Anusyabehn Sarabhai
Anusyabehn Sarabhai (1885–1972) was an Indian trade unionist. She founded various craft unions that later joined to create the Textile Labour Association.
Anusyabehn Sarabhai was born in 1885 to a wealthy family in Ahmedabad, India. She was orphaned as a ten-year-old and unwillingly surrendered to an arranged marriage two years later. The marriage was later annulled. Sarabhai moved to England in 1911 and attended the London School of Economics. There she was influenced by Fabian Society socialism and the suffrage movement.[1] Sarabhai returned to India and she was involved in philanthropic and charitable work among mill workers. In 1914, she started classes for the workers' children, and in 1917 she organized workers that later called for the first labour strike in India's history. Sarabhai was a colleague of Mohandas Gandhi and was closely associated with his 1918 Ahmedabad strike. Sarabhai organized assorted craft unions early in her career and by 1920 was instrumental in establishing the conglomerate Textile Labour Association. Throughout her life, Sarabhai assisted with negotiations and dispute resolution for the labourers that she worked with.[2]
Sarabhai died in 1972.[2]
