Abala Bose
Lady Abala Bose | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Abala Das August 8, 1864 Barisal, Bengal Presidency, British India |
| Died | April 26, 1951 (aged 86) Calcutta, West Bengal, India |
| Occupation | Social worker |
| Known for | Feminist movement |
| Spouse | Jagadish Chandra Bose (m. 1887) |
Abala Bose (8 August 1864 – 26 April 1951) was an Indian social worker and feminist. She was known for her efforts in women's education and her contribution towards helping widows.[1]
Career
[edit]Bose was a student of the Brahma Balika Vidyalay in Kolkata[citation needed] (then Calcutta) and subsequently enrolled at Bethune School, from where she passed the Entrance Examination in 1881.[1]
In the 1880s, Abala was denied admission to Calcutta Medical College as female students were not yet accepted in the college.[citation needed] She went to Madras (now Chennai) in 1882 on a Bengal government scholarship to study medicine[1] but had to give up because of ill health. However, the Madras Medical College awarded her with a Certificate of Honour.[citation needed]
In 1887, she married scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose. She accompanied her husband on several travels abroad in later years.[1]
Apart from working as an educator, Bose was an early feminist. Writing in the English magazine Modern Review, she argued that women should get a better education, "not because we may make better matches for our girls ... not even that the services of the daughter-in-law may be more valuable in the home of her adoption, but because a woman like a man is first of all a mind, and only in the second place physical and a body."[2]
Upon her husband's knighthood in 1916, she became Lady Bose.
Lady Bose served as secretary of Brahmo Balika Shikshalaya from 1910 to 1936.[citation needed] She died on 26 April 1951, aged 86.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Sengupta, Subodh Chandra; Basu, Anjali, eds. (1998) [First published 1976]. অবলা বসু [Abla Bose]. Saṃsada bāṅāli caritābhidhāna সংসদ বাঙালি চরিতাভিধান [Parliament Bengali Biographical Dictionary] (in Bengali). Vol. 1 (4th ed.). Kolkata: Sahitya Samsad. p. 23. ISBN 81-85626-65-0.
- ^ Ray, Bharati (1990). "Women in Calcutta: the Years of Change". In Chaudhuri, Sukanta (ed.). Calcutta: The Living City. Vol. II. Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-19-563697-0.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Abala Bose at Wikimedia Commons- Abala Bose materials at the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
- 1865 births
- 1951 deaths
- Brahmos
- Bengali Hindus
- Bengali activists
- Bengali educators
- People from Barisal
- Das family (Telirbagh)
- Bethune College alumni
- University of Calcutta alumni
- Madras Medical College alumni
- Indian social workers
- Indian reformers
- Indian social reformers
- Indian educators
- 20th-century Indian women educational theorists
- 19th-century Indian educators
- 19th-century Indian educational theorists
- 20th-century Indian educational theorists
- Women educators from West Bengal
- Social workers from West Bengal
- Indian activists
- Indian women activists
- Indian women's rights activists
- Indian feminists
- Wives of knights
- 19th-century Indian women educators