Mrinalini Sarabhai

Biography

Early life and education

Mrinalini was born to a Tamil Brahmin father and Malayali Nair mother in present-day Kerala on 11 May 1918. Her father was Subbarama Swaminathan, a distinguished lawyer with degrees from Harvard and London Universities, who practised criminal law at Madras High Court and was later made Principal of the Madras Law College. Her mother was her father's Sambandham partner (and later wife) A.V. Ammukutty, better known as Ammu Swaminathan, a social worker, an independence activist, and later a parliamentarian. Her elder sister Lakshmi Sahgal was the commander-in-chief of Subhas Chandra Bose's 'Rani of Jhansi Regiment' of the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj). Her elder brother, Govind Swaminadhan, was a barrister who practised in Madras as a specialist in constitutional and criminal law apart from civil law and company law; he was the attorney general for Madras State (now Tamil Nadu). She attended a boarding school in Switzerland for two years, where, she received her first lessons in the Dalcroze school, a Western technique of dance movements. She was educated at Shantiniketan under the guidance of Rabindranath Tagore where she realised her true calling. She then went for a short time to the United States where she enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. On returning to India, she began her training in the south Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam under Meenakshisundaram Pillai and the classical dance-drama of Kathakali under the legendary Guru Thakazhi Kunchu Kurup.

Marriage and the following years

Mrinalini married the Indian physicist Vikram Sarabhai who is considered to be the Father of the Indian Space Program on 3 September 1942. She has a son, Kartikeya and a daughter Mallika who too went on to attain fame in dance and theatre. Mrinalini founded Darpana in Ahmedabad in 1948. A year later, she performed at the Théâtre national de Chaillot in Paris.

Mrinalini and Vikram had a troubled marriage. According to biographer Amrita Shah, Vikram Sarabhai had a void in his personal life he sought to fill by dedicating himself to applying science for social good.

Other areas of contribution

Besides choreographing more than three hundred dance dramas, she has also written many novels, poetry, plays and stories for children. She was the chairperson of the Gujarat State Handicrafts and Handloom Development Corporation Ltd. She was also one of the trustees of the Sarvodaya International Trust, an organisation for promotion of Gandhian ideals, and was also the chairperson of the Nehru Foundation for Development (NFD). Her autobiography is titled Mrinalini Sarabhai: The Voice of the Heart.

Death

She was admitted to hospital on 20 January 2016 and died the next day at the age of 97.