Saquib Salim

“Although Anandabai (Anandi Gopal Joshi) was so young, her perseverance, undaunted courage, and devotion to her husband were unparalleled. It will be long before we again see a woman like her. The education which she had received had greatly heightened her nature and ennobled her mind. Although she suffered more than words can express, from her mortal disease, which was consumption, not a word of complaint or impatience ever escaped her lips. After months of dreadful suffering, she was so reduced that no one could look at her without pain; yet, wonderful to tell, Anandabai thought it her present duty to suffer silently and cheerfully.”

This is what Pandita Ramabai, a prominent Indian women's rights activist wrote on the death of Anandi Gopal Joshi, the first Indian woman to study medicine in a foreign land. In Anandi’s biography written by Caroline Healey shortly after her death, the author notes that she had “Graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, March 11th, 1886, being the first Hindu woman to receive the degree of medicine in any country.”

Born in 1865, Anandi, according to the customs of those times, got married at 9 to a 20-year-old widower Gopalrao Joshi. While most of the husbands would restrict the freedom of their wives, Gopalrao was passionate about educating her young wife, against the norms. He threatened to abandon her if she did not study. He offered her gifts on finishing her lessons.

Nandini Patwardhan, her biographer, writes, “Gopal tried the “carrot and stick” approach, using whatever it took to move closer to his goal. He humoured Anandi and rewarded her by buying her shoes, an indulgence unheard of for women of the time. As an additional carrot the two of them went out for strolls on the beach—a welcome respite from days spent within the confines of home.

"Though both these actions went against the custom of that time, and invited scorn from their neighbors, Gopal and Anandi were undeterred. Gopal’s sticks were more beatings as well as threats of abandonment. Although Anandi was not a stranger to the former, the latter was a new and debilitating threat. An abandoned wife would have no choice but to return to her parents’ home disgraced, bringing shame and compromising their standing in their community. As a result, Anandi reluctantly labored to complete the homework assigned by her husband.”

For the first few years, only Gopalrao was passionate about Anandi’s studies. However, when she became a mother at the age of 13 and their son died after 10 days, life changed. Patwardhan says, “Gopal and Anandi became equal partners in a shared mission—to become empowered in order to ease the burdens of women’s lives. For Gopal, it was to create a stunning example that would provide irrefutable proof of women’s capabilities.

India's first woman doctor Anandi Gopal Joshi

Anandi’s achievement would surely persuade other husbands and fathers to stand on the side of emancipation and progress—first for their wives and daughters and, through them, for Indian society as a whole. For Anandi, the mission was to become a doctor so that she might alleviate the widespread pain and suffering of women. She hoped to help mitigate the havoc and precariousness that were all too present in the lives of women, their families, and their young children.”

Till this point Anandi’s only teacher was Gopalrao but now they decided to move to Kolhapur where a European governess would teach her English. In 1878, he started writing to American Missionaries asking to help Anandi for studying medicine. He was ready to relocate to the USA with her if needed. But Dr. Royal Wilder, a leading missionary, published Gopalrao’s letter in Missionary Review with his reply discouraging the request.

Healey notes, “In this letter, he thoroughly discourages Gopal's project. He does not wish any unconverted Hindu to come to America; he believes that his intelligent correspondent will be led to "confess Christ," and trusts the mission schools to educate Mrs. Joshee sufficiently.”

Theodicia Carpenter, a resident of Roselle, New Jersey, happened to read this letter and wrote her a letter. For almost two years they corresponded and Carpenter was more than impressed. She helped her sail to the USA to study medicine, though without her husband.

On 24 February 1883, before Anandi was to travel to a foreign land, she addressed a huge public meeting at Hooghly to clear the misconceptions of common people. The lecture were titled "My Future Visit to America, and public inquiries regarding it."

She took up 6 questions being asked of her. These were: “1. Why do I go to America? 2. Are there no means to study in India? 3. Why do I go alone? 4. Shall I not be excommunicated on my return? 5. What shall I do if misfortune befalls me? 6. why should I do what is not done by any of my sex?”

Anandi said, “In my humble opinion there is a growing need for Hindu lady doctors in India, and I volunteer to qualify myself for one” and she can become one such doctor in America.

In those times Upper Caste Hindus believed it to be a sin to cross the seas. This was a major issue and Anandi was speaking 10 years before Swami Vivekananda went to the USA.

Anandi made a public promise that she would remain a Hindu, “Shall I not be excommunicated when I return to India? Do you think I should be filled with consternation at this threat? I do not fear it in the least. Why should I be cast out, when I have determined to live there exactly as I do here?

I propose to myself to make no change in my customs and manners, food, or dress. I will go as a Hindu, and come back here to live as a Hindu. I will not increase my wants, but be as plain and simple as my forefathers, and as I am now.”

Carpenter helped her get admission to the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) in 1883. Anandi wrote in her application for the admission, “The purpose for which I came is to render to my poor suffering country-women, the true medical aid they sadly need and which they would rather die than accept at the hands of a male physician. My soul is moved to help the many who cannot help themselves.”

Her MD thesis “Obstetrics among the Aryan Hindus” was completed in 1886. Dr.  Rachel Bodley, dean at WMCP, helped her in getting a fellowship and ensured that Queen Victoria recognizes Anandi’s feat.

Sir Henry Ponsonby, secretary to Queen Victoria, wrote to Bodley on 14 July 1886, “I am commanded by the Queen to request that you will kindly thank Dr. Bodley for having sent to her Majesty the account of Dr. Joshee's graduation at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, and to assure you that the Queen has read it with much interest.”

On 9 October 1886, Anandi sailed back to India but did not live long and died on 26 February 1887.

The role of her husband remained controversial. He was often criticized for being too harsh to fulfill his dream of educating Anandi. In one of her letters to Gopalrao she noted, “It is very difficult to decide whether your treatment of me was good or bad. If you ask me, I would answer that it was both. It seems to have been right in the view of its ultimate goal; but in all fairness, one is compelled to admit that it was wrong. It was too severe for my age, body and mind.”

Yet, Anandi when asked, “What is the distinguishing characteristic of your husband?” she replied, “Benevolence”.

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At her cremation on 26 February 1887, V. M. Ranade said, "But she is dead! That sweet intellectual soul, that large-brained self-forgetful womanly creature died at the early age of twenty-one years and eleven months dead on the threshold of the work for which she was so well equipped !”