Annie Mascarene

Family and education

Mascarene was born into a Latin Catholic family. Her father Gabriel Mascarene was a government official of the Travancore State. She did a double MA in history and economics in 1925 from Maharaja'S College Travancore and then went on to earn a degree in law following her return from a teaching stint in Ceylon at the Maharaja's Colleges for Arts and Law, Trivandrum.

Role as freedom fighter

Mascarene was one of the first women to join the Travancore State Congress and became the first woman to be part of the Travancore State Congress Working Committee. Along with Akkamma Cherian and Pattom Thanu Pillai, she was one of the leaders of the movements for independence and integration with the Indian nation in the Travancore State. For her political activism she was imprisoned for various periods from 1939—47.

Parliamentary career

Mascarene was elected to the First Lok Sabha as an independent candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency in the Indian general election, 1951. She was the first woman MP from Kerala and one of only 10 elected to Parliament in those elections. Prior to her election to Parliament, Mascarene had been member of the Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly from 1948—52 and had served briefly as Minister in Charge of Health and Power in the Parur T K Narayana Pillai Ministry during 1949-1950. She was also one of the members of the Constituent Assembly of India and served on its select committee that looked into the Hindu Code Bill. In the second General Elections of 1957, she was defeated in Thiruvananthapuram by S Easwaran, coming fourth in a contest that also featured her erstwhile colleague in the Travancore Congress, Pattom Thanu Pillai.

Death

Annie Mascarene died in 1963 and her grave lies at the Pattoor cemetery in Thiruvananthapuram.

Commemoration

A bronze statue of Annie Mascarene was built at the Annie Mascarene Square at Vazhuthacaud in Thiruvananthapuram and it was unveiled by Vice President Hamid Ansari in September 2013.