A Daughter Remembers Kamini Ray’s Shraddhiki1

Malavika Karlekar

teaching Kamini. In the evenings he ments, the issue became an area of would call his daughter to his side, considerable debate in the print choose a passage from the Bible and media, discussion groups and in Conway’s Sacred Anthology, note homes. Questions were raised as to them down in a copy-book and explain the function of this new education and the meaning to her. The next day, how it could adapt to other predomi- nant requirements such as feminine Kamini Ray Kamini was expected to recite these passages to Sen who also introduced seclusion, division of labour within the her to history and English literature. home and a belief about the different HEN, in 1906, for her father During the day, while her lawyer natures of men and women. At the WChandi Charan Sen’s memorial father was away at court, Kamini had same time, the rejection of social service, Kamini chose to write at to do a certain amount of translation practices such as sati, child marriage length on the nature of her relation- and parsing. A grateful Kamini and polygamy by social reformers and ship with him, she was reinforcing an acknowledged that for her father, other concerned individuals brought established tradition among an elite knowledge was “the main ingredient with it an appreciation of the need to section of Bengali women: from the of humanity” while ignorance “the improve the status of women. Osten- middle of the nineteenth century on- spawning ground of superstition and sibly the issue was about the position wards, a handful of these women had evil”. Clearly Sen was not as well off of women, but in actual fact it went been writing about themselves, their as many other men who chose to edu- far beyond. It was not only a question families, and their responses to a cate their daughters; for Kamini com- of granting access to a privilege or changing environment. Over the last mented that she did not know of “any- abolishing derogatory rituals, but century, there is a record of at least one else who has spent the amount of involved thinking afresh on the entire fifty autobiographies, journals and time, energy and money that he has ideological and structural foundations autobiographical sketches having been on the education of his daughters”.3 of upper caste, middle class Bengali written by Bengali women.2 Kamini Hindu society. Ray (nee Sen, 1864-1933) who Sen was representative of a grow- The stress on women’s education became an early woman poet in the ing section of the Bengali middle class was intrinsically related to the emer- region used Shraddhiki (memorial which put great value on profes- gence of a city-oriented style of life pamphlet) to paint a compellingly sionalism, education and social which consciously sought to replace honest picture of a father - daughter mobility. When Western education that of the zamindars or landowning relationship. Paternal rectitude and came to India at the beginning of the class. The rural zamindari family at times excessive strictness are last century, the early recipients were system flourished in large establish- matched by a daughter’s ambivalent middle class boys and men. Going to ments where at least three generations emotions: anger at being dictated to school and college became increas- and a substantial assembly of prajas and judged harshly gives way soon to ingly popular, particularly in the or subjects lived together; a distinct an overwhelming sense of gratitude to urban areas, and white collar jobs were and segregated woman’s world had a man who had invested much in his the preferred ones. worked out its own patterns of hierar- eldest child’s education. As learning for girls involved a chy and dominance based on age, kin- Before she went to school in completely different set of responses, ship, and affinal categories. In large Calcutta, Sen spent considerable time and necessitated special arrange- part, a life of indulgence, dissipation

26 MANUSHI and ease characterised the male world. This started changing rapidly with the break-up of feudal estates and the lure of white collar jobs in the Calcutta area.4 The British who needed clerks and lower officials to help them in the running of their establishments were willingly obliged by the new genera- tion of middle class known increasingly as the , or “gentle folk”. Consisting mainly of the , and castes, some prominent members of whom became members of the reform- ist , the bhadralok were by no means an internally cohesive group. Sharp cleavages in opinion were, for instance, brought out in the Chowringhee Road, Calcutta at the turn of the century approach to femininity.5 The bhadralok took keenly to dual aim of reinforcing the conven- woman.8 What was of paramount Western-style education as well as to tional home-oriented stereotype for importance was her ability to be a some re-definition of family roles and girls as well as training them for the competent mother and housewife. For functions. A shift to Calcutta meant, the changing times. this, instruction in literature, some in many cases, living in smaller, more household accounts and hygiene was In fact, the bhadramahila was, in regarded as ideal. compact homes when not unusually, most senses, modelled on the Victo- the older generation remained behind rian prototype of the genteel middle- Thus, the historical roots of preju- in the villages. In marital relation- class woman. In Britain and in other dice against the expansion of women’s ships, and in attitudes towards parts of the English-speaking world, education in certain areas lay in a women,there was growing emulation this prototype had emerged after con- basic conviction that there was some- of the British model of enlightened siderable debate, much of which was thing special about a woman’s nature, companionship. In Bengal, while related to the role and extent of edu- which would be destroyed by exces- marriages were determined by family cation. Arguments focused on the sive exposure to education. The rudi- and kinship networks according to smaller size of the female brain, the ments of reading, writing and a little prescribed sub-caste norms, the notion proneness of women - and particularly arithmetic, hygiene, needlework, of companionship in marriage was educated women to hysteria - and the embroidery and, in Bengal, the ver- increasingly seen as essential for the view that the body was a closed en- nacular as well as English, were re- success - as well as survival - of the ergy system; hence, if one region was garded as being more than adequate bhadralok caught up in a fast chang- developed, others, in particular the for them. While concern about the ing environment. Necessary for the reproductive organs, remained under- special requirements of women cultivated bhadramahila (gentle developed. As growth of both the resulted in much public debate on woman)6 was the spread of education. brain and the uterus were regarded as syllabi, textbooks and the place where The establishment of women’s edu- consuming substantial energy, it was girls should be educated, it also suc- cational institutions as well as that of clearly more important to develop a cessfully concealed, in part, a consid- zenana7 or home-centred instruction, woman’s reproductive organs by erable ambivalence towards the either by male guardians or employed putting minimal stress on her system. entire issue. The education of one’s women tutors shared the specific yet The study of science and mathemat- own womenfolk involved a very limited goal of making women ics were regarded as more taxing, and different set of values from the ratio- adequate life companions for the hence unsuitable for women. In any nale, for instance, behind agitating for bhadralok and better mothers for the case, these were not needed in the evo- home rule, and later, legislative new generation. Education had the lution of the cultured and well-versed representation. There was no

No. 85 27 guarantee that, if excessively liberated, viously very close to this group. The collaboration with the visiting Unitar- women would accept either the moral progressives then set up the ian, Annette Akroyd. The philosophy straitjacket imposed on them or the Samadarshi Dal (1874) which formed of the school was to accord girls the sexual double standard allowed for the nucleus of the Sadharan Brahmo same kind of education as was avail- men. Samaj established in 1878. able to boys. Dwarakanath Ganguly argued convincingly in support of his Between the years 1863 and 1890, One of the major points of differ- educational practices even as Victo- the number of girls’ schools went up ence of this group with Keshub rian England grappled with the issue from 95 to 2238 and the number of Chunder Sen was over the role of of a separate curriculum for girls. school-going girls from 2,486 to women and the kind of education they With single-minded devotion, 78,865.9 The majority were primary should have access to. In the Indian Dwarakanath took on the organisation school students. Clearly, a certain Reform Association of which he was of the Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya, and amount of deliberation in many homes a founder, Keshub did not permit the its successor, the Banga Mahila Vidya- lay behind this expansion. The teaching of geometry, logic, natural laya (1876); he not only supervised the Brahmo Samaj,10 of which Kamini science and history to girls. Sivanath running of the classes but also swept Ray’s father was a diligent member, Sastri who taught in a school for girls and cleaned the school premises after was deeply involved in the issue of founded by Keshub, argued unsuccess- a full day’s work. Dissatisfied with women’s education. Originally estab- fully with the latter over the right of the existing textbooks for mathemat- lished in 1830 as the Brahmo Sabha girls to the same curriculum as was ics, geography and health science, by Rammohun Roy, well-known for available to boys. Keshub maintained Ganguly wrote alternate tracts for his his campaign against sati, the that as a woman’s highest duty was to students.12 Among others these in- organisation aimed at restoring to Hin- care for her husband and family, a cluded the daughters of several mem- duism an authenticity quite distinct study of science, logic and mathemat- bers of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. from prevailing practices and social ics would be totally irrelevant for her; Durga Mohan Das’ daughter, Sarala, abuses. Rammohun was greatly in- in fact he castigated the progressives Monomohan Ghosh’s sister, fluenced by Unitarianism which be- for their views on women’s education Binodmoni, Acharya Jagdish Chandra lieved that religion meant rational which he felt were “highly revolution- Bose’s sister Swarnaprabha as well as worship combined with social reform ary and fraught with grave danger to Kadambini Basu - who was later to be and active work among the poor. In society”. Such an education would Dwarakanath’s wife - were beneficia- only “unsex women” and make them 1843, (poet ries of an education based on the be- unfit for their future roles.11 For sev- Rabindranath’s father) re-named the lief that women had the same right to eral years his views continued to pro- Brahmo Sabha as the Brahmo Samaj. all knowledge as did men. As a voke members of the Sadharan The first split in the organisation took founder member of the Vidyalaya, and Brahmo Samaj like Chandi Charan place in 1866, between the liberals led an ardent supporter of girls’ educa- Sen, who nonetheless had tremendous by Keshub Chunder Sen - who formed tion, Durga Mohan Das was very keen respect for Keshub as a spiritual the Naba Bidhan (New Dispensation) that his old friend Chandi Charan Sen, leader and social reformer. Brahmo Samaj - and the older gen- should send his eldest daughter to the eration comprised of Debendranath An early step of the Samadarshi school. The following extract deals and his peers. The latter now called Dal was to establish the Hindu Mahila with Kamini’s school years in their group the Adi (or original) Vidyalaya (Hindu Girls’ School) in Calcutta. Brahmo Samaj. Briefly, Keshub Chunder and his followers were for a Extract From Shraddhiki more active social work programme and felt that the Samaj had become From the day of its establishment Calcutta to be admitted as a boarder too obscurantist. Interestingly Durga Mohan babu13 had been per- at the Banga Mahila Vidyalaya. This enough, when the second split took sistently writing to my father with one was the first time that I ventured forth place in 1878, almost similar charges request: I should be sent to the with my father alone on a long jour- were levelled against Sen by younger Vidyalaya as soon as possible. My ney.14 The thought that I would be radicals like Dwarakanath Ganguly, revered father left my two younger sis- separated from my mother for six Sivanath Sastri, Durga Mohan Das ters and infant brother with my mother months pained me greatly. Both my and others. Kamini’s father was ob- in Basanda village and took me to mother and I were alike; we both wept

28 MANUSHI bitterly for each other. I did not feel any such emotion for my father. When I was a young child, my father appeared ashamed to display any tenderness or affection towards me in the presence of his elders or seniors. I, too, did not go anywhere near him. When a virtually unknown father came home, I clung to my paternal grandfather’s bosom. As a result, even in the absence of relatives, my father did not find the occasion to call me or fondle me. When, after seven years of regarding my father with animos- ity and fear, I came under his protec- tion, my enmity was dispelled, it is true; but the deeply entrenched fun- damental fear did not go. The man- ner in which my father displayed af- Students at Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya fection for my brothers and sisters, and to me. He appeared to be constantly and youth, blighting my happiness. the unhesitating way in which they afraid that when I went to school, my Even today, like a nightmare, the event talked to him and sought his indul- habits and inclinations would not haunts me fleetingly. gence, was never so in my case. measure up to his expectations. Throughout our riverine journey My father always had a distant and Those few days, my father did not restrained attitude towards me, simi- my father cooked for us as we had not hesitate to warn me as much as pos- lar to that of a guru-shishya relation- any servant with us. As I hadn’t till sible, about dressing-up, indulging in ship.15 I cannot ever remember sit- then got my father’s permission to luxury as well as comment on the ting on my father’s lap or being kissed enter the kitchen, I was singularly ig- ambience and pomp of the outside by him. Many years later my father norant about culinary skills. When I world. How I should behave in school; took care of my handicapped child for came to school I learned to cut and how I should respond to my peers almost two years. Once, writing from cook vegetables with my friends for when they teased me for devotion to Waltair, about the various aggressions the first time. my books and eschewed chatting and of this child, he said “in your child- playful activities; and how I should I will conclude this discourse with hood I had greatly neglected you. keep my own mind firm and com- a couple more instances of my father’s Your child is now receiving payment posed: my father spoke to me at length awareness of the need for an appro- for that: I am now giving your dues on these matters. He took out a note- priate education as well as inputs for with compound interest!” In reality, book and got me to write in it, “My character formation. When he re- my father showed amazing affection, life mission is higher than that of my turned to Manikgunge after leaving a patience quite out of keeping with school companions”. My father me in Calcutta, my father read the life his innate nature and a feminine requested me to keep these words al- story of a Jewish girl, Lila Ada. In endurance, towards this child. ways in mind; his desire for me to have her daily journal she had noted down I was describing my journey from these thoughts imprinted in my mind about twenty or twenty-two character- Basanda to Calcutta. Let me continue was not through arrogance or conceit; building promises; without delay, my with that. On the way I had got but rather his intention was to instil father copied these down and sent myself into a state of anxiety weeping in me the idea of life’s seriousness and them to me in a letter. Due to a short- for my mother. My father tried to dis- one’s duty. Without thinking too much age of time he was not able to note tract me by talking to me about a lot about it, I silently took down the these down himself, and had requested of other things. He gave me specific sentence in accordance with his a Brahmo house guest to do so. The portions from mind-improving books wishes. But the words troubled me same gentleman later translated rel- to read, and explained their meaning like a thorn throughout my childhood evant portions and published them in

No. 85 29 Dacca’s Bangabandhu newspaper. Manikgunge, he reflected “Keshub father’s friends, Durga Mohan My father sent me a copy of this as babu says girls need not be taught and Pandit Maheshchandra well.At this time some Brahmos mathematics, and rather than teach Nyayaratna, both members of the visited my father from Dacca. Like them logic and philosophy it would Bethune Committee, sent me a spe- Keshub Chunder Sen mahashay,16 be more useful to teach them rhetoric. cial invitation. In order to take up the they were opposed to an English-style But this is very wrong! Without a post, I wrote to my father requesting boarding school and higher education study of mathematics and logic the in- permission. At that time he was in for girls. They cited the Banga Mahila tellect can hardly attain clarity.” Krishnanagar and I was in Calcutta. Vidyalaya as an institution which was Fearing that a daughter, forever My father believed that knowledge imparting inappropriate education; in brought up in an ambience of comfort was desirable for his daughters from addition, the students did not show supervised by him, should have to the point of view of improving their proper respect for the Brahmo Samaj undergo any financial deprivation, he faculties as well as enabling them to and its preachers, and were even wrote to me, “I have educated you but savour the pure joy of learning. For ridiculed. I do not know whether the not in order for you to earn so as to many years he did not acknowledge allegation had any basis or not. How- survive. It pains me to think that you the need for them to have a job-ori- ever, upon hearing this, my father will be employed. But I have myself ented education. That his daughters wrote me a strong letter of chastise- given up my job. I will no longer be should work, or go into the business ment, explaining that Mahatma (great able to look after you in the manner of medicine and so on to earn a liv- soul) Keshub Chunder and his preach- in which I have done over all these ing, was never his desire. Earlier, he ers deserved deep respect and devo- years; it will also hurt me to see you was particularly opposed to medicine. tion, not ridicule. undergoing any form of privation. When, in 1882, Durga Mohan Das That is why I cannot any more object I had, in the meantime, come first mahashay sent his second daughter to to your taking up a job. At least, with in the Upper Primary examination of Madras to study medicine, then, your earnings you will be able to keep the Presidency Circle. However, despite the repeated request of this at bay privation and need.” instead of receiving a monthly stipend very old friend of his and my great of Rs 2 for two years, I was given a enthusiasm, my revered father did not Thus, I became a teacher. In the one-time award of Rs 10. Apparently, agree to send me along as well. I do meantime, on the advice of his friends as students of Dwarakanath Ganguly not know what he wrote to Durga and requests of my mother, my father from the Banga Mahila Vidyalaya had Mohan babu. He wrote to me “my withdrew his resignation. Soon after, won many scholarships, some inspec- daughters will not get into the busi- the government gave him a promo- tor had decided upon this arrange- ness of medicine”. In an attempt at tion. Four years later, in 1890, his ment. In his next letter, my father sug- consoling me he added, “rather than second daughter’s extreme eagerness, gested that I should donate this money be healers of the body, they will be my desire and Durga Mohan babu’s to the welfare of Brahmo preachers. healers of the mind, they will stay at approval - these three strengths com- Sadly, even before I had received his home and write mind-improving bined to dispel my father’s fear and letter, my teacher had bought me two books”. doubts regarding medicine. And books worth Rs 7, and the remaining despite his unwillingness, he gave my Rs 3 I had donated for famine relief. After writing Maharaj sister Jamini19 permission to join 17 On learning this, my father wrote “I Nandakumar etc., my father became medical college. In the future, he never will buy you whatever books you re- unpopular with the government. In had to regret his decision. My other quire. You need not spend your own 1886, instead of a promotion, he was sister Premkusum B.A., after passing money on them”. His enthusiasm for superseded by his juniors. As he felt her examination, taught at Bethune buying me books was matched by that that he had been unduly punished, he College, Brahmo Balika Vidyalaya of donating to the preachers’ welfare immediately sent in his letter of res- and Crossthwaite Girls School in fund. Clearly, he wished to awaken in ignation. Just at this time, the Lady Allahabad for some years. me a sympathy for the work of preach- Superintendent of , an ing as well as a desire to donate and Englishwoman by the name of Miss share. At the same time, he did not Lipscombe got married and left. Miss Chandi Charan may have had hesitate to criticise Keshub Chunder’s Chandramukhi Basu, M.A.18 was some inkling of his daughter’s grow- orthodox views on women’s educa- temporarily appointed to the post. In ing proclivities to protest and chal- tion. One day, a year earlier, in order to take the latter’s place, my lenge in 1882, Kamini led a movement

30 MANUSHI in Bethune School and College: in favour of the Ilbert Bill which al- lowed Indian judges to try cases in- volving the British, including its women. Despite his overall liberal attitude towards women’s education, Chandi Charan had definite reservations about the study of medicine and women’s employment. While Kamini does not go into any details of what lay behind her father’s views, he was later per- suaded to allow another daughter to train to be a doctor. Interestingly, Kamini did in part fulfill her father’s wishes by becoming one of the earli- est women poets in the region. At the The interior of a well-to-do Bengali home at the turn of the century age of twenty-five, she published Alo o Chhaya (Light and Shade) a volume (Calcutta: Ananda Publications, 1956) for a vants. Contemporary historian Rajat Kanta of poetry and continued writing till her detailed description of early beginnings. Ray feels that it is “better to look on the bhadralok as “constituting a respectable so- death in 1933. She married widower The writing of autobiographies by women is an area of growing interest for a range of dis- ciety rather than a single status group which Kedarnath Ray at the relatively late ciplines. See, for instance Chitra Deb, implies a misleading homogeneity”. (From age of thirty. Both she and her sister Antahpurer Atmakatha (Autobiography of page 30 of Ray’s Social Conflict and Politi- Jamini then, were among the first few the Inner Quarters) (Calcutta: Ananda cal Unrest in Bengal, 1875-1927). (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984). Ray’s successful and established women pro- Publishers, 1984); Malavika Karlekar, Voices from Within - Early Personal Narra- definition gives a more realistic analysis of fessionals in the country. Shraddhiki tives of Bengali Women (New Delhi: Ox- the bhadralok way of life, where the stress remains as a poignant testimony of the ford University Press, 1991); J. Braxton, on education and correct forms of behaviour Black Women Writing Autobiography aimed at marking a distinction with the challenges involved in the emergence chotolok, the small people or manual work- of such pioneers. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990); Personal Narratives Group (ed), In- ers and farm labourers, petty traders, shop- terpreting Women’s Lives: Feminist Theory keepers and so on. The term is used both to and Personal Narratives (Bloomington: In- describe the entire social category, as well as Endnotes diana University Press, 1989); (C. Stivers, an individual male from that category. 1. Shraddhiki was an eulogy in the form of a “Reflections on the Role of Personal Narra- 6. In The Changing Role of Women in Bengal biographical sketch read out at the time of tive in Social Science”, SIGNS, Vol.18, no.2, 1849-1905 (Princeton: Princeton University Chandi Charan Sen’s memorial service. It Winter. Press, 1984) Meredith Borthwick has identi- was published in 1913 by a certain Sudhir 3. Shraddhiki, p. 16. fied the bhadramahilas as the mothers, Sen, B.A., possibly a close relative of Chandi wives, daughters and sisters of the growing 4. The changes in Bengali society and the Charan. Here, I have tried to keep my trans- category of the bhadralok. See also Chitra growth of metropolitan Calcutta have been lation as ‘true’ to the original Bengali text as Deb, Antahpurer Atmakatha; Srabashi of interest to a number of historians and de- possible. At places, long sentences have been Ghosh, ‘Daimalir Karagar Bhangar Gaan’ mographers such as Murari Ghosh, et al, broken up into two or more short ones so as (Dailmali’s Song of Prison Destruction) Calcutta: A Study in Urban Growth Dy- to ensure clarity and precision in English. (Sharadiya Annsthup, 1985); Malavika namics (Calcutta: Firma K.L. The extract reproduced here is from pages Karlekar, Voices from Within - Early Per- Mukhopadhyay, 1972); N.K. Sinha (ed.), 39 to 44 of the 45-page pamphlet. Such sonal Narratives of Bengali Women and The (1757-1905) eulogies - some of which were subsequently Ghulam Murshid, Reluctant Debutante: (Calcutta: The , printed - were (and continue to be) an inte- 1967); and Anil Seal, The Emergence of Response of Bengali Women to gral part of the Brahmo Samaj memorial Indian Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge Modernisation, 1849-1905 for descriptions service. University Press, 1968). of the lives, attitudes and writings of these women. 2. Bengal was a pioneer in the introduction of 5. In his influential Elite Conflict in a Plural Western education; vernacular learning was Society (Bombay: Oxford University Press, 7. In Appendix Two, Murshid describes zenana already well-established in the region. The 1968), page 13 onwards, J.H. Broomfiled education in detail. first girls’ school run on English lines was has dealt with the term bhadralok at some 8. Edward Clarke’s Sex in Education (1873) started in 1819 by the Female Juvenile Soci- length. To him, they were the “gentle folk”, dealt with the purported harmful effects of ety, a part of the Baptist Mission. See J.C. a distinct status group comprising the landed learning on the reproduction functions of Bagal, Women’s Education in Bengal gentry, professionals and government ser- women. In “Sex Differences and Cognitive

No. 85 31 Abilities: A Sterile Field of Enquiry”, Dor- Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern In- 1879. othy Griffiths and Esther Saraga have given dia Mind pp. 123-8; Also Prabhatchandra 13. An honorific suffix often used after a a comprehensive overview of Nineteenth Gangopadhyay’s Banglar Nari Jagaran bhadralok man’s name. Century Western views on women’s abilities (Women’s Awakening in Bengal) (Calcutta: and related these to contemporary research. Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, 1945), pp. 65-66 14. In those days, much of Bengal, particularly Their article is included in Sex-Role Ster- describes Ganguly’s activities in his school. present-day Bangladesh, was connected by eotyping, edited by Oonagh Hartnett et al, By 1876, collaboration with Annette Akroyd river routes. London: Tavistock Publications, 1979. had come to an end: she appeared disillu- 15. A preceptor-student relationship. 9. These figures are from Murshid,page 43. sioned with the Bengalis and their mode of 16. Another honorific suffix for bhadralok men. functioning. While distance in time and his- 10. See David Kopf, The Brahmo Samaj and the torical age make it difficult to analyse rea- 17. Clearly, in addition to his legal practice, Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind sons for her withdrawal, it is nonetheless clear Chandi Charan Sen also wrote political (Princeton: Princeton University Press, novels and satires. 1979); and Sivanath Sastri, A History of the that a part of it must have been caused by the 18. Together with (who Brahmo Samaj, 2 volumes (Calcutta: R. deep cultural divide which separated not only became one of the two earliest women doc- Chatterjee, 1911) for accounts of the estab- men from women but also a woman of the tors in British India) Chandramukhi Basu lishment of the Brahmo Samaj, tensions Empire from colonised men. Borthwick dis- cusses Akroyd’s disenchantment on the passed her B.A. from Bethune College in within it and the world view of important 1883. They were the first woman graduates basis of the Akroyd-Beveridge papers, as well figures associated with it. All three Samajes of the University of Calcutta. Chandramukhi were strongly influenced by Protestantism. as some issues of the Bamabodhini Patrika, went on to become the first Bengali woman Hence the importance of the role of preach- a popular journal for women of the time. to pass her M.A. and then a teacher at Bethune ers, memorial services and the eschewing of Annette married Henry Beveridge, a College. idols. member of the Indian Civil Service in 1876. 19. Jamini completed her medical education in 11. Quoted on p. 239 of Sivanath Sastri’s A In 1878 the Banga Mahila Vidyalaya had 1897 and two years later, went to work in History of the Brahmo Samaj, Volume 1. amalgamated with the Bethune School estab- Nepal. She remained single and later in life 12. Dwarakanath Ganguly’s crusade is described lished through the efforts of the bhadralok went to Great Britain for further studies in in some detail in David Kopf’s The Brahmo in 1849. College-level classes were added in medicine.

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