Kadambini Ganguly
Kadambini Ganguly.jpg
Born
Kadambini Basu
18 July 1861[1]
Bhagalpur, Bengal Presidency, British India
(now in Bihar, India)
Died 3 October 1923 (aged 62)
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
(present-day Kolkata, West Bengal, India)
Alma mater Bethune College
University of Calcutta
Calcutta Medical College
Occupation Doctor
Spouse(s)
Dwarkanath Ganguly
(m. 1883; died 1898)
Children
Bidhumukhi Devi (Step-daughter)
Satish Chandra Gangopadhyay (step-son)
Nirupama Halder (Bela or Beli),
Nirmal Chandra Ganguly (Bhulu),
Prafulla Chandra Ganguly (Manglu),
Joytirmoyee Ganguly (Chameli),
Prabhat Chandra Ganguly (Janglu),
Amal Chandra Ganguly (Khokon),
Himani Ganguly (Death at just 3 months old)
Jayanti Barman (Bulbuli)
Early life
The daughter of Brahmo reformer Braja Kishore Basu, she was born on 18 July 1861 at Bhagalpur, Bihar in British India. The family was from Chandsi, in Barisal which is now in Bangladesh. Her father was headmaster of Bhagalpur School. He and Abhay Charan Mallick started the movement for women's emancipation at Bhagalpur, establishing the women's organisation Bhagalpur Mahila Samiti in 1863, the first in India.
Despite coming from an upper caste Bengali community that did not support women's education,[3] Kadambini started her education at Banga Mahila Vidyalaya and while at Bethune School (established by Bethune) in 1878 became the first woman to pass the University of Calcutta entrance examination. It was partly in recognition of her efforts that Bethune College first introduced FA (First Arts), and then graduation courses in 1883. She and Chandramukhi Basu became the first graduates from Bethune College, and in the process became the first female graduates in the country and in the entire British Empire.[4][5]
Professional life
Before long graduating school Kadambini chose to go to the clinical school. Just Madras Medical College had begun conceding female understudies in 1875, while the Calcutta Medical College (CMC) didn’t permit any females to enter. Dwarkanath and Kadambini Ganguly volunteered to change this standard! They battled against business as usual, and Kadambini turned into the main lady at any point to take a crack at CMC in 1884. She even acquired a cooperation of Rs. 20/month from the public authority.[6]
Kadambini joined the medical college o 23rd June, 1883 despite strong criticism from the society opposing women liberation. She received a scholarship of Rs 15 for two years.[7] In 1886, she was awarded GBMC and became the first practicing woman physician with a Western medical degree in the whole of South Asia. This attracted the attention of Florence Nightingale, who in 1888 wrote to a friend asking for more information about Ganguly.[3]
This was an incredible triumph for ladies’ schooling endeavors in the country. Of course however the possibility of a female turning into a specialist was not invited by the customary society. Indeed, even a portion of the teachers of CMC were not content with the incorporation of ladies! To such an extent that one teacher didn’t allow Kadambini to pass one of her subjects. As an outcome, rather than a MB degree, Kadambini was granted the Graduate of Medical College of Bengal (GMCB) degree in 1886.
That very year Kadambini Ganguly was selected to Lady Dufferin Women’s Hospital, Calcutta. Be that as it may, it was anything but a charming encounter as she felt being peered downward on by the individual specialists, as she didn’t have a MB degree. She immediately understood that she required more capabilities to acquire the admiration of her companions. She cruised to England in 1893 and acquired triple certificate in Licentiate of the College of Physicians, Edinburg (LRCP), Licentiate of the College of Surgeons, Glasgow (LRCS), and Licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Dublin (LFPS) from the Scottish College. Upon her return she was elevated to a senior specialist position and likewise began to keep a flourishing private practice. [8]
In 1893, she travelled to Edinburgh, where she studied at the Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women. Since she already possessed several prior qualifications, Ganguly was able to obtain a 'triple diploma' in a short time,[9] being licensed as LRCP (Edinburgh), LRCS (Glasgow) and GFPS (Dublin).[10] She visited Nepal in 1895 to successfully treat the mother of the reigning Nepalese monarch, Dev Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana.[9][11]
Ganguly was an active campaigner for social change in India. She was one of six female delegates to the fifth session of the Indian National Congress in 1889, and organised the 1906 Women's Conference in Calcutta after the Partition of Bengal. Ganguly was also successful in pressuring Calcutta Medical College to allow women as students.[9]
Personal life
Residence of Kadambini Ganguly
Before long graduating school Kadambini chose to go to the clinical school. Just Madras Medical College had begun conceding female understudies in 1875, while the Calcutta Medical College (CMC) didn’t permit any females to enter. Dwarkanath and Kadambini Ganguly volunteered to change this standard! They battled against business as usual, and Kadambini turned into the main lady at any point to take a crack at CMC in 1884. She even acquired a cooperation of Rs. 20/month from the public authority.
Kadambini Ganguly married Dwarakanath Ganguly on 12th June, 1883, exactly 11 days before joining Calcutta Medical College.[12] As the mother of eight children, she had to devote considerable time to her household affairs. She was deft in needlework.[9]
American historian David Kopf[13] notes that Ganguly "was appropriately enough the most accomplished and liberated Brahmo woman of her time", and her relationship with her husband Dwarkanath Ganguly "was most unusual in being founded on mutual love, sensitivity and intelligence." Kopf argues that Ganguly was highly unusual even among emancipated women of contemporary Bengali society, and that "her ability to rise above circumstances and to realize her potential as a human being made her a prize attraction to Sadharan Brahmos dedicated ideologically to the liberation of Bengal's women."[14]
Ganguly died on October 3, 1923, after having conducted an operation the same day.[9]
Criticism
She was heavily criticised by the then conservative society opposing women liberation. After returning to India and campaigning for women's rights ceaselessly, she was indirectly called a 'whore' in the magazine 'Bangabashi', but that could not deter her determination. Her husband Dwarkanath Ganguly took the case up to the court and eventually won with a jail sentence of 6 months meted out to the editor Mahesh Pal.[10][15]
In popular culture
A television Bengali serial Prothoma Kadambini based on her biography is being telecast on Star Jalsha since March 2020 starring Solanki Roy and Honey Bafna in the lead and is also available on Hotstar.[16] Another Bengali series named Kadambini (2020) starring Ushasi Ray in titular role, was also telecasted in Zee Bangla.
Despite practicing medicine far longer than Anandibai Joshi, who only practiced for around three months before she died of tuberculosis, Ganguly is much less known outside of India.
On 18 July 2021, Ganguly was featured on that day's Google Doodle in celebration of her birth anniversary.[17]
Notes
Kopf, David (1979), The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-03125-8
Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), (1976/1998), Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) in Bengali, pp 79–80, ISBN 81-85626-65-0
Murshid, Ghulam (2012). "Ganguly, Kadambini". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
References
^ Karlekar, Malavika (2012). "Anatomy of a Change: Early Women Doctors". India International Centre Quarterly. 39 (3/4): 95–106. JSTOR 24394278.
^ Sen, B.K. (September 2014). "Kadambini Ganguly - An Illustrious Lady" (PDF). Science and Culture - Indian Science News Organization.
^ Female students were admitted into Oxford University in 1879, one year after the admission of female students for undergraduate studies at the University of Calcutta "Women at Oxford". Archived from the original on 18 October 2006. Retrieved 5 November 2006.. The tripos was opened to women at Cambridge only in 1881 [1].
^ "A Convocation for the conferring of Degrees". The Times of India. 15 March 1883. p. 9. Among the recipients of the B.A. degrees were two young ladies of the Bethune Female School, Miss Chandramukhi Basu and Miss Kadambini Basu, who were loudly cheered. The Vice-Chancellor [of Calcutta University] (the Hon. H. J. Reynolds) presided.
^ "A native lady collegian". Homeward Mail. 10 March 1879.
^ a b c d e Chakrabarty, Roshni. "Kadambini Ganguly, India's first female doctor who made Calcutta Medical College start admitting women". India Today. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
^ "A lady doctor in orthodox Nepal". Englishman's Overland Mail. 27 November 1895.
^ Star Jalsha, Prothoma Kadambini
^ "David Kopf". History at Minnesota. Regents of the University of Minnesota. Archived from the original on 16 May 2006. Retrieved 5 November 2006.
^ Kopf, David (1979). The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind. Princeton University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-691-03125-5.
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