Lady

Abala Bose
Born8 August 1865
Barisal, Bengal Presidency, British India (now in Bangladesh)
Died25 April 1951(1951-04-25) (aged 85)
Kolkata, India
OccupationSocial worker
Known forFeminist movement
SpouseSir Jagadish Chandra Bose (m. 1887)

Abala, Lady Bose (8 August 1865 – 25 April 1951) was an Indian social worker and feminist. She was known for her efforts in women's education and her contribution towards helping widows.[1]

Career

In the 1880s, Abala was denied admission to Calcutta Medical College as female students were not yet accepted in the college. She went to Madras (now Chennai) in 1882 on Bengal government scholarship to study medicine but had to give up because of ill health. In 1887, she married scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose. She accompanied her husband in several travels abroad in later years.[2]

Apart from working as an educator, Bose was an early feminist. Writing in English magazine Modern Review, she argued that women should get a better education, "not because we may make better matches for our girls ... not even that the services of the daughter-in-law may be more valuable in the home of her adoption, but because a woman like a man is first of all a mind, and only in the second place physical and a body."[3]

Kamini Roy, who studied with her in Bethune School, picked up feminism from her. Upon her husband's knighthood in 1916, she became Lady Bose.

Sister Nivedita, Sister Christine, Charlotte Sevier, and Lady Abala Bose in Mayavati
Autochrome portrait by Georges Chevalier, 1920

Lady Bose served as Secretary of Brahmo Balika Shikshalaya from 1910 to 1936. She died on 25 April 1951, aged 87.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, (in Bengali), p23, ISBN 81-85626-65-0
  2. ↑ Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, p23, ISBN 8185626650
  3. ↑ Ray, Bharati (1990). "Women in Calcutta: the Years of Change". In Chaudhuri, Sukanta (ed.). Calcutta: The Living City. Vol. II. Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-19-563697-0.
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