Ashoka Gupta (1912-2008) was a distinguished social activist and a key figure in providing relief to women in particular caught up in the Partition violence in Noakhali in East Bengal in late 1946. At that time, Mrs Gupta's husband was an ICS officer and working as a judge in Chittagong. Mrs Gupta reached Noakhali in late October 1946 and talks in this interview about her work with women there, the manner in which the violence against Hindus in Noakhali appeared to be orchestrated and the prevalence of sexual violence. She met Gandhi in Noakhali and was greatly influenced by that encounter - and she talks about her memories of Gandhi's mission.
I interviewed Ashoka Gupta at her home in Ballygunj in Calcutta on 24 April 1997, when she was 85. Her mother was the novelist Jyotirmoyee Devi, author of the Partition novel The River Churning.