New Delhi, Nov 22: Budhini Mejhan, a woman from the Santhal tribe, who was also known and referred as Jawaharalal Nehru’s tribal wife passed away at the age of 80 at her residence near Panchet in Jharkhand.
According to reports, the Santhali woman suffered a cardiac arrest and was cremated on Sunday (19th November). She is now survived by her daughter Ratna (60) and grandson Bapi (35).
Why did Budhni Mejhan experience social exclusion allegedly due to Nehru?
It was on 6th December 1959 when Nehru visited a West Bengal village to inaugurate a dam, the Damodar Valley Corporation had chosen a 15-year-old tribal girl called Budhni Manjhiyan for Nehru’s welcome.
As a little girl she was extremely happy, and little did she know that her life would take a tragic turn. At the time of Panchet Dam inauguration, Nehru garlanded her.
In an unexpected twist, the act of garlanding by Nehru, meant as a gesture of respect, inadvertently became a source of burden for Budhni. Regrettably, the Santhal tribals misinterpreted it as a symbolic ‘marriage,’ leading to her subsequent social exclusion. This misunderstanding resulted in her being barred from entering her own tribe, marking a painful chapter in Budhni’s life.
Also according to Tribal traditions, since Nehru was a non-tribal she was boycotted by the Santhali community and Nehru was declared as her husband.
In 1962, she was thrown out of her job from the Damodar Valley Corporation and found herself helpless. Later she moved to Jharkhand and struggled to make ends meet there for several years.
Later she met a man, Sudhir Datta and wanted to marry him but couldn’t due to the society. However, they continued to live together and have three children together.
However, it is said that in 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi came to know about Budhni, he traced her down and even Budhni met him. Following which she got her job back with the Damodar Valley Corporation.
After her death several local politicians, officials, and hundreds of others paid their respects to what many described as “the first tribal wife of the first PM of the country.”
According to reports, there are also plea for a memorial in her honor, to be situated next to an existing statue of Nehru in a local park.
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