Birth Anniversary Special: Durga Bhabhi who saved Bhagat Singh's life

Durgavati Vohra, fondly called Durga Bhabhi, was born on 7 October 1907 into a well-to-do family in Uttar Pradesh’s Allahabad district. Now, her village is part of the newly-created Kaushambi district, and Allahabad has been renamed Prayagraj.

At the age of 10 or 11, she was married to Bhagwati Charan Vohra, the 15-year-old son of the wealthy Shivcharan Das Vohra, who had settled in Lahore. She had spent her savings ₹5,000 given by her husband on revolutionary works and in support of indian revolutionaries fighting against british imperialism.

After killing Saunders Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru went up to take shelter at durgavati vohra's house. She was alone at home with her three-year-old son when someone knocked on her door at night and that person was bhagat singh.

She sheltered them immediately, but it was not enough. She disguised herself as Bhagat Singh’s wife and got him safely out of Lahore by train, an action surely audacious even in today’s India. so this was the revolutionary woman and spy who introduced herself as Bhagat Singh's wife to save him. 

Durga met several Bengali revolutionaries along with Bhagat Singh, and even learned bomb-making.

She was an active member of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha and came into prominence when the Sabha decided to observe the 11th anniversary of Kartar Singh Sarabha's martyrdom in November 1926 at Lahore. 

On 8 October 1930, she fired on a British sergeant and his wife near the police station in South Bombay’s Lamington Road, before escaping. The shooting was to avenge the death sentence awarded to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru a day earlier. The British were surprised by how an Indian woman could be so adventurous. She was finally arrested in September 1932. 

In 1935, she moved to Ghaziabad and started teaching in a school. Later, she opened a school in Lucknow for poor children. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru even visited the school once, though it is not known whether his government took care of her after independence.

She died in Ghaziabad on 15 October 1999 at the age of 92.