: This Letter Reveals What Made Anandibai Joshi Become India’s First Woman Doctor #IndiaNEWS #History A headstone at a cemetery in Poughkeepsie, New York, reads: Anandibai Joshi MD (1865-1887): First

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This Letter Reveals What Made Anandibai Joshi Become India’s First Woman Doctor #IndiaNEWS #History
A headstone at a cemetery in Poughkeepsie, New York, reads: Anandibai Joshi MD (1865-1887): First Brahmin Woman to Leave India for an Education.
A Google Doodle to mark her 153rd birth anniversary; a Doordarshan Hindi serial based on her life, and healthcare fellowships for women awarded by the Maharashtra government in her name — these are only a few honours that reflect the legacy of Anandi Gopal Joshi.
She is considered by most to be the first Indian woman to secure a degree in Western medicine.
Born in 1865 to an orthodox Marathi Hindu family of landlords in Kalyan of Thane district, a nine-year-old Anandi, then Yamuna, was married off to a widower by the name of Gopalrao Joshi. Despite being older than Anandi by almost 20 years, it was his progressive thinking that played a landmark role in her becoming one of the earliest pioneers of the country’s healthcare sector. Appropriate medical care was a rarity in pre-independent India, and the couple were further entwined in the grief of losing their 10-day-old infant son when Anandi was merely 14 years old.
In 1883, Gopalrao was transferred to Serampore, West Bengal, after having served as a postal clerk in the Maharashtrian towns of Kalyan, Alibaug and Kolhapur. Soon after, Anandi headed to the States and wrote a moving admissions application to the Superintendent of the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the world’s first women’s medical college and eventually, her alma mater.
Before Anandi boarded the ship from Calcutta to New York the same year she had also addressed a public gathering at the Serampore College Hall justifying her decision to pursue an overseas education in medicine.
In both these instances, Anandi detailed the multitude of reasons that set off her medical journey, and the stigma both she and her husband had been subjected to, as a direct result of this decision. So, what did she say?

‘I volunteer to qualify myself a Hindu lady doctor. ’
In 19th century India, women looking to pursue a career in medicine were expected to work as midwives. Even as a doctoral course was available in Chennai, its male instructors were conservative and the idea of women students was frowned upon. The subsequent and utter lack of female doctors in the country further limited the reach of crucial healthcare to its women, who felt uncomfortable being assessed by male professionals.
Back in 1880, Gopalrao had also sent a letter to Royal Wilder, a prominent American missionary, requesting aid in securing admission for Anandi, in addition to an employment opportunity for himself. Wilder wrote back and said he could oblige on the fulfilment of one condition — the Joshis would have to convert to Christianity.

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