Anandibai Joshee

Retrieving a Fragmented Feminist Image Meera Kosambi Anandibai Joshee was the first Maharashtrian woman to leave Indian shores in the latter half of the 19th century for higher studies abroad to become the first Indian woman to qualify as a medical doctor. The Maharashtrian psyche remains captivated by the image of Anandibai as a submissive and obedient girl-wife who fulfilled her husband's visionary ambition for her. However, the series of images sketched by Anandibai's own words produce a self-portrait in which the submissive wife coexists with an intelligent woman dispassionately perceptive of herself and her society. This essay attempts to reach the 'real Anandibai and reclaim her fragmented feminism.