Anandibai Gopalrao Josh: Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi was the first Indian woman to become a doctor. She was also the first woman in India to finish her education in Western medicine in the US.
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Many women in India and the US were motivated by Anandibai to become doctors. You can read more about her life here.
It was also Anandibai who was the first woman from the Bombay government of India to study western medicine in a foreign country and earn a degree in it.
Anandibai Gopalrao Josh Wiki and Biography
When Anandibai was born, her name was Yamuna. But, her husband Gopalrao Joshi changed it to Anandi. Because she was born into a family of owners, she got married when she was only nine years old.
As a progressive thinker who believed women should be able to go to school, Gopalrao put her in a Christian school and later moved to Calcutta with her, where she learned English and Sanskrit.
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Anandibai Gopalrao Josh Early Life and Marriage
She was born in Yamuna in 1865 and grew up in a Marathi Chitpavan Brahmin home. She married Gopalrao Joshi, a widower who believed women should be able to go to school. A family member of Pandita Rama Bai was Anandi.
She gave birth to a boy when she was 14. The baby only lived ten days because he didn’t get well enough care. Anandi decided to become a doctor because of this event.
They tried to get her into Christian schools but failed, so they moved to Calcutta and she learned English and Sanskrit.
Anandibai Gopalrao Josh Education
Anandibai was a Hindu woman, and in 1880, her husband pushed her to become a doctor. She wrote to an American missionary named Royal Wilder, who then made the letters public.
Anandibai’s interest in medicine and Gopalrao’s support made Theodicia Carpenter want to write to her. They became good friends and later stayed together in Rochelle.
Anandibai spoke to the people of Serampore College Hall about her choice to go to the United States to study medicine.
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Anandibai Gopalrao Josh Later Life
Anandibai, a woman from Kolkata, went to New York in 1883 to see Theodicia Carpenter for medical care.
She applied to the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, which was the second medical school in the world for women, and was accepted when she was 19.
She got tuberculosis because of the cold weather and the food she wasn’t used to, but she got her MD in 1886 and wrote a thesis called “Obstetrics among the Aryan Hindus.”
Queen Victoria told her how proud she was of her graduation.
Anandibai came back to India in late 1886 and was greeted with great joy. She was put in charge of the women’s ward at the nearby Albert Edward Hospital by the princely state of Kolhapur.
She talked about the abuse she and her husband had been through and stressed that India needed more female doctors. She said that Hindu women would be better fitted to be doctors for other Hindu women.
Anandibai Gopalrao Josh Death
Anandibai, a Hindu Brahmin girl, died in Pune at the age of 22 from tuberculosis. Even though medicine was sent to her from America, she kept learning medicine until she died.
Her ashes were sent to Theodicia Carpenter, who buried them in Poughkeepsie, New York, where her family is buried. Anandi Joshi was the first Indian woman to go to school outside of India and get a medical degree.
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