Above: Author Keith J White presents a copy of his book to the Sisters of CSMV in honour of Pandita Ramabai’s connection with the Sisters of CSMV both in Wantage and Pune. Keith is pictured with Sr Stella and Sr Valeria.
Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922)
Scholar, Feminist, Educator and active Social Reformer in late 19th century India
Pandita Ramabai was a pioneer for women’s education and social reform – becoming the first woman to address the Indian National Social Congress. A widely travelled Sanskrit scholar at age twenty, Ramabai was the first woman to be awarded the title Pandita by the University of Calcutta, despite a lack of formal education throughout her poverty-stricken childhood. In 1882 she addressed the Hunter Commission regarding the state of education in India with her recommendations reaching Queen Victoria and influencing Lady Dufferin’s Women’s Medical Movement in the mid-1880s. Most remarkably for her time, Ramabai embarked on these ventures as a widowed single woman and mother. Her life’s work lives on today under the Mukti Mission working for the empowerment of destitute women and children since 1889.
Despite the poverty of her childhood, lack of formal education and her own personal tragedies, Ramabai’s upbringing in a tolerant and progressive environment enabled her to redefine the concept of widowhood and womanhood in 19th Century India in a way that no other social reformers of the time could imagine. Despite being much respected by many of her contemporaries and revered by the communities in which she worked, the name of Pandita Ramabai was largely erased from western Indian history due to a society dominated by a patriarchal authority.
Keith J White has worked tirelessly for 25 years to re-establish the name of Pandita Ramabai in India’s history. Drawing on original materials, interviews, and observations and working especially closely with Indian Sociologist Meera Kosambi, Keith has written the most comprehensive account of Pandita Ramabai’s life and work to date.
During time spent in her native Pune, Ramabai made connections with the Sisters of CSMV, impressed with the work they were doing there with women and girls at Panch Howd. Intrigued by the liberal and progressive outlook of Christian missionaries in India, Ramabai had already begun to explore Christianity. With the support of CSMV, in 1883, with her then young daughter Manorama Bai (Mano), Ramabai travelled to Britain in the hope of further education and the opportunity to garner support for her cause of the emancipation of women in India. It was while in Wantage that Ramabai and Mano were baptized.
Against a backdrop of personal difficulty for both women, Ramabai’s relationship with her Spiritual Guide, Sr Gerladine CSMV, could be described as strained and somewhat difficult. Despite this, it was a photo of Sr Geraldine that hung on Ramabai’s bedroom wall for many years and the legacy of the work of CSMV both at Panch Howd in India and the St James’ Mother and Baby home in Fulham that inspired much of Ramabai’s life’s work – the Mukti Mission.
Another legacy of CSMV in the life of Ramabai was the care and love shown to her daughter, Mano, during the six years she spent living with the Sisters in Wantage. Knowing her daughter was in good hands enabled Ramabai to freely pursue her work travelling across America giving talks to expose the oppression of women in India and gaining financial support for her long-lived dream of opening residential secular schools for women in India. In later years, Mano would recall fond memories of her time spent at St Mary’s Convent; running around the gardens; spending time with CSMV founder Canon William Butler’s own children; attending St Mary’s School and forming a close relationship with Mother Harriet.
In 1889, Pandita Ramabai and her daughter Mano returned to India. Ramabai immediately set about establishing Mukti Sadan, now Mukti Mission, near Pune to provide shelter and education to widowed women. The residential community had echoes of Wantage, Ramabai built a church, she started a printing press, and the rhythm of life at Mukti was influenced by that of the Sisters of CSMV. In the process of researching this book, Keith has had the privilege of spending time at both St Mary’s Convent and Mukti, and he states that the legacy of CSMV’s support of Ramabai lives on in the very fabric of the Mukti Mission.
Ramabai’s story is enlightening and inspiring, but despite her obvious greatness she remains a largely marginalised figure. For this reason, Keith’s primary objective with this book is to let others know of Ramabai’s remarkable life, work and testimony. We thank him for bringing Ramabai’s story to us.
To buy the book visit https://www.wtlpublications.com/let-the-earth-hear-her-voice – Hardback £25, Paperback £16 including delivery.
To find out more about the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission visit https://www.prmm.org.in/