Women’s History Month came and went in India without much noise. In a nation that prides itself on women-led panchayats, goddesses on currency, and women in uniform, the silence was not just absence — it was telling. Why does Women’s History Month remain a footnote in India?

The question is not merely cultural, but structural. In India, history is not just what is remembered — it is also what is not erroneously erased. The absence of a popular commemorative culture around women’s contributions is not for lack of material but because memory here still follows the grammar of power — masculine, monocultural and unitary. There are women freedom fighters we forget until a tweet appears from a government handle. Hansa Mehta, whose contributions to both the Indian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were ground-breaking, barely finds mention in textbooks. Dakshayani Velayudhan — the only Dalit woman in the Constituent Assembly — remains unknown to most. Rani Gaidinliu led armed resistance against the British from the Northeast as a teenager; she has no memorial in the capital. Sucheta Kriplani, who sang patriotic songs in prison and became independent India’s first woman chief minister, is a footnote in civics lessons. Tarkeshwari Sinha, among the youngest MPs in the first Lok Sabha and a sharp advocate of socialist reform, rarely features in political discourse today. Beyond politics,........

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