Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh (1906-1962) was an Indian politician. She became the first woman cabinet minister in the Indian subcontinent when she joined Muhammad Saadullah’s government in Assam in 1939. She was also the first woman from the Khasi tribe to become an MLA in the first undivided Legislative Assembly of Assam in 1937. He died in 1962 at the age of 1966.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Mavis Patricia Dunn Mawlong was born on Monday 4 June 1906 (aged 56 at time of death) in Mairang, East Bengal Province and Assam, British India (now Meghalaya, India). Mavis joined the Welsh Mission Girls’ High School, Shillong, where she received her early education. In 1917, she was admitted to the Calcutta Free School for Girls, after which she was admitted to St. Thomas’ School, Calcutta. After graduating from the University of Calcutta in 1922, Mavis enrolled at the Diocesan College, graduating with a Diploma in Arts in 1924 and a Bachelor of Arts in 1927. In 1933, he received a law degree.
family
Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh belonged to the Mawlong clan, a matrilineal clan of the Khasi tribe, an ethnic group of Meghalaya in northeastern India.
other relatives
Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh’s uncle, Edward W. Dunn, was a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
parents and siblings
Father’s name was H Dunn. His mother, Ka Helibon Lyngdoh (or Kong Helibon Mawlong) was a successful businesswoman. He had two sisters.
husband and children
Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh never married.
religion
Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh followed Presbyterianism, a form of Protestant Christianity.
Career
Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh’s career as a politician began in 1937 when she contested the Indian provincial elections from Shillong district and won a seat in the Assam Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate. In 1939 Mavis was invited to join Sir Syed Muhammad Saadullah’s government in Assam. Later, she became a cabinet minister in the Saadullah government, becoming India’s first woman to become a cabinet minister. During the interview, Mawlong Clan Secretary General AS Mawlong said:
He was appointed as a minister in the province of Assam in 1939. So we can say that in the entire North East, she was the first woman minister and the second Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit in the country who became the first lady minister in pre-independent India in 1937.
From 1939 to 1945 Mavis Dan Lyngdoh served as the Health Minister of Assam. As the Health Minister, she not only founded the Assam Red Cross Society (ARCS) but also passed a resolution allowing nurses trained in private nursing colleges to be employed in government hospitals. He also held the portfolios of Registration, Industries and Cooperatives Departments. Mavis ended his political career after losing the 1946 provincial election. After independence, Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh served as a distinguished member of the Assam State Government Advisory Council on the functioning of District Councils. After leaving politics, he lectured in various educational institutes in the USA and Great Britain.
Photo of Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh taken during a public meeting
death
Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh died aged 56 in 1962 in North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), India (now part of Meghalaya).
Facts/Trivia
- Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh was also known by her other name Kong Mavis.
- Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh was the first woman from the Khasi tribe to drive a car.
- Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh became the first woman from Meghalaya to qualify to practice law.
- Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh was part of the committee that negotiated with Britain and the Government of India in 1946 to form the Federation of Khasi States.
- According to several sources, after India annexed Meghalaya, Mevis Dan Lyngdoh met Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Bombay to explain the functioning of princely states in Meghalaya to protect the princely states from being destroyed by other princely states.
- In 2004, the Meghalayan government named a 700-metre stretch of road connecting Mawkhar Motfran and Yewduh (or Bara Bazar) in Shillong after Mewis Dan Maulong.
- In 2022, Metbah Lyngdoh, the Speaker of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, wrote a letter to Chief Minister Conrad Kongkal Sangma, urging him to honor Mavis Dun Lyngdoh by erecting a statue in her memory. In his letter to the Prime Minister, he writes:
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of independence, the nation remembers all the unsung heroes. Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh is nothing less than a hero and her contribution to the health sector in the North East region deserves recognition. She was also a role model for women and marginalized communities of independent India to make a mark in public life. I would like to request the government to consider erecting a full-size statue of late Mavis Dan Lyngdoh in the State Central Library building and to honor her achievement and service to our people.”
- Hamlet Barre wrote a book about him, which was published in 1989.
Categories: Politics
Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
