Friday, March 31, 2017

REMEMBERING DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHI


Today is the birth anniversary of Dr. Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi, M.D, one of the first two Indian women Doctors trained in Western Medicine.She was the first Indian woman to obtain a medical degree in the United States and the first Indian woman ever to set foot on American soil. . Born this day in 1865 at Kalyan in Thane region of Maharashtra, in an orthodox,Brahmin family, she was married at the age of nine to Gopalrao , a widower much older in age .Gopalrao was a man with progressive thinking and advocated even Western education for women .With encouragement received from her husband Gopalrao , help from American physicians and financial contribution from public all over India , she set sail from Calcutta for America in 1883.On reaching there, she enrolled in Women's Medical College in Pennsylvania and passed out with an M.D. in 1886. Her topic for research was 'Obstetrics Among the Aryan Hindoos'. Queen Victoria is said to have congratulated her on her achievement. 


Returning to India, she was deservingly accorded a hero’s welcome and was appointed as Physician -in - charge of the female ward of Albert Edward Hospital at Kolhapur. The cold climate and unusual diet in America had taken its toll on her health and she fell sick. She breathed her last on 26th February 1887 , before completing 22 years.Her untimely death sent shock waves throughout the country.Her ashes were sent to New York where Theodicia Carpenter,who had been her benefactor in the U.S., placed those in her family cemetery.
Our humble tributes to the remarkable lady !

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