pandita_ramabai

Indian social reformer who founded schools for women and destitute girls, challenging Brahminical patriarchy in the 19th century.

Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922) was a radical Indian scholar and reformer who defied caste and gender barriers to become one of India's first female educators. Born into a Brahmin family in Maharashtra, she mastered Sanskrit texts traditionally reserved for males and became a pandita (scholar) at age 12. After her husband's death, she used her inheritance to establish Sharda Sadan in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1863—a boarding school for high-caste widows and lower-caste girls who were often ostracized.

Her 1882 book The High Caste Hindu Woman exposed the plight of Indian women subjected to child marriage, widow immolation, and educational neglect. The work gained international attention and inspired British feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Later, Ramabai converted to Christianity and founded the Mhadei Mission in Karnataka, which provided vocational training and healthcare to over 1,000 women. Though controversial for her religious shift, her institutions remain operational today, educating tribal communities. Indira Gandhi later praised her as a 'mother of India's feminist movement.'