Pandita Ramabai: The High-Caste Hindu Woman

Abstract

Pandita Ramabai Saraswati was an Indian educator and social reformer who defied Hindu conventions and traditions in her country. She traveled much of the world, lecturing on the importance of education, especially for women, and promoting women’s rights. Her critique of the patriarchy of Hinduism, her marriage to a man from a lower caste, her refusal to conform to limitations on woman, and her conversion to Christianity made her a controversial figure and led to her general exclusion from the history books in India after her death. In The High-Caste Hindu Woman, she examines the role and status of women from the culture’s higher castes, particularly the Brahman caste. The excerpt included here focuses on the plight of widows, who were regarded as cursed and were marginalized by Hindu society.