Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon pp 237–268Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Pandita Ramabai Saraswati (1858–1922)

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 2950 Accesses

Abstract

Pandita Ramabai was a social reformer in nineteenth-century British India. She offered an unyielding critique of Hindu orthodoxy, caste and patriarchy and argued that education would raise the status of Hindu women. Ramabai was a social thinker and reformer who valued and advocated freedom of thought and action and worked tirelessly so that equality and progress could be achieved for women. Her critique of Indian and British society was carried in her overt confrontation of Hindu orthodoxy, patriarchy and British imperialism. Ramabai’s overseas travels produced reflections about the places she visited and the cultures she encountered. These writings document her observations about the societies she encountered and embody her critique of slavery, racism, patriarchy and institutionalized religion (including religious structures in Christianity) and her comparative observations about the status of women in India, England and the USA.

Ramabai’s name appears in various forms in the literature: Pandita Ramabai Saraswati; Pandita Ramabai Mary Saraswati (in her Christian persona); Ramabai Dongre Medhavi (connecting to her parentage and marital identity).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Meera Kosambi, Pandita Ramabai through her own words: Selected works (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), 117.

  2. 2.

    Public interest in India in Ramabai’s overseas activities remained intense and were reported in the Indian media routinely. For example, even the news of her ill health and deafness was reported in The Times of India.

  3. 3.

    Letters and editorials in The Times of India archives reveal tremendous public interest in Ramabai’s activities abroad and, especially, the news of her conversion to Christianity. Her reform work upon her return to India in 1889 was plagued first in being funded by American donations and by accusations that the ‘secular’ and religiously neutral institution like Sharada Sadan that she had established for the education of widows were in fact engaged in missionizing activities. These led her supporters – Ranade, Tilak, Bhandarkar, Deshmukh, Pandit and Telang to dissociate themselves from the institution.

  4. 4.

    Joshi had begun her medical studies in the USA when she was 17 and returned to India years later as an M.D. She tragically died of tuberculosis six months after she arrived in India. She had requested that her remains be sent to the USA for burial and her family acceded to this. Ramabai attended Joshi’s graduation ceremony and delivered a lecture on the status of women.

  5. 5.

    In addition, a total of 63 ‘Ramabai Circles’ were also formed across the country by 1888 and offered spiritual and material support to Ramabai’s work in India, raising substantial funds. By 1890 more than 75 such circles had been established, ‘demonstrating the pervasive appeal of Ramabai’s cause to a wide spectrum of age groups and regions.’ (Kosambi 2003, 23).

  6. 6.

    When she died she was remembered variously, not least as one of the ‘makers of modern India’ (The Times of India).

  7. 7.

    This was the first Indian Education Commission, set up on 3 February 1882 under the Chairmanship of Sir William Hunter, a member of the Executive Council of Viceroy. Ramabai gave her testimony before the committee in Poona on 5 September 1882 (Kosambi 2003, 242).

  8. 8.

    All of these primary writings are available in English translation through the efforts of Kosambi in a resource text, Pandita Ramabai through her own words,2000, New Delhi: OUP.

  9. 9.

    Conlon, Book review of Padmini Sengupta’s, Pandita Ramabai Saraswati, Pacific Affairs 44 (4): (1970), 632.

  10. 10.

    A.B. Shah (ed.), The letters and correspondence of Pandita Ramabai (Bombay: Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture, 1977).

  11. 11.

    Susie Tharu and K. Lalita. (eds.), Women writing in India, 600 B.C to the Present. 2 vols (Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 1995), 243.

  12. 12.

    Grewal, Home and Harem, 1996.

  13. 13.

    Clementia Butler, Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati: Pioneer in the movement for the education of the child-widow of India (Fleming H. Revell Company: New York, 1922), Geraldine Forbes, Women in Modern India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

  14. 14.

    Bannerji 2000, Butler 1922, Chakravarti 1996, Chakravarti 1998, Chakravarti 2001, Dyer 1900, Grewal 1996, Hedlund et al. 2011, Kosambi 1992, Kosambi 1988, Macnicol and Mangalwadi 1996.

  15. 15.

    Fuller 1939, Kosambi 2000b, Robinson 1999, Sengupta 1970.

  16. 16.

    Dharwadker 2002.

  17. 17.

    Blumhofer 2008, Case 2012, Ganachar 2005. Hedlund et al Kosambi 1992, McGee 1999, Symonds 1993, Symonds ‘2004, Viswanathan 1998.

  18. 18.

    Midgley 1998, 101. Ramabai’s contributions to women’s upliftment are recorded in volumes on Indian women: Desai and Thakkar (2001) mention Ramabai in passing once, while Forbes’ 1996 text carries a substantial discussion of Ramabai’s biography, efforts at building educational institutions for women, her conversion to Christianity as well as some of her publications.

  19. 19.

    Kosambi 2000, 2.

  20. 20.

    Ellis, carolyn, Tony E Adams and Arthus P Bochner, ‘Autoethnography: An Overview’ Volume, 12, No 1, January 2011 (http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095, accessed 10 May 2015).

  21. 21.

    Celarent 2011.

  22. 22.

    Celarent 2011, 360.

  23. 23.

    Celarent 2011, 360.

  24. 24.

    Grewal, Home and Harem, 1996, 185.

  25. 25.

    Bapat, Pandita Ramabai, 1995.

  26. 26.

    Kosambi 2000, 16.

  27. 27.

    Ramabai, ‘The Cry,’ Kosambi (ed), 2000, 106.

  28. 28.

    Ramabai, ‘The Cry,’ Kosambi (ed), 2000, 106.

  29. 29.

    In this letter, Ramabai switches between speaking of ‘Hindoo women’ and ‘Indian females’ – using them interchangeably.

  30. 30.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 7.

  31. 31.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 7.

  32. 32.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 36.

  33. 33.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 36.

  34. 34.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 39.

  35. 35.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 39.

  36. 36.

    Clare Midgely, Gender and Imperialism, 1988, 101.

  37. 37.

    A.B. Shah, ‘Pandita Ramabai: A rebel in religion,’ In A.B. Shah (ed) Religion and Society in India, Bombay: Somaiya, 1981.

  38. 38.

    See Bapat 1995.

  39. 39.

    Ramabai in a letter to Sister Geraldine, 12 May 1885, in A.B. Shah Letters and Correspondences of Pandita Ramabai, 59.

  40. 40.

    Ramabai to Sister Geraldine, A.B Shah, The letters and correspondence, 59.

  41. 41.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), Pandita Ramabai through Her Own Words, 39.

  42. 42.

    Ramabai’s condemnation of women who are slothful, idle and avoid industry is akin to Martineau’s critique of middle-class Victorian women.

  43. 43.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 40.

  44. 44.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 45.

  45. 45.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 46.

  46. 46.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 47.

  47. 47.

    Ramabai, SDN, Kosambi (ed), 2000, 92.

  48. 48.

    Kosambi 2003, 37–8.

  49. 49.

    Meera Kosambi, ‘Women, Emancipation and Equality: Pandita Ramabai’s Contribution to Women’s Cause.’ Economic and Political Weekly 23 (44), (1988), Shah, The letters and correspondence, 1977.

  50. 50.

    Bapat, Pandita Ramabai: Faith and Reason, 1995.

  51. 51.

    Celarent, The High Caste Hindu Woman, 357.

  52. 52.

    Grewal, Home and Harem, 1996, 179-180.

  53. 53.

    Kosambi, Women, Emancipation and Equality…, 43.

  54. 54.

    Ramabai, HCHW, 1887,

  55. 55.

    Ramabai, HCHW, 1887, 98.

  56. 56.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 169.

  57. 57.

    Ramabai, HCHW, 1889, 98–107.

  58. 58.

    Kosambi 2003.

  59. 59.

    Kosambi, Pandita Ramabai Through Her Own Words, 2002a.

  60. 60.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 95.

  61. 61.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 95.

  62. 62.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 114.

  63. 63.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 115.

  64. 64.

    Kosambi, Returning the American Gaze, 2003.

  65. 65.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 93.

  66. 66.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 93.

  67. 67.

    Kosambi, Returning the American Gaze, 2003.

  68. 68.

    Celarent, HCHW, 2011.

  69. 69.

    Ramabai is mistaken about the date of Martineau’s visit to the USA.

  70. 70.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 167.

  71. 71.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 1889, 168.

  72. 72.

    Ramabai, TPUS, 189, 168.

  73. 73.

    ‘The Kaiser-i-Hind Medal for Public service in India’ was a ‘decoration’ awarded by the British Monarch between 1900 and 1947 (it ceased to exist in 1947) to ‘any person without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex…who shall have distinguished himself (or herself) by important and useful service in the advancement of the public interest in India.’ (The London Gazette, 11 May 1990, 2996).

  74. 74.

    http://satucket.com/lectionary/Alpha_list.htm (accessed 12 August 2015).

  75. 75.

    The hostel was dedicated to the memory of Ramabai and made possible by a financial ‘gift’ from the American Ramabai Association to Wilson College. The association had ‘held certain invested funds in Bombay, the interest of which was used for the maintenance of work more or less on the lines that the Pandita undertook.’ (The Times of India, 5 February 1932, 15).

  76. 76.

    Tarabai Sathe, The Times of India (2 September 1964), 8.

  77. 77.

    K.S.Abhayankar offers the corrective that although Ramabai was one of nine to ten lady delegates attending the 1899 Indian National Congress session, she in fact addressed a session of the ‘National Social Conference’ (condemning the disfigurement of child widows), which was held alongside the INC session (The Times of India, September 1964, 6).

  78. 78.

    The Times of India (17 April 1958), 3.

  79. 79.

    Tarabai Sathe, The Times of India (2 September 1964), 8.

References

  • Bannerji, Himani. ‘“Projects of Hegemony: Towards a Critique of Subaltern Studies” “Resolution of the Women’s Question.”’. Economic and Political Weekly 35 (11) (2000): 902–920.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bapat, Ram. ‘Pandita Ramabai: Faith and Reason in the Shadow of the East and West.’. In Representing Hinduism: The Construction of Religious Traditions and National Identity, edited by Vasudha Dalmia and Heinrich von Stietencron, 224–252. New Delhi; Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumhofer, Edith. ‘Consuming Fire: Pandita Ramabai and the Global Pentecostal Impulse.’ Chapter 9. In Interpreting Contemporary Christianity: Global Processes and Local Identities, edited by Ogbu U. Kalu and Alaine Low, Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Clementina. Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati: Pioneer in the Movement for the Education of the Child-Widow of India. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1922.

    Google Scholar 

  • Case, Jay Riley. An Unpredictable Gospel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Celarent, Barbara. ‘Book review of Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati’s The High Caste Hindu Woman by; Pandita Ramabai’s America: Conditions of Life in the United States (United Stateschi Lokasthiti ani Pravasvritta)’, edited by Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, Kshitija Gomez, Philip C. Engblom, and Robert E. Frykenberg, American Journal of Sociology 117 (1) (2011): 353–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chakravarti, Uma. Review Literary Trust. “‘The Myth of ‘Patriots’ and ‘Traitors’: Pandita Ramabai, Brahmanical Patriarchy and Militant Hindu Nationalism”. In Embodied Violence: Communalising Women’s Sexuality in South Asia, edited by Kumari Jayawardena and Malathi De Alwis, 190–239. London: Zed Books, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakravarti, Uma. Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai. New Delhi: Kali for Women in association with the Book Review Literary Trust, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakravarti, Uma. “Wifehood, Widowhood, and Adultery: Female Sexuality, Surveillance, and the State in Eighteenth-Century Maharashtra”. In Of Property and Propriety: The Role of Gender and Class in Imperialism and Nationalism, edited by Himani Bannerji, Shahrzad Mojab, and Judith Whitehead, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Desai, Neera and Usha Thakkar. Women in Indian Soicety. India: National Book Trust, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dharwadker, Vinay. ‘English in India and Indian Literature in English: The Early History, 1579–1834’. Comparative Literature Studies 39 (2) (2002): 93–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, Helen S. Pandita Ramabai. The Story of Her Life. London: Morgan & Scott, 1900.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forbes, Geraldine. Women in Modern India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, Mary Lucia Bierce. The Triumph of an Indian Widow: The Life of Pandita Ramabai, 3rd edn. Havertown, Penn: American Council of the Ramabai Mukti Mission, 1939.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganachari, Aravind. ‘Dilemma of a Christian Convert: Pandita Ramabai’s Confrontation with Apologists – Hindu and Christian’ Chapter 10. In Nationalism and Social Reform in a Colonial Situation. Delhi: Kalpaz Publications, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grewal, Inderpal. Home and Harem: Nation, Gender, Empire, and the Cultures of Travel. London: Leicester University Press, 1996.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hedlund, Roger E., Sebastian Kim, and Rajkumar Boaz Johnson. eds. Indian & Christian: The Life and Legacy of Pandita Ramabai. Delhi: ISPCK, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosambi, Meera. ‘Women, Emancipation and Equality: Pandita Ramabai’s Contribution toWomen’s Cause.’ Economic and Political Weekly 23 (44) (1988): 38–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosambi, Meera. ‘Indian Response to Christianity, Church and Colonialism: Case of Pandita Ramabai’. Economic and Political Weekly 27 (43/44) (1992): 61–71. WS61-WS63+WS65-WS71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosambi, Meera. Pandita Ramabai Through Her Own Words: Selected Works. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000a.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosambi, Meera. ‘Motherhood in the East-West Encounter: Pandita Ramabai’s Negotiation of ‘Daughterhood’ and Motherhood.’ Feminist Review 65 (2000b): 49–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kosambi, Meera. ‘Returning the American Gaze: Pandita Ramabai’s “The Peoples of the United States, 1889”’. Meridians 2 (2) (2002): 188–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosambi, Meera. Returning the American Gaze; Pandita Ramabai’s The People of the United States. New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNicol, Nicol. Pandita Ramabai: The Story of her Life. Calcutta: Association Press, 1926.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macnicol, Nicol, and Vishal Mangalwadi. What Liberates A Woman? The Story of Pandita Ramabai: A Builder of Modern India. 1926; reprint. New Delhi: Nivedit Good Books, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGee, Gary B. ‘“Latter Rain” Falling in the East: Early-Twentieth-Century Pentecostalism in India and the Debate over Speaking in Tongues.’. Church History 68 (3) (1999): 648–665.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Midgley, Clare. ed. Gender and Imperialism. New York: St. Martin’s. 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, Catherine A. Tradition and Liberation: The Hindu Tradition in the Indian Women’s Movement. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta, Padmini S. Pandita Ramabai Saraswati: Her Life and Work. Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah, A.B. ed. The Letters and Correspondence of Pandita Ramabai. Bombay: Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah, A.B. ‘Pandita Ramabai: A Rebel in Religion.’ In Religion and Society in India, edited by A.B. Shah. Bombay: Somaiya, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Symonds, Richard. Far Above Rubies; The Women Uncommemorated by the Church of England. Herefordshire: Fowler Wright Books, Chapter on Ramabai and Florence Nightingale. 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Symonds, Richard. “Ramabai, Pandita Mary Saraswati (1858–1922)”. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tharu, Susie, and K. Lalita. eds. Women Writing in India, 600 B.C to the Present 2 vols. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viswanathan, Gauri. ‘Silencing Heresy’. Chapter 4 In Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Ramabai is discussed here with regards to Christianity 1998.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Vineeta Sinha

Authors
  1. Vineeta Sinha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Sinha, V. (2017). Pandita Ramabai Saraswati (1858–1922). In: Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41134-1_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41134-1_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-41133-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-41134-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation