The history of India’s freedom struggle is often narrated through the actions of prominent male leaders, yet women played a decisive and transformative role in the national movement. Their participation was not merely supportive or symbolic; it challenged entrenched patriarchal norms, redefined the idea of political agency, and laid the foundations of women’s empowerment in modern India. By entering public life, confronting colonial authority, and articulating visions of justice and equality, women freedom fighters expanded the meaning of freedom beyond political independence to include social emancipation and gender dignity. In the early phase of resistance to colonial rule, women’s participation was limited by social conventions such as purdah, restricted education, and domestic confinement. Despite these constraints, figures like Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi emerged as powerful symbols of resistance during the Revolt of 1857. Her leadership in armed struggle against the British shattered prevailing assumptions about women’s supposed weakness and dependence. She became a lasting icon of courage, demonstrating that women could lead armies, take strategic decisions, and sacrifice their lives for political ideals. This legacy inspired later generations of women to view political resistance as legitimate and honorable. The national movement under Mahatma Gandhi marked a turning point in the scale and nature of women’s participation. Gandhi consciously encouraged women to join the struggle, believing that their moral strength, capacity for suffering, and commitment to nonviolence would give the movement a deeper ethical foundation. Women responded in large numbers to the Non-Cooperation Movement, Civil Disobedience Movement, and Quit India Movement. They picketed liquor shops, boycotted foreign goods, courted arrest, and endured imprisonment. In doing so, they crossed the boundaries between private and public life, asserting their right to political participation. Leaders such as Sarojini Naidu played a crucial role in articulating the connection between nationalism and women’s emancipation. A poet, orator, and political activist, Naidu emphasized that freedom from colonial rule would be incomplete without the liberation of women from social subordination. As the first woman president of the Indian National Congress and later the first woman