New Delhi, Sept. 27 -- In a world that prizes scale and speed, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay-with her quiet and methodical focus on craft, community, and cooperatives-would seem like an anomaly.

But this diminutive woman was one of India's boldest builders of social enterprise, long before the term existed. Her vision that real freedom lay in self-reliance and economic agency seeded institutions, livelihoods, and entire ecosystems that are shaping lives even today.

Much has been said about her courage.

There's the now-famous story from the horrifying weeks of partition, when, seeing a tide of desperate refugees pouring into Delhi, Kamaladevi stormed government offices and demanded action. If not, she warned, she'd lead a protest straight in...