Anandibai Joshee

Retrieving a Fragmented Feminist Image

Meera Kosambi

Anandibai Joshee was the first Maharashtrian woman to leave Indian shores in the latter half of the 19th century
for higher studies abroad to becOme the first Indian woman to qualify as a medical doctor. The Maharashtrian psyche
remains captivated by the image of Anandibai as a submissive and obedient girl-wife who fulfilled her husband's
visionary ambition for her. However, the series of images sketched by Anandibai's own words produce a self-portrait
in which the submissive wife coexists with an intelligent woman dispassionately perceptive of herself and her society.
This essay attempts to reach the 'real' Anandibai and reclaim her fragmented feminism.
WOMEN'S voices from the past, sometimes and support, was a personal commitment sketching the contours of Anandibai's life,
cogent and sometimes hesitant in articulating aimed at serving her fellow women, which the essay analyses the internal tensions and
the feminine experience and the feminist she defended publicly and sustained through fragmentation in her views on a variety of
protest, make it possible for us to contest perseverance against heavy odds. Hidden by gender issues, contextualises her within the
the received history of the late 19th century these foregrounded events was her less contemporary feminist thought, and assesses
Maharashtra. This history has consistently publicised personal life, itself a continuous the impact of her public stance on the
represented the reformist men as the sole struggle on many fronts, which ended women' s cause in Maharashtra." It concludes
crusaders against gender injustice in orthodox abruptly a little short of her 22 birthdays.3 by contrasting Anandibai's 'retrieved' image
Hindu society, successful in wresting If Anandibai captured, the popular with her popular image, and underscores the
emancipatory privileges for the benefit of imagination during her lifetime (and even need to free real-life women from a
women, posited as passive, mute objects a hundred years after her death), it was as fictionalised portraiture, as an essential part
who participated neither in the protest nor a young woman at the very threshold of life, of the feminist agenda.
in the struggle. The discrepancy between the who ventured into the unknown beyond the
available evidence and the conclusion which seas at the behest of her loved and revered I
disregards it is a matter of the hitherto largely reformer husband; who mastered the A Life-Sketch
uncharted politics of gender reform [Kosambi demanding vocation of a physician in order
1995b]. As part of the same politics, the to heal her suffering and neglected sisters; The initially conventional parameters of
feminist voices themselves have been and who died prematurely in her.prime, the life of Anandibai Joshee, nee Yamuna
effectively stilled and obscured by official sacrificed at the altar of these reformist Joshi, gave little indication of her future
history as well as mainstream society, through aspirations - thereby lending herself all too trials, tribulations and triumphs.9 Born on
a variety of strategies - by simply ignoring easily to the roleof a tragi-romantic heroine. March 30, 1865 in an impoverished
their existence, as in the case of Tarabai Thus the Maharashtrian psyche remains aristocratic Brahmin family of Kalyan near
Shinde's booklet on women and men,' and captivated by the image of Anandibai Joshee Bombay, Yamuna was one of the four
Rakhmabai's published letters on child as a submissive and obedient girl-wife who children who survived out of the total of nine
marriage and enforced widowhood;2 or by fulfilled her husband's visionary ambition born to Ganpatrao Joshi and his second wife
totally marginalising extraordinary women for her and who died even as she attained Gangabai. The proverbial unwanted daughter
and their contribution, as in the case of the glorious destiny he had outlined for her. suffered an attack of smallpox in childhood
Pandita Ramabai;5 or by co-opting a partial However, the series of images sketched which left faint marks on her face, doing
feminist into the pantheon of traditional by Anandibai's own words jigsaw into a little to improve her plain wheat-
female role models, as in the case of self-portrait - a somewhat fragmentary, complexioned looks. However, thanks to
Anandibai Joshee. Explored here is this last sometimes contradictory, but always a the unusual pampering by her maternal
case - an exemplar of the subversive process distinct, identifiable and cohesive self- grandmother who stayed with the family,
which transmuted an intelligent and portrait - in which the submissive, obedient Yamuna grew up sturdy and even earned the
independent woman and a potential threat wife coexists with an intelligent young nickname of 'wrestler' after defeating a
to convention into a popular incarnation of woman who is dispassionately perceptive of somewhat older male cousin in a friendly
a traditional husband-worshipping wife, herself and her society, independent in her fight.
shorn of her individual achievements. reasoning about contemporary genderreform Prompted by vaguely progressive ideas
Anandibai Joshee's life (1865-1887) was issues, fearless in articulating the obstacles which penetrated through the family's
the stuff that legends are made of. The child to women's education in India, and firmly otherwise orthodox lifestyle, Ganpatrao
of an orthodox brahmin family, she was the anchored to an Indian cultural and enrolled Yamuna in the school held in a part
first - and at the age of 18, also the youngest nationalistic identity. Through this of the family mansion, where she picked up
- Maharashtrian woman to leave the Indian fragmentary selfrportrait made up of a rudimentary literacy, though preferring to
shores in 1883 for higher studies abroad.4 multiplicity of images, we try to reach the play truant and spend her time in games with
She was also the first Indian woman to 'real'Anandibai and reclaim her fragmented the neighbourhood girls. The indulgent father
qualify as a medical doctor, having received feminism. boasted about Yamuna's ability to read, to
an American medical degree in 1886, before This essay aims to contribute to the his much shocked visitors who shared the
completing 21 years, during an era which rewarding exercise of reconstructing mainstream society's opposition to women's
forbade even simple vernacular literacy to women's 'doubly refracted' history,6 and education.
women. Her choice of a medical career, situates Anandibai within the emergent At the same time, in a reversal of the usual
though made partly with her husband's help feminismin 19thcentury Maharashtra.7 After parental roles, Yamuna's mother treated her

Economic and Political Weekly December 7, 1996 3189

with a harshness which far exceeded the result of early sexual intercourse and early an aunt die". This expression will show you
conventional maternal discipline through the pregnancy, was frequently discussed during in what respect and estimation a maternal
accepted methods of verbal and physical the Age of Consent controversy of the late aunt is held among us. If you allow me, I
chastisement. Yamuna recalled i n later years: 1880s [Kosambi 1991], but seems not to wish to look upon you as such.
My mother never spoke to me affectionately. have been identified in Anandibai's case. Carpenter's prompt consent cemented the
When she punished me, she used not just Gopalrao's avowed reformist aim of surrogate blood relationship.13
a small rope or thong, but always stones, educating his wife" seemed sure of fulfilment With the American avenue blocked,
sticks and live charcoal. Fortunately, my through his bright and receptive child-wife's Gopalrao's ambitions for his wife turned
body does not bear any scars, and her severe rapid progress in Marathi, and rudimentary towards making her the first Maharashtrian
beatings did not leave me maimed, crippled Sanskrit and English. He ensured freedom woman to take up paid government
or deformed. By the grace of God, my limbs from her family's possible interference and employment; and in April 1881 he obtained
survived intact! But oh! the sheer agony quietude for studies, through a transfer to a transfer to the Bengal Presidency
of those memories! 1 don't say this as a result Alibag on the Konkan coast. But he alienated which offered women jobs in the postal
of the emotional distancing which follows the conventional small town by not only
department.
the passage of childhood. Truly, she never educating his wife at home, thereby
understood the duties of a mother, nor did transgressing the rules of sex-segregation in .Life in Calcutta came as a culture shock
I experience the love which a child naturally 12
to the Joshees. Though in the vanguard of
feels for its mother. This memory hurts me daytime domestic activities, but also taking social reform, theBengali society was strictly
a great deal. A child which harbours fear her for evening walks - behaviour hardly sex-segregated, with "'zenana' too rigidly
for its parents cannot possibly feel affection tolerated even in large cities. observed", as Anandibai commented to
for them, and a child which feels love for Tired of this social isolation and even Carpenterin June 1881. Duringtheir evening
its parents does not fear them. Unfortunate harassment, and attracted by better walks, the couple were rudely stared at and
indeed is the child which has missed a educational opportunities for his wife, laughed at by both Indians and Europeans,
happy childhood. Because I understand Gopalrao obtained further transfers, first to and even harassed by a policeman once,, so
the problem, I feel sure that 1 also possess Bombay and then to Kolhapur. However, unusual was the sight. As further aggravation,
the solution. If I ever have a child, I will Anandibai' s attendance at the highly regarded the climate affected the health of both, and
teach people by my own example how missionary schools at both the places Anandibai took to her bed for several days.
children should be brought up [Kanitkar remained problematic in the face of social
1912:12-13*]."' The crowning misery came when Gopalrao
pressure, and lack of special encouragement lost an important dispatch from the Viceroy
That little Yamuna looked old for her age expected from the missionaries for this to the Governor of Bengal, for which he was
was a source of acute anxiety to her parents venture. Gopalrao.'s vicarious personal arrested and even temporarily suspended
who subscribed to the contemporary norm ambition, coupled with his acquaintance with from his duties.14 However, life finally
of mandatory pre-pubertal marriage for girls. American missionaries, ignited the radical resumed some normalcy, a rudimentary social-
The desperate Ganpatrao, additionally plan of taking Anandibai to America for network was established (to include mainly
handicapped by his inability to afford a higher studies. He appealed for help to the the few Maharashtrian brahmins inCalcutta),
dowry, was greatly relieved at his family Rev Wilder of Princeton, New Jersey, in and contact was made with the Brahmo
priest's discovery of Gopalrao Joshee as a September 1878, projecting himself as a Samaj, and also the Theosophical Society
potential match. Gopalrao, a 27-year old progressive brahmin struggling against caste of which both became members.
widower, was postmaster at the nearby town persecution to educate his wife, and The socio-cultural link with Maharashtra
of Thane where he lived alone while his enlightened enough to value the message of was nurtured throughout this time and during
parental family lived at Nashik. Known to Christ. The covering letter by Goheen of the Gopalrao's subsequent transfer to
be an eccentric, with reformist ideas (which American Mission in Kolhapur sketched an Barrackpore and then to Serampore in 1882.
he aspired unsuccessfully to implement by enthusiastic scenario of the converted Marathi newspapers were read regularly,
marrying a widow), he finally agreed to Brahmin couple as valuable propagators of and in April 1882, the Kesari of Pune
marry Yamuna alter extracting an unwilling Christianity. The far less sanguine Wilder published Anandibai's letter and verses
promise that he be allowed to educate her merely advised Gopalrao to stay on in India mourning the untimely death of the well
after marriage. Hasty preparations were made and confess Christ immediately. Severely known nationalistic but anti-reform writer
for the wedding, when Gopalrao gave the disappointed, Gopalrao sought yet another Vishnushastri Chiplunkar [cited in Kanitkar
Joshis their first taste of his eccentricity by transfer, this time to Bhuj in the Gujarat 1912:326-27]. It was also during this stay
not appearing for the event. Frantic region of the Bombay Presidency. at Serampore that Anandibai made an offer
negotiations were undertaken afresh, and An entirely unexpected global connection of hospitality to the prematurely widowed
the wedding was finally consecrated a few developed at this juncture. In the spring of PanditaRamabai, then living in Bengal [Dall
days later, on March 31, 1874. 1880, B F Carpenter of Roselle, New Jersey, 1888:vi-vii].
The customary change of personal name came across this correspondence published In the meanwhile, plans for Anandibai's
turned Yamuna Ganpatrao Joshi into earlierin the Missionary Review of Princeton; future had crystallised: she was to enrol at
Anandibai Gopalrao Joshee. A couple of and, overcoming her initial hesitation, wrote an American medical college with
years later, the immediate post-pubertal to offer Anandibai her whole hearted support. Carpenter's help. In fact, she was to sail to
consummation of marriage was performed The letter heralded a regular and copious America alone, with suitable female
with all ceremony demanded by orthodox correspondence leading to an unusual company, and Gopalrao, prevented by
custom, obviously without protest from the bonding between the 15-year old Anandibai financial constraints from accompanying her,
'progressive' Gopalrao. Anandibai's and the American lady old enough to be her was to join her later. The wildfire news
experience of motherhood at the age of 12, mother, whom she viewed in the light of an whipped up a storm of protest which
rendered additionally painful by the loss of affectionate aunt. In a letter dated January Anandibai decided to still through a well-
herinfant son, was followed by an impercepti- 20, 1881, Anandibai wrote: received and well-publicised public address
ble but steady decline in her health and her I already wish and feel that I should call you at the Serampore College in February 1883,
inability to bear more children. Such long- my aunt. There is a saying among us, "it does on the subject of "My future visit in America
lasting physiological damage, as a typical not matter much if a mother dies, but let not and public inquiries regarding it."

3190 Economic and Political Weekly December 7, 1996

 Finally, on April 7, 1883, the 18-year old
Anandibai sailed from Calcutta under the
nominal escort of American missionary
women, and finally met her American aunt.
After spending the summer with her at,
Roselle, Anandibai joined the Women's
Medical College of Pennsylvania (currently
the co-educational Medical College of
Pennsylvania) at Philadelphia in October
1883. The Dean, Rachel Bodley, warmly
welcomed the lonely young Indian woman
both to the College and to her home for the
next three years during which Anandibai
completed the full course of studies.
However, illness continued to dog Anandibai
even here. The combined effect of the cold
climate, the burning of anthracite coal in the
heaters, and the rigours of the demanding
medical studies took a heavy toll, and
Anandibai graduated from the College
already a victim of consumption. On March
11, 1886 Anandibai, now almost 21-year
old, received her medical degree amidst an
ovation at a splendid ceremony at which
Pandita Ramabai was a guest of honour.15
Also present at the graduation ceremony
was Gopalrao who had resigned his job in
1884 and travelled cheaply to the US (via
Burma, Siam and China), working his way
as a labourer. Immediately on arrival at San
Francisco, he acquired dubious publicity
through anti-American speeches which he
continued to give at all the stops on his way
to Roselle, while Anandibai hid her
embarrassment as diplomatically as her
friends - who had extended financial help
to both - hid their resentment.
Compelled by failing health to abandon
her initial plan of spending another year in
the US to gain experience of medical practice,
Anandibai accepted the fortunate offer of a
newly created post for a lady doctor in the
princely state of Kolhapur in the Bombay
Presidency. Gopalrao reluctantly gave up
his plan to travel further within the US and
also to visit England, and accompanied his
wife to India on October 8, 1886, reaching
Bombay five weeks later.
The Joshees were warmly welcomed by
the people and the press in Maharashtra -
as much for Anandibai' s success in education
as for her conformance to conventional dress
and diet, and for Gopalrao's nobility in
sending his wife abroad for medical
education. However, it soon became apparent
that Anandibai' s rapidly deteriorating health
responded to the treatment of neither western
doctors nor Indian Ayurvedic vaidyas
consulted at Bombay and at Pune where she
was shifted in December 1886.
On February 29,1887, Anandibai breathed
her last in a house of her mother's relatives
- the same house where she was born less
than 22 years earlier. She was cremated at
Pune, but her ashes were sent to Carpenter
and are buried in her family lot in the
Economic and Political Weekly December 7, 1996
Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, New York. of the distorted way of presenting women,
The black stone grave marker bearing the to aquestioningofthe (patriarchal) tradition,
inscription: "Dr Anandabai Joshee, MD, to the final reaching out to other women in
1865-1887, First Brahmin Woman to Leave search of sisterhood [Lernerl 992: xxi-xxii];
India to Obtain an Education"16 keeps her and also in the "feminist perspective" which
memory alive in an alien iand which became is an attempt "to describe women's
her home for the three fateful years which oppression, to explain its causes and
changed her life as it did the subsequent consequences, and to prescribe strategies for
social history of Maharashtra. women's liberation" [Tong 1992:1].
After Anandibai's death, Gopalrao did not The feminism which erupted spas-
remarry, and spent the rest of his life mostly modically on the social scene of Maharashtra
at Nashik and Pune, occasionally gaining in the early 1880s manifested most of these
notoriety for his well-publicised activities. crucial elements, while stopping short of the
The first of these, with the greatest nuisance notion of forming a sisterhood or engaging
value, was the tea party he helped to organise in collective action (except for Pandita
at the Panch Houd Mission at Pune in October Ramabai's Arya Mahila Samaj set up in
1890, to which about 40 prominent citizens 1882 as a definite attempt in this direction).
(including BG Tilak and MG Ranade) were This was hardly surprising, given the severe
invited. Although only some of the guests constraints on women's gatherings, except
drank tea served by Christians, Gopalrao for religious and family festivities. Nor did
had the entire list published in a newspaper, the isolated feminist voices which were raised
with a demand that they be required to from time to time form a discourse, in spite
perform the requisite expiation or be of personal networks and an exchange of
excommunicated for having lost caste letters among some of them."1 What is
(Mahratta,Ju\y 5,1891:4). The case dragged significant, however, is the fact that the
on for over a year and caused a great deal women's protests were qualitatively different
of harassment, without serving its ostensible from the contemporary male reformist
purpose of exposing the reformers' discourse (conducted within a partially liberal
hypocrisy. The second incident was a but firmly patriarchal framework), and
marriage of two donkeys perfomed in questioned many aspects of the patriarchal
December 1890, supposedly as a comment value system and the social institutions which
on child marriages performed by so-called it undergirded.
reformers. The third incident involved One of the earliest challenges came from
Gopalrao's conversion to Christianity at the Tarabai Shinde in her militant Marathi
end of June 1891, though he retained his booklet Stree-Puruslia Tulana published in
sacred thread and the mark on his forehead, early 1882, attacking the male double
contending that "although he has accepted standards of morality, and the male prejudices
Christ as his Saviour, he does not cease to against and abuse of women. In June 1882
be a Hindu" (Mahratta, July 5, 1891:3); was published Pandita Ramabai's Marathi
after about a month, he returned formally Stree-Dharma Neeti - an exhortation to
to the Hindu fold. In 1892 he made a short women (from a male reformer's perspecti ve)
and unsuccessful trip to England as a trader to cultivate self-reliance, and obtain
in Indian handicrafts, and published a Marathi education and skills in household duties and
travel description, with a rather unbalanced child care - whose generally anti-feminist
commentary. In September 1912, he died at tone was punctuated by brief but strongly
Nashik, penniless, without family or friends worded protests against male hypocrisy and
[Vaidya 1985]. His sporadic notoriety androcentric Hindu scriptures [Kosambi
notwithstanding, he left no permanent mark 1995a]. It was during her highly publicised
on the social scene of Maharashtra, and testimony before the Hunter Commission on
remains best-known as Anandibai's Education in September 1882 at Pune that
husband.17 Ramabai made a spirited stand for women's
education, including medical education, and
II for the need to appoint female teachers and
A Fragmented Feminism inspectresses for girls' schools because of
the male jealousy and tendency to obstruct
Through wide-ranging temporal and cross- women's education [Kosambi 1995a]. In
cultural shifts, three elements seem to emerge 1885 appeared Rakhmabai's letters to The
as pivotal to the myriad connotations of Times of India under the pen-name of 'A
feminism: the belief that women qua women Hindu Lady', in which she attacked the
are subordinated to and oppressed by men, custom of child marriage for exposing the
the ideal of gender equality, and action (either girl-bride to emotional harassment and
private or public) towards the achievement physical violence, while simultaneously
of this ideal [Kramarae and Treichler depriving her of education and the chance
1989:158-61]. The same themes surface in of personality development; and alsodetailed
the "feminist consciousness" which is said the variety of oppression experienced by
to haveevol ved historically from a perception widows in different age-groups; ending with
3191
reformist recommendations [cited in Varde
1991:190-208].
Theextent of Anandibai's familiarity with
any of these writings remains unknown.
Although away in Bengal and later in
America throughout these years, she did
keep in touch with the socio-cultural
developments in Maharashtra through Indian
newspapers which reported and commented
on many of these events and related debates.
It must be remembered, however, that Pandita
Ramabai's The High-Caste Hindu Woman,
almost an Indian feminist manifesto,
published in the US in 1887, post-dated
Anandibai's death by a few months.
This chronology assumes significance here
because many of Anandibai' s comments cited
below date from 1880-81 when she was 15-
16 years old - younger than Rakhmabai who
was 19 at the time of writing her 'Hindu
Lady' letters, and then Pandita Ramabai
who was 24 when she made her meteoric
appearance in Maharashtra in 1882. That
Anandibai was at all able to arrive
independently at her views on what would
now be called feminist issues, at that relatively
young age and in the absence of an ongoing
feminist discourse, is remarkable. Heryoung
age could be considered a significant factor
in explaining the occasional hesitation
apparent in her views, although she lived
in an era when emotional maturity came
early, as did family responsibilities, and
when a 15-year old girl was regarded as a
grown woman, often a mother (as Anandibai
herself would have been). Further, there is
no indication of a noticeable change in her
views as she grew older and was exposed
to a substantially different culture.
The problems of presenting a fair and just
interpretation of Anandibai's positions are
obvious: the paucity of material and the
resultant danger of reading too much into
a chance remark; the inevitably heavy
reliance on private correspondence not
intended for the public gaze19 - not even for
the biographer's unwillingly inquisitive gaze
- and therefore not formulated as well-
reasoned statements, although she obviously
put a lot of thought into her various
discussions with Carpenter; and the long
interval between successive segments of a
discussion (as a letter took about five weeks
to reach, even an immediate reply involved
a delay of ten weeks). Equally importantly,
Anandibai was struggling to express complex
ideas in a foreign language which she was
still in the process of mastering, and doing
so in a way which would give a stranger a
fair picture of unfamiliar and much criticised
Indian customs.
The broad gender-related foci of
Anandibai's privately expressed views and
public statements were: women' s subordinate
position in marriage, family, and society; the
custom of child marriage; the neglect of
3192
women's health; the need for training women
doctors to treat women patients; and the
obstacles to women's general education as
well as professional medical education. These
views are conspicuously moulded by her
strong nationalism and loyalty to the Hindu
culture.
Her universalised personal experience of
asymmetrical gender relations within the
typical Hindu marriage were unequivocally
expressed in the 37-year old Anandibai's
letter (dated about 1884) from America to
her 37-year old husband:
It is not at all my intention to distress your
dear heart or to cause a rift in our love by
raking up old memories... It is very difficult
to decide whether your treatment of me was
good or bad. If you ask me, I would answer
that it was both. It seems to have been right
in view of its ultimate goal; but, in all
fairness, one is. compelled to admit that it
was wrong, considering its possible effects
on a child's mind. Hitting me with broken
pieces of wood at the tender age of ten,
flinging chairs and books at me and
threatening to leave me when I was 12, and
inflicting other strange punishments on
me when I was 14 - all these were too
severe for the age, body, and mind at each
respective stage. In childhood the mind is
immature and the body undeveloped. And
you know how I acted on these occasions.
If I had left you at that immature age, as
you kept on suggesting, what would have
happened? I would have been lost. (And
any number of girls have left their homes
because of harassment from mothers-in-
law and husbands.) I did not do so because
I was afraid that my ill-considered
behaviour would tarnish my father's
honour... And I requested you not to spare
me, but to kill me. In our society, for
centuries there has been no legal restraint
between husbands and wives; and if it
exists, it works against women! Such being
the case, I had no recourse but to allow
you to hit me with chairs and bear it with
equanimity. A Hindu woman has no right
to utter a word or to advise her husband.
On the contrary, she has a right to allow
her husband to do what he wishes and to
keep quiet. Every Hindu husband can, with
advantage, learn patience from his wife.
(I do understand that without you I would
never have become what I am now, and
I am eternally grateful to you; but you
cannot deny that I was always calm.) I was
born to endure all that. But I am quite
content now [Kanitkar 1912:188-89*].
This clear indictment of Gopalrao' s verbal
and physical (and perhaps also sexual)
violence and autocratic behaviour as well as
her admission of her own helplessness as a
Hindu wife, are framed within the socio-
legal norms which sanctioned both. Here the
paradox surfaces again. The extract also
underscores the fact that Gopalrao's one
mitigating 'virtue', that of providing his
Economic and Political Weekly
wife with basic education and with the
opportunity to go abroad for higher studies,
was so rare at the time as to compensate for
everything else. As Anandibai wrote to
Carpenter from Bhuj on November 15,1880:
I do not expect much encouragement from
the other members of my family. They are,
properly speaking, orthodox to the letter,
and cannot be expected to sympathise with
me. But as my husband is so much in favour
of... [giving women] emancipation, no one
dares turn his face against me.
Anandibai's views on gender relations
and her own awareness of their complexity
(and possible contradictions) become clearer
in another letter to Carpenter [Bhuj,
December 15, 1880]:
[W]hen I ponder over the subject of the
connection between man and woman, I
generally side with the so-called orthodox
ideas. So long as woman is not on equal
terms with man, it is better for her to be
under certain social restrictions, such as
"not to marry again", "To be subservient
to man", "To look upon her husband as
God". These are the enjoinments of our
Shastras. On the other hand, when I think
over the sufferings to which woman is
subjected in all ages and at all times, I grow
impatient to see the western light dawn
upon us as the harbinger of emancipation
and future good. Here I feel my inability
to express myself as fully as I think. I am
led to believe that man and woman should
be self-protecting and that one should not
depend upon the other for maintenance
and other necessaries of life. Then and
only then, all family discords and social
humiliation will cease. I am very sorry to
see that there are many ladies among
Europeans in India who are educated and
accomplished for the purpose of marriage.
Alas! how mischievous it is for a lady to
adorn and change dress every hour in order
to allure bachelors (emphasis added).
The line of argument here develops from
a pragmatism (which appears like anti-
feminism), to a belief in ultimate gender
equality through western influence and
individual self-reliance, and further to a
nationalistic expose of the obverse side of
European society. To begin with, the
woman's subservient role as a husband-
worshipping wife, being an imperative of
the firmly entrenched patriarchy in Hindu
society, is best observed through customs
which reduce or eliminate her psychological
tensions and conflicts. In short, women,
handicapped with a lack of options, should
consenttotheirown subordination. However,
as these customs did entail a heavy cost to
women, it was hoped that patriarchy itself
would be challenged by the spread of western
civilisation, with its liberal value system and
institutions, thus emancipating women and
relieving their suffering. Ultimately, the
relationship of dependence and dominance
December 7, 1996
should be done away with altogether; in fact,
gender equality would become a distinct
possibility if its precondition, self-reliance,
was realised. In the meanwhile, it was
unfortunate that while Indian women were
hankering after the potentially emancipatory
gift of western education, European women
were frittering it away by short-sightedly
preferring to remain within the bondage of
marriage. By implication, European society
was not as advanced or as superior to Indian
society as was claimed.
In her above-cited letter of November 15,
1880, Anandibai also makes a somewhat
oblique and sarcastic reference to the
universal son preference in Indian families:
We have no polygamy to speak of... Our
people, if they at all take more than one wife,
marry for the sake of sons if they do not
have any by first or second wife. So you see
how fond we are of sons socially and
religiously. The Heavens are open to the
man who has a son, but not otherwise.
Women's social inferiority translated into
the general neglect of their needs, regarding
which Anandibai says, in one of her earliest
letters to Carpenter [Bhuj, July 19, 1880)]
We have the same dress for all the seasons.
We never put on warm clothes as it is
considered indecent, nor do we wear shoes
or boots as we seldom go outdoors. In short,
all these luxuries are for men, who feel cold,
warm and autumn [weather] and not for
women who are supposed to be impervious
to all these changes of climate. Should we
not envy you then?
Thecustomof child marriage,increasingly
challenged in India and already under attack
in the west, drew a somewhat vacillatory
response from Anandibai. Basically, it
seemed to be a dilemma of societal wisdom
which sanctioned the practice, as against
lived experience which protested against it
- a dilemma further complicated by her
unwillingness to condemn an Indian custom
to a westerner. In her letter to Carpenter
[Bhuj, August 23, 1880], she resolved the
dilemma by insisting, first, that all marriage
systems - Indian and western - were faulty,
and secondly that their alleged role in causing
women's health problems was doubtful as
even unmarried women had poor health:
I, of late, have been ill with something or
the other. In higher classes women generally
are very weak in India. I ascribe the cause
to the custom of early marriage prevailing
in all India but as you complain of the same
I think there is some wrong in the marriage
system.
The discussion on the effects of child
marriage was long drawn out, and Anandibai
was almost aggressive in her insistence that
women's health problems arose not from
child marriage alone, but from the institution
of marriage itself, or from independent
Economic and Political Weekly December 7, 1996
causes which affected even unmarried
women. Almost a year later she wrote
[Kalyan, March 1881]:
Early marriage is no doubt a bane. When
we deviate from the laws of nature, we must
suffer the consequences. The practice of
early marriage is not prevalent in many
countries and yet the women there often are
weak and ill-constituted as we are. I know
of one lady (who was a spinster) who was
always complaining of some thing or the
other and never appeared in good health. So
there are many European ladies in India, old
and young, whose faces are pale and gloomy.
There is no bloom on their countenances.
I do not know the cause. If it is early marriage,
as many of us suppose, I shall feel obliged
if you will kindly account for the same
condition perceptible in all civilised
countries20 in which there is no such thing
as early marriage. Early marriage will no
doubt be one of the causes which lead to
this havoc, and destruction of life. I admit
- that the condition of Indian women is
miserable and deplorable,... [But it would
be undesirable] if we try to destroy all the
old institutions as pernicious without having
some thing better to substitute for them. The
European mode of life and delicacy of
manners and customs are not... [worthy of
appreciation] as they appear on the very
face, are expensive and not within the reach
of the masses. Anything that cannot be
enjoyed by the masses must be bad. I however
hope that you will kindly enlighten me on
the subject I have so rudely and without
regard to logic or reasoning handled above.
My defence of our present customs and
manners will at least show you how ignorant
we are and how prejudiced are our opinions
against anything that is now prevalent. You
say that Nature has designed us to mate at
an early age and therefore infer that we must
be earlier married but not before puberty...
[B]ut it is neither Nature nor religion to
blame for introducing early marriage. There
must be something else which I leave it to
you to solve.
Surprisingly, Carpenter seems to have
supported early though not pre-pubertal
marriage, and possibly imagined that Hindu
child marriages were consummated before
puberty.
Somewhat abruptly, Anandibai's
vacillation ended in her very next letter
(Calcutta, April 1881) which made an explicit
and radical statement endorsing British
legislation for introducing social reform:
We have many societies for the prevention
of early marriages, but they cannot exercise
a powerful influence over the irresistible
tendencies of the generality of people. Almost
all the rich and influential people are orthodox
to the letter, and cannot be prevailed upon
to put a stop to heinous customs and manners
unless the strong ruling force interferes. The
custom of 'suttee' has been forcibly
abolished and the early marriage requires
a similarly deadly blow before it can give
way.
It is only against this background that one
can appreciate the nationalistic compulsions
in Anandibai's public defence of the custom
of child marriage at a meeting of American
missionary women in the spring of 1884.
Her American friends, unawareof her private
misgivings, saw this as an inevitable result
of her social conditioning: Dean Bodley, for
example, sought to dispel "the feelings of
disappointment and regret engendered that
April afternoon" by stressing "how
absolutely impossible it was for a High-
caste Hindu wife to speak otherwise"
[Bodley 1981:ii-iii].
A deep concern for women's health and
an urgently felt need for women doctors
underpinned Anandibai's career decision, as
she eloquently conveyed to Carpenter (Bhuj,
November 1, 1880):
I am late this time by 15 days to mail this
letter. It is on account of my serious illness,
which confined me to bed for nearly 3 weeks.
This sickness confirms me in my desire to
study medicine. Though my sickness was
not of a serious nature, yet I was at one
time so much affected that I had passed
some days and nights without the least
relief until we had recourse to professional
medical advice and treatment. As a rule
we Indian women suffer from innumerable
trifling diseases, unnoticed till they grow
serious. The internal diseases to which
women are naturally liable are never known
to anybody except the sufferers. It is
thought indecent to let them go to the
knowledge of the other sex, much more
[so to be] examined by male doctors. You
may therefore imagine the mortality among
Indian women. If I make no exaggeration,
fifty percent die in the prime of their youth
of diseases arising partly through ignorance
and loathsomeness to communicate of the
parties concerned, and partly through
carelessness on the part of their guardians
or husbands. It is not a calamity if a father
loses a daughter or two as he is thereby
spared much trouble and embarrassment
to which he is exposed by abominable
customs and manners (emphasis added).
In articulating this particular universalised
personal experience of the gynaecological
and other health problems of women,
Anandibai made no distinction between
private and public expression, as seen from
her public address at Serampore:
I go to America because I wish to study
medicine. I now address the ladies present
here, who will be the better judges of the
importance of medical assistance in India.
I never consider this subject without being
surprised that none of those societies so
laudably established in India for the
promotion of sciences and female education
have ever thought of sending one of their
female members into the most civilised parts
3193
 of the world to procure thorough medical
knowledge, in order to open here a college
for the instruction of women in medicine.
There is probably no country so barbarous
as India that would not disclose all her wants
and try to stand on her own feet. The want
of female physicians in India is keenly felt
in every quarter. Ladies both European and
Native are naturally averse to expose
themselves in cases of emergency to
treatment by doctors of the other sex. There
•are some female doctors in Indiafrom Europe
and America, who being foreigners and
different in manners, customs and language,
have not been of such use to our women as
they might. As it is very natural that Hindu
ladies who love their own country and people
should not feel at home with the natives of
other countries, we Indian women absolutely
derive no benefit from these foreign ladies.
They indeed have the appearance of
supplying our need, but the appearance is
delusive. In my humble opinion there is a
growing need for Hindu lady doctors in
India, and 1 volunteer to qualify myself for
one [cited in Dall 1888:83-84].
In the early 1880s, before the introduction
of the Dufferin scheme,21 medical education
was practically impossible for women to
obtain in India; where the opportunity existed
in theory, it was effectively negated in
practice by the male jealousy and hostility
towards women's professional education.
Even ordinary education was fraught with
difficulties because of the vocal social
opposition to Hindu women's school
attendance, as Anandibai described vividly
to her audience at Serampore:
I do not mean that there are no means [for
a woman to study in India], but the difficulties
are many and great. There is one college at
Madras, and midwifery classes are opened
in all the presidencies; but the education
imparted is defective and not sufficient, as
the instructors who teach the classes are
conservative, and to some extent jealous.22
I do not find fault with them. That is the
characteristic of the male sex. We must put
up with this inconvenience until we have
a class of educated ladies to relieve these
men.
I am neither a Christian nor a Brahmo.
To continue to live as a Hindu and go to
school in any part of India is very difficult.
A convert who wears an English dress is not
so much stared at. Native Christian ladies
are free from the opposition or public scandal
which Hindu ladies like myself have to meet
within and without the zenana. If I go alone
by train or in the street some people come
near to stare and ask impertinent questions
to annoy me. Example is better than precept.
Some few years ago, when 1 was in Bombay,
I used to go to school. When people saw
me going with books in my hands, they had
the goodness to put their heads out of the
window just to have a look at me. Some
stopped their carriages for the purpose.
Others walking in the streets stood laughing,
3194
and crying out [derisive remarks] so that I
could hear [them]...
Passers-by, whenever they saw me going,
gathered round me. Some of them made fun
and were convulsed with laughter. Others,
sitting respectably in their verandahs, made
ridiculous remarks and did not feel ashamed
to throw pebbles at me. The shopkeepers
and vendors spat at the sight of me, and made
gestures too indecent to describe. I leave it
to you to imagine what was my condition
at such a time, and how I could gladly have
burst through the crowd to make my home
nearer! [cited in Dall 1888:84-86].
This social resistance was aimed not only
at the fact of a woman encroaching upon the
field of education long treated as a male
preserve, but also at her attempting to cross
the domestic threshold to enter the public
sphere, as Anandibai was quick to point out:
Yet the boldness of my Bengali brethren
cannot be exceeded, and is still more serious
to contemplate than the instances I have
given from Bombay. Surely it deserves pity!
If I go to take a walk on the strand, Englishmen
are not so bold as to look at me. Even the
soldiers are never troublesome;buttheBabus
lay bare their levity by making fun of
everything. "Who are you?" "What caste do
you belong to?" "Whence do you come?"
"Where do you go?" are, in my opinion,
questions that should not be asked by
strangers. There are some educated native
Christians here in Serampore who are
suspicious; they are still wondering whether
I am married or a widow; a woman of bad
character or excommunicated! Dear
audience, does it become my native and
Christian brethren to be so uncharitable?
Certainly not. I place these unpleasant things
before you, that those who have never
thought of the difficulties may see that I am
not going to America through any whim or
caprice [cited in Dall 1888:86-87].
The society which denied women the
opportunity to study and practise western
medicine presumably excluded them also
from the traditional Ayurvedic medicine
monopolised by conservative Brahmin men.
However, Anandibai's staunch nationalism
prompted her to retrieve ancient Hindu
knowledge, as she declared to Carpenter
(November 15, 1880):
The Europeans are under the impression that
there is nothing worth knowing in Hindu
scriptures and I have therefore taken up
Sanscrit to show them how sublime, useful
and instructive are the precepts in Hindu
Shastras.
More specifically, this preoccupation was
reflected in Anandibai's medical dissertation
submitted for her MD, on 'Obstetrics among
the Aryan Hindoos' [Joshee 1886] - a topic
which she justified in these words:
As the importance of obstetrics can be
measured only by the value of life and health,
Economic and Political Weekly
and both being of paramount consequence,
it is deserving of most careful study. When
we realise how difficult and vast the subject
is, it is not surprising to find so many great
minds thoroughly absorbed in its magnitude,
from the time immemorial. Since our study
naturally embraces, the cause and effect,
race habits, climatic influences and means
of assisting Nature in her operations, we
must not entirely overlook the history of
past ages and consider the superior minds,
which laboured, with marked success in the
same field of investigation, under the
promptings of the same motives, as far back
as 15 Century B.C. They may enable us to
the better appreciation of the science and
pay due respect to the discoveries, theories
and mode of application of remedies of
minds of different nations at different times.
I therefore need not apologise for choosing
this subject...
The dissertation outlined in detail the "good
rules laid down by Manu the great aryan
legislator, Susruta, and other physiologists",
regarding the hygiene of pregnancy, causes
of abortion, preparation for lying in,
accidents of labour, and, briefly, the
diseases of infancy and was concluded
with these lines:
I have not mentioned those principles,
theories and treatment in this paper which
are entirely out of practice in India, though
there are many valuable things with perhaps
as many ridiculous ones in our ancient
medical and surgical literature (concerning
obstetrics) that are not in practice. I have
said too little to do justice to what is taught .
and practised among the brahmins but on
account of the rarity of valuable time and
space I am obliged to say no more.
That Anandibai's interest in ayurvedic
medicine transcended mere nationalistic
pride into genuine belief in its efficacy is
indicated by the fact that she was under
ayurvedic and not western medical treatment
during her last days (provided the choice
was hers and not her husband's).2' Had she
lived longer, she might even have been able
to forge a gradual entry into this orthodox
male-dominated science.
Ill
Articulations, Actions and
Social Repercussions
If Anandibai's conformist image
overshadowed everything non-conformist
about her, it was for rather complex reasons.
Tensions were inherent within the totality
of her partially feminist private beliefs, and
between these and her largely conventional
actions. If she made a progressive feminist
statement through her medical studies in
America to help ailing women back in India,
she also made an emphatically conventional
and anti-feminist statement by conforming
to the orthodox image of the ideal Hindu
wife - which probably originated partly in
December 7, 1996
genuine belief, partly in the need to keep
her reservations to herself in a society which
allowed no space for woman's protest against
the patriarchal family institution, and partly
in the nationalistic spirit which would not
allow her to criticise Indian society to non-
Indians. However, given the wide spectrum
of her contemporary feminist expression
(with various permutations and
combinations), these tensions may not
necessarily have resulted in a "cognitive
dissonance". The fragmentation obvious to
us from our very different vantage point may
not have been experienced as problematic
by her or her contemporaries.
In her private letters Anandibai
acknowledged the general subordination of
Indian women, their oppression within
marriage and family, and implicitly also
their sexual oppression, as well as the
religious and socio-legal endorsement of
these. In public, however, she never touched
upon these issues and even defended the
custom of child marriage. Incidentally,
Gopalfao himself, for all his reformistimage,
was a staunch supporter of child marriages
which, for him, was a matter of national
pride. In a letter to the editor of The Index
of Boston (April 1,1886), he defended child
marriages as "simple and innocent", born
out of the Indian "abhorrence of lottery in
love", because "late or choice marriages...
are made and unmade according to the
demands of lust". He insisted that Indians
did not want to adopt "this substitute for
early and permanent marriage" which was
a "cheap commodity from Europe", adding:
"Let England and America preserve it as an
emblem of independence and liberty".
Gopalrao's clinching arguments were that:
"Wherever the child marriage does not
prevail, there prostitution is carried on on
an extensive scale" and that "We have no
such divorce system as you have in the
United States". Whether Anandibai used
any of these arguments during her talk on
child marriage remains unknown.
It was only on one part of women's
subordination, namely the denial of education
and health care, that Anandibai's private and
public views coincided. At the same time,
her very visible deference and obedience to
her husband's wishes served to negate her
feminist stand, reinforce the conventional
ideal of womanhood, and resist all social
institutional change. Her respect for
convention, especially her insistence on
retaining a Maharashtrian brahmanic diet
and dress (with the only change that the
nine-yard sari was worn in the Gujarati style,
as more suitable to the cold climate)
underscored the traditional role of women
as the chief repositories of culture, and
received disproportionate attention. It is
possible that her behaviour stemmed more
from a mooring to her cultural anchorage
Economic and Political Weekly December 7, 1996
than any intended anti-feminism, but to the
contemporary Maharashtrian mind, this
achievement seemed as great as her medical
degree. The Mahraita welcomed the Joshees
to India by emphasising that "the difficulties
of Mrs Anandibai were such as no man or
woman of ordinary moral and physical
strength could have overcome", but that
happily she and Gopalrao overcame them
all and returned to India "with western culture
but without a taint of western vice. Mrs
Joshee has preserved her Hindu habits and
customs and that too at no small personal
inconvenience"; and invited "the orthodox
people as well as reformers" to "duly
appreciate the worth of. Anandibai's heroic
act" (November 21, 1886:4).
Anandibai' s public vow to "go to America
as a Hindu and return as a Hindu", which
she fulfilled in-letter and spirit, was cause
for great relief and reassuarance to a society
which had just Most' Pandita Ramabai to
Christianity in 1883 during her much-
opposed visit to England. Predictably this
aspect of Anandibai's life received
exaggerated publicity, favourably contrasted
with Pandita Ramabai. Given the fact that
other educated women like Ramabai and
Rakhmabai had attacked Hindu social
customs and even religion, it was natural for
conventional society to seize the opportunity
to claim Anandibai as its own, more in spite
of than because of her medical degree. After
all, presenting Anandibai as a role model
had the advantage of pressing home the ideal
of the devoted wife without the fear that any
other woman would be inspired to emulate
her educational achievement - simply
because none would be allowed to, either
by her husband or her marital family. It is
significant that the next woman to become
a medical doctor was Rakhmabai who left
for England in 1889, a year after she was
formally released by her husband from the
marriage which she had repudiated, and with
full support from her parental family
[Kosambi 1995c]. Obviously, not many other
women of the educated class would have
such freedom.
Thus the social repercussions of
Anandibai's fragmented feminism were
predictably complex and contradictory. Even
while her 'submissive wife' image valorised
the patriarchal ideal and indicated the limits
to women's achievements, this very
conformity to convention enabled her to
carve out a new emancipatory space for
women within this constricting social
structure [Kosambi 1994:191.
IV
Popular Image and Retrieved Image
It is ironical, though perhaps not surprising,
that Anandibai's original image as an
achiever, projected by her feminist
biographers Kashibai Kanitkar and Carolyn
Dall, came to be effectively subverted by her
popular image created by a male novelist,
S J Joshi (1970).
Kashibai Kanitkar's biography of
Anandibai is unique as the very first
biography of a Maharashtrian woman written
by a contemporary, herself a woman, and,
moreover, in Marathi. In her Preface,
Kashibai records her feminist idealistic
determination that the biography of such a
great woman should be written by a woman,
and not by one of the many willing men -
a determination which ultimately compelled
her to undertake the task herself, with an aim
spelt out in these words:
If this book ignites, in the mind of even a
single one of my sisters, a spark of the
patriotic fire which forever burnt in
Anandibai's great heart, I shall consider
myself blessed and the happiest person in
the universe [Kanitkar 1912, Preface:4*].
In elucidating Anandibai's greatness,
Kashibai identifies the obstacles confronting
her and the resultant tensions:
Aiming at the general progress of her sisters,
Anandibai was able to display several
achievements, such as constantly battling
with obstacles in her path; working out a
compromise between the old and new
viewpoints with wisdom, far-sightedness
and maturity; pleasing the modern
impatient reformers without hurting the
old-fashioned people; not adopting a
foreign religion even after spending three
years in a totally Christian country;
cherishing her own cultural practices
without offending the foreigners -
achievements which no man has so far
been capable of! What does our country
need? The answer is - determined and
courageous individuals like Dr Mrs
Anandibai [Kanitkar 1912, Prefaced*].
Kashibai's biography, intended to serve
the dual purpose of inspiring women to great
achievements, and inducing men to support
them, is consciously used as a platform for
making public statements on the problems
of women, invariably accompanied by
suggested liberal reformist solutions. Her
perception of Anandibai as a role model
forms the very basis of the biography, written
as a 'modest commemoration' of her
extraordinary efforts for national welfare
[Kanitkar 1912:322].
This reformist stance stemmed from
Kashibai's unstated but obvious empathetic
understanding of women's problems,
within a shared socio-cultural context. At
ihe same time, being situated in a society
in transition also created inner tensions
and contradictions in Kashibai's ideological
position. Her conscious tussle with the
power of patriarchy and her occasional
submission to it are reflected in an
ambivalence (also shared by Anandibai)
which result in her projection of Anandibai,
3195
alternately as an independent agent and a
creation of her husband to whom she owed
a heavy debt of gratitude. /
Predictably, only one part of Anandibai's
image, that of a devoted wife who followed
her reformer husband's dictates and was
propelled into fame as his creation, gained
ground during her own lifetime when
Gopalrao Joshee was much lionised as a
reformer who outpaced others to make his
wifeintoarole model for Indian womanhood.
Endorsed by an ambivalent Kashibai
Kanitkar herself, this image assumed a life
of its own as the real Anandibai Joshee half
a century later in S J Joshi' s gripping Marathi
novel Anandi Gopal (1968,1970). The novel
weaves an imaginary world around an
authentic and very selective biographical
core taken from Kashibai (creating a
misleading impression of it being genuinely
historical source material), and has enjoyed
immense popularity, together with its stage
adaptation. But, for all its appeal and
occasional insights into a bygone age, it
remains a work of fiction - which becomes
problematic mainly for its subversive
androcentric projection of a passive non-
feminist image of Anandibai. The same holds
true of its abridged English translation
Anandi Gopal (1992).
Ironically, S J Joshi also claims empathy
with the Joshees, born out of a shared middle
class Brahmin culture and life-style of pre-
World War II Pune, which according to him
had remained unchanged for a hundred years
[Joshi 1970: Preface]. Joshi imposes this
cultural ethos, built around the mainstream
Brahmin society's strongly patriarchal
values, preferences and frustrations, on the
narrative of the Joshees' lives, but is unable
to grasp the socio-political transitions of the
late 19th century, or the distance travelled
by the Joshees (especially Anandibai) from
the shared brahmanical culture. In fact, the
novel's protagonist is not really Anandibai
who is portrayed as a tragic and almost
defeated figure rather than a courageous one
facing life's challenges, but Gopalrao who
is portrayed as a frustrated visionary whose
mischievous eccentricities (some of which
the author has located before Anandibai's
death as a matter of artistic licence) are
presented as justifiable or even heroic. In
fact, the novel reaches its climax with
Anandibai's realisation and admission, on
her death-bed, that Gopalrao is far ahead of
their society which is incapable of
understanding his true worth. Thus an
'empathetic' subjective interpretation,
unfounded on facts, distorts an intelligent,
self-sufficient, independent, young
Anandibai - outspoken about the need for
women's education and health care,
staunchly nationalistic but open-minded
about matters of religion, and possessing a
quiet sense of humour - into a pathetic
3196
puppet living in constant dread of her
husband's fiery temper and venomous
tongue.
As one perceptive critic of the novel has
pointed out, Gopalrao's undoubted courage
in sending Anandibai alone to America need
not be accorded inflated importance, nor is
there any justification for his blatantly
publicity-hungry behaviour or his jealousy
of his wife's achievements which made
him constantly upstage and humiliate her
through verbal attacks on her and every-
thing associated with her success - the
American society, women's education,
and finally even western medicine [Dhond
1994J. In misrepresenting Gopalrao, S J
Joshi has also misrepresented Anandibai
whose sadly short but eventful life has
been reduced to a melodrama, whose
agency has been buried under her alleged
submissiveness, and whose innovative
coping mechanisms [Kosambi 1992] have
been completely obscured.
Unfortunately it is this image which
has captured the Maharashtrian psyche.
Arguably then, Anandibai's real tragedy is
to live on through a false popular image
as an intelligent but dependent and
obedient wife of an allegedly visionary
husband rather than as an independent agent
with a will of her own - a popular image
which has successfully eclipsed heremergent
feminism, however fragmented and
contradictory.
Notes
[This article is based on the material collected
during the last few years towards a forthcoming
book on Anandibai Joshee.
I would like to acknowledge my gratitude
to the following individuals: William Cobb of
Ridgewood, New Jersey, US, the great-grandson
of B F Carpenter, for giving me a copy of a
near-complete set of Anandibai's letters from
India to Carpenter in the US; Arvind Tikekar,
former librarian of the Jawaharlal Nehru Library
of Bombay University, for making available a
copy of Anandibai Joshee's medical
dissertation; and Aroon Tikekar, editor of the
Loksatta, for sharing a copy of Dall (1888)
before I had access to it in the New York Public
Library.
It should be clarified that the wide variation
seen in Anandibai's style of writing has arisen
because some of her letters are available in the
original, some (along with the manuscript of
her speech) are available in Dall's edited version,
and some have been translated by me from the
Marathi originals (or translations) in Kanitkar
(1912).]
1 Tarabai Shinde's booklet Stree-Purusha
Tulana (1882) was resurrected by G S Malshe
in 1975.
2 Rakhmabai's court case was first discussed
by Y D Phadke in an article in 1977, and
further details together with her letters
Economic and Political Weekly
(published under the pseudonym 'A Hindu
Lady' in The Times of India in 1884) were
publicised in Mohini's Varde's biography of
her (1982). For a further discussion of
Rakhmabai's court case and the controversy
surrounding it, see Kosambi (1995c).
3 The only writings of Pandita Ramabai
currently available are The High-Caste Hindu
Woman (1887) reprinted in 1981 by the
government of Maharashtra, and ,4 Testimony
periodically reprinted by the Ramabai Mukti
Mission at Kedgaon (10th ed, 1977). For a
discussion of Ramabai's contribution and
marginalisation, see Kosambi (1988, 1992,
1995a).
4 Anandibai sailed on April 7, 1883 from
Calcutta for New York via London, under
the nominal escort of European missionary
ladies, but alone for all practical purposes.
A few days later, on April 20,1883, Pandita
Ramabai sailed for London from Bombay
with her baby daughter and a woman
companion.
5 Short lives are often seen as a biographical
handicap: "It may be romantic to die young,
• but poets aside, it's not much of abiographical
proposition" [Roe 1992:5]. Anandibai's short
life had complex effects: while the
biographical material is rich enough to
overcome the handicap, her early death (with
the obvious and oft-drawn comparison with
Keats) served to romaticise and popularise
her, for better and for worse.
6 Gerda Lerner (1992:xix) discusses the existing
documentation of women's history as
"refracted doubly -through the lens of men's
records and observations; through the
application to it of male values".
7 This has been partly done in Kosambi (1995a),
while discussing Pandita Ramabai's evolution
towards feminism.
8 Anandibai's views and their effect on
Maharashtra have been partly examined in
Kosambi (1994), in comparison with those
of Rakhmabai and Pandita Ramabai.
However, new material has since come to
light, in the form of Anandibai's letters
mentioned above.
9 These biographical details have been
collected largely from Kaniikar(l912)and
supplemented with Dall (1888).
Anandibai's parental family spelt the
surname as 'Joshi' and her husband as
'Joshee'; the same spellings are retained
here. Maharashtrian names are written
starting with the personal name, followed
by the father's or husband's name, and
lastly by the surname.
10 All quotations marked with an asterisk (*)
are my own translations from the Marathi.
11 The few young women who managed to get
an education did so at home from their
reformer husbands; it was nol considered
'proper' to send girls to school; in any case,
girls' schools existed only in large towns
and cities.
12 The tutoring of wives was done at night,
• when the couple could legitimately spend
time together. A case in point is Ramabai
Ranade's experience of her lessons done in
the early hours of the morning, and her
December 7, 1996
 harassment by the older women in the family
for even agreeing to be educated [Ranade
1910]. An excellent and representative
statement of the daytime sex-segregation
within the house is the remark by
Anandibai's contemporary, Yashodabai
Joshi: "During the whole day, the menfolk
and the womenfolk in our house did not
even see each other except at mealtime;
then what possibility was there of talking
to each other or spending time together?"
[Y Joshi 1985:17*].
13 The urge to convert a close friendship into
a surrogate blood relationship was
conspicuous in other contemporary cases as
well. Pandita Ramabai, for example, called
her elderly spiritual preceptress Sister
Geraldine 'Ajeebai' (grandmother) [Pandita
Ramabai 1977].
14 This particular experience of the British
official attitude to Indians seems to have
considerably reinforced Anandibai's anti-
social stance which surfaces in some of her
letters - a stance which contrasts with an
affinity to Americans who were perceived to
be free from colonial biases (though not from
the bias of racial/cultural superiority to which
Anandibai did react sharply in her private
letters to India). The same triangular Indo-
British-American relationship also played an
important role in Pandita Ramabai's life and
career.
15 Bodley had written a special letter of invitation
to Pandita Ramabai (then in England) for this
occasion, acknowledging that it would greatly
benefit Anandibai if Ramabai "gave your
sanction to her act and enfolded her and her
work in your own future leadership" [Pandita
Ramabai 1977:165].
16 Anandibai's name was sometimes spelt
'Anandabai' by her American friends,
including her biographer Dall, though not by
the Carpenters, which makes the discrepancy
noticeable in this case. The grave marker
features as a landmark on the 'walking tour'
offered by the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.
My first sight of it on a cold and snowy day
in December 1995 was almost overwhelming
in its symbolism.
17 Gopalrao's only other lasting contribution
was the education of his late brother's
only child, a daughter named Sat, later
married to Wrangler R P Paranjape of Pune.
Saibai was the mother of Shakuntalabai
Paranjape, famous for her writings and
pioneering work in family planning (as
an associate of R D Karve, son of D K
Karve), and the grandmother of Sai
Paranjape, the well-known playwright and
film-maker. This is another link across time
which brings Anandibai and Gopalrao closer
to us.
18 In the early and mid-1880s, Pandita Ramabai
corresponded with both Anandibai Joshee
and Rakhmabai (who had been the secretary
of the Bombay branch of the Arya Mahila
Samaj [Varde 1991:132], and possibly also
Ramabai Ranande (who, however, was
hardly a feminist) and Kashibai Kanitkar
with both of whom she was well acquainted.
Anandibai Joshee corresponded also with
Economic and Political Weekly December 7, 1996
Ramabai Ranade and possibly Kashibai
Kanitkar.
19 Anandibai registered her strong displeasure
in a letter to Gopalrao from America (January
9, 1884) about his habit of sharing her
letters with acquaintances, and explicitly
requested him not to give them for
publication as he was planning to do
(Kanitkar 1912:224-29). At that time he had
already had extracts from her letters
published in newspapers (e g, The
Theo.wphi.ti, August 1883, October 1883;
Kesari, November 6, 1883).
20 Anandibai's frequent usage of terms such as
'civilised countries' for Western countries
and 'Natives' for Indians was in conformity
with contemporary practice.
21 A landmark in this field, the Dufferin scheme
(more accurately 'The National Association
for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the
Women of India', popularly known after its
president, the Countess of Dufferin) was
launched in 1885 with the objective of
bringing "skilled medical women from
Europe and America" to provide medical
relief to Indian women; training Indian
women as doctors, nurses and midwives;
and opening women's hospitals and "female
wards". The first Indian beneficiary of this
scheme was Anandibai, and the second,
Dr Rakhmabai.
Before the introduction of this scheme,
English girls in India surmounted the
difficulty by returning to Europe or going
to the US to study medicine. It is interesting
to note that among the women who graduated
with Anandibai in March 1886 was one
Jessica R Carleton from India (The
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, March 11,
1886:6).
22 The clearly feminist reference to the male
jealousy of female achievement as a major
obstacle for women also occurs in Pandita
Ramabai's testimony before the Hunter
Commission on Education in 1882.
23 Kashibai Kanitkar claims that Anandibai
herself had insisted on Ayurvedic treatment.
However, she admits to having generally relied
on Gopalrao's testimony even while
questioning its veracity. This inconsistency
remains a weakness in her otherwise excellent
account of Anandibai's life and letters.
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