Mira Datta Gupta

She died of pneumonia on 18 January 1983, at the age of 76.

In her post-retirement years, she served as an honorary justice of peace in the juvenile court in Kolkata and was a member of the Board of Film Censors in West Bengal. In 1958 she joined the Indian goodwill mission to China and later visited Berlin, Copenhagen and Moscow to attend developmental, educational and women's conferences. She was also a member of the Calcutta University Senate and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. She also contributed to the setting up of Patha Bhavan, Kolkata, a school named after the university school in Santiniketan.

She had a devoted following in the Ballygunge Constituency, all along the southeastern environs of the city, and was known for her social commitment. During the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943, she, along with co-Congress workers played a leading role in organising relief for famine victims.

She was a member of the Indian Congress Party between 1937 and 1946. She was elected four times (1937, 1942, 1946 and 1951) as Member of the State Legislative Assembly of Bengal, later renamed West Bengal. She was offered the post of Deputy Minister in the Cabinet of 1952 of the then Chief Minister, Bidhan Chandra Roy, which she declined.

Around this time she also provided a channel for information between the revolutionaries who had to remain under cover and other members of the party. She participated in one of the important meetings of Bengal Volunteers held at Baranagar near Kolkata to discuss the group's activities in Midnapore and other parts of the state. From 1933, the police grew suspicious of her activities and she was placed under constant surveillance. In 1938, many party members such as Bhavani Bhattacharya and Ujjala Mazumdar were arrested in connection with the shooting of Governor John Anderson in Darjeeling district. Mira was cross-examined by the police for many hours in connection with this case. At this stage her father sent her away from Calcutta for two years to ensure her personal safety. She was very actively involved in fund raising activities during the Quit India Movement of 1942. In 1946, she was jailed for her nationalist activities. After her released from prison she became one of the first members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Forward Bloc.

Mira Datta Gupta (Bengali: মীরা দত্ত গুপ্ত; 5 October 1907 – 18 January 1983) was a freedom fighter, social worker, educationist, politician and activist on women's issues in Calcutta, India. She was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Bengal and then West Bengal for twenty years from 1937 to 1957, firstly representing Women's constituency from 1937 to 1952, and then Bhowanipore from 1952 to 1957. She was the first MLA from Bhowanipore.