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Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi the first Indian female physician

Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi became first indian female physician in the year 1887.she was also the first indian woman who was trained in western medicine and the first woman to travel to the united states of america.

Born in 1865 in an extremely orthodox Brahmin family in Maharashtra, a 9 year old girl got married to a widower who was almost thrice her age. Sounds like a normal “old Indian saga”? Not really! The girl later on became the first Indian woman to qualify as a doctor. Even though she died at a very young age of 21, she opened the gates for many young women in India who wanted to do much more than devoting their entire life to household chores. Yes, we are talking about Anandi Gopal Joshi, India’s first lady to qualify as a doctor from the USA in 1886.

Gopalrao Joshi, Anandi’s liberal husband is one such person who stood by his wife’s side and acted as her biggest inspiration and push. Gopalrao, a postal clerk, was determined to educate his wife when she expressed her wish to study medicine at the age of 14, after losing their first child just 10 days after delivery because of unavailability of proper medical resources.

At a time when women’s education wasn’t taken seriously, Gopalrao appeared as a great exception. He had married Anandi on the condition that he should be permitted to educate the girl and that she should be willing to read and write.

Gopalrao started teaching Anandi how to read and write Marathi, English and Sanskrit. He also transferred himself to Calcutta to avoid direct interference of Anandi’s parents in her education.

Gopalrao was an obsessed man. One day, when she was found helping her grandmother in the kitchen, Gopalrao flew into an uncontrollable rage and beat the young girl with a bamboo stick. The neighbourhood was agog: husbands beat wives for not cooking but whoever had heard of a wife being beaten for cooking when she should have been reading.
Anandi gradually turned into a well-read intellectual girl. All this change took place in the face of stiff opposition from her parents, frequent bickering in the family and the stubborn attitude of her husband.

In 1880, he sent a letter to a well-known American missionary, Royal Wilder, stating his wife’s keenness to study medicine in America and if he would be able to help them. Wilder agreed to help the couple on the condition that they convert to Christianity. This proposition was not accepted by the Joshis.

Anandi Gopal Joshi applied to the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania and was granted admission. She traveled to from Calcutta (present day Kolkata) to New York by ship. She began her medical training at the age of nineteen. While in America, her health, which was already not a hundred per cent from her days in India, further deteriorated due to the cold weather and unfamiliar diet. She even went on to suffer tuberculosis or TB. Despite all that, she stayed motivated to complete her MD in medicine. Her journey had been so inspiring that she got much publicity in the Indian press, and on her graduation, the then Queen of England, Empress of India, Queen Victoria sent her a congratulatory message. She had become the first woman of Indian origin to study and graduate with a degree in medicine in the United States. Anandi Gopal Joshi went on to inspire generations of women to pursue their higher education.

When she returned to India in 1886, she received a grand welcome, and was appointed as the physician-in-charge at the Albert Edward Hospital in the then princely state of Kolhapur (in present day Maharashtra).

On February 26, 1887, just over a month before her 22nd birthday, Anandi Gopal Joshi died of tuberculosis or TB. Her dream of opening her own medical college for women was left unfulfilled. Her death made headlines across India and the entire nation mourned her passing. As a mark of respect, her ashes were placed in a cemetery in Poughkeepsie in New York.

In her honour, the Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences or IRDS, an NGO from Lucknow, still awards the 'Anandibai Joshi Award for Medicine' in honour of her early contributions to the cause of advancing medical science in India. Even the Government of Maharashtra established a fellowship in Anandi Gopal Joshi's name.

Wilder extended his help by writing about it in a local paper, and Theodocia Carpenter, a rich American from New Jersey, saw the articles, and offered to help Anandi as she was impressed by the earnestness and keenness of Anandi to study medicine.

In the meanwhile, Anandi’s health was constantly declining. She suffered from weakness, constant headaches, occasional fever, and, sometimes, breathlessness. Initially reluctant to go abroad due to her bad health, Anandi eventually agreed after much persuasion from her husband and started studying medicine in Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (now known as Drexel University College of Medicine) at the age of 19 and got her M.D. degree in 1886. On her graduation, Queen Victoria sent her a congratulatory message. She completed her thesis on obstetric practices among the ancient Hindus.

Anandi’s extract from her letter of application to WMCP says,

“[The] determination which has brought me to your country against the combined opposition of my friends and caste ought to go a long way towards helping me to carry out the purpose for which I came, i.e. is to render to my poor suffering country women the true medical aid they so sadly stand in need of and which they would rather die than accept at the hands of a male physician. The voice of humanity is with me and I must not fail. My soul is moved to help the many who cannot help themselves,” (Source)

Anandi was already ill with the first symptoms of the tuberculosis that would ultimately kill her. Her health worsened when she returned to India in 1886. She received a grand welcome and The princely state of Kolhapur appointed her as the physician-in-charge of the female ward of the local Albert Edward Hospital.

Anandi received a letter from Lokmanya Tilak, Editor “Kesari”, saying, inter alia,

“I know how in the face of all the difficulties you went to a foreign country and acquired knowledge with such diligence. You are one of the greatest women of our modern era. It came to my knowledge that you need money desperately. I am a newspaper editor. I do not have a large income. Even then I wish to give you one hundred rupees.”

Anandi died a few days after it. She passed away on 26th February 1887, a month before turning 22. Her ashes were sent to Mrs. Carpenter, her host in America who placed them in her family cemetery near New York.

Caroline Wells Healey Dall wrote Anandibai biography in 1888. Doordarshan aired a Hindi serial named “Anandi Gopal” based on Anandibai life. (Kamlakar Sarang directed the serial.) Shrikrishna Janardan Joshi wrote a fictionalized account of Anandabai ‘s life in his Marathi novel Anandi Gopal. (The novel has been translated in an abridged form in English by Asha Damle.) It has also been adapted into a play of the same name by Ram G. Joglekar.

Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS), a Non-governmental organization from Lucknow has been awarding the Anandibai Joshi award for Medicine in reverence to her early contributions to the cause of Medical sciences in India.

In a time when a women’s position was not even considered in the society and their education was unthinkable, Anandi took a bold step to fight and go against the flow to become a doctor. This was possible because of a big supporting hand from her husband Gopalrao who never let her quit and always inspired her to do more.

When some parts of India still deal with unsupportive husbands and a society that thinks a woman’s place is inside the house, the story of the couple is a fresh change. We don’t know if Gopalrao was too harsh on his wife and whether his obsession was justified. All we can say is his support for women’s education and their empowerment was remarkable for the time he lived in.

Though she could not convert her degree into a successful profession due to her untimely death, Anandibai surely left a mark on India’s heart and contributed to a much better, and bolder, India.

Here are five things you should know about the pioneering medic:

She was motivated to study medicine by her baby’s death:

Joshi was married at the age of just nine, as was common in 19th century India, to a man 20 years older than her.

She gave birth to their first child when she was 14, but her baby son died 10 days later due to a lack of medical care for women. This spurred Joshi to pursue an interest in medicine so she could “help the many who cannot help themselves”, as she later put it in her college application.

Her husband Gopalrao Joshi, a postal clerk, encouraged her ambition and helped to teach her to read and write.

She defied cultural expectations and ill health to qualify as a doctor:

While she was supported by her husband, Joshi’s ambitions were condemned by the orthodox Hindu community, who threatened her with excommunication.

Despite that, she travelled to New York in 1883, chaperoned by two English acquaintances of a doctor friend. After arriving in America, she wrote to the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania to ask for a place on their medical programme, one of the first in the world that accepted women. In her application she admitted her credentials may fall below the college’s usual requirements but pleaded for them to make an exception “to render to my poor suffering country women the true medical aid they so sadly stand in need”.

She was awarded a place, and studied her two-year diploma alongside two of the first female medical students from Japan and Syria. Despite suffering ill health throughout her studies, she graduated on 11 March, 1885.

She was congratulated by Queen Victoria:

After Joshi was awarded her degree in medicine, the college’s dean wrote of her achievement to Queen Victoria, who was also Empress of India. Victoria reportedly wrote a congratulatory message in response. Joshi received a grand welcome upon her return to India, where the editor of the Kesari newspaper hailed her as ”one of the greatest women of our modern era”.

Her life was tragically cut short:

Returning to India in 1886, Joshi was appointed the physician in charge of the women’s ward at Albert Edward Hospital in Kolhapur. She dreamed of opening a medical college for women, but was an ambition she never got to realise. She died of tuberculosis on 26 February, 1887, before she had even begun practising medicine. She was just 21.

There is a crater in Venus named after her:

Joshi is one of a number of notable women who have lent their names to sizeable impact craters on Venus. The 34 km diameter crater “Joshee” lies at latitude 5.5° N and longitude 288.8° E. It was named in 1997 by the International Astronomical Union.

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Biography Maya Angelou About Maya Angelou Who is Maya Angelou

Biography Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou born Marguerite Ann Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American author and poet. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than 50 years. She received dozens of awards and over 30 honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, prostitute, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization. She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. Since 1982, she taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she held the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Since the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson of black people and women,and her works have been considered a defense of black culture.Attempts have been made to ban her books from some US libraries,but her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide.Angelou's major works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics have characterized them as autobiographies.She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre.Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family, and travel.

Marguerite Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and a navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister". When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception" to the harsh economics of African-Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II because the general store she owned sold needed basic commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments"

Four years later, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning" and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman. She told her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered (kicked to death), probably by Angelou's uncles. In response, Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing, as she stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone " According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her.

Shortly after Freeman's murder, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother. Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, with helping her speak again. Flowers introduced her to authors such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, authors who would affect her life and career, as well as black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset. When Angelou was 14, she and her brother moved in with their mother once again, who had since moved to Oakland, California. During World War II, Angelou attended the California Labor School. Before graduating, she worked as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Three weeks after completing school, at the age of 17, she gave birth to her son, Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson).

Angelou's second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name (1974), recounts her life from age 17 to 19 and "depicts a single mother's slide down the social ladder into poverty and crime." Angelou worked as "the front woman/business manager for prostitutes," restaurant cook, and prostitute. She moved through a series of relationships, occupations, and cities as she attempted to raise her son without job training or advanced education.

career
Angelou's Georgia, Georgia, produced by a Swedish film company and filmed in Sweden, the first screenplay written by a black woman, was released in 1972. She also wrote the film's soundtrack, despite having very little additional input in the filming of the movie.Angelou married Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of Germaine Greer, Paul du Feu, in San Francisco in 1973. In the next ten years, as Gillespie has stated, "She had accomplished more than many artists hope to achieve in a lifetime" She worked as a composer, writing for singer Roberta Flack and composing movie scores. She wrote articles, short stories, TV scripts and documentaries, autobiographies and poetry, produced plays, and was named visiting professors of several colleges and universities. She was "a reluctant actor", and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in Look Away. In 1977 Angelou appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series Roots. She was given a multitude of awards during this period, including over thirty honorary degrees from colleges and universities from all over the world.

In the late 1970s, Angelou met Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey was a TV anchor in Baltimore, Maryland; Angelou would later become Winfrey's close friend and mentor. In 1981, Angelou and du Feu divorced. She returned to the southern United States in 1981, where she accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. From that point on, she considered herself "a teacher who writes". Angelou taught a variety of subjects that reflected her interests, including philosophy, ethics, theology, science, theater, and writing.

In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries". The recording of the poem was awarded a Grammy Award. In June 1995, she delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem", entitled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996, Down in the Delta, which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes. Since the 1990s, Angelou actively participated in the lecture circuit in a customized tour bus, something she continued into her eighties. In 2000, she created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items. Over thirty years after Angelou began writing her life story, she completed her sixth autobiography A Song Flung Up to Heaven, in 2002. In 2013, at the age of 85, she published the seventh autobiography in her series, Mom & Me & Mom, which focused on her relationship with her mother. Angelou campaigned for Senator Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential primaries. When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Senator Barack Obama, who went on to win the election and become the first African American president of the United States. She stated, "We are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and sexism". In late 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. They consisted of over 340 boxes of documents that featured her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and personal and professional correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis.
Personal life

Evidence suggests that Angelou was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa. A 2008 PBS documentary found that Angelou's maternal great-grandmother Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her former white owner, John Savin. Savin forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father of her child. After indicting Savin for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite discovering that Savin was the father, a jury found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County poorhouse in Missouri with her daughter, Marguerite Baxter, who became Angelou's grandmother. Angelou described Lee as "that poor little Black girl, physically and mentally bruised."

The details of Angelou's life described in her seven autobiographies and in numerous interviews, speeches, and articles tended to be inconsistent. Critic Mary Jane Lupton has explained that when Angelou spoke about her life, she did so eloquently but informally and "with no time chart in front of her". For example, she was married at least twice, but never clarified the number of times she has been married, "for fear of sounding frivolous" according to her autobiographies and to Gillespie, she married Tosh Angelos in 1951 and Paul du Feu in 1973, and began her relationship with Vusumzi Make in 1961, but never formally married him. Angelou had one son Guy, whose birth was described in her first autobiography, one grandson, and two great-grandchildren, and according to Gillespie, a large group of friends and extended family. Angelou's mother Vivian Baxter and brother Bailey Johnson, Jr., both of whom were important figures in her life and her books, have died; her mother in 1991 and her brother in 2000 after a series of strokes. In 1981, the mother of her son Guy's child disappeared with Angelou's grandson; it took eight years to find him. In 2009, the gossip website TMZ erroneously reported that Angelou had been hospitalized in Los Angeles when she was alive and well in St. Louis, which resulted in rumors of her death and according to Angelou, concern with her friends and family worldwide.

She did not earn a university degree, but according to Gillespie it was Angelou's preference that she be called "Dr. Angelou" by people outside of her family and close friends. As of 2008, she owned two homes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a "lordly brownstone" in Harlem, full of her "growing library" of books she collected throughout her life, artwork collected over the span of many decades, and well-stocked kitchens. Younge has reported that in her Harlem home resides several African wall hangings and Angelou's collection of paintings, including ones of several jazz trumpeters, a watercolor of Rosa Parks, and a Faith Ringgold work entitled "Maya's Quilt Of Life". According to Gillespie, she hosted several celebrations per year at her main residence in Winston-Salem, including Thanksgiving; "her skill in the kitchen is the stuff of legend—from haute cuisine to down-home comfort food". She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes. She followed up with her second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart in 2010, which focused on weight loss and portion control.

Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou used the same "writing ritual" for many years. She would wake early in the morning and check into a hotel room, where the staff was instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She would write on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and would leave by the early afternoon. She would average 10–12 pages of written material a day, which she edited down to three or four pages in the evening. Angelou went through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the Sturm und Drang." She placed herself back in the time she wrote about, even traumatic experiences like her rape in Caged Bird, in order to "tell the human truth" about her life. Angelou stated that she played cards in order to get to that place of enchantment and in order to access her memories more effectively. She stated, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I'm in it ha! It's so delicious!" She did not find the process cathartic; rather, she found relief in "telling the truth".
Death
Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014, according to a family statement. She was found by her caregiver. She had reportedly been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances.

Tributes were paid by Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton. Harold Augenbraum, from the National Book Foundation, said that Angelou's "legacy is one that all writers and readers across the world can admire and aspire to."

Awards and honors

Angelou was honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors included a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away, and three Grammys for her spoken word albums. She served on two presidential committees,and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Angelou was awarded over thirty honorary degrees.

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Mothers day Mothers day special

Mother's day Mother's day special

Mother's Day is an extremely special occasion for both mother and the children. People must make all efforts to make the most of the festival. A great way to make Mother's Day special is to pamper mom with Mother's Day special gifts and to do everything that pleases mom. You may compose a Mother's Day special poem for mama or bake a delicious cake for her. Think of your own special and unique ways to make mama feel loved on her special day. Please click on the links below for ideas and inspirations.

Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in spring. (e.g., April–May in the northern hemisphere, October in Argentina, but northern hemisphere spring, May, in Australia). It complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father's Day and Siblings Day.

The celebration of Mother's Day began in the United States in the early 20th century; it is not related to the many celebrations of mothers and motherhood that have occurred throughout the world over thousands of years, such as the Greek cult to Cybele, the Roman festival of Hilaria, or the Christian Mothering Sunday celebration (originally a celebration of the mother church, not motherhood).Despite this, in some countries Mother's Day has become synonymous with these older traditions.

The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in Grafton, West Virginia. She then began a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States. Although she was successful in 1914, she was already disappointed with its commercialization by the 1920s. Jarvis' holiday was adopted by other countries and it is now celebrated all over the world. In this tradition, each person offers a gift, card, or remembrance toward their mothers, grandmothers, and/ or maternal figure on mother's day.

Various observances honoring mothers existed in America during the 1870s and the 1880s, but these never had resonance beyond the local level.Jarvis never mentioned Julia Ward Howe's attempts in the 1870s to establish a "Mother's Day for Peace", nor any connection to the Protestant school celebrations that included "Children's Day" amongst others.Neither did she mention the traditional festival of Mothering Sunday.Jarvis always said that the creation was hers alone.For more information on previous attempts, see the "United States" section in this article.

In most countries, Mother's Day is a recent observance derived from the holiday as it has evolved in the United States. As adopted by other countries and cultures, the holiday has different meanings, is associated with different events (religious, historical or legendary), and is celebrated on different dates.

In some cases, countries already had existing celebrations honoring motherhood, and their celebrations then adopted several external characteristics from the US holiday, such as giving carnations and other presents to one's mother.

The extent of the celebrations varies greatly. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one's mother not to mark Mother's Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media as a taste of foreign culture.

In France, amidst alarm at the low birth rate, there were attempts in 1896 and 1904 to create a national celebration honoring the mothers of large families.In 1906 ten mothers who had nine children each were given an award recognising "High Maternal Merit" ("Haut mérite maternel").American World War I soldiers fighting in France popularized the US Mother's Day holiday created by Anna Jarvis. They sent so much mail back to their country for Mother's Day that the Union Franco-Américaine created a postal card for that purpose.In 1918, also inspired by Jarvis, the town of Lyon wanted to celebrate a "journée des Mères", but instead decided to celebrate a "Journée Nationale des Mères de familles nombreuses." The holiday was more inspired by anti-depopulation efforts than by the US holiday, with medals awarded to the mothers of large families.The French government made the day official in 1920 as a day for mothers of large families.Since then the French government awards the Médaille de la Famille française to mothers of large families.

In 1941, by initiative of Philippe Pétain, the wartime Vichy government used the celebration in support of their policy to encourage larger families, but all mothers were now honored, even mothers with smaller families.

In 1950, after the war, the celebration was reinstated. The law of 24 May 1950 required that the Republic pay official homage to French Mothers on the last Sunday in May as the "Fête des Mères" (except when Pentecost fell on that day, in which case it was moved to the first Sunday in June).

During the 1950s, the celebration lost all its patriotic and natalist ideologies, and became heavily commercialized.

In 1956, the celebration was given a budget and integrated into the new Code de l'action sociale et des familles.In 2004 responsibility for the holiday was transferred to the Minister responsible for families.

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Madam Bhikaji Cama Indian freedom fighter

Madam Bhikaji Cama with the first Indian Flag

"This flag is of Indian Independence! Behold, it is born! It has been made sacred by the blood of young Indians who sacrificed their lives. I call upon you, gentlemen to rise and salute this flag of Indian Independence. In the name of this flag, I appeal to lovers of freedom all over the world to support this flag." -- B. Cama , Stuttgart, Germany, 1907.

These were the emotional words of a frail Indian lady, with fire inside and indomitable confidence and patriotic feeling for motherland, India. The year was 1907 and the time, 3rd week of August. The Indian independence was 40 years away, and the world was not fully aware of the burning patriotism of hundreds and thousands of young Indians who were ready to lay down their lives for the sake of freedom for their country. The British were trying their best to put down the revolutionaries by bringing in ordinances, bans and arrests for life on the basis of treason. Treason was the greatest "crime" of the Indian which ensured a minimum of six years of black waters (kalapani) or deportation to Andaman and harsh punishment.

A prominent personality of the Indian Nationalist Movement,Madam Bhikaji Cama was born as Bhikaiji Rustom Cama on 24th September, 1861 to a Parsi family in Bombay (now Mumbai). Well, we are talking about none other than Madam Cama, who is a well known freedom fighter. She came from a pretty well off family and her father Sorabji Framji Patel was a powerful member of the Parsi community. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Madame Cama.

Like many Parsi girls of the time, Bhikhaiji attended Alexandra Native Girl's English Institution. Bhikhaiji was by all accounts a diligent, disciplined child with a flair for languages.

Bhikaji took education from Alexandra Native Girl's English Institution. From the very beginning, she was a very sincere child. She always admired the personalities of the Nationalist Movement. On the 3rd of August in the year 1885, she tied her wedding knots with Rustom Cama, an affluent pro-British lawyer. She did not enjoy her married life and spent most of her time performing altruistic activities. Read on to know the complete life history of Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama.

In the year 1896, the Bombay presidency was hit by a natural calamity, which had adverse effects on the city. Bhikaji was instrumental in the activities undertaken to provide assistance to the afflicted people. While rescuing other people and inoculating them, she herself became a victim of the infection. She became very weak, but somehow managed to survive. In the year 1902, she went to Europe for subsequent medical care and convalescence.

During the stay in London, Madam Cama received an invitation of the “International Socialist Conference” which was scheduled to start on 18th August 1907. The conference was being held since the previous ten years. This time the venue for the Annual meet was Stuttgart, in Germany. Savarkar always attempted to garner International support for the issue of Independence for India. Savarkar suggested that Madam Cama and Barrister Sardarsingh Rana should attend the conference as representatives of India. Savarkar also drafted the resolution that was to be proposed there.

On deciding that Madam Cama would propose the resolution during the conference, Savarkar realized that our nation does not have an independent flag for unfurling there. (Congress always hailed and pompously marched the British Union Jack, considering it to be Hindustan’s flag). Savarkar did not sit idle. From his talented personality Hindustan’s Tricolour, the first national flag, was born. Savarkar’s genius was so remarkable that all the flags that were used during freedom struggle and later had a set of three colours.

Madam Cama and Bhanumatiji, the wife of Shri Shamji Krishna Varma, themselves stitched this flag, using rich satin and silk cloth of the same three colours. Three such flags were made. The reason being, in the event of seizure of one during police action, the other could be used. To avoid any obstacle that could be created by anybody, Madam Cama carried one flag out of England, having hidden it in her blouse. Barrister Rana carried the other two flags to Paris. Around this time, the British government ordered Madam Cama to leave England. Madam Cama shifted her base to Paris, capital of France. It’s from Paris that she went to Stuttgart.

The Meaning of Colours and Symbols of the Flag hoisted by Madam Cama:

On 21st August, 1907, at the International Socialistic Conference, when Madam Cama unfurled the flag, she also explained the meaning of its colours and symbols. The top stripe of the Flag was Green in colour. The Eight provinces of India of those days were represented by eight lotus flowers. The slogan “Vande Mataram” for which hundreds of youngsters got their heads broken and also chanted the same while being hanged was inscribed on the centre saffron stripe. The Sun and Moon on the bottom red stripe indicated that India would remain Independent till Sun and Moon continued to grace the skies.

The Green colour reflected Courage and Spirit. The Saffron colour indicated victory and Red colour displayed Strength. After reading out the resolution Madam Cama delivered a straightforward speech. At the end of the speech, waving the flag she said “Before I end my speech, I want to tell you that, while I am alive I completely hope to see that the Republican State of India is formed. Vande Mataram”.

Later on during meetings of revolutionaries in Paris, a smaller version of the flag was always placed in the center of Madam Cama’s table. She also got one badge of the same flag made. She always carried the badge on her chest.

After the conference Madam Cama was invited by American Nationalists in order to propagate the Indian freedom struggle. On 19th October, 1907 she reached America. Even in America, in front of the locals, through her speeches she exposed the British suppression in India.

Started periodical “Madan Talwar”:

During this time Savarkar’s book “The Indian War of Independence- 1857” was published. Madam Cama declared that this book which was banned by British government would be available at her Paris address. She along with P.T. Acharya published French transcript of the book. After Madanlal Dingra assassinated Curzon Wyllie, Madam Cama visited Savarkar in London. In memory of Madanlal Dingra she started a periodical in September 1909 called ‘Madan Talwar’.

In the first week of January, 1910, on account of toiling efforts in the work of revolution, Savarkar started facing health problems. For a weather change, he went from London to Madam Cama’s place in Paris. By this time, Madam Cama had already become his second mother. This unique mother nursed Savarkar for nearly two months. By this time Savarkar was linked to the assassination of Jackson by Anant Kanhere in Nashik. Savarkar had sent the related pistol. Analysing the danger looming over colleagues in India and London, Savarkar felt that staying in Paris was incorrect and decided to go to London. Realising that Savarkar would be arrested immediately on reaching London, Madam Cama became worried. She tried to reverse Savarkar’s decision of going back to London. But Savarkar remained firm on his decision.

On 13th March, 1910 Madam Cama and Lala Hardayal accompanied Savarkar to the railway station. A Dark gloom persisted in the mind of Madam Cama while bidding farewell to Savarkar. He was immediately arrested, as he reached Victoria station, and on Judicial orders it was decided to send him to India.

Though the government tried to keep it confidential, Madam Cama and her colleagues got the information that Savarkar would be taken to India in the ‘Morea’ Ship. On knowing that the Ship had arrived at the Marseilles port, she drove along with V.V.S. Iyer from Paris and reached Marseilles. She reached 10-15 minutes after Savarkar was caught and taken back on the Ship. On enquiring with the locals about the chaos, she came to know about the incident of Savarkar’s historical dive. She felt very sad, but did not sit quietly. She informed M Jaures, Mayor of Marseilles about the incident. She told Jaures that arrest of Savarkar by British police on France soil was an insult to France and personally sent the news to the newspaper ‘Le Temps’ in Paris. The news of the illegal arrest published in the newspaper spread like fire across the world and caused huge embarrassment for the British government. Realizing that the government will be partial in executing the case on Savarkar, she sent a telegram to Barrister Joseph Baptisita to meet Savarkar as lawyer.

When Bhikaji Cama was in Paris, she happened to come across a number of notable leaders of the Indian Nationalist Movement. In Holland, they secretly published and circulated the revolutionary literature for the Nationalist Movement. During her stay in France, the British Raj authorities requested her extradition, but the French Government did not show their willingness and refused to cooperate. In return, the Britishers confiscated Madame Cama's legacy.

Bhikaji Cama has always been actively involved in fighting for gender equality. On August 22, 1907, she raised the flag for India's Independence at the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart, Germany. There are many cities in India that have streets and places being named after Bhikaiji Cama. On 26th January 1962, the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a stamp to acknowledge her work and give her honor. The Indian Coast Guard consists of a ship that has been named after her.

Madam Cama’s wish to secure the release of Savarkar was so intense that she visited the British Embassy in Paris and handed over an application to the Ambassador. She mentioned that “The onus of sending the pistols to India was mine and not of Savarkar. I gave Chaturbhuj Amin the pistols to carry to India”. This act reflects her courage, dynamism and clear patriotism. She did not stop at that but also sent all information related to Savarkar to newspapers for publishing.

On 30th January, 1911, Savarkar was sentenced to life imprisonment. When Savarkar was at Andaman, she also provided financial aid to Savarkar’s younger brother Narayanrao Savarkar for higher studies. Angry British government sent a request to the French government to send Madam Cama back to India, but the French government did not abide by it.

During the First World War, Madam Cama used to visit military camps in Marseilles and ask Indian soldiers over there “Would you fight on behalf of those who have forced your motherland into slavery?”. During this war since France and England were allies, Madam Cama was asked to stay outside of Paris and was subjected to report to the police station once a week. Madam Cama still stood firm and was not shaken.

After the end of war Madam Cama returned back to Paris and resumed her political activities. But her health was not supportive. Being occupied with the revolutionary activities, she had been neglecting her health. Her financial situation had also deteriorated. Her wish to return to her motherland started getting intense. On severe perseverance and assurance of not participating in the freedom struggle, in 1935 i.e. after 34 long years she was granted permission to return to India. She came to Mumbai, but did not live for long. On 13^th August, 1936 she died.

No memorial of Madam Cama has been created. But her life’s devotion and the severe pangs she has suffered while staying in foreign countries for the Independence of India should not be forgotten. The nation should pay due respect to her. Some people call the lady who has taken charge of the Rashtrapati Bhawan as ‘Daughter of Maharashtra’, while some others call the lady of Indian origin who stayed in space for six months as the ‘Daughter of India’. But in true sense, the lady who unfurled the First national flag of India across the seven seas is the real ‘Daughter of Maharashtra’ and ‘Daughter of India’.
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Pandita ramabai saraswati The High Caste Hindu Woman

Pandita ramabai saraswati

Pandita Ramabai with her child Monorama.

Born On: April 23, 1858
Born In: Gangamul, Karnataka
Died On: April 5, 1922
Career: Poet, Scholar & Social Reformer
Nationality: Indian

Pandita Ramabai was born during those times when the women folks of India were considered a little more than slaves, to serve their husband and bear children. They were not allowed to study, or go out on their own and a majority of Hindu women were married off when they were children to men who were decades older. Naturally there were large number of child widows who were made to live the most punishing lives.

Pandita Ramabai was fortunate in many ways. Though she was born in a Brahmin family her father was a liberal. Her father Anant Shastri,had married his wife Lakshmibai, when she was nine years old and he was forty. But defying social pressures he educated both his wife and children. Her father even refused to get Ramabai married until she becomes an adult. It was from him that she was inspired towards social reform. During her travels first with her father and then with her brother, she saw how cruelly women were treated. Disgusted she decided to do something about it.

Pandita Ramabai was born Ramabai Dongre on 23 April 1858 in Dakshina Kannada District, Mala, Gangamoola, Karnataka, to an intellectual Brahmin family. Her father Anant Shastri,was a prominent Sanskrit scholar who directed an ashram, a residential religious community and school for boys. Defying social custom, he firmly believed that women, like men, should also be allowed an education?and accordingly took it upon himself to teach Ramabai and her mother. He was probably ostracized by his colleagues for his radical views on women's education and soon after lost the ashram due to financial reasons.

Pandita Ramabai also lost her faith in Hinduism which she though supported the degradation of women by men. She converted to Christianity and spent her life rescuing women and widows from poverty, ostracization and death and giving them a new life through education.

Ramabai father Anant Shastri taught Ramabai to read and write Sanskrit, as well as how to interpret vedic texts. By the age of twelve, Ramabai had memorized 18,000 verses from the Puranas. Besides Sanskrit, Ramabai learned the Marathi, Kanarese, Hindustani, and Bengali languages

In the year 1858, in a village nestled amidst the thick forests of Gangamul was born a girl who would become one of the earliest and foremost champions of woman rights. The girl was christened Ramabai by her father, Anant Shastri Dongre who was a wealthy and orthodox Brahmin scholar. Unlike other Brahmins of his village Anant Shastri Dongre was quite a liberal, who considered that every woman has the right to education. So, he took it upon himself to educate first his wife after marriage and then his daughter, Ramabai.

Ramabai's first-class education was incredibly rare. She notes in her book, The High-Caste Hindu Woman, that less than one- quarter of one percent of Indian women at the time were able to read or write. Of these privileged few, many were required to cease their studies at a young age?often at nine- or ten-years-old?when they were married. Early marriage was the norm for young Brahmin girls, and it was often considered dishonorable for a woman to continue her education once wed. Baffling and angering Hindu traditionalists, Ramabai's father further went against the grain by refusing to arrange her marriage.

But such liberal views were anathema to the high caste villagers. As such, when he took to teaching his wife, they ostracized him, forcing him to move outside the village and live in a hut in the forest. Later, he traveled widely with his family from village to village reading the Puranas at temples, fairs and holy places. By the age of twelve Ramabai had memorized eighteen thousand verses from the Puranas becoming proficient in Sanskrit.

When Ramabai was sixteen years old, her parents died due to an outbreak of famine. Being all alone she decided to travel throughout India with her older brother, giving discourses from the Holy Scriptures and preaching social reform. The brother and sister first went to Calcutta where Ramabai impressed the high caste Brahmins with her knowledge of the Puranas.

So astonished were they with her wisdom, particularly as very few women could read at that time that they bestowed the title Pandita (scholar) and invited her to give lectures and visit places of learning. It was during these travels that she saw the plight of women particularly child-widows. It was then that she resolved to devote her life to work towards the upliftment of women. Soon her brother too passed away and she married his friend, in 1880, Bipen Behan Das Medhavi, who, though of a lower caste, sympathized with her selfless resolve. Soon after, they had a child whom they named Monorama.

Along with her husband, Pandita Ramabai decided to set a school for widows but even before the plan could materialize, her husband passed away due to cholera before their second anniversary, just eighteen months after marriage. Now a widow, Ramabai was left to raise Manorama on her own.

According to the custom prevalent at that time, a Hindu widow could not stay at her husband's house, so, Padita Ramabai left Calcutta and went to Pune. Here she established the Arya Mahila Samaj to promote female education and also work towards eradicating child marriage. She also started learning English and wrote a book called Stree Dharma Niti (Morals for Women). While setting up the Samaj, Ramabai realized that she required more training in order to successfully pursue her work and decided to go to England.

In 1883, Pandita Ramabai went to England along with her friend the English missionary Miss Hurford, and was made a professor of Sanskrit at Cheltenham Female College. There she also learned English and studied higher education as well as English Literature. In England, already distraught with the rot in Hinduism that she saw in India, Padita Ramabai converted to Christianity. In 1886, she received an invitation to attend the graduation ceremony of her cousin, Dr. Anandibai Josh.

There she befriended Dean Bodley of the Women's Medical College who encouraged her to work in America. Pandita Ramabai got the opportunity to study the American public school system and also received industrial training. Pandita Ramabai also spent her time in America giving lectures. During this time she wrote the book "High Caste Hindu Woman".

Pandita Ramabai started networking with influential people and lobbying for aid to start a secular school for child widows in India. Because of her repeated appeals a public meeting was held in 1887 in the Channing Hall of the American Unitarian Association Building. With her keen wit and flair for speaking, Pandita Ramabai was able to move the audience and Rev. Charles G. Ames appointed a provincial committee of women to consider her plan and act on it. The result was the formation of an association to act as the custodian of funds that Ramabai could use for her work.

In 1889, Pandita Ramabai returned to India after a period of six years, she continued her crusade for the betterment of the women. She wrote about her American experience in a book titled 'United States Chi Lokasthiti Ani Pravasvrutta' (Status of Society of United States and a travelogue). Within six weeks of her return to the country, pandita Ramabai had established a school called Sharada Sadan in Bombay.

During this time she also became more involved in Christianity famously noting that "One thing I knew by this time," she wrote, "that I needed Christ and not merely His religion... I was desperate... What was to be done? My thoughts could not and did not help me. I had at last come to an end of myself, and unconditionally surrendered myself to the Saviour; and asked Him to be merciful to me, and to become my righteousness and redemption, and to take away all my sin...."

Pandita Ramabai faced considerable opposition from many Indian reformers and the press for they perceived that she was influencing her students to Christianity. In 1904 she started translating the Bible in Marathi and by 1913 the New Testament was published and by 1924 the complete Bible was published. From 1896-97 and from 1900-01, India was devastated by two famines in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat respectively. Ramabai rescued about 2000 women and girls from perishing from hunger and housed them at a 100 acre farm at Kedgaon, which came to be known as the Mukti Mission (The Home of Salvation).

For her services to the community the British Raj in 1919 awarded her the Kaiser-I-Hind medal. Ramabai is also honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on April 5. The Government of India recognized her contributions for the upliftment of women in India and issued a commemorative stamp on 26th October 1989.

In July 1921 her daughter Manorama passed away and in April the next year Ramabai too breathed her last at the age of sixty four. For almost twenty years Pandita Ramabai had pursued her mission to uplift the women particularly the child widows of India inspiring many and saving countless.

Rama Dongre, who was born in Karnataka, knew Kannada language and from her father she learned Sanskrit. After coming to Maharashtra, she mastered Marathi. Later, she also learned English and lectured in England and America. After crossing 40, she started learning Hebrew and Greek for translating the holy Bible.

Pandita Ramabai is the only woman in the world to translate the holy Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek languages. While shouldering the responsibility of nearly 2,000 destitute girls and women in 'Mukti Sadan', Pandita Ramabai still found time for such extraordinary literary tasks! .
Manorama expired at the age of 40 on July 24, 1921. Ramabai endured the shock of her beloved daughter's death with great courage and continued with the translation of the Bible. This had become a mission during the last days of her life. She displayed a strong desire to live till the completion of the translation work. This she fulfilled.

Ramabai's translation of the Bible was being printed at her own printing press in Kedgaon. A few months after her daughter’s death, i.e., on April 4, 1922, Pandita Ramabai read the last proof of her work and sent it to the printing press: the same night, this great scholar and social worker bid adieu to the world.
1858: Pandita Ramabai was born in Gangamul, Karnataka.
1880: Married Bipen Behan Das Medhavi, a friend of her brother.
1883: Left for England and became a Professor of Sanskrit at Cheltenham Female College.
1886: Moved to America.
1887: An association was formed to fund her works in India.
1889: Returned to India to work towards the upliftment of women.
1904: Started translating the Bible to Marathi.
1919: Conferred the Kaiser-I-Hind medal for her community service.
1989: A commemorative stamp was launched in her honor by the Government of India.
1922: Died at the age of sixty four.

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Nellie Sengupta Freedom Fighter

Nellie Sengupta grate Freedom Fighter

Nellie Sengupta (1886–1973) was an Englishwoman who fought for Indian Independence and was elected President of the Indian National Congress.

Nellie Sengupta was among the English Women who came to India to dedicate her life for its people.Though an recluse she proved herself as a true Indian patriot.

Nellie Sengupta was born on 12 January 1886 as the daughter of Frederick William Gray and Edith Henrietta Gray. While studying in England, she met Jatindra Mohan Sengupta an Indian patriot. They fell in love and were married. After her marriage, she adopted her husband’s country as her own and associated sincerely with her husband’s work to letterate India from the bondage of British imperialism. Nellie abandoned the land of her birth and fought against the colonial rulers of her motherland for the sake of of her husband.

Nellie Sengupta was a devoted life partner who whole-heartedly sided with her brave husband on all occasions during their hours of happiness and sorrow. There was doubt among her in-laws whether she would be able to adjust herself in a joint Indian family. But soon Nellie dispelled this doubt by adjusting quickly to the Indian joint family life. They proved to be an ideal couple not only in family life but also in the political field. Her father in law was so daunted with her behavior that he wrote a letter to Nellie’s mother, that she was nothing but prize addition to his joint family and a worthy partner of his son.

Nellie Sengupta was the inspiring power behind all his activities in the political field. Mahatma Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu also inspired her.

During the non-cooperation movement she was arrested while selling khadi in Chittagong (now in Bangladesh). Thus she had to endure prison life for the cause of her husband. She helped her husband when he was involved in the strike of the Bengal Assam Railway men as well as steamer service workers in support of the tea cultivated area laborers who were stranded in Chandpur and were brutally tortured by the British police.

When the health of Jyotindra Mohan deteriorated, Nellie continued his political work. During the days of the Civil Disobedience Movement Nellie accompany her husband on political tours to Delhi and Amritsar. Jatindra Mohan was arrested for delivering a political lecture. She purposely delivered a speech at a banned meeting in Delhi. She was arrested and put in prison for four months.

Nellie was elected Congress President in 1933. It was a recognition for her valuable contribution to the cause of India’s independence. Later Nellie was elected alderman of Calcutta (Kolkata) Corporation.

During the turmoil of the Salt Satyagraha many senior Congress leaders were imprisoned. Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya the President elect of the Congress was arrested before the Calcutta Session of 1931. Nellie Sengupta was elected in his place, thus becoming the third woman, and the second European-born woman to be elected.

She was also elected as an Alderman to the Calcutta Corporation in 1933 and 1936. She was also elected on a Congress ticket to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1940 and 1946. During the Second World War she drew attention to the misbehaviour of foreign troops.