Legacy Leaders - Pandita Ramabai
We conclude our Legacy Leaders series today with wisdom and leadership learning from Next Leadership Director Cham Kaur-Mann.
‘’I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed.”
― Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery: An Autobiography
Legacy Leaders - Pandita Ramabai
I was left speechless by my first interaction with Pandita Ramabai’s story (hard to believe I know!). Firstly because of her incredible impact and legacy but also by the sheer scale of obstacles she had to overcome. But my sense of awe and inspiration soon turned into the age-old question, why is so little known about this pioneer, social reformer, educationalist and emancipator? And why isn’t she celebrated more widely? Well, today I want to play some small part in amplifying her story and celebrating her ‘success’.
Pandita was born as Ramabai Dongre in 1858 in Karnataka India during the time of British colonial rule. She was raised within a caste ridden society which placed very little value on females. However, her father, a high caste Hindu priest, defied cultural and societal norms by teaching both her and her mother to read Sanskrit - a privilege only accorded to males at the time (this would never have occurred to my father – I virtually ended up teaching myself to read and write. So, praying for many more men like this!)
Tragically, at the age of 16 both her parents and her sister died of starvation during The Great Famine (1876-78). Left as orphans, Pandita and her brother travelled across India, reciting the sacred Sanskrit scriptures to earn an income. Her gift was recognised and unexpectedly, at the age of 20 she became the first female to be awarded the prestigious title Pandita meaning “scholar” by the University of Calcutta (just in case you thought Pandita was her first name!).
Pandita continued to challenge cultural and societal norms by marrying someone from a lower caste. Sadly, at the age of 23, widowed and left alone to look after their daughter, she experienced first-hand, the rejection faced by widows, often treated as outcastes, considered ‘cursed’, and sentenced to live out their lives in seclusion and poverty (in some countries this continues to this day). However, she, refused to be marginalised, silenced or erased from society.
Pandita travelled to England in 1883, hoping to train as a doctor. While in the UK, she became a Christian. "In Christianity I found a religion which gave its privileges equally to men and women; there was no distinction of caste, colour, or sex made in it.” It wasn’t long before she was ruffling feathers within the Church of England structures by bucking expectations and refusing to conform (I’ve certainly known that feeling from my own denomination in times past). Her decision to become a follower of Jesus was also met with much disapproval and backlash in Indian communities (yup…I know that feeling too!). Undeterred, Pandita’s faith and passion for social reform continued to be ignited as she travelled to the US, gaining support from like-minded Christian activists, amongst them Harriet Tubman. For Pandita, word and action were paramount in empowering widows, and those pushed to the margins: “People must not only hear about the kingdom of GOD, but must see it in actual operation, on a small scale perhaps and in imperfect form, but a real demonstration nevertheless”.
Later Pandita returned to India and continued to set up missions for the welfare and education of Indian widows and orphans. She says: “I realized after reading the fourth chapter of St John’s Gospel that Christ was truly the Divine Saviour he claimed to be, and no one but he could transform and uplift the downtrodden women of India…”
She founded the Mukti (meaning freedom, liberation, salvation) Mission in 1889, which continues to provide housing, education and vocational training for vulnerable groups of girls and women, to this day.
Pandita wrote many books, spoke 7 languages and translated the bible from Hebrew and Greek into her own language, Marathi, so that people could access the scriptures more easily.
Inspired by her faith and the news of the Welsh Revival in 1904, she called on people to pray for India in 1905. As a result of the revival at Mukti Mission, she came to be known as the Mother of the Pentecostal Movement in India (the Asuza Street Revival came a year later 1906). Her daughter Manoramabai also set up and became principal of a school. She would have succeeded her mother but sadly died in 1921, followed by Pandita herself a year later.
In 1989 the Indian Government finally released a commemorative stamp in honour of her work, especially on behalf of women.
I end with her words:
A life totally committed to God has nothing to fear, nothing to lose, nothing to regret.
Let’s pray for the grace to live like this…
