This week in Christian history: Maryland bans blasphemy; Pope Leo IX dies; Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati born

Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati born – April 23, 1858

This week marks the anniversary of the birth of Ramabai Dongre, a prominent Indian Christian missionary, academic and social reformer, commonly known as Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati.

The child of high-caste Hindu parents who died in a famine in 1874, Ramabai converted to Christianity while visiting England, having traveled to Europe to study medicine.

During the 1880s, she published a book denouncing the Hindu treatment of women and returned to India to open an educational institute for widows and later an orphanage.  

A 2018 New York Times article described Ramabi as “a scholar, feminist and educator” who “broke nearly every rule and tradition that confined the life of an upper-caste Hindu woman in 19th-century India.”

“Ramabai’s critique of the Hindu patriarchy and embrace of Christianity extracted a heavy price, according to her biographers,” noted the article. “It led to her marginalization in India and her ultimate omission from mainstream history books.”