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This photograph was taken dated on 17 June 1911 at the Women’s Coronation Procession through London. The Women’s suffrage societies had organized the demonstration, held just before coronation of George V, to demand the right to vote. The procession was organized by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). It was one of the largest women’s suffrage procession ever held in Britain and one of the few to draw together the full range of suffrage organizations.
Some 40,000 people gathered to march from Westminster to the Albert Hall in South Kensington. Charlotte Despard and Flora Drummond led the march on their horseback, which included Marjery Bryce dressed as Joan of Arc and 700 women and girls clothed in white to represent suffragette prisoners. WSPU sought to include an ‘Empire Pageant’ featuring representatives from India, South Africa, West Indies, Australia and New Zealand. British suffragette Jane Cobden (Fisher Unwin) and others WSPU members were involved in coordinating these women, inviting them to join the procession. Under a banner featuring an elephant and an emblazoned with “India” marched by a small group of Indian women. Very little is known about these five women, which attests to the overlooked history of Indian women’s involvement in British suffrage, although it is realized that some of them were already living in Britain.
The small Indian group was coordinated by Mrs. Jane Fisher Unwin (the daughter of Richard Cobden). She and other representatives of the Women's Social and Political Union reached Indian women living in Britain to take part in the procession, whilst organizing the decorations and the collection of signatures for the elephant banner that cost between £4 & £5. The India procession was part of the ‘Imperial Contingent’ and was intended to show the strength of support for women’s suffrage throughout the Empire.
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