WOMEN AND MEDICINE IN COLONIAL INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF THREE WOMEN

DOCTORS
Author(s): Sujata Mukherjee
Source: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 2005-2006, Vol. 66 (2005-2006), pp.
1183-1193
Published by: Indian History Congress
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145930

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 WOMEN AND MEDICINE IN COLONIAL
INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF THREE WOMEN
DOCTORS
Sujata Mukherjee

Western Science and Western Medicine were formerly often viewed as

indisputable books of colonial rule in India and elsewhere. Scholars have
recently begun to reevaluate the benefits of western medicine in the
former colonies of the western powers. Most historians now-a-days point
out that western medicine helped consolidation and expansion of colonial
rule reducing the mortality and morbidity of Europeans in tropical areas .1
Recent researches in the area of gender and medicine have also showed
how the issues of gender and health care were linked in colonial ideology
and politics and served the "civilizing" agenda of imperial rule by
propagating its paternalistic and benevolent aspects.2 This paper aims at
assessing one aspect of the role of western medicine: namely, growth of
medical education for women in colonial India by focusing on the life
and career of three Indian female doctors and hopes to enrich our
understanding of the interface of colonialism, medicine and women's
issues in British India.

David Arnold has suggested that in the first half of the 1 9th century,
in an essentially male-oriented and male-operated system of medicine,
the primary areas of concern were the army, the jails, and hospitals which
were exclusively male domains.3 The first direct state intervention into
Indian women's health came in the 1860s, in the form of the Contagious
Diseases Act (1868). It was designed to protect the health of the soldiers
and regulated the treatment and quarantine of prostitutes and soldiers in
lock hospitals to mitigate the evil of venereal diseases.4 The status of
Indian women gradually became subject of critical investigation in the
evolving discourses of colonial medicine. The zenana or the women's
quarters in upper class Hindu and Muslim households became the focus
of critical attention. One important part of the civilizing agenda of
western medicine was to break the seclusion of this zenana or
'uncolonized space' and to wage a battle against ignorance about health
and hygiene.
The first group of outsiders to attempt this were women missionaries
from the United States and England who came to India from the late
1860s. Clara Swain, who graduated from the Woman's Medical College
of Pennsylvania, was sent by the American Methodist Episcopal Mission
to Bareilly in 1869. Miss Fanny Butler of England and others established

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1 1 84 IHC: Proceedings , 66th Session , 2005-06

private clinics to provide western health care to Indian women and sought
to train midwives and nurses.5 Sporadic and piecemeal endeavours were
made by private individuals in India to provide institutional training to
Indian midwives and also to bring trained female medical graduates from
abroad. Women physicians in England favoured the proposal for
establishing medical department in India to be exclusively by and for
women.

In 1866 Mary Scharlieb, an English barrister's wife

and took a course in midwifery and then applied for adm
Medical College. In 1875 she, along with three oth
admitted to the three years' certificate course of the
College. In Calcutta Neel Kamal Mitra submitted a
Government in 1875 seeking admission of his grand
Mohini to the course at the Calcutta Medical College. In 1882 Elle
D'Abreu and Abala Das wanted to enter the Calcutta Medical College
but were turned down because they had passed only the First Arts and
not the BA examination. They went to the Madras Medical School and
studied for the certificate degree.
The first systematic and regular official attempt to provide medical
help to Indian Women started in 1885 with the establishment of the
Dufferin Fund or the National Association for Supplying Female Medical
Aid to the Women of India. Mary Scharlieb and Elizabeth Bielby
(missionary doctor at Lahore) personally met and informed Queen
Victoria about lack of medical care for Indian women and the Queen
asked Lady Dufferin, the new vicereine to investigate about the scope
of providing medical help to Indian women. On her initiative, the Fund
was established in August 1885 with 3 aims: to provide medical teaching
and training to women; to organize medical relief; to supply female
nurses and midwives in hospitals and private houses.
It is generally well known that opening of the door of medical
training to aspirant Indian female doctors was supported by enthusiastic
government officials and progressive Indians though opposed by the
members of the medical profession. The Indian middle classes' support
for female education-including medical training-was no doubt partly
prompted by an urge for providing an answer to the imperialist critique
of Hindu male behaviour towards women (which was implicit in the
Dufferin Fund advocates' reference to Indian men as a 'population which
... makes small account of the health or of the lives of women"). There
was also an urge to create compatriot wife who would bring about
discipline, order and hygienic practices in middle class home. The
Bengali male intelligentsia's agenda of social reform in the 19lh century
(as it is well-known) was immediately aimed at improving the lot of

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 Modem India 1 1 85

women; but it was also addressed to th

functions of middle class family life
restructuring of nation. The issue of educ
area in the agenda of reform women's c
had little to do with economic functions o
of professional expertise, etc. The main
of women's educational project was se
role expected to be played by the new
and social welfare of family members.6 T
to develop as companions to men, as scien
of civil society, they were to remain a
common or lower class women; inhabiti
popular culture.7
Large number of pedagogical texts writ
normative discourse on family which f
guidelines for an ideal housewife for pro
nurturing of children, regulation of diet
environment, etc. Parents, particularly m
themselves to be able to understand and e
to which the family had become exposed.
rearing of children, for proper knowledg
health, you should read appropriate boo
expert physicians...." Women were a
standardized, remodeled style of dom
and education on their part was seen a
family but even to the nation. It was poi
ignorant of rules of the body would no
producing weak and deficient children
Thus with the emergence of famil
restructuring was to be carried out, w
augmented status in remodeling the pr
Indian middle class internalized some of t
/ Hindu domestic life but at the same tim
ideas about bourgeois domesticity, privac
own needs. This became part of the disco
in the 19th century. Comparisons betw
were made by Bengali authors and the
of perfection while the former seemed t
order, discipline and cleanliness. The Be
to counter the notions of bourgeois p
freedom from selfishness. Even when
to be "good wives". The anxiety was p

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1 1 86 IHC: Proceedings , 66th Session , 2005-06

outlook expressed in the print media about educated women who

seemingly neglected other duties. The bhadramohila was expected to
master the technique of becoming a sugrihini by acquiring elementary
knowledge of all sorts of medical remedies for treating at least common
ailments to save the family a lot of expenses in doctors' fees.9
Brahmo reformers like Durgamohan Das, Dwarakanath Ganguly10
were enthusiastic supporters of medical education for women. A number
of newspapers and journals emphasized the need for women doctors
trained in western medicine for women patients. Brahmo Public Opinion
wrote in 1883: "If there be any one country where more than at another,
the want of lady doctors is most keenly felt, it is no doubt India. The
system of zenana seclusion makes it nearly impossible for male doctors
to be very useful in treating female patients. Consequently, a vary large
number of our women face premature death from want of proper medical
attendance... Besides, there are diseases peculiar to them, which it is
simply impossible for male doctors to diagnose or treat." The
Bamabodhini Patrika wrote: "Everyone with prudence will admit that
as for men, medical education is equally necessary for women. There
are certain types of female diseases which can only be appreciated by
women and their treatment by males cannot be as effective as by
females."

We now turn to discuss the story of Dr. Kadambini Ganguly, the

first Indian female practitioner trained in western medicine.10
In 1882, Kadambini Basu and Chandramukhi Basu became the first
graduates of Calcutta University when they finished their BA courses
from Bethune College. Kadambini (1861-1923), daughter of Brajakisore
Basu, was born at Chandsi in the district of Barisal. Her father was an
enlightened zamindar who wanted to give higher education to his
daughter. In 1883 Kadambini applied to Calcutta Medical College for
admission and was admitted when the Lieutenant Governor gave consent,
over ruling the Medical Council. Shortly after entering - Medical
College, Kadambini married thirty nine year old widower Dwarakanath
Ganguly, her teacher and mentor. In 1884 the Government announced a
scholarship of Rs.20 a month for women medical students. Kadambini
received this stipend throughout her medical studies. In 1 886 Kadambini
was awarded a GBMC (Graduate of Bengal Medical College), which
gave her the right to practice. Kadambini passed in all the written papers
for the final medical examination but failed in one essential part of the
practicáis.
In 1888, Kadambini was appointed doctor at the Lady Dufferin
Women's Hospital. She received a monthly salary of Rs.300/-. She set
up a lucrative private practice. Her patients included a member of the

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 Modem India 1 1 87

Nepalese royal family. In 1893 she w

studies. Kadambini was a victim of racist and sexist outlook. Her life
shows how strong gender bias was in conservative social circles.
Kadambini was only a successful doctor who competed with the male
doctor. She participated in the 1889 session of I.N.C. She entered into a
world which was dominated by men. A section of the conservative Hindu
opinion launched a slander campaign against her. It was feared that her
example would inspire other women to come out and compete with men.
The most virulent criticism was launched by Bangabasi , the journal of
Hindu orthodoxy. Kadambini was called "whore" by the author of an
article published in this journal, in 1891.
Kadambini was not only a successful doctor, she was a very
competent housewife and a mother of three children. But her great
professional success, her participation in social work and politics were
viewed with suspicion. D. Ganguly, Sivnath Sastri, and Nilratan Sarkar
started legal action against the journal and its editor. The editor Mahesh
Chandra Pal was found guilty. He was fined Rs.100 and was sentenced
to 6 months' imprisonment. By established conservative norms of
thought in Hindu society, maintenance of female virtues was
incompatible with social liberty. The male members were not ready to
allow social mobility to women, because they feared that it would slacken
their control and domination over female members. Kadambini was
however a courageous and independent lady and was fortunate to have
the support of her husband and other progressive Brahmos.
She faced not only opposition of Indian male, in workplace she also
suffered from racist bias and discrimination. After 1 885, many hospitals
and dispensaries were opened by the Duffrin Fund. They provided
employment for many women including Kadambini. But these hospitals
practiced racial discrimination. Appointments were given to white
doctors ever when more efficient Indian female doctors were available.
Kadambini held temporary posts at Calcutta zenana hospital but was
not granted a permanent post in 1891. Kadambini also complained that
Indian women were arbitrarily excluded from the best hospital jobs. This
prevented them from developing their skills: "The Indian medical women
will miss all the advantages of such professional duties by their exclusion
from the medical charge of important hospitals, or by being placed in an
inferior position there, for in the inferior class of hospitals few cases of
importance will ever go for treatment, and in the large and important
hospitals the major operations and other important duties will always
be performed by the senior person in charge".11
Kadambini considered the spread of education among women as
the chief means of improving their condition. She became the secretary

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1 188 IHC: Proceedings , 66th Session , 2005-06

of the Bengal Ladies' Association organized the Women's Conference

in Calcutta in 1906 and led a very active social and professional life.
Next we recount the life history of Haimavati Sen. She represented
another group of medical practitioners who received VLMS degree
(Vernacular Licentiate in Medical and Surgery) and served as Hospital
Assistant. They were inferior in qualification than the MB degree holders
of the Calcutta Medical College. She was a student of the Campbell
Medical School (first called the Sealdah Medical School). It was opened
in 1872 and the vernacular medical class was shifted from CMC to
Campbell. In 1853 CMC opened a Bengali language programme but it
became so popular after 2 decades that accommodation became a problem
and so new school was opened. It opened its doors to women in 1888.
Government Officials reported that there were many jobs of hospital
assistants for female candidates in the districts. The district boards could
not offer a salary of more than Rs. 30-40 per month. But medical college
graduates wanted at least Rs.300. So these posts were lying vacant.
Admission rules at Campbell were comparatively easier. Any woman
over age 1 6 could be admitted to this 3 years course. There was no upper
age limit.
In 1888 Campbell school admitted 15 women including Hindus,
Brahmos, native Christians, and Eurasians. In the first 2 years Hindu
women (belonging to Brahmin and Kayastha case) were majority. In 1 891
the first Muslim student was admitted and the second came in 1893.
After 1896 number of Bengali women students when this became a 4
year programme. The examinations became more difficult. Greater
knowledge of English was required. More native Christians, Europeans
and Eurasians entered. During 15 years 1881 - 1905 over 50 Bengali
women graduated from Campbell. The majority of them accepted jobs
in the mofussil towns.

Dr. Haimavati Sen (1866-1933) was a Campbell graduate. She

practiced medicine in Chinsurah from 1894 to 1933. Her maiden name
was H. Mitra. She wrote a memoir, translated into English by Tapan
Raychaudhuri & GeraldineForbes. Haimavati was born in Khulna. Her
father was a wealthy zamidnar. She was married at the age of 10, but
became a widow within a year. Her parents and mother-in-law died. She
was ill-treated by her brother-in-law and went to Benares & became a
teacher at a small school for girls. Hearing about Brahmo Samaj
institutions to educate widows, Haimavati came to Calcutta. She met
Brahmo leaders and remarried a Brahmo, Kunjabehari Sen. In 1891 she
entered the Campbell School. She received a scholarship of Rs.8 per
month from the Government plus school fees. In the first year

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 Modem India 1189

examination she stood third in her c

the highest marks in 2 papers: An
Medica. She was supposed to receiv
in her class opposed this. Ultimat
accepted silver medals instead.
She had a brilliant academic caree
She was disadvantaged by race & ge
the position of a lady doctor at Hoog
with a low salary. Her salary was R
50/-. She was placed under the sup
the civil surgeon. Her memoir tell
physically assaulted. The assistant
attempted to seduce her and even sen
complained, the civil surgeon reb
another civil surgeon treated her s
harassed her, the civil surgeons co
were appointed supervisors of the
by her. Most of them maltreated h
kindly. She also took up private prac
her income. She endured constant
personal life. She had eight pregn
was sometimes very abusive. She d
Haimavati's life was very unusual
salaried posts (as teacher, as a lady do
acceptable. In all her jobs she becam
She also had to attend to her dutie
memoir tells us a lot about violen
She fought back against all her att
that she accepted male domination
own marriage. She painted her hu
contribute financially for the fam
her money. He also made all decis
apparently she obeyed her husband
One may ask whether her descr
inequality in her memoir may be ter
as a Western ideology that casts wom
their oppression to patriarchy. Sh
organization or read their tracts. Bu
women and the fact that men d
experience as a medical student, m
of race oppression. She also saw g
be termed "radical feminism", becaus

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1 1 90 IHC: Proceedings , 66th Session , 2005-06

beings.
Another lady doctor whom we are going to discuss here is a
Maharashtrian, Anandibai Joshee (1865- 1887). 12 She deserves special
mention because she was the first lady to go abroad for medical education
and obtain an American medical degree (in 1886). She was born into an
orthodox and poor Maharashtrian Brahmin family on March 30, 1 865 in
Kalyan near Bombay. Her maiden name was Yamuna Joshi. She was
one of the 4 children who survived out of the total of 9 born to Ganpatrao
Joshi and his second wife Gangabai. She was pampered by her father
who got her admitted in a school but was treated cruelly by her mother.
She was married off at the age of 10 to Gopalrao Joshee, a 27 year old
widower. He was an eccentric men with reformist ideas. Anandi became
mother at the age of 1 2 but lost her infant son. Her health steadily declined
but she continued to study.
Gaopalrao's personal ambition and his contact with American
missionaries inspired the radical plan of taking Anandibai to America
for higher studies. Apart from her husband, two prominent women played
a crucial roles in Anandi's medical mission. One was B.F. Carpenter of
Rosselle, New Jersey, who facilitated her medical education in the USA
and the other was Pandita Ramabai, a remarkable Maharashtrian social
reformer and an early champion of feminist consciousness', who gave
her all the required moral and social support. Pandita Ramabai set up
the Mahila Arya Samaj in 1 882 to fight the male prejudices and atrocities
against women. She published a book in Marathi in June, 1882, "Stree
Dharma Neeti"' through which she exhorted her fellow Indian women
to obtain education and cultivate self reliance. She made a spirited stand
for women's education, including medical education, and the need to
appoint female teacher and inspectresses for girls' schools because of
male jealousy and tendency to obstruct women's education before the
Hunter Commission on Education, in September 1882 at Pune.
Anandibai was also in close contact with Ms Carpenter who financed
her journey to the U.S.A. on April 7, 1883, the 18 years old Anandi
sailed from Calcutta for U.S.A. She joined the Women's Medical College
of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in October, 1883. She received her final
degree in March 1886. Pandita Ramabai was present at the ceremony.
Anandi became a victim of tuberculosis. She accepted the post of a lady
doctor in the princely state of Kolhapur in the Bombay Presidency, but
died before she could join (February 29, 1887).
Anandibai is more or less portrayed as a conformist Hindu. Her image
is that of a submissive girl-wife. But she also made progressive statements
regarding many issues. Her interest in medical education and medical
career was a personal commitment aimed at serving her fellow women.

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 Modem India 1191

Many scholars have pointed out th

was a feminist.

The question arises as to what is feminism or feminist consciousness

and how far this or any other concept is relevant to analyse the historical
significance of these women doctors of colonial India. Despite debates,
it may be said there are three most important elements of feminism: (a)
The belief that women are subordinated to and oppressed by men, (b)
the ideal of gender equality, and (c) action (either private or public)
towards the achievement of this ideal. The same themes surface in
"feminist consciousness" which is said to have evolved historically from
a perception of the distorted way of presenting women, to a questioning
of (patriarchal) tradition, to the final reaching out to other women in
search of sisterhood, and also in the feminist perspective which is an
attempt to describe women's oppression, to explain its causes and
consequences, and to prescribe strategies for women's liberation.
In the 1880's, (in Maharashtra and Bengal) isolated feminist voices
were raised. Women's protests were qualitatively different from the
contemporary male reformist discourse (conducted within a partially
liberal but firmly patriarchal framework and questioned many aspects
of the patriarchal value system and social institutions sustaining them).
In the cases of 60th Anandibai and Haimayati we see that their
submissive wife images apparently valorized the patriarchal ideal no
doubt. It also indicated the limits of women's achievements. But despite
this conformity to convention the education and the career of the three
doctors discussed above also enabled them to carve out a new
emancipatory space within this constricting social structure. Med
education definitely had a positive role in making them self-relian
some extent and thus contributed positively towards the growth
feminist consciousness.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Some of the important studies on different aspects of medicine and colo

are: David Arnold, Colonizing the Body : State Medicine and Epidemic Dise
Nineteenth Century India , Berkley: University of California Press (1989); The
Cambridge History of India, III (5): Science, Technology and Medicine in C
India , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (2000); David Arnold (e
Imperial Medicine and Indigenous Societies, Delhi: Oxford University P
Poonam Bala , Imperialism and Medicine in Bengal : A Socio-Historical Persp
Delhi: Sage Publications (1991); Philip D. Curtin, Death by Migraiton: Eu
Encounter with the Tropical World in the Nineteenth Century ; Cambridge Uni
Press (1 989); Disease and Empire : The Health of European Troops in the Co
of Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (1998); Forbes, Geraldi
Tapanray Chaudhury), The Memoirs of Dr. Haimabati Sen from Child Wid

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1192 IHC: Proceedings , 66th Session , 2005-06

Lady Doctor , New Delhi (2000); Lotus Collection; Mark Harrison, Public Health
in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine 1859-1914, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press (1994); Climiates and Constitutions: Health, Race ,
Environment and British Imperialism in India 1600-1850, Delhi: Oxford University
Press (1999); Daniel R. Headrick, Tools of Empire: Technology and European
Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century, New York: Oxford University Press ( 198 1 );
The Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, 1850-
1940, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. (1998); Jaffrey, Roger
(1988), The Politics of Health in India , Berkeley, Los Angels and London: University
of California Press; Klein Ira (1972), 'Malaria and Mortality in Bengal, 1840-1921',
The Indian Economic and Social History Review , Vol. IX, No. 2, June; 'Cholera:
Theory and Treatment in Nineteenth Century India', Journal of Indian History ,
No.58, pp.35-51 (1980); 'Plague, Policy and Popular Unrest in British India',
Modern Asian Studies , No.22, pp.723-55; Kumar, Anil (1998), Medicine and the
Raj: British Medical Policy 1835-1911 , New Delhi: Sage Publications; Leslie,
Charles (ed.), (1977), Asian Medical System: A Comparative Study , California:
California University Press; MacLeod, R. and L. Milton (eds.) (1988), Disease,
Medicine and Empire: Perspectives of Western Medicine and the Experiences of
European Expansion, London: Routledge; Mukherjee, Sujata, "Women, Medicine
and Empire: Fenmale Practitioners and Patterns of Health Care in Colonial Bengal' ,
Modern Historical Studies , Vol.2; Pati, Biswamoy and H. Mark (ed.) (2001), Health,
Medicine and Empire: Perspectives on Colonial Indian , Hyderabad: Orient
Longman; Ramanna, Mridula (1995), 'Indian Practitioners of Western Medicine:
Grant Medical College, 1845-1 885 ' Radical Journal of Health, (n.s.) No. 1, pp.1 16-
35; 'Western Medicine and Public Health in Colonial Bombay, 1845-1895',
Hyderabad: Orient Longman (forthcoming); Ramasubban, R. (1982), 'Public Health
and Medical Research in India: Their Origins under the Impact of British Colonial
Policy', SAREC Report, Stockholm; 'Imperial Health in British India 1857-1900',
in R. MacLeod and M. Lewis (eds.), Disease, Medicine and Empire: Perspective
on Western Medicine and the Experience of European Expansion, London:
Routledge, pp.38-60 (1988).
2. Some of the relevant works are: Maneesha Lai, "The Politics of Gender and Medicine
in Colonial India: The Countess of Dufferin's Fund, 1885-1888", Bulletin of History
of Medicine, 68, 1994, pp. 29-66; Malavika Kearlekar, "Kadambini and the
Bhadralok." Economic and Political Weekly , 21, No. 19 (April 26, 1986), pp.WS-
25-31: Judy Whitehead, "Modernizing the Motherhood ARcherype; Public Health
Models and the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929", in Social Reform , Patricia
Uberoi, Sexuality and the State , ed. (New Delhi: Sage Publicaitons, 1996), pp.87-
209; Barbara N. Ramusack, "Embattled Advocates: The Debate over Birth Control
in India, 1920-40," Journal of Women's History, 1989, 1:34-64; Geraldine Forbes,
"Medical Careers and Health Care for Indian Women: patterns of control", Women 's
History Review, Vol.3, No.4, 1994-5 15-530, See sections in Geraldine Forbes, The
New Cambridge History of India, IV.2, Women in Modern India, (Cambridge
University Press, First South Asian Paperback Edition, 1998); Meredith Borthwick,
The Changing Role of Women in Bengal, 1849-1951 (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1984); Dagmer Engles, Beyond Pundah? Women in Bengal 1890-
1930 (Delhi: OUP, 1999).
3. David Arnold, Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in
Nineteenth Century India (OUP, Delhi, 1993), p.7.
4. Kenneth Ballhatchet, Race, Sex, and Class under the Raj: Imperial Attitudes and
Policies and their Critics, 1893-1905 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980). Also
see Mridula Ramanna, "Control and Resistance: The Working of the Contagious

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 Modem India 1 1 93

Diseases Acts in Bombay Cit y",EPW, Vol.XX

1476.

5. G. Forbes, "Managing midwifery in India", in Dagmer Engels and Shula Marks

ed., Contesting Colonial Hegemony: State and Society in Africa and India , (The
German Historical Institute London 1994), pp. 152-3 13. Also see G. Forbes' article
in this journal.
6. Geraldine Forbes, Women in Modern India ( n.l .), p.41.
7. Sumanta Banerjee, "Marginalization of Women's Popular Culture in Nineteenth
Century Bengal", in recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History , ed., Kumkum
Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (Delhi, Kali for Women, 1989).
8. Pradip Kumar Bose, "Sons of the Nation: Child Rearing in the New Family" in
Texts of Power: Emerging Disciplines in Colonial Bengal , ed. Partha Chatterjee,
(Calcutta, 1996), p. 123.
9. See Malavika Karlekar, "Kadambini and the Bhadralok" (n.3).
10. Female physicians in Britain argued that British women desired and needed treatment
by women and would avoid close medical examination by men. M. Lai. op.cit.,
p. 43.
1 1 . Discussion on Kadambini Ganguli and her background are based on: (a) Malavika
Karlakar: "Kadambini and the Bhadralok .... (see n.2) (b) Meredith Borthwick,
The Changing Role of Women in Bengal, 1849-1905 , Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1984, (c) Ghulam Murshid, Reluctant Debutanate - Response of
Bengali Women to Modernization , 1849-1905 , Rajshahi, Rajshahi University Press,
1982, (d) Sivnath Sastri, History of the Brahmo S a maj, Vol.1, Calcutta, R.
Chatteijee, 1911 (e) David Kopf, The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern
Indian Mind , New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1979. Sujata Mukherjee -
"Patronage, Western Medicine: Gender and Health in Nineteenth Century India" in
C. Palit and A. Chatterjee (eds.) Epidemics and Empire; "Disciplinary Century
Bengal, in Deepak Kumar (ed Disease and Medicine in India: A History Overview ,
New Delhi, 2001. Srilata Chatterjee, "Colonial Women, Medicine and Medical
Education in Bengal 1884-1940" in Women's Education and Politics of Gender,
Kolkata, 2004.

12. Account of Anandibai Joshee are based on: (a) Caroline Healey, the Dall, The Life
of Dr. Anandibai Joshee , Roberts Brothers, Boston. Anandi (b) S.S. Joshee Gopal,
Majestic Book Stall, Bombay, 2nd ed. 1970, (c) Meera Kosambi, "Women and
Equality: Pandita Ramabai's Contribution to the Women's Cause", EPW, Vol.XXIII,
as 44, October 29, Review of Women studies, ppWS 38-49. (d) Rosemarie Tong,
Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction.

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