The Life and Work of Pandita Ramabai
by Keith J White
Published in Hardback and Paperback on 3 May 2022.
Hardback £29.99, Special Offer £25.00 inc. del.*
Paperback £19.99, Special Offer £16.00 inc. del.*
“Pandita Ramabai was one of the great women of the world, the like of whom are very few at any given time … My words fail to convey an adequate impression of her greatness. Her executive capacity stands unparalleled in India.”
Professor Karve (1858–1962)
Tuesday 5th April 2022 marked the centenary of the death of Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922).
Ramabai was an extraordinary Indian Scholar, Feminist and Educator. Though still little known in the West, she was a pioneer for women’s education and participation in public affairs — becoming the first woman to address the Indian National Social Congress; a widely-travelled Sanskrit scholar, despite never having a day at school or college during her childhood, and was author of several pioneering books, including The High Class Hindu Woman and The Peoples of the United States.
Ramabai was an active social reformer, recording the experiences and life-stories of hundreds of child widows for whom she pioneered a wholly new and distinctive indigenously-rooted setting for and method of education. She travelled across India and many other countries giving lectures on women’s rights and she was the first woman to translate the Bible into her own language. Most remarkably for her time, Ramabai charted these paths as a widowed single woman and mother.
Although marginalised in history, since her death Ramabai has started to become more recognised. There are signs that her time has come. The New York Times published an obituary as part of the series, Overlooked No More by Aisha Khan on 14th November 2018. And in her recent book, Azadi, Arundhati Roy wonders why there is no film on this radical campaigner, reformer and tireless friend of women and children in her beloved India.
There have been biographies and academic papers over the decades, but it is following the sustained research, translation and writing by the late Professor Meera Kosambi and her academic colleagues that a comprehensive biography has become possible. Set in social and historical context, Let the Earth Hear her Voice! draws from extensive original material to describe Ramabai’s extraordinary life.
A centenary edition of the book was launched on 5th April 2022 in Mukti, the community that Ramabai founded near Pune.
The author, Dr Keith J. White, has worked on this 800-page study since 1997. He is a sociologist and author and editor of many books. He has also produced an edition of The Bible intended for people of all ages, cultures and faiths worldwide. A friend of Mukti and its residents, he will be in India until 10th April, but is available for interviews before and after that. Pre-publication copies of a PDF of the book are available on request.
“Keith White’s book is to be warmly welcomed, not simply as a comprehensive work of historical scholarship, but also because it issues a challenge to the Church today, both in India and in the West.”
Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh
“Pandita Ramabai is the only, unique, incomparable, intelligent and learned woman of this age, unparalleled in history.”
Justice M.G. Ranade (1842–1901)
“The name of Pandita Ramabai ought to have a high place among the makers of modern India … She proved herself not only a great woman but a great saint.”
The Times of India, 7 April 1922
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For further information please contact Dr Keith White on 020 8504 2702
email keith@millgrove.org.uk
WTL Publications
