Learn About Rajkumari Amrit Kaur

Born on 2 February 1887, Kaur was a princess of the Kapurthala State in north‐central India. She was the youngest child and only daughter of Raja Sir Harnam Singh and Priscilla Golaknath.

Like many other aristocratic Indian children, she would be sent to England for schooling. She studied at the Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset, before heading to Oxford University to finish her education. 

Kaur excelled at academic and physical feats – she was head girl and captain of the hockey, cricket and lacrosse teams at Sherborne, while at Oxford she won prizes for her performances on the tennis court. 

On her return to India, Kaur became drawn to the Indian independence movement. Her father had been closely associated with the Indian National Congress – a political movement and party that sought independence from British colonialism – so she was familiar with the cause early on. 

Then, when the British committed the brutal Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919, where many hundreds of peaceful protestors were shot dead, Kaur threw herself wholeheartedly into the struggle for independence.

An inspiration at the time was Mahatma Gandhi, whose ideas on civil rights and nonviolent opposition showed her a way forward for the independence movement. Like Gandhi, she would live an ascetic life – giving up the privileges she had inherited from her aristocratic background.

During the years before she was elected to parliament, Kaur became a devoted campaigner for social reform. She strongly opposed child marriage, as well as the practise of purdah – the form of female seclusion prevalent in some Hindu and Muslim communities. 

Kaur also campaigned to abolish the devadasi system in India, in which a female artist would dedicate herself entirely to a deity or a temple.

In 1927, Kaur co-founded the All-India Women’s Conference, a non-governmental organization dedicated to improving education for women and children, and other women’s rights issues, like the right to divorce, vote and inherit.   

As minister, Kaur was instrumental in fighting the spread of malaria in India, and leading the campaign to eradicate tuberculosis. She was also the main force behind the largest BCG vaccination programme in the world – a vaccine designed to inoculate against TB.

Kaur also was instrumental in founding the Indian Council of Child Welfare, and was Chairperson of the Indian Red Cross society for 14 years – aiding those especially in the hinterlands of India. 

Leaving an extraordinary legacy for India and the world, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur can be said to have changed the course of history – saving countless lives in the process.