Early Politics & Vanar Sena

I can’t remember the date, but Mridula Sarabhai, a congresswoman and a family friend, told me that I was only about 7, 8 or 9, when I formed the children’s spinning group. I had asked Gandhiji how I could contribute to our struggle, and he suggested it. It was called Bal-Charkha Sangh and was in fact a children's section of the Gandhi Charkha Sangh, an organisation for hand-spinning; but so far as I can remember we didn't have charkhas, we had taklis. Until quite recently in fact, I still had a horribly thick handkerchief which I had spun and woven myself, and then sewn up afterwards. But now it is lost.

Then, of course, I was much more involved in the 1930 movement, because I was old enough to understand what It was all about. I wanted to join the Congress Party and be a regular soldier of India, as my father said. But I was told I was too young to join, so, what was known as Vanar Sena (named after a story in the old Hindu epic, Ramayana) or Monkey Brigade was formed. it performed a number of functions, rather like what women did in World War l: everything that would relieve the men. For us, it was not a matter of relieving just the men, but all grown-ups. Sewing and hanging national flags, cooking food for people who were marching, serving water and things to people in meetings or rallies, writing letters for prisoners who didn't know how to write, giving first aid to Congress volunteers, injured in the police lathi charges.

In the Monkey Brigade, we also had our own meetmgs and processions. But, of course, it is a minor thing that most foreigners seem to have noticed about our movement: among us were a lot of poor children who used to play in the streets of the city, and they often picked up information about who was going to be arrested or whose house was about to be raided. So we usually knew beforehand, and we could convey it to the people concerned; although we hadn't started the movement with anything like this in view. People treated it as a big joke when it started, but they ended up taking us quite seriously because we really did contribute to the struggle. The movement had branches in other cities, like Bombay for instance. But they were independent, other people started them. And, of course, we joined in some of the grown-up activities like when they were making salt.

Source: http://indiragandhi.in/en/philosophy/speeches/