Anandibai JosheeRetrieving a Fragmented Feminist Image

Meera Kosambi

Anandibai Joshee was the first Maharashtrian woman to leave Indian shores in the latter half of the 19th centuryfor higher studies abroad to becOme the first Indian woman to qualify as a medical doctor. The Maharashtrian psycheremains captivated by the image of Anandibai as a submissive and obedient girl-wife who fulfilled her husband'svisionary ambition for her. However, the series of images sketched by Anandibai's own words produce a self-portraitin 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, sometimescogent and sometimes hesitant in articulatingthe feminine experience and the feministprotest, make it possible for us to contestthe received history of the late 19th centuryMaharashtra. This history has consistentlyrepresented the reformist men as the solecrusaders against gender injustice in orthodoxHindu society, successful in wrestingemancipatory privileges for the benefit ofwomen, posited as passive, mute objectswho participated neither in the protest norin the struggle. The discrepancy between theavailable evidence and the conclusion whichdisregards it is a matter of the hitherto largelyuncharted politics of gender reform [Kosambi1995b]. As part of the same politics, thefeminist voices themselves have beeneffectively stilled and obscured by officialhistory as well as mainstream society, througha variety of strategies - by simply ignoringtheir existence, as in the case of TarabaiShinde's booklet on women and men,' andRakhmabai's published letters on childmarriage and enforced widowhood;2 or bytotally marginalising extraordinary womenand their contribution, as in the case ofPandita Ramabai;5 or by co-opting a partialfeminist into the pantheon of traditionalfemale role models, as in the case ofAnandibai Joshee. Explored here is this lastcase - an exemplar of the subversive processwhich transmuted an intelligent andindependent woman and a potential threatto convention into a popular incarnation ofa traditional husband-worshipping wife,shorn of her individual achievements.

Anandibai Joshee's life (1865-1887) wasthe stuff that legends are made of. The childof an orthodox brahmin family, she was thefirst - and at the age of 18, also the youngest- Maharashtrian woman to leave the Indianshores in 1883 for higher studies abroad.4

She was also the first Indian woman toqualify as a medical doctor, having receivedan American medical degree in 1886, beforecompleting 21 years, during an era whichforbade even simple vernacular literacy towomen. Her choice of a medical career,though made partly with her husband's help

and support, was a personal commitmentaimed at serving her fellow women, whichshe defended publicly and sustained throughperseverance against heavy odds. Hidden bythese foregrounded events was her lesspublicised personal life, itself a continuousstruggle on many fronts, which endedabruptly a little short of her 22 birthdays.3

If Anandibai captured, the popularimagination during her lifetime (and evena hundred years after her death), it was asa young woman at the very threshold of life,who ventured into the unknown beyond theseas at the behest of her loved and reveredreformer husband; who mastered thedemanding vocation of a physician in orderto heal her suffering and neglected sisters;and who died prematurely in her.prime,sacrificed at the altar of these reformistaspirations - thereby lending herself all tooeasily to the roleof a tragi-romantic heroine.Thus the Maharashtrian psyche remainscaptivated by the image of Anandibai Josheeas a submissive and obedient girl-wife whofulfilled her husband's visionary ambitionfor her and who died even as she attainedthe glorious destiny he had outlined for her.

However, the series of images sketchedby Anandibai's own words jigsaw into aself-portrait - a somewhat fragmentary,sometimes contradictory, but always adistinct, identifiable and cohesive self-portrait - in which the submissive, obedientwife coexists with an intelligent youngwoman who is dispassionately perceptive ofherself and her society, independent in herreasoning about contemporary genderreformissues, fearless in articulating the obstaclesto women's education in India, and firmlyanchored to an Indian cultural andnationalistic identity. Through thisfragmentary selfrportrait made up of amultiplicity of images, we try to reach the'real'Anandibai and reclaim her fragmentedfeminism.

This essay aims to contribute to therewarding exercise of reconstructingwomen's 'doubly refracted' history,6 andsituates Anandibai within the emergentfeminismin 19thcentury Maharashtra.7 After

sketching the contours of Anandibai's life,the essay analyses the internal tensions andfragmentation in her views on a variety ofgender issues, contextualises her within thecontemporary feminist thought, and assessesthe impact of her public stance on thewomen' s cause in Maharashtra." It concludesby contrasting Anandibai's 'retrieved' imagewith her popular image, and underscores theneed to free real-life women from afictionalised portraiture, as an essential partof the feminist agenda.

IA Life-Sketch

The initially conventional parameters ofthe life of Anandibai Joshee, nee YamunaJoshi, gave little indication of her futuretrials, tribulations and triumphs.9 Born onMarch 30, 1865 in an impoverishedaristocratic Brahmin family of Kalyan nearBombay, Yamuna was one of the fourchildren who survived out of the total of nineborn to Ganpatrao Joshi and his second wifeGangabai. The proverbial unwanted daughtersuffered an attack of smallpox in childhoodwhich left faint marks on her face, doinglittle to improve her plain wheat-complexioned looks. However, thanks tothe unusual pampering by her maternalgrandmother who stayed with the family,Yamuna grew up sturdy and even earned thenickname of 'wrestler' after defeating asomewhat older male cousin in a friendlyfight.

Prompted by vaguely progressive ideaswhich penetrated through the family'sotherwise orthodox lifestyle, Ganpatraoenrolled Yamuna in the school held in a partof the family mansion, where she picked uprudimentary literacy, though preferring toplay truant and spend her time in games withthe neighbourhood girls. The indulgent fatherboasted about Yamuna's ability to read, tohis much shocked visitors who shared themainstream society's opposition to women'seducation.

At the same time, in a reversal of the usualparental roles, Yamuna's mother treated her

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with a harshness which far exceeded theconventional maternal discipline through theaccepted methods of verbal and physicalchastisement. Yamuna recalled i n later years:

My mother never spoke to me affectionately.When she punished me, she used not justa small rope or thong, but always stones,sticks and live charcoal. Fortunately, mybody does not bear any scars, and her severebeatings did not leave me maimed, crippledor deformed. By the grace of God, my limbssurvived intact! But oh! the sheer agonyof those memories! 1 don't say this as a resultof the emotional distancing which followsthe passage of childhood. Truly, she neverunderstood the duties of a mother, nor didI experience the love which a child naturallyfeels for its mother. This memory hurts mea great deal. A child which harbours fearfor its parents cannot possibly feel affectionfor them, and a child which feels love forits parents does not fear them. Unfortunateindeed is the child which has missed ahappy childhood. Because I understandthe problem, I feel sure that 1 also possessthe solution. If I ever have a child, I willteach people by my own example howchildren should be brought up [Kanitkar1912:12-13*]."'

That little Yamuna looked old for her agewas a source of acute anxiety to her parentswho subscribed to the contemporary normof mandatory pre-pubertal marriage for girls.The desperate Ganpatrao, additionallyhandicapped by his inability to afford adowry, was greatly relieved at his familypriest's discovery of Gopalrao Joshee as apotential match. Gopalrao, a 27-year oldwidower, was postmaster at the nearby townof Thane where he lived alone while hisparental family lived at Nashik. Known tobe an eccentric, with reformist ideas (whichhe aspired unsuccessfully to implement bymarrying a widow), he finally agreed tomarry Yamuna alter extracting an unwillingpromise that he be allowed to educate herafter marriage. Hasty preparations were madefor the wedding, when Gopalrao gave theJoshis their first taste of his eccentricity bynot appearing for the event. Franticnegotiations were undertaken afresh, andthe wedding was finally consecrated a fewdays later, on March 31, 1874.

The customary change of personal nameturned Yamuna Ganpatrao Joshi intoAnandibai Gopalrao Joshee. A couple ofyears later, the immediate post-pubertalconsummation of marriage was performedwith all ceremony demanded by orthodoxcustom, obviously without protest from the'progressive' Gopalrao. Anandibai'sexperience of motherhood at the age of 12,rendered additionally painful by the loss ofherinfant son, was followed by an impercepti-ble but steady decline in her health and herinability to bear more children. Such long-lasting physiological damage, as a typical

result of early sexual intercourse and earlypregnancy, was frequently discussed duringthe Age of Consent controversy of the late1880s [Kosambi 1991], but seems not tohave been identified in Anandibai's case.

Gopalrao's avowed reformist aim ofeducating his wife" seemed sure of fulfilmentthrough his bright and receptive child-wife'srapid progress in Marathi, and rudimentarySanskrit and English. He ensured freedomfrom her family's possible interference andquietude for studies, through a transfer toAlibag on the Konkan coast. But he alienatedthe conventional small town by not onlyeducating his wife at home, therebytransgressing the rules of sex-segregation indaytime domestic activities,12 but also takingher for evening walks - behaviour hardlytolerated even in large cities.

Tired of this social isolation and evenharassment, and attracted by bettereducational opportunities for his wife,Gopalrao obtained further transfers, first toBombay and then to Kolhapur. However,Anandibai' s attendance at the highly regardedmissionary schools at both the placesremained problematic in the face of socialpressure, and lack of special encouragementexpected from the missionaries for thisventure. Gopalrao.'s vicarious personalambition, coupled with his acquaintance withAmerican missionaries, ignited the radicalplan of taking Anandibai to America forhigher studies. He appealed for help to theRev Wilder of Princeton, New Jersey, inSeptember 1878, projecting himself as aprogressive brahmin struggling against castepersecution to educate his wife, andenlightened enough to value the message ofChrist. The covering letter by Goheen of theAmerican Mission in Kolhapur sketched anenthusiastic scenario of the convertedBrahmin couple as valuable propagators ofChristianity. The far less sanguine Wildermerely advised Gopalrao to stay on in Indiaand confess Christ immediately. Severelydisappointed, Gopalrao sought yet anothertransfer, this time to Bhuj in the Gujaratregion of the Bombay Presidency.

An entirely unexpected global connectiondeveloped at this juncture. In the spring of1880, B F Carpenter of Roselle, New Jersey,came across this correspondence publishedearlierin the Missionary Review of Princeton;and, overcoming her initial hesitation, wroteto offer Anandibai her whole hearted support.The letter heralded a regular and copiouscorrespondence leading to an unusualbonding between the 15-year old Anandibaiand the American lady old enough to be hermother, whom she viewed in the light of anaffectionate aunt. In a letter dated January20, 1881, Anandibai wrote:

I already wish and feel that I should call youmy aunt. There is a saying among us, "it doesnot matter much if a mother dies, but let not

an aunt die". This expression will show youin what respect and estimation a maternalaunt is held among us. If you allow me, Iwish to look upon you as such.

Carpenter's prompt consent cemented thesurrogate blood relationship.13

With the American avenue blocked,Gopalrao's ambitions for his wife turnedtowards making her the first Maharashtrianwoman to take up paid governmentemployment; and in April 1881 he obtaineda transfer to the Bengal Presidencywhich offered women jobs in the postaldepartment.

.Life in Calcutta came as a culture shockto the Joshees. Though in the vanguard ofsocial reform, theBengali society was strictlysex-segregated, with "'zenana' too rigidlyobserved", as Anandibai commented toCarpenterin June 1881. Duringtheir eveningwalks, the couple were rudely stared at andlaughed at by both Indians and Europeans,and even harassed by a policeman once,, sounusual was the sight. As further aggravation,the climate affected the health of both, andAnandibai took to her bed for several days.The crowning misery came when Gopalraolost an important dispatch from the Viceroyto the Governor of Bengal, for which he wasarrested and even temporarily suspendedfrom his duties.14 However, life finallyresumed some normalcy, a rudimentary social-network was established (to include mainlythe few Maharashtrian brahmins inCalcutta),and contact was made with the BrahmoSamaj, and also the Theosophical Societyof which both became members.

The socio-cultural link with Maharashtrawas nurtured throughout this time and duringGopalrao's subsequent transfer toBarrackpore and then to Serampore in 1882.Marathi newspapers were read regularly,and in April 1882, the Kesari of Punepublished Anandibai's letter and versesmourning the untimely death of the wellknown nationalistic but anti-reform writerVishnushastri Chiplunkar [cited in Kanitkar1912:326-27]. It was also during this stayat Serampore that Anandibai made an offerof hospitality to the prematurely widowedPanditaRamabai, then living in Bengal [Dall1888:vi-vii].

In the meanwhile, plans for Anandibai'sfuture had crystallised: she was to enrol atan American medical college withCarpenter's help. In fact, she was to sail toAmerica alone, with suitable femalecompany, and Gopalrao, prevented byfinancial constraints from accompanying her,was to join her later. The wildfire newswhipped up a storm of protest whichAnandibai decided to still through a well-received and well-publicised public addressat the Serampore College in February 1883,on the subject of "My future visit in Americaand public inquiries regarding it."

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Finally, on April 7, 1883, the 18-year oldAnandibai sailed from Calcutta under thenominal escort of American missionarywomen, and finally met her American aunt.After spending the summer with her at,Roselle, Anandibai joined the Women'sMedical College of Pennsylvania (currentlythe co-educational Medical College ofPennsylvania) at Philadelphia in October1883. The Dean, Rachel Bodley, warmlywelcomed the lonely young Indian womanboth to the College and to her home for thenext three years during which Anandibaicompleted the full course of studies.However, illness continued to dog Anandibaieven here. The combined effect of the coldclimate, the burning of anthracite coal in theheaters, and the rigours of the demandingmedical studies took a heavy toll, andAnandibai graduated from the Collegealready a victim of consumption. On March11, 1886 Anandibai, now almost 21-yearold, received her medical degree amidst anovation at a splendid ceremony at whichPandita Ramabai was a guest of honour.15

Also present at the graduation ceremonywas Gopalrao who had resigned his job in1884 and travelled cheaply to the US (viaBurma, Siam and China), working his wayas a labourer. Immediately on arrival at SanFrancisco, he acquired dubious publicitythrough anti-American speeches which hecontinued to give at all the stops on his wayto Roselle, while Anandibai hid herembarrassment as diplomatically as herfriends - who had extended financial helpto both - hid their resentment.

Compelled by failing health to abandonher initial plan of spending another year inthe US to gain experience of medical practice,Anandibai accepted the fortunate offer of anewly created post for a lady doctor in theprincely state of Kolhapur in the BombayPresidency. Gopalrao reluctantly gave uphis plan to travel further within the US andalso to visit England, and accompanied hiswife to India on October 8, 1886, reachingBombay five weeks later.

The Joshees were warmly welcomed bythe people and the press in Maharashtra -as much for Anandibai' s success in educationas for her conformance to conventional dressand diet, and for Gopalrao's nobility insending his wife abroad for medicaleducation. However, it soon became apparentthat Anandibai' s rapidly deteriorating healthresponded to the treatment of neither westerndoctors nor Indian Ayurvedic vaidyasconsulted at Bombay and at Pune where shewas shifted in December 1886.

On February 29,1887, Anandibai breathedher last in a house of her mother's relatives- the same house where she was born lessthan 22 years earlier. She was cremated atPune, but her ashes were sent to Carpenterand are buried in her family lot in the

Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, New York.The black stone grave marker bearing theinscription: "Dr Anandabai Joshee, MD,1865-1887, First Brahmin Woman to LeaveIndia to Obtain an Education"16 keeps hermemory alive in an alien iand which becameher home for the three fateful years whichchanged her life as it did the subsequentsocial history of Maharashtra.

After Anandibai's death, Gopalrao did notremarry, and spent the rest of his life mostlyat Nashik and Pune, occasionally gainingnotoriety for his well-publicised activities.The first of these, with the greatest nuisancevalue, was the tea party he helped to organiseat the Panch Houd Mission at Pune in October1890, to which about 40 prominent citizens(including BG Tilak and MG Ranade) wereinvited. Although only some of the guestsdrank tea served by Christians, Gopalraohad the entire list published in a newspaper,with a demand that they be required toperform the requisite expiation or beexcommunicated for having lost caste(Mahratta,Ju\y 5,1891:4). The case draggedon for over a year and caused a great dealof harassment, without serving its ostensiblepurpose of exposing the reformers'hypocrisy. The second incident was amarriage of two donkeys perfomed inDecember 1890, supposedly as a commenton child marriages performed by so-calledreformers. The third incident involvedGopalrao's conversion to Christianity at theend of June 1891, though he retained hissacred thread and the mark on his forehead,contending that "although he has acceptedChrist as his Saviour, he does not cease tobe a Hindu" (Mahratta, July 5, 1891:3);after about a month, he returned formallyto the Hindu fold. In 1892 he made a shortand unsuccessful trip to England as a traderin Indian handicrafts, and published a Marathitravel description, with a rather unbalancedcommentary. In September 1912, he died atNashik, penniless, without family or friends[Vaidya 1985]. His sporadic notorietynotwithstanding, he left no permanent markon the social scene of Maharashtra, andremains best-known as Anandibai'shusband.17

IIA Fragmented Feminism

Through wide-ranging temporal and cross-cultural shifts, three elements seem to emergeas pivotal to the myriad connotations offeminism: the belief that women qua womenare subordinated to and oppressed by men,the ideal of gender equality, and action (eitherprivate or public) towards the achievementof this ideal [Kramarae and Treichler1989:158-61]. The same themes surface inthe "feminist consciousness" which is saidto haveevol ved historically from a perception

of the distorted way of presenting women,to aquestioningofthe (patriarchal) tradition,to the final reaching out to other women insearch of sisterhood [Lernerl 992: xxi-xxii];and also in the "feminist perspective" whichis an attempt "to describe women'soppression, to explain its causes andconsequences, and to prescribe strategies forwomen's liberation" [Tong 1992:1].

The feminism which erupted spas-modically on the social scene of Maharashtrain the early 1880s manifested most of thesecrucial elements, while stopping short of thenotion of forming a sisterhood or engagingin collective action (except for PanditaRamabai's Arya Mahila Samaj set up in1882 as a definite attempt in this direction).This was hardly surprising, given the severeconstraints on women's gatherings, exceptfor religious and family festivities. Nor didthe isolated feminist voices which were raisedfrom time to time form a discourse, in spiteof personal networks and an exchange ofletters among some of them."1 What issignificant, however, is the fact that thewomen's protests were qualitatively differentfrom the contemporary male reformistdiscourse (conducted within a partially liberalbut firmly patriarchal framework), andquestioned many aspects of the patriarchalvalue system and the social institutions whichit undergirded.

One of the earliest challenges came fromTarabai Shinde in her militant Marathibooklet Stree-Puruslia Tulana published inearly 1882, attacking the male doublestandards of morality, and the male prejudicesagainst and abuse of women. In June 1882was published Pandita Ramabai's MarathiStree-Dharma Neeti - an exhortation towomen (from a male reformer's perspecti ve)to cultivate self-reliance, and obtaineducation and skills in household duties andchild care - whose generally anti-feministtone was punctuated by brief but stronglyworded protests against male hypocrisy andandrocentric Hindu scriptures [Kosambi1995a]. It was during her highly publicisedtestimony before the Hunter Commission onEducation in September 1882 at Pune thatRamabai made a spirited stand for women'seducation, including medical education, andfor the need to appoint female teachers andinspectresses for girls' schools because ofthe male jealousy and tendency to obstructwomen's education [Kosambi 1995a]. In1885 appeared Rakhmabai's letters to TheTimes of India under the pen-name of 'AHindu Lady', in which she attacked thecustom of child marriage for exposing thegirl-bride to emotional harassment andphysical violence, while simultaneouslydepriving her of education and the chanceof personality development; and alsodetailedthe variety of oppression experienced bywidows in different age-groups; ending with

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reformist recommendations [cited in Varde1991:190-208].

Theextent of Anandibai's familiarity withany of these writings remains unknown.Although away in Bengal and later inAmerica throughout these years, she didkeep in touch with the socio-culturaldevelopments in Maharashtra through Indiannewspapers which reported and commentedon many of these events and related debates.It must be remembered, however, that PanditaRamabai's The High-Caste Hindu Woman,almost an Indian feminist manifesto,published in the US in 1887, post-datedAnandibai's death by a few months.

This chronology assumes significance herebecause many of Anandibai' s comments citedbelow date from 1880-81 when she was 15-16 years old - younger than Rakhmabai whowas 19 at the time of writing her 'HinduLady' letters, and then Pandita Ramabaiwho was 24 when she made her meteoricappearance in Maharashtra in 1882. ThatAnandibai was at all able to arriveindependently at her views on what wouldnow be called feminist issues, at that relativelyyoung age and in the absence of an ongoingfeminist discourse, is remarkable. Heryoungage could be considered a significant factorin explaining the occasional hesitationapparent in her views, although she livedin an era when emotional maturity cameearly, as did family responsibilities, andwhen a 15-year old girl was regarded as agrown woman, often a mother (as Anandibaiherself would have been). Further, there isno indication of a noticeable change in herviews as she grew older and was exposedto a substantially different culture.

The problems of presenting a fair and justinterpretation of Anandibai's positions areobvious: the paucity of material and theresultant danger of reading too much intoa chance remark; the inevitably heavyreliance on private correspondence notintended for the public gaze19 - not even forthe biographer's unwillingly inquisitive gaze- and therefore not formulated as well-reasoned statements, although she obviouslyput a lot of thought into her variousdiscussions with Carpenter; and the longinterval between successive segments of adiscussion (as a letter took about five weeksto reach, even an immediate reply involveda delay of ten weeks). Equally importantly,Anandibai was struggling to express complexideas in a foreign language which she wasstill in the process of mastering, and doingso in a way which would give a stranger afair picture of unfamiliar and much criticisedIndian customs.

The broad gender-related foci ofAnandibai's privately expressed views andpublic statements were: women' s subordinateposition in marriage, family, and society; thecustom of child marriage; the neglect of

women's health; the need for training womendoctors to treat women patients; and theobstacles to women's general education aswell as professional medical education. Theseviews are conspicuously moulded by herstrong nationalism and loyalty to the Hinduculture.

Her universalised personal experience ofasymmetrical gender relations within thetypical Hindu marriage were unequivocallyexpressed in the 37-year old Anandibai'sletter (dated about 1884) from America toher 37-year old husband:

It is not at all my intention to distress yourdear heart or to cause a rift in our love byraking up old memories... It is very difficultto decide whether your treatment of me wasgood or bad. If you ask me, I would answerthat it was both. It seems to have been rightin view of its ultimate goal; but, in allfairness, one is. compelled to admit that itwas wrong, considering its possible effectson a child's mind. Hitting me with brokenpieces of wood at the tender age of ten,flinging chairs and books at me andthreatening to leave me when I was 12, andinflicting other strange punishments onme when I was 14 - all these were toosevere for the age, body, and mind at eachrespective stage. In childhood the mind isimmature and the body undeveloped. Andyou know how I acted on these occasions.If I had left you at that immature age, asyou kept on suggesting, what would havehappened? I would have been lost. (Andany number of girls have left their homesbecause of harassment from mothers-in-law and husbands.) I did not do so becauseI was afraid that my ill-consideredbehaviour would tarnish my father'shonour... And I requested you not to spareme, but to kill me. In our society, forcenturies there has been no legal restraintbetween husbands and wives; and if itexists, it works against women! Such beingthe case, I had no recourse but to allowyou to hit me with chairs and bear it withequanimity. A Hindu woman has no rightto utter a word or to advise her husband.On the contrary, she has a right to allowher husband to do what he wishes and tokeep quiet. Every Hindu husband can, withadvantage, learn patience from his wife.(I do understand that without you I wouldnever have become what I am now, andI am eternally grateful to you; but youcannot deny that I was always calm.) I wasborn to endure all that. But I am quitecontent now [Kanitkar 1912:188-89*].

This clear indictment of Gopalrao' s verbaland physical (and perhaps also sexual)violence and autocratic behaviour as well asher admission of her own helplessness as aHindu wife, are framed within the socio-legal norms which sanctioned both. Here theparadox surfaces again. The extract alsounderscores the fact that Gopalrao's onemitigating 'virtue', that of providing his

wife with basic education and with theopportunity to go abroad for higher studies,was so rare at the time as to compensate foreverything else. As Anandibai wrote toCarpenter from Bhuj on November 15,1880:

I do not expect much encouragement fromthe other members of my family. They are,properly speaking, orthodox to the letter,and cannot be expected to sympathise withme. But as my husband is so much in favourof... [giving women] emancipation, no onedares turn his face against me.

Anandibai's views on gender relationsand her own awareness of their complexity(and possible contradictions) become clearerin another letter to Carpenter [Bhuj,December 15, 1880]:

[W]hen I ponder over the subject of theconnection between man and woman, Igenerally side with the so-called orthodoxideas. So long as woman is not on equalterms with man, it is better for her to beunder certain social restrictions, such as"not to marry again", "To be subservientto man", "To look upon her husband asGod". These are the enjoinments of ourShastras. On the other hand, when I thinkover the sufferings to which woman issubjected in all ages and at all times, I growimpatient to see the western light dawnupon us as the harbinger of emancipationand future good. Here I feel my inabilityto express myself as fully as I think. I amled to believe that man and woman shouldbe self-protecting and that one should notdepend upon the other for maintenanceand other necessaries of life. Then andonly then, all family discords and socialhumiliation will cease. I am very sorry tosee that there are many ladies amongEuropeans in India who are educated andaccomplished for the purpose of marriage.Alas! how mischievous it is for a lady toadorn and change dress every hour in orderto allure bachelors (emphasis added).

The line of argument here develops froma pragmatism (which appears like anti-feminism), to a belief in ultimate genderequality through western influence andindividual self-reliance, and further to anationalistic expose of the obverse side ofEuropean society. To begin with, thewoman's subservient role as a husband-worshipping wife, being an imperative ofthe firmly entrenched patriarchy in Hindusociety, is best observed through customswhich reduce or eliminate her psychologicaltensions and conflicts. In short, women,handicapped with a lack of options, shouldconsenttotheirown subordination. However,as these customs did entail a heavy cost towomen, it was hoped that patriarchy itselfwould be challenged by the spread of westerncivilisation, with its liberal value system andinstitutions, thus emancipating women andrelieving their suffering. Ultimately, therelationship of dependence and dominance

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should be done away with altogether; in fact,gender equality would become a distinctpossibility if its precondition, self-reliance,was realised. In the meanwhile, it wasunfortunate that while Indian women werehankering after the potentially emancipatorygift of western education, European womenwere frittering it away by short-sightedlypreferring to remain within the bondage ofmarriage. By implication, European societywas not as advanced or as superior to Indiansociety as was claimed.

In her above-cited letter of November 15,1880, Anandibai also makes a somewhatoblique and sarcastic reference to theuniversal son preference in Indian families:

We have no polygamy to speak of... Ourpeople, if they at all take more than one wife,marry for the sake of sons if they do nothave any by first or second wife. So you seehow fond we are of sons socially andreligiously. The Heavens are open to theman who has a son, but not otherwise.

Women's social inferiority translated intothe general neglect of their needs, regardingwhich Anandibai says, in one of her earliestletters to Carpenter [Bhuj, July 19, 1880)]

We have the same dress for all the seasons.We never put on warm clothes as it isconsidered indecent, nor do we wear shoesor boots as we seldom go outdoors. In short,all these luxuries are for men, who feel cold,warm and autumn [weather] and not forwomen who are supposed to be imperviousto all these changes of climate. Should wenot envy you then?

Thecustomof child marriage,increasinglychallenged in India and already under attackin the west, drew a somewhat vacillatoryresponse from Anandibai. Basically, itseemed to be a dilemma of societal wisdomwhich sanctioned the practice, as againstlived experience which protested against it- a dilemma further complicated by herunwillingness to condemn an Indian customto a westerner. In her letter to Carpenter[Bhuj, August 23, 1880], she resolved thedilemma by insisting, first, that all marriagesystems - Indian and western - were faulty,and secondly that their alleged role in causingwomen's health problems was doubtful aseven unmarried women had poor health:

I, of late, have been ill with something orthe other. In higher classes women generallyare very weak in India. I ascribe the causeto the custom of early marriage prevailingin all India but as you complain of the sameI think there is some wrong in the marriagesystem.

The discussion on the effects of childmarriage was long drawn out, and Anandibaiwas almost aggressive in her insistence thatwomen's health problems arose not fromchild marriage alone, but from the institutionof marriage itself, or from independent

causes which affected even unmarriedwomen. Almost a year later she wrote[Kalyan, March 1881]:

Early marriage is no doubt a bane. Whenwe deviate from the laws of nature, we mustsuffer the consequences. The practice ofearly marriage is not prevalent in manycountries and yet the women there often areweak and ill-constituted as we are. I knowof one lady (who was a spinster) who wasalways complaining of some thing or theother and never appeared in good health. Sothere are many European ladies in India, oldand 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 obligedif you will kindly account for the samecondition perceptible in all civilisedcountries20 in which there is no such thingas early marriage. Early marriage will nodoubt be one of the causes which lead tothis havoc, and destruction of life. I admit

- that the condition of Indian women ismiserable and deplorable,... [But it wouldbe undesirable] if we try to destroy all theold institutions as pernicious without havingsome thing better to substitute for them. TheEuropean mode of life and delicacy ofmanners and customs are not... [worthy ofappreciation] as they appear on the veryface, are expensive and not within the reachof the masses. Anything that cannot beenjoyed by the masses must be bad. I howeverhope that you will kindly enlighten me onthe subject I have so rudely and withoutregard to logic or reasoning handled above.My defence of our present customs andmanners will at least show you how ignorantwe are and how prejudiced are our opinionsagainst anything that is now prevalent. Yousay that Nature has designed us to mate atan early age and therefore infer that we mustbe earlier married but not before puberty...[B]ut it is neither Nature nor religion toblame for introducing early marriage. Theremust be something else which I leave it toyou to solve.

Surprisingly, Carpenter seems to havesupported early though not pre-pubertalmarriage, and possibly imagined that Hinduchild marriages were consummated beforepuberty.

Somewhat abruptly, Anandibai'svacillation ended in her very next letter(Calcutta, April 1881) which made an explicitand radical statement endorsing Britishlegislation for introducing social reform:

We have many societies for the preventionof early marriages, but they cannot exercisea powerful influence over the irresistibletendencies of the generality of people. Almostall the rich and influential people are orthodoxto the letter, and cannot be prevailed uponto put a stop to heinous customs and mannersunless the strong ruling force interferes. Thecustom of 'suttee' has been forciblyabolished and the early marriage requires

a similarly deadly blow before it can giveway.

It is only against this background that onecan appreciate the nationalistic compulsionsin Anandibai's public defence of the customof child marriage at a meeting of Americanmissionary women in the spring of 1884.Her American friends, unawareof her privatemisgivings, saw this as an inevitable resultof her social conditioning: Dean Bodley, forexample, sought to dispel "the feelings ofdisappointment and regret engendered thatApril afternoon" by stressing "howabsolutely impossible it was for a High-caste Hindu wife to speak otherwise"[Bodley 1981:ii-iii].

A deep concern for women's health andan urgently felt need for women doctorsunderpinned Anandibai's career decision, asshe eloquently conveyed to Carpenter (Bhuj,November 1, 1880):

I am late this time by 15 days to mail thisletter. It is on account of my serious illness,which confined me to bed for nearly 3 weeks.This sickness confirms me in my desire tostudy medicine. Though my sickness wasnot of a serious nature, yet I was at onetime so much affected that I had passedsome days and nights without the leastrelief until we had recourse to professionalmedical advice and treatment. As a rulewe Indian women suffer from innumerabletrifling diseases, unnoticed till they growserious. The internal diseases to whichwomen are naturally liable are never knownto anybody except the sufferers. It isthought indecent to let them go to theknowledge of the other sex, much more[so to be] examined by male doctors. Youmay therefore imagine the mortality amongIndian women. If I make no exaggeration,fifty percent die in the prime of their youthof diseases arising partly through ignoranceand loathsomeness to communicate of theparties concerned, and partly throughcarelessness on the part of their guardiansor husbands. It is not a calamity if a fatherloses a daughter or two as he is therebyspared much trouble and embarrassmentto which he is exposed by abominablecustoms and manners (emphasis added).

In articulating this particular universalisedpersonal experience of the gynaecologicaland other health problems of women,Anandibai made no distinction betweenprivate and public expression, as seen fromher public address at Serampore:

I go to America because I wish to studymedicine. I now address the ladies presenthere, who will be the better judges of theimportance of medical assistance in India.I never consider this subject without beingsurprised that none of those societies solaudably established in India for thepromotion of sciences and female educationhave ever thought of sending one of theirfemale members into the most civilised parts

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of the world to procure thorough medicalknowledge, in order to open here a collegefor the instruction of women in medicine.There is probably no country so barbarousas India that would not disclose all her wantsand try to stand on her own feet. The wantof female physicians in India is keenly feltin every quarter. Ladies both European andNative are naturally averse to exposethemselves in cases of emergency totreatment by doctors of the other sex. There•are some female doctors in Indiafrom Europeand America, who being foreigners anddifferent in manners, customs and language,have not been of such use to our women asthey might. As it is very natural that Hinduladies who love their own country and peopleshould not feel at home with the natives ofother countries, we Indian women absolutelyderive no benefit from these foreign ladies.They indeed have the appearance ofsupplying our need, but the appearance isdelusive. In my humble opinion there is agrowing need for Hindu lady doctors inIndia, and 1 volunteer to qualify myself forone [cited in Dall 1888:83-84].

In the early 1880s, before the introductionof the Dufferin scheme,21 medical educationwas practically impossible for women toobtain in India; where the opportunity existedin theory, it was effectively negated inpractice by the male jealousy and hostilitytowards women's professional education.Even ordinary education was fraught withdifficulties because of the vocal socialopposition to Hindu women's schoolattendance, as Anandibai described vividlyto her audience at Serampore:

I do not mean that there are no means [fora woman to study in India], but the difficultiesare many and great. There is one college atMadras, and midwifery classes are openedin all the presidencies; but the educationimparted is defective and not sufficient, asthe instructors who teach the classes areconservative, and to some extent jealous.22

I do not find fault with them. That is thecharacteristic of the male sex. We must putup with this inconvenience until we havea class of educated ladies to relieve thesemen.

I am neither a Christian nor a Brahmo.To continue to live as a Hindu and go toschool in any part of India is very difficult.A convert who wears an English dress is notso much stared at. Native Christian ladiesare free from the opposition or public scandalwhich Hindu ladies like myself have to meetwithin and without the zenana. If I go aloneby train or in the street some people comenear to stare and ask impertinent questionsto annoy me. Example is better than precept.Some few years ago, when 1 was in Bombay,I used to go to school. When people sawme going with books in my hands, they hadthe goodness to put their heads out of thewindow just to have a look at me. Somestopped their carriages for the purpose.Others walking in the streets stood laughing,

and crying out [derisive remarks] so that Icould hear [them]...

Passers-by, whenever they saw me going,gathered round me. Some of them made funand were convulsed with laughter. Others,sitting respectably in their verandahs, maderidiculous remarks and did not feel ashamedto throw pebbles at me. The shopkeepersand vendors spat at the sight of me, and madegestures too indecent to describe. I leave itto you to imagine what was my conditionat such a time, and how I could gladly haveburst through the crowd to make my homenearer! [cited in Dall 1888:84-86].

This social resistance was aimed not onlyat the fact of a woman encroaching upon thefield of education long treated as a malepreserve, but also at her attempting to crossthe domestic threshold to enter the publicsphere, as Anandibai was quick to point out:

Yet the boldness of my Bengali brethrencannot be exceeded, and is still more seriousto contemplate than the instances I havegiven from Bombay. Surely it deserves pity!If I go to take a walk on the strand, Englishmenare not so bold as to look at me. Even thesoldiers are never troublesome;buttheBabuslay bare their levity by making fun ofeverything. "Who are you?" "What caste doyou belong to?" "Whence do you come?""Where do you go?" are, in my opinion,questions that should not be asked bystrangers. There are some educated nativeChristians here in Serampore who aresuspicious; they are still wondering whetherI am married or a widow; a woman of badcharacter or excommunicated! Dearaudience, does it become my native andChristian brethren to be so uncharitable?Certainly not. I place these unpleasant thingsbefore you, that those who have neverthought of the difficulties may see that I amnot going to America through any whim orcaprice [cited in Dall 1888:86-87].

The society which denied women theopportunity to study and practise westernmedicine presumably excluded them alsofrom the traditional Ayurvedic medicinemonopolised by conservative Brahmin men.However, Anandibai's staunch nationalismprompted her to retrieve ancient Hinduknowledge, as she declared to Carpenter(November 15, 1880):

The Europeans are under the impression thatthere is nothing worth knowing in Hinduscriptures and I have therefore taken upSanscrit to show them how sublime, usefuland instructive are the precepts in HinduShastras.

More specifically, this preoccupation wasreflected in Anandibai's medical dissertationsubmitted for her MD, on 'Obstetrics amongthe Aryan Hindoos' [Joshee 1886] - a topicwhich she justified in these words:

As the importance of obstetrics can bemeasured only by the value of life and health,

and both being of paramount consequence,it is deserving of most careful study. Whenwe realise how difficult and vast the subjectis, it is not surprising to find so many greatminds thoroughly absorbed in its magnitude,from the time immemorial. Since our studynaturally embraces, the cause and effect,race habits, climatic influences and meansof assisting Nature in her operations, wemust not entirely overlook the history ofpast ages and consider the superior minds,which laboured, with marked success in thesame field of investigation, under thepromptings of the same motives, as far backas 15 Century B.C. They may enable us tothe better appreciation of the science andpay due respect to the discoveries, theoriesand mode of application of remedies ofminds of different nations at different times.I therefore need not apologise for choosingthis subject...

The dissertation outlined in detail the "goodrules laid down by Manu the great aryanlegislator, Susruta, and other physiologists",regarding the hygiene of pregnancy, causesof abortion, preparation for lying in,accidents of labour, and, briefly, thediseases of infancy and was concludedwith these lines:

I have not mentioned those principles,theories and treatment in this paper whichare entirely out of practice in India, thoughthere are many valuable things with perhapsas many ridiculous ones in our ancientmedical and surgical literature (concerningobstetrics) that are not in practice. I havesaid too little to do justice to what is taught .and practised among the brahmins but onaccount of the rarity of valuable time andspace I am obliged to say no more.

That Anandibai's interest in ayurvedicmedicine transcended mere nationalisticpride into genuine belief in its efficacy isindicated by the fact that she was underayurvedic and not western medical treatmentduring her last days (provided the choicewas hers and not her husband's).2' Had shelived longer, she might even have been ableto forge a gradual entry into this orthodoxmale-dominated science.

IllArticulations, Actions and

Social RepercussionsIf Anandibai's conformist image

overshadowed everything non-conformistabout her, it was for rather complex reasons.Tensions were inherent within the totalityof her partially feminist private beliefs, andbetween these and her largely conventionalactions. If she made a progressive feministstatement through her medical studies inAmerica to help ailing women back in India,she also made an emphatically conventionaland anti-feminist statement by conformingto the orthodox image of the ideal Hinduwife - which probably originated partly in

3194 Economic and Political Weekly December 7, 1996

genuine belief, partly in the need to keepher reservations to herself in a society whichallowed no space for woman's protest againstthe patriarchal family institution, and partlyin the nationalistic spirit which would notallow her to criticise Indian society to non-Indians. However, given the wide spectrumof her contemporary feminist expression(with various permutations andcombinations), these tensions may notnecessarily have resulted in a "cognitivedissonance". The fragmentation obvious tous from our very different vantage point maynot have been experienced as problematicby her or her contemporaries.

In her private letters Anandibaiacknowledged the general subordination ofIndian women, their oppression withinmarriage and family, and implicitly alsotheir sexual oppression, as well as thereligious and socio-legal endorsement ofthese. In public, however, she never touchedupon these issues and even defended thecustom of child marriage. Incidentally,Gopalfao himself, for all his reformistimage,was a staunch supporter of child marriageswhich, for him, was a matter of nationalpride. In a letter to the editor of The Indexof Boston (April 1,1886), he defended childmarriages as "simple and innocent", bornout of the Indian "abhorrence of lottery inlove", because "late or choice marriages...are made and unmade according to thedemands of lust". He insisted that Indiansdid not want to adopt "this substitute forearly and permanent marriage" which wasa "cheap commodity from Europe", adding:"Let England and America preserve it as anemblem of independence and liberty".Gopalrao's clinching arguments were that:"Wherever the child marriage does notprevail, there prostitution is carried on onan extensive scale" and that "We have nosuch divorce system as you have in theUnited States". Whether Anandibai usedany of these arguments during her talk onchild marriage remains unknown.

It was only on one part of women'ssubordination, namely the denial of educationand health care, that Anandibai's private andpublic views coincided. At the same time,her very visible deference and obedience toher husband's wishes served to negate herfeminist stand, reinforce the conventionalideal of womanhood, and resist all socialinstitutional change. Her respect forconvention, especially her insistence onretaining a Maharashtrian brahmanic dietand dress (with the only change that thenine-yard sari was worn in the Gujarati style,as more suitable to the cold climate)underscored the traditional role of womenas the chief repositories of culture, andreceived disproportionate attention. It ispossible that her behaviour stemmed morefrom a mooring to her cultural anchorage

than any intended anti-feminism, but to thecontemporary Maharashtrian mind, thisachievement seemed as great as her medicaldegree. The Mahraita welcomed the Josheesto India by emphasising that "the difficultiesof Mrs Anandibai were such as no man orwoman of ordinary moral and physicalstrength could have overcome", but thathappily she and Gopalrao overcame themall and returned to India "with western culturebut without a taint of western vice. MrsJoshee has preserved her Hindu habits andcustoms and that too at no small personalinconvenience"; and invited "the orthodoxpeople as well as reformers" to "dulyappreciate the worth of. Anandibai's heroicact" (November 21, 1886:4).

Anandibai' s public vow to "go to Americaas a Hindu and return as a Hindu", whichshe fulfilled in-letter and spirit, was causefor great relief and reassuarance to a societywhich had just Most' Pandita Ramabai toChristianity in 1883 during her much-opposed visit to England. Predictably thisaspect of Anandibai's life receivedexaggerated publicity, favourably contrastedwith Pandita Ramabai. Given the fact thatother educated women like Ramabai andRakhmabai had attacked Hindu socialcustoms and even religion, it was natural forconventional society to seize the opportunityto claim Anandibai as its own, more in spiteof than because of her medical degree. Afterall, presenting Anandibai as a role modelhad the advantage of pressing home the idealof the devoted wife without the fear that anyother woman would be inspired to emulateher educational achievement - simplybecause none would be allowed to, eitherby her husband or her marital family. It issignificant that the next woman to becomea medical doctor was Rakhmabai who leftfor England in 1889, a year after she wasformally released by her husband from themarriage which she had repudiated, and withfull support from her parental family[Kosambi 1995c]. Obviously, not many otherwomen of the educated class would havesuch freedom.

Thus the social repercussions ofAnandibai's fragmented feminism werepredictably complex and contradictory. Evenwhile her 'submissive wife' image valorisedthe patriarchal ideal and indicated the limitsto women's achievements, this veryconformity to convention enabled her tocarve out a new emancipatory space forwomen within this constricting socialstructure [Kosambi 1994:191.

IVPopular Image and Retrieved Image

It is ironical, though perhaps not surprising,that Anandibai's original image as anachiever, projected by her feministbiographers Kashibai Kanitkar and Carolyn

Dall, came to be effectively subverted by herpopular image created by a male novelist,S J Joshi (1970).

Kashibai Kanitkar's biography ofAnandibai is unique as the very firstbiography of a Maharashtrian woman writtenby a contemporary, herself a woman, and,moreover, in Marathi. In her Preface,Kashibai records her feminist idealisticdetermination that the biography of such agreat woman should be written by a woman,and not by one of the many willing men -a determination which ultimately compelledher to undertake the task herself, with an aimspelt out in these words:

If this book ignites, in the mind of even asingle one of my sisters, a spark of thepatriotic fire which forever burnt inAnandibai's great heart, I shall considermyself blessed and the happiest person inthe universe [Kanitkar 1912, Preface:4*].

In elucidating Anandibai's greatness,Kashibai identifies the obstacles confrontingher and the resultant tensions:

Aiming at the general progress of her sisters,Anandibai was able to display severalachievements, such as constantly battlingwith obstacles in her path; working out acompromise between the old and newviewpoints with wisdom, far-sightednessand maturity; pleasing the modernimpatient reformers without hurting theold-fashioned people; not adopting aforeign religion even after spending threeyears in a totally Christian country;cherishing her own cultural practiceswithout offending the foreigners -achievements which no man has so farbeen capable of! What does our countryneed? The answer is - determined andcourageous individuals like Dr MrsAnandibai [Kanitkar 1912, Prefaced*].

Kashibai's biography, intended to servethe dual purpose of inspiring women to greatachievements, and inducing men to supportthem, is consciously used as a platform formaking public statements on the problemsof women, invariably accompanied bysuggested liberal reformist solutions. Herperception of Anandibai as a role modelforms the very basis of the biography, writtenas a 'modest commemoration' of herextraordinary efforts for national welfare[Kanitkar 1912:322].

This reformist stance stemmed fromKashibai's unstated but obvious empatheticunderstanding of women's problems,within a shared socio-cultural context. Atihe same time, being situated in a societyin transition also created inner tensionsand contradictions in Kashibai's ideologicalposition. Her conscious tussle with thepower of patriarchy and her occasionalsubmission to it are reflected in anambivalence (also shared by Anandibai)which result in her projection of Anandibai,

Economic and Political Weekly December 7, 1996 3195

alternately as an independent agent and acreation of her husband to whom she oweda heavy debt of gratitude. /

Predictably, only one part of Anandibai'simage, that of a devoted wife who followedher reformer husband's dictates and waspropelled into fame as his creation, gainedground during her own lifetime whenGopalrao Joshee was much lionised as areformer who outpaced others to make hiswifeintoarole model for Indian womanhood.Endorsed by an ambivalent KashibaiKanitkar herself, this image assumed a lifeof its own as the real Anandibai Joshee halfa century later in S J Joshi' s gripping Marathinovel Anandi Gopal (1968,1970). The novelweaves an imaginary world around anauthentic and very selective biographicalcore taken from Kashibai (creating amisleading impression of it being genuinelyhistorical source material), and has enjoyedimmense popularity, together with its stageadaptation. But, for all its appeal andoccasional insights into a bygone age, itremains a work of fiction - which becomesproblematic mainly for its subversiveandrocentric projection of a passive non-feminist image of Anandibai. The same holdstrue of its abridged English translationAnandi Gopal (1992).

Ironically, S J Joshi also claims empathywith the Joshees, born out of a shared middleclass Brahmin culture and life-style of pre-World War II Pune, which according to himhad remained unchanged for a hundred years[Joshi 1970: Preface]. Joshi imposes thiscultural ethos, built around the mainstreamBrahmin society's strongly patriarchalvalues, preferences and frustrations, on thenarrative of the Joshees' lives, but is unableto grasp the socio-political transitions of thelate 19th century, or the distance travelledby the Joshees (especially Anandibai) fromthe shared brahmanical culture. In fact, thenovel's protagonist is not really Anandibaiwho is portrayed as a tragic and almostdefeated figure rather than a courageous onefacing life's challenges, but Gopalrao whois portrayed as a frustrated visionary whosemischievous eccentricities (some of whichthe author has located before Anandibai'sdeath as a matter of artistic licence) arepresented as justifiable or even heroic. Infact, the novel reaches its climax withAnandibai's realisation and admission, onher death-bed, that Gopalrao is far ahead oftheir society which is incapable ofunderstanding his true worth. Thus an'empathetic' subjective interpretation,unfounded on facts, distorts an intelligent,self-sufficient, independent, youngAnandibai - outspoken about the need forwomen's education and health care,staunchly nationalistic but open-mindedabout matters of religion, and possessing aquiet sense of humour - into a pathetic

puppet living in constant dread of herhusband's fiery temper and venomoustongue.

As one perceptive critic of the novel haspointed out, Gopalrao's undoubted couragein sending Anandibai alone to America neednot be accorded inflated importance, nor isthere any justification for his blatantlypublicity-hungry behaviour or his jealousyof his wife's achievements which madehim constantly upstage and humiliate herthrough verbal attacks on her and every-thing associated with her success - theAmerican society, women's education,and finally even western medicine [Dhond1994J. In misrepresenting Gopalrao, S JJoshi has also misrepresented Anandibaiwhose sadly short but eventful life hasbeen reduced to a melodrama, whoseagency has been buried under her allegedsubmissiveness, and whose innovativecoping mechanisms [Kosambi 1992] havebeen completely obscured.

Unfortunately it is this image whichhas captured the Maharashtrian psyche.Arguably then, Anandibai's real tragedy isto live on through a false popular imageas an intelligent but dependent andobedient wife of an allegedly visionaryhusband rather than as an independent agentwith a will of her own - a popular imagewhich has successfully eclipsed heremergentfeminism, however fragmented andcontradictory.

Notes

[This article is based on the material collectedduring the last few years towards a forthcomingbook on Anandibai Joshee.

I would like to acknowledge my gratitudeto the following individuals: William Cobb ofRidgewood, New Jersey, US, the great-grandsonof B F Carpenter, for giving me a copy of anear-complete set of Anandibai's letters fromIndia to Carpenter in the US; Arvind Tikekar,former librarian of the Jawaharlal Nehru Libraryof Bombay University, for making available acopy of Anandibai Joshee 's medicaldissertation; and Aroon Tikekar, editor of theLoksatta, for sharing a copy of Dall (1888)before I had access to it in the New York PublicLibrary.

It should be clarified that the wide variationseen in Anandibai's style of writing has arisenbecause some of her letters are available in theoriginal, some (along with the manuscript ofher speech) are available in Dall's edited version,and some have been translated by me from theMarathi originals (or translations) in Kanitkar(1912).]

1 Tarabai Shinde's booklet Stree-PurushaTulana (1882) was resurrected by G S Malshein 1975.

2 Rakhmabai's court case was first discussedby Y D Phadke in an article in 1977, andfurther details together with her letters

(published under the pseudonym 'A HinduLady' in The Times of India in 1884) werepublicised in Mohini's Varde's biography ofher (1982). For a further discussion ofRakhmabai's court case and the controversysurrounding it, see Kosambi (1995c).

3 The only writings of Pandita Ramabaicurrently available are The High-Caste HinduWoman (1887) reprinted in 1981 by thegovernment of Maharashtra, and ,4 Testimonyperiodically reprinted by the Ramabai MuktiMission at Kedgaon (10th ed, 1977). For adiscussion of Ramabai's contribution andmarginalisation, see Kosambi (1988, 1992,1995a).

4 Anandibai sailed on April 7, 1883 fromCalcutta for New York via London, underthe nominal escort of European missionaryladies, but alone for all practical purposes.A few days later, on April 20,1883, PanditaRamabai sailed for London from Bombaywith her baby daughter and a womancompanion.

5 Short lives are often seen as a biographicalhandicap: "It may be romantic to die young,

• but poets aside, it's not much of abiographicalproposition" [Roe 1992:5]. Anandibai's shortlife had complex effects: while thebiographical material is rich enough toovercome the handicap, her early death (withthe obvious and oft-drawn comparison withKeats) served to romaticise and populariseher, for better and for worse.

6 Gerda Lerner (1992:xix) discusses the existingdocumentation of women's history as"refracted doubly -through the lens of men'srecords and observations; through theapplication to it of male values".

7 This has been partly done in Kosambi (1995a),while discussing Pandita Ramabai's evolutiontowards feminism.

8 Anandibai's views and their effect onMaharashtra have been partly examined inKosambi (1994), in comparison with thoseof Rakhmabai and Pandita Ramabai.However, new material has since come tolight, in the form of Anandibai's lettersmentioned above.

9 These biographical details have beencollected largely from Kaniikar(l912)andsupplemented with Dall (1888).Anandibai's parental family spelt thesurname as 'Joshi' and her husband as'Joshee'; the same spellings are retainedhere. Maharashtrian names are writtenstarting with the personal name, followedby the father's or husband's name, andlastly 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 getan education did so at home from theirreformer husbands; it was nol considered'proper' to send girls to school; in any case,girls' schools existed only in large townsand cities.

12 The tutoring of wives was done at night,• when the couple could legitimately spend

time together. A case in point is RamabaiRanade's experience of her lessons done inthe early hours of the morning, and her

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harassment by the older women in the familyfor even agreeing to be educated [Ranade1910]. An excellent and representativestatement of the daytime sex-segregationwithin the house is the remark byAnandibai's contemporary, YashodabaiJoshi: "During the whole day, the menfolkand the womenfolk in our house did noteven see each other except at mealtime;then what possibility was there of talkingto each other or spending time together?"[Y Joshi 1985:17*].

13 The urge to convert a close friendship intoa surrogate blood relationship wasconspicuous in other contemporary cases aswell. Pandita Ramabai, for example, calledher elderly spiritual preceptress SisterGeraldine 'Ajeebai' (grandmother) [PanditaRamabai 1977].

14 This particular experience of the Britishofficial attitude to Indians seems to haveconsiderably reinforced Anandibai's anti-social stance which surfaces in some of herletters - a stance which contrasts with anaffinity to Americans who were perceived tobe free from colonial biases (though not fromthe bias of racial/cultural superiority to whichAnandibai did react sharply in her privateletters to India). The same triangular Indo-British-American relationship also played animportant role in Pandita Ramabai's life andcareer.

15 Bodley had written a special letter of invitationto Pandita Ramabai (then in England) for thisoccasion, acknowledging that it would greatlybenefit Anandibai if Ramabai "gave yoursanction to her act and enfolded her and herwork in your own future leadership" [PanditaRamabai 1977:165].

16 Anandibai's name was sometimes spelt'Anandabai' by her American friends,including her biographer Dall, though not bythe Carpenters, which makes the discrepancynoticeable in this case. The grave markerfeatures as a landmark on the 'walking tour'offered by the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.My first sight of it on a cold and snowy dayin December 1995 was almost overwhelmingin its symbolism.

17 Gopalrao's only other lasting contributionwas the education of his late brother'sonly child, a daughter named Sat, latermarried to Wrangler R P Paranjape of Pune.Saibai was the mother of ShakuntalabaiParanjape, famous for her writings andpioneering work in family planning (asan associate of R D Karve, son of D KKarve), and the grandmother of SaiParanjape, the well-known playwright andfilm-maker. This is another link across timewhich brings Anandibai and Gopalrao closerto us.

18 In the early and mid-1880s, Pandita Ramabaicorresponded with both Anandibai Josheeand Rakhmabai (who had been the secretaryof the Bombay branch of the Arya MahilaSamaj [Varde 1991:132], and possibly alsoRamabai Ranande (who, however, washardly a feminist) and Kashibai Kanitkarwith both of whom she was well acquainted.Anandibai Joshee corresponded also with

Ramabai Ranade and possibly KashibaiKanitkar.

19 Anandibai registered her strong displeasurein a letter to Gopalrao from America (January9, 1884) about his habit of sharing herletters with acquaintances, and explicitlyrequested him not to give them forpublication as he was planning to do(Kanitkar 1912:224-29). At that time he hadalready had extracts from her letterspublished in newspapers (e g, TheTheo.wphi.ti, August 1883, October 1883;Kesari, November 6, 1883).

20 Anandibai's frequent usage of terms such as'civilised countries' for Western countriesand 'Natives' for Indians was in conformitywith contemporary practice.

21 A landmark in this field, the Dufferin scheme(more accurately 'The National Associationfor Supplying Female Medical Aid to theWomen of India', popularly known after itspresident, the Countess of Dufferin) waslaunched in 1885 with the objective ofbringing "skilled medical women fromEurope and America" to provide medicalrelief to Indian women; training Indianwomen as doctors, nurses and midwives;and opening women's hospitals and "femalewards". The first Indian beneficiary of thisscheme was Anandibai, and the second,Dr Rakhmabai.Before the introduction of this scheme,English girls in India surmounted thedifficulty by returning to Europe or goingto the US to study medicine. It is interestingto note that among the women who graduatedwith Anandibai in March 1886 was oneJessica R Carleton from India (ThePhiladelphia Evening Bulletin, March 11,1886:6).

22 The clearly feminist reference to the malejealousy of female achievement as a majorobstacle for women also occurs in PanditaRamabai's testimony before the HunterCommission on Education in 1882.

23 Kashibai Kanitkar claims that Anandibaiherself had insisted on Ayurvedic treatment.However, she admits to having generally reliedon Gopalrao's testimony even whilequestioning its veracity. This inconsistencyremains a weakness in her otherwise excellentaccount of Anandibai's life and letters.

References

Bodley, Rachel (1887) (1981): 'Introduction' toThe High-Caste Hindu Woman by PanditaRamabai.

Dall, Caroline Healey (1888): The Life of DrAnandibai Joshee, Roberts Brothers, Boston.

Dhond, M V (1994): Anandi Gopal in JalyantilChandra, Rajahans Prakashan, Pune.

Joshee, Anandibai (1880-1883): 'Letters', xeroxcopy of originals.

- (1886): 'Obstetrics among the Aryan Hindoos',photocopy of manuscript.

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