Heera Devi Yami
Four martyrs Gangala, Dasharath Chand, Dharma Bhakta Mathema and Sukra Raj Shatri were publicly executed in 1941. Older senior citizens of Kathmandu valley still recall the terrifying environment of those moments. Many of the local innocent people were not aware of the full narratives of why such was taken by the rurals. Daya Ram Bhakta Mathema in his book mentioned how people reacted by saying: It was good to see people being punished like this. More people should be punished. Why should they go around going against rulers?. very stupid of them to have wasted life like this with unneccesary activities etc etc". Large percentage reacted like this and were not educated. Education was banned for the general public.
During those days it was mandatory to write a statement in any application to the government mentioning that " my body and my wealth belongs to the ruling resigm" people were silenced through such processes and carrying any kind of harmful instruments and weapons by citizens were banned. There were no legal regulatory systems in the government structures with poorly defined constitutions. The court was non-existent. There were constitution building processes under the leadership of Bhim Roul Ambedkar in India and underground activists were demanding a well defined constitution in Nepal. The underground revolutionaries were banned from crossing the valley of Kathmandu.
In the year B.S 2004 Padmasamshere declared to release some power to the public and introduce a draft of constitution. The rest of the Ranas side tracked him and arrested those who were arrested. Total crackdown took place and activists were imprisoned . They didn't leave behind even the slightly suspected ones. The political jail inmates feared the complete halt of the revolt movement. In order to keep the movement alive they engaged Heera Devi to keep the spirit moving. Heera Devi had witnessed all the movements organized by Indian freedom fighters in order to gain back the power from British rule. During her treatment at Kolkata and Kalingpong she had deeply analysed all the narratives about the movement by going through all the media channels improving learning to read in English. She had also witnessed the massacre in India in order to silence the movement. Back home her neighbour Jagat Lal master had already taught her English. The movement of India had fueled her mind and came back to Nepal to initiate such a movement. The jail inmates engaged her to teach in Buddhi Bikas School. behind MahaDev Mandir in Hanuman Dhoka so that she could have support to starving underground
On Bhadra 22nd od 2004 B.S. she initiated Nepal Mahila Sangathan with the help of Prem Bahadur Kansakar by organizing Babna Bhoj in Bhayepi Jungle secretly. During those days women were banned from peeping out of the window for the fear of being whisked away by the rulers. The wives and children of most of the political prisoners were starving. Many of them lost property too. The management of Buddhi Bikas school were under the pressure to kick out heera devi. To remove her they even used school children to protest against her by refusing to learn through her. She had to shift children from one courtyard to another in the interiors of that locality in rooms with poor natural light inorder to avoid arrest. From her labour chargers from children with offerings like rice grains and some cash she used to deliver them to sick jail inmates and the starving wives and children including feeding underground activists.
In B S 2005 during her delivery time of son Vidhan she was arrested and tortured infront of some prisoners with heavy metal chains in order to extract confidential details of under ground actvists. She would not feed the two year old daughter in order to make her cry during the interrogation period. She also used to make the new born baby Vidha cry by pinching the body so the the atmosphere get diverted and stop from leaking out secret informations her mouth under pressure during trial which would result in further arrest of people and torturing sessions of prisoners. The newborn baby son was named Vidhan by the political jail inmates for being born during the time when the biggest crackdown took place to suppress the demand for the new revised constitution in Nepal.
During Magh of 2005 B. S during freezing cold one whole month she used to be made to stand in Singh Darwar in open space with the newborn child Vidhan and two year old daughter Dharma Devi Mother and child both became critically ill. Her aunt Laxmi Prava Tuladhar of Jwabahall, Kathmandu saved the child who was almost succumbing due to acute diarrhea.
Her maternal joint family had a roaring business in Tibet and had big share in tea estate in Sankhu. The distribution centre of this tea industry and head office was in Bhurung Khel. This property was later handed over to Heera Devi.
Dharma Ratna had a habit of pleasing people by offering whatever he had. Lot of political activists suffered throughout and he used to help them when he didn't have sufficient resources to feed his own seven children. Some friends and relatives used to manipulate him in order to extract the benefits of his power. Heera Devi was already going through difficulties managing the house financially and resources were scarce. Heera Devi suffered even more from such manipulations .
Due to frail health when her days were numbered, Several of her close friends and relatives advised her to get her daughters married at very young ages. They feared that there would be total cuous after her death and children would be spoiled. during those times if any girls of the age normally crossed 15 or 16 used to be called oldies and unfit for marriage. Some of them would even start hinting that the unmarried girls are spoilt one and society used to throw abusive language at them, sending them into depression. Girls who are more educated and used to be called unfit for society. Elderlies of the society were very strict and above such cases who go against social norms.Inter Caste marriage used to be banned.During critical health conditions Heera Devi rejected all such advices and tried convincing their children to focus on education
Dharma Ratna was a renowned writer . People like pandit Rahul Sanskrityannan and Dr Ambeddkar, and other intellectuals of India understood his strengths. People of Nepal were not educated then and didn't understand the long term vision about social, political and economic transformation understood by Dharma Ratna Yami. Having such great creative talents and avoiding the frustration from the political system of Dharma Ratan, Heera Devi never gave him the financial burden on him to raise seven children.
After the death of Heera Devi at the age of 48 the family ran into a lot of tension.