'Nehru's Wife' Budhni Mejhan Dies At 85

Budhni Mejhan, the tribal women who was called as “Nehru’s wife” died on Friday night at her residence in Panchet, Jharkhand. She will be cremated at Panchet today. She died at the age of 85.

Budhni is one of Sara Joseph’s famous Novel. But the Budhni from the renowned writer was not any fictional character. On December 6, 1959, when the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru went Dhanbad district in Jharkhand for inaugurating Panchet Dam across the Damoder River Valley. Damodar Valley corporation chose Budhini to welcome the Prime Minister with a garland.

Budhni welcomed Nehru with the garland and placed ‘tikka’ on his forehead and Nehru, very lovingly placed the garland bac on Budhni. He also included the 15-year-old Budhini to switch on the flow of Panchet Dam as a representative of Damodar Valley people.

However, when Budhni returned to her tribe, the “honour” given to her by the Prime Minister became a curse and she was ostracized from her own community – Santal. The reason was that she was garlanded – an action that was perceived as marriage by the Santal community – by Nehru, and Nehru was nor from Santal tribe. She was also dismissed from her job as a construction worker.

Being outlawed by her community, young Budhni did not know where to go. She was given shelter by Sudhir Dutta, a Bengali living at Panchet. She got married to Dutta and had a daughter, Randha Dutta. Being fired from her job, Budhni was reduced to do odd jobs to lead her life.

Rajiv Gandhi, who became the Prime Minister of India, came to know about Budhni’s story through Anandgopal Mukhopadhyay, who was Asansol MP, and ensured permanent job for her at Damodar Valley Corporation. She superannuated from her job in 2005, as per report.