Madeleine Slade (November 22, 1892 – July 20, 1982), daughter of the British Rear-Admiral Sir Edmond Slade

Edmond Slade

Admiral Sir Edmond John Warre Slade KCVO, KCIE was a British rear-admiral and a director of the Naval Intelligence Division...

, was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 woman who left her home in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to live and work with Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement

Indian independence movement

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

. She devoted her life to human development, the advancement of Gandhi's principles

Gandhism

Gandhism is the collection of inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , who was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement....

 and the freedom struggle in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. In doing so, Gandhi gave her the name, Mirabehn, after Meera Bai, the great devotee of Lord Krishna

Krishna

Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

.

Mirabehn during her stay in India once went to Gurukul Kangri to learn Hindi. Thereafter she went to Bhagwat Bhakti Ashram of Rewari established by Swami Parmanand Maharaj in order to be blessed by him. She also wrote to Mahatma Gandhi about her experiences there in Bhagwat Bhakti Ashram.

She was awarded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan

Padma Vibhushan

The Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...

 in 1982.

Actress Geraldine James

Geraldine James

Geraldine James, OBE is an English actress.-Early life and family:James was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, to a cardiologist father...

 portrayed her in Sir Richard Attenborough's film, Gandhi

Gandhi (film)

Gandhi is a 1982 biographical film based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. They both...

, which premiered several months after Madeleine Slade's death in 1982.

External links

• Biography from mkgandhi.org
• In the company of Bapu: In the just-released Mira & the Mahatma, psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar delves into the complex relationship between a remarkable Englishwoman and the man she worshiped - The Telegraph
  The Telegraph (Kolkata)
  The Telegraph is an Indian daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Kolkata since 1982. It is published by the ABP Group and the newspaper vies with the Times of India for the position of having the widest widest circulation of any newspaper in Eastern India.According to the Audit...
  
  
• Video interview with Mirabehn