Aruna Asaf Ali
Aruna Asaf Ali, 1909-, political leader. Born in a Bengali Brahmin family of Calcutta, she lived with her father in Nainital, U.P. Her marriage to Asaf Ali, a Muslim lawyer and Congress leader of Delhi, in 1928, despite the opposition of her father, created a furore. Aruna Asaf Ali, along with her husband, became deeply involved in national movement for which they had to suffer frequent imprisonment. In August 1942 she went underground, emerging only in 1946. She was a woman of radical views and left the Congress in 1948 to join the Socialist Party. She left the Socialist Party after two years to form the Left Socialist Group which merged with the Communist Party in 1955. She left the Communist Party in 1958, and rejoined the Congress in 1964. She took an active part in labour movement, and other in the cause of international peace. She is closely associated with ‘two leftist papers, Patriot and Link.
