Uma Sambanthan

Toh Puan Umasundari Sambanthan née Subramaniam (born September 1929) is the wife of the late Tun V.T. Sambanthan, former Malayan Labour Minister, president of the Malaysian Indian Congress and regarded as one of the founding fathers of Malaysia. She is an activist, social worker and leading figure of the cooperative movement in Malaysia.

She was born in Bruas, Perak, to O.M. Subramaniam, a senior officer with the Public Works Department and his wife Jayalakshmi Swaminathan Sastrigal. Uma was educated at the Anglo-Chinese School in Sungai Siput, Perak, where she won the Best Indian Student of the Year scholarship in 1942.

However, her education was interrupted by the Japanese Occupation from 1942 to 1945.

After the war, she went to India to study science at the University of Madras, majoring in chemistry and graduating with First Class honours. She then studied for a master's degree at the Presidency College, Chennai in India.

Upon returning home, she taught in Singapore for three years but gave up her teaching career and returned to Malaya in 1956, when she married the young Sambanthan, the first MIC president.

She was only 27 years old during the proclamation of independence on August 31, 1957. She still remembers what she wore on that momentous occasion — an off-white silk sari with a red border, a personal favourite as it had been an engagement gift from Sambanthan.

"It was so symbolic... a sign that we were free of the colonial regime, free to think for ourselves, free to lead our own country", she said.

It was truly a moment of great intensity. Uma and Sambanthan, who stood behind the country's first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, did not speak much as they were overcome with emotion as the Union Jack was lowered and the Federation of Malaya flag raised.

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Wikipedia