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The book “Anandibai Joshee: A Life in Poems” by Shikha Malaviya presents a chronological rendering of Anandibai’s life-from her birth and childhood in the bustling town of Kalyan in Maharashtra and her marriage to an eccentric man sixteen years older, to early childbirth and the loss of her infant, from which her desire to become a doctor was born.
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Anandibai Joshee (1865-87) was not only India’s first female physician, but also the first Indian woman to travel across the forbidden ‘black waters’ and pursue an education in the United States – with the help of a kind American ally.
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With elegance and a stark beauty, these poems bring to life the struggles and accomplishments of a woman who travelled across the seas to pursue a medical education before her return to India as a doctor. While her adventures were cut short by tragedy, her story lives on through these poems that thunder from across the decades with a voice that cannot be silenced.
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Read an excerpt from the book below.
WHY I GO TO AMERICA
“In 99 cases out of 100, the educated men of this country are opposed to female education and the proper position of women. If they observe the slightest fault, they magnify the grain of mustard-seed into a mountain and try to ruin the character of a woman.”
—Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati’s testimony before the Hunter Commission, 1882
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February 24, 1883, Serampore
Tucked in the crook of the Hooghly river
a city changes hands and names over centuries
Serampore, a mangling of the name Srirampur
by the British that currently inhabit it
And before that, Frederiknagore, so named
by the Danes after their King, it is here
we reside directly above the post office
where I come under their scrutiny
men who can’t bear the thought of
a woman holding a pen filled with ink
the color of kala pani, deep dark waters
no good Hindoo ought to cross
and so they crowd around our home
night and day, throngs of people
with consternation writ on their faces
while letters come and go freely each day
I am trapped in my own home, this postmaster’s wife
whose only sin is learning, and they won’t relent
until I tell them why I go to America—
for I am that novelty who threatens their purity
a Hindoo woman who dares to leave
a life of domestic drudgery and they all beg
an explanation, a certain satiety
to their many questions, an end
to all their inquiries which I dare to answer
publicly, in the giant hall of Serampore College
built by English missionaries
On that sultry day, the hall fills up with perspiring faces
of townspeople as well as people of the church
of those formally educated and some unlettered
but curious. I look at all of them before begging
pardon for speaking in a language newly acquired
and stand in front of them ready to fail, my voice
slightly quivering as I tell them in English
I go to America because I wish to study medicine
I implore the ladies present who would know the wants
of our own kind in cases of emergency, where the doctor
is from Europe or America and of the other sex, how we
are not able to say how we truly feel or draw comfort
from their touch, and so we Indian women derive no benefit
from those who are different in manners, customs, and language
or from our own kind who are men—and so I volunteer
to qualify myself as a Hindoo lady doctor
The want of female physicians in India is keenly felt in every quarter
And while there are some means to study here in one’s native
—one college and midwifery classes, the difficulties are many and great
I do not find fault here with the instructors, yet they are conservative
and somewhat jealous. That is the characteristic of the male sex
and we must put up with this inconvenience until we have
a class of educated women to relieve these men
I go to America because
to continue to live as a Hindoo
and go to school in any part of India is difficult
my brethren lay bare their levity
by making fun of everything
I go alone because we have not sufficient funds
and my husband must tend to his aged parents
And shall I not be excommunicated when I return?
I do not fear it. Why should I be cast out
when I have determined to live there
exactly as I do here?
I choose not to look at the dark side
if misfortune befalls me, it must be endured
no man is able to prevent any catastrophe
and is it so bad to go to a foreign country
to enlarge our comprehension, perfect
our knowledge or recover lost arts
Ignorance when voluntary is criminal
I am not disheartened by the thought of failure
We must try. The greater the difficulty
the greater our courage
Excerpted with permission from Anandibai Joshee: A Life in Poems, Shikha Malaviya, HarperCollins India. Read more about the book here and buy it here.
