna in his unrelenting struggles for environmental protection and Dalit uplift, Vimla also led the women of Garhwal Hills successfully in their fight against liquor.
She even had to go to jail once, along with her 6-year-old son. Vimla also persuaded and prevailed upon her old mother to join the campaign for prohibition. She inspired common village women to join the Chipko Movement and the prohibition campaign. Under her inspiration, thousands of women participated in the Tehri dam agitation in 1990 and 1990-91.
Vimla Bahuguna was awarded the Kheti Award by Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 1975 during International Women’s Year.
Adopting austerity and implementing Gandhian values throughout their lives was the hallmark of all the actions of the Bahuguna couple.
Vimla’s brother Vidya Sagar Nautiyal was an eminent Hindi writer and a communist party legislator from Devprayag in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. He was also elected the president of Banaras Hindu University Students’ Union in the sixties.
The writer is a freelancer based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Courtesy: Newsclick