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Her name was Snehalatha Reddy.
She was born in 1932 in Andhra Pradesh into a family of second generation Indian Christian converts. Her father had served as a Major in the British Army.
She grew up deeply resenting colonial rule. When she went to college, she reverted to her Indian name, wore only Indian clothes and learned Bharatanatyam.
She became an actress in Kannada and Telugu cinema and theatre. She co founded the Madras Players theatre group.
In 1970, she starred in Samskara, a Kannada film directed by her husband Pattabhi Rama Reddy.
The film initially faced censorship issues before later winning the National Award.
Snehalatha and her husband were close to socialist politics and associated with leaders like George Fernandes and Ram Manohar Lohia.
On the night of June 25 1975, Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency and suspended fundamental rights across India.
On May 2 1976, police arrested Snehalatha Reddy under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act in connection with the Baroda Dynamite Case.
George Fernandes and several others were formally accused of plotting sabotage against the government during the Emergency.
But when the final chargesheet was filed, Snehalatha Reddy’s name was reportedly not included.
She remained imprisoned anyway.
She spent nearly eight months in Bengaluru Central Jail, much of it in solitary confinement.
She had suffered from chronic asthma since childhood. Despite her condition, she reportedly received irregular medical treatment in prison and went into asthmatic coma more than once.
During her imprisonment, she kept a diary.
In it she wrote, “What is the purpose of every human being born in this world? Is it not to lift mankind a little higher towards perfection?”
She was released on parole on January 15 1977.
Five days later, on January 20, she died after her health had severely deteriorated from chronic asthma and lung infection.
She was 44 years old.
Her prison diary was later published posthumously as A Prison Diary.
In 2019, a documentary on her life and imprisonment was also released.
She spent months in prison during the Emergency without being named in the final chargesheet of the case she had been arrested in.
Five days after her release, she was dead.
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