Pandita Ramabai

Abstract

For the women of her time and caste, Ramabai was an exemplary epitome of intense individualism and courage. She was the earliest feminist and activist who worked throughout her life for the cause of women. She was born as an upper-caste Hindu woman but chose to convert to Christianity. The rejection of Hinduism was mainly due to the marginalization of women, which she was against. She became a leader, spokesperson, organizer, and a powerful woman due to the miseries she faced all her life. An autonomous woman found her religion and tried, creating a utopian community in the process. Her identity as a woman was situated at the interstitial location of a Brahmin widow, a Christian convert and a Christian which surmounted a tension not just within herself but the society around her as well. Ramabai emphasized the multiple sites of exploitations and oppression of women, such as patriarchy, religion, caste, nationalism, and even internationalism and the biases that were inherently prevalent in these multiple sites of exploitations and oppressions. Ramabai’s own experiences are a testimony to the kind of work  she pursued all her life. As a woman and a widow, her worldview was different from the rest of her contemporaries, who imagined a radical change for the women of the Indian society along the spiritual path to enlighten herself.