Early life and background[edit] Ramabai Ranade was born on 25th January 1862 in Kurlekar family, living in a small village, Devrashtre of Sangli District, Maharashtra. As educating girls was a taboo in those days, her father did not educate her. In 1873, she was married to Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, a pioneer of Indias social reform movement. He devoted his time to educate her in face of opposition of the women in the house and helped her to become an ideal wife and a worthy helpmate in social and educational reform. With his strong support and sharing his visionary path, Ramabai spent all her life making women self-reliant and economically independent.[2] She was barely 11 years old when she was married to Mahadev Govind Ranade, who was a scholar, idealist and a revolutionary social activist. Ramabai was illiterate when she was married as she lived in a time when considered a sin for a girl to read or write. On the contrary, her husband, addressed as the Prince of Graduates, was a graduate of Bombay University with first class honors. He not only worked as the Professor of English and Economics at the Elphinstone College in Bombay, but was also as an oriental translator and a social reformer. He worked rigorously against evils that existed in the society. He was against untouchability, child marriage and Sati. He took over the Sarvajanik Sabha and led a number of movements for social development. He had won the praise of the whole of Maharashtra by the time he was in his early thirties. His overarching thinking, dynamic vision, passionate and devoted social commitment strongly inspired Ramabai and illuminated her path for future social work. Ramabai made her first public appearance at Nasik High School as the Chief Guest. Justice Ranade wrote her maiden speech. She soon mastered the art of public speaking, both in English and Marathi. Her speeches were always simple and heart-touching. She began working for Prarthana Samaj in Bombay. She established a branch of Arya Mahila Samaj in the city. From 1893 to 1901 Ramabai was at the peak of her popularity in her social activities. She established the Hindu Ladies Social and Literary Club in Bombay and started a number of classes to train women in languages, general knowledge, tailoring and handwork.[2] The later half of her life was tragic as it was shadowed by the death of her husband. She left Bombay and came to Pune and stayed at their old ancestral house near Phule Market. For one year, she led an isolated life. Finally, she came out of her self-imposed isolation to organize the first Bharat Mahila Parishad in Bombay. Ramabai lived 24 years after her husbands death - a life full of activity for social awakening, redressal of grievances and established social institutions like Seva Sadan for rehabilitation of distressed women. Ramabai vigorously worked for the next 25 years for womens education, legal rights, equal status, and general awakening. She encouraged them to enter the nursing profession. At that time, this profession was not looked up on as service-oriented and was so considered forbidden for women. To encourage women to come forward, she always asserted, Dont we nurse our father or brother when he falls ill? All male patients are our brothers and nursing them is our sacred duty. Thus more and more women came forward to learn nursing. Ramabais pioneering work in the field of nursing through Seva Sadan deserves special praise. The first Indian nurse was the product of Seva Sadan and Ramabai took great pain to win orthodox opinion in favor of nursing as a career for women and to encourage young girls and widows to join the nursing course in Seva Sadan.[4] Work For Women[edit] In 1908 Shri. B. M. Malbari and Shri. Dayaram Gidumal, came across with the idea of founding home for women and training Indian women to be sevikas. They then turned to Smt. Ranade, the President of the first All-India Women Conference for her guidance and help for starting a Society and thus Seva Sadan[disambiguation needed] (Bombay) came into being. In 1915 the Pune Seva Sadan was registered as a society under her guidance, the society expanded its old educational departments and also started new ones. It developed a Womens Training College, three hostels, one of them for Medical students and other for probationer nurses. In 1924, when Smt. Ranade died, the Pune Seva Sadan[disambiguation needed] was training more than one thousand women in different departments. It was largely owing to Smt. Ranades initiatives, guidance and exertions that Seva Sadan found a footing and grew so rapidly in spite of prevailing prejudices. The last two outstanding contribution which Smt. Ranade made were - the organisation of agitation for extending compulsory and pre-primary education to girls; and secondly organisation of Womens Suffrage Movement in Bombay presidency in 1921-22. The singular position, which Smt. Ranade assumed at the end of her life deserved Mahatama Gandhis tribute to her as quoted: The death of Ramabai Ranade is a great national loss. She was the embodiment of all that a Hindu widow could be. She was a true friend and helpmate of her illustrious husband in his lifetime. After his death she chose her husbands reform activities as her lifes aim. Justice Ranade was a reformer and deeply concerned about the uplifting of Indian womanhood. Ramabai put her heart and soul into Seva Sadan. She devoted her whole energy to it. The result is that Seva Sadan has become an institution with no second of its kind throughout India. In those days mostly widows took the nursing course sponsored by Seva Sadan. Once there was an occasion of the annual social gathering of Seva Sadan. One of the highlights of the function was the prize distribution ceremony. Among the prize winners was a widow. She was dressed in the traditional dress of the widows of those days, a simple dark red sari with the Pallu tightly drawn over her clean-shaven head. As the widow stepped on the stage, the student crowding the galleries started hooting and shout-ing. This outburst of misbehavior hurt Ramabais feelings deeply. As she stood upon the stage towards the end of the function to give a brief thanksgiving speech, she was so provoked that she could not help chastising the student crowd with all the severity at her command: You are college students and yet how can you be regarded as educated? How can those be considered as educated who not only do not extend sympathy to their unfortunate sisters who have fallen victims to cruel fate and merciless social customs, but find it fit to heap ridicule on them. Every one of you probably has some unfortunate widow sheltered under your roof, may be your sister, cousin or aunt or even your own mother. If you had kept this in mind you would not have misbehaved the way you did. These were sharp, stinging words striking the students like a whiplash. There was pin drop silence. It was a triumph of Ramabais powerful and spellbinding personality. She worked relentlessly against the system of child marriage. All these efforts took shape in establishing the Seva Sadan Society in Bombay, which substituted as a home for a number of distressed women. She started Pune Seva Sadan Society in her own ancestral house. This later developed into an institution offering a number of facilities like hostels, training colleges, vocational centers, selling centers etc. Ramabais name became synonymous with Seva Sadan. This was her greatest contribution to the welfare of middle class women. Ramabai participated in the War Conference and spoke to the Governor on behalf of Indian women. She also fought for the cause of Indian labour in Fiji and Kenya. She even worked for womens right to franchise. Everyone adored her, but she was modest to call herself a shadow of her husband. .[5]
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 09:29:16 +0000
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