43 / 50 · Education & opportunity

Pandita Ramabai

India · 1858–1922

Ramabai was a scholar and reformer who advocated education and greater independence for women, especially widows. Her writing criticised the structures restricting women’s lives in colonial India.

Her religious journey and institution-building complicate simple labels. The High-Caste Hindu Woman combines description, argument and an appeal for practical support, while reflecting the social categories of its historical setting.

“Our only wonder is that a defenseless woman like Rakhmabai dared to raise her voice.”

The High-Caste Hindu Woman (1887), chapter IV; excerpt.