• Source: Anandi Gopal Joshi

Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi (31 March 1865 – 26 February 1887) was the first Indian female doctor of western medicine. She was the first woman from the erstwhile Bombay presidency of India to study and graduate with a two-year degree in western medicine in the United States. She was also referred to as Anandibai Joshi and Anandi Gopal Joshi (where Gopal came from Gopalrao, her husband's first name).




Early life


Anandibai Joshi was born as 'Yamuna' on 31 March 1865, the fifth of nine children. She was raised in a Marathi Chitpavan Brahmin family As was the practice at that time and due to pressure from her mother, she was married at the age of nine to Gopalrao Joshi, a widower almost twenty years her senior. After marriage, Yamuna's husband renamed her 'Anandi'. Gopalrao worked as a postal clerk in Kalyan. Later, he was transferred to Alibag, and then, finally, to Kolhapoor (Kolhapur). He was a progressive thinker, and, unusually for that time, supported education for women. Anandibai was a relative of reformer and missionary Pandita Ramabai.
At the age of fourteen, Anandibai gave birth to a boy, but he only lived for ten days due to lack of medical care. This was a turning point in Anandibai's life and inspired her to become a physician. After Gopalrao tried to enrol her in missionary schools and this did not work out, they moved to Calcutta. There she learned to read and speak Sanskrit and English.




Academic life



Gopalrao encouraged her to study medicine. In 1880 he sent a letter to Royal Gould Wilder, a well-known American missionary, stating his wife's interest in inquiring about a suitable post in the US for herself. Wilder published the correspondence in his Princeton's Missionary Review. Theodicia Carpenter, a resident of Roselle, New Jersey, happened to read it while waiting to see her dentist. Impressed by both Anandibai's desire to study medicine, and Gopalrao's support for his wife, Carpenter wrote to Anandibai. The two women developed a close friendship and came to refer to each other as "aunt" and "niece." Later, Carpenter would host Anandibai in Rochelle during her stay in the United States.
Anandibai addressed the community at Serampore College Hall, explaining her decision to go to America and obtain a medical degree. She discussed the persecution she and her husband had endured. She stressed the need for female doctors in India, emphasizing that Hindu women rather than men could be better to serve as physicians to Hindu women.




Married life



In the 1800s, it was very unusual for husbands to focus on their wives' education. Gopalrao was obsessed with the idea of Anandibai's education and wanted her to learn medicine and create her own identity in the world.
But this obsession turned out to be abusive. One day, he came into the kitchen and found her cooking with her grandmother and proceeded to go into a raging fit. It was very uncommon for husbands to beat their wives for cooking instead of reading. As Gopalrao's obsession with Joshi's education grew, he sent her with Mrs Carpenter, a Philadelphian missionary, to America to study medicine. Before her voyage, she addressed a public hall in 1883. She addressed the lack of women doctors and said "I volunteer myself as one."




In the United States



Anandibai travelled to New York from Kolkata (Calcutta) by ship, chaperoned by two female English missionary acquaintances of the Thorborns. In New York, Theodicia Carpenter received her in June 1883. Anandibai wrote to the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, asking to be admitted to their medical program, which was the second women's medical program in the world. Rachel Bodley, the dean of the college, enrolled her.
Anandibai began her medical training at age 19. In America, her health worsened because of the cold weather and unfamiliar diet, she then contracted tuberculosis. Nevertheless, she graduated with an MD in March 1886; the topic of her thesis was Obstetrics among the Aryan Hindus. The thesis utilized references from both Ayurvedic texts and American medical textbooks. On her graduation, Queen Victoria sent Anandibai a congratulatory message.




Return to India


In late 1886, Anandibai returned to India, receiving a grand welcome. The princely state of Kolhapur appointed her as the physician-in-charge of the female ward of the local Albert Edward Hospital.




Death


Anandibai died on 26 February 1887 from tuberculosis in Pune before her 22nd birthday. In the preceding years, she was was fatigued and felt constantly weak. Medicine was sent to her from America but she was not cured, even so she kept studying medicine till her death. She was mourned throughout India. Her ashes were sent to her friend Theodicia Carpenter in the US, who placed them in her family cemetery at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in Poughkeepsie, New York. Anandibai's inscription states that Anandi Joshi was a Hindu Brahmin girl, the first Indian woman to receive education abroad and to obtain a medical degree.




Legacy


In 1888, American feminist writer Caroline Wells Healey Dall wrote Joshi's biography. Dall was acquainted with Joshi and admired her greatly. However, certain points in the biography, particularly its harsh treatment of Gopalrao Joshi, sparked controversy among Joshi's friends.
Doordarshan, an Indian public service broadcaster aired a Hindi series based on her life, called "Anandi Gopal" and directed by Kamlakar Sarang. Shrikrishna Janardan Joshi wrote a fictionalised account of her life in his Marathi novel Anandi Gopal, which was adapted into a play of the same name by Ram G. Joglekar.
Dr. Anjali Kirtane has extensively researched the life of Dr. Anandibai Joshi and has written a Marathi book entitled "डॉ. आनंदीबाई जोशी काळ आणि कर्तृत्व" ("Dr. Anandibai Joshi, Kaal ani Kartutva: Dr. Anandibai Joshi, her times and accomplishments") which contains rare photographs of Dr. Anandibai Joshi.
The Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS), a non-governmental organization from Lucknow, has been awarding the Anandibai Joshi Award for Medicine in honour of her early contributions to the cause of advancing medical science in India. In addition, the Government of Maharashtra has established a fellowship in her name for young women working on women's health.
On 31 March 2018, Google honored her with a Google Doodle to mark her 153rd birth anniversary.
Anandi Gopal, an Indian biographical film on her life in Marathi by Sameer Vidwans released in 2019. It stars Bhagyashree Milind in the titular role, Lalit Prabhakar as her husband - Gopalrao Joshi and Yogesh Soman as her father - Ganpatrao Amriteshwar Joshi. In 2017, a Gujarati-language play titled Dr. Anandibai Joshi, directed by Manoj Shah, premiered at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.




References






Bibliography


Mrs. Caroline Healey Dall (1888). The Life of Dr. Anandabai Joshee. Roberts Brothers, Boston.
Eron, Carol (1979). "Medicine and Health Care". In O'Neill, Lois Decker (ed.). The Women's Book of World Records and Achievements. Anchor Press. p. 204. ISBN 0385127332. First Hindu Woman Doctor
Kosambi, Meera, "Caste and Outcast (review)". Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History – Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2003, The Johns Hopkins University Press
Anandibai Joshi: India’s first woman doctor (1865–1887)
Between the Lines, an 18-minute English documentary on the life of Anandi Joshi
Madhukar Vasudev Dhond, "Jalyatil Chandra" (Marathi) (Rajhans Prakashan, 11993)
Documents at the Drexel University College of Medicine Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine and referencing Anandi Gopal Joshi




External links


Media related to Anandibai Gopalrao Joshee at Wikimedia Commons
Anandibai Joshee materials in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
A Marathi movie on Anandi Gopal https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8621438/

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