Remembering Srilata Swaminathan

Veteran social activist Srilata Swaminathan breathed her last in Udaipur on 5 February 2017. She was 74. At various times she has been the president of the All India Progressive Women’s Association, the vice president of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions, and a member of the Central Council of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist).

Coming from a distinguished family of freedom fighters rooted in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, she chose to make Rajasthan, particularly the tribal areas of the state, the main area of her work, although she had also contributed to various struggles earlier in other parts of the country, including Delhi. She was also imprisoned during the Emergency and later contributed to the establishment of various civil liberties organisations.