Kamini Roy (12 October 1864 – 27 September 1933) was a Bengali poet, social worker and feminist in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. She was the first woman honours graduate in British India.Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, , p83,

Early life

Born on 12 October 1864 in the village of Basunda, then in Bakerganj District of

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

and now in

Jhalokati District Jhalokathi District officially Jhalakathi District, () is a district in southern Bangladesh. It is located in the Barisal Division and covers an area of 758.06 km2. It is bounded by Barisal district to the north, Barguna district to the east ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, Roy joined Bethune School in 1883. One of the first girls to attend school in British India, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

honours from

Bethune College Bethune College is a women's college located on Bidhan Sarani in Kolkata, India, and affiliated to the University of Calcutta. It is the oldest women's college in India. It was established as a girls' school in 1849, and as a college in 1879. ...

of the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

in 1886 and started teaching there in the same year. Kadambini Ganguly, the country's second female honours graduate, attended the same institution in a class three years senior to Roy. Nisith Chandra Sen, her brother, was a renowned barrister in the Calcutta High Court, and later the Mayor of

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

while her sister

Jamini Sen Jamini Sen (20 June 1871 – 1932) was an Indian physician and the first female Fellow of the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. She was one of the first women in the British Raj to enter the medical profession. Early life a ...

was the house physician of the Nepalese royal family and the first female Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow is a global community of over 15,000 Members working together to develop skills, knowledge and leadership to drive the highest standards in healthcare. For 425 years, the Royal College of ...

. In 1894 she married Kedarnath Roy.

Writing and feminism

She picked up the cue for feminism from a fellow student of Bethune School, Abala Bose. Speaking to a girls' school in Calcutta, Roy said that, as Bharati Ray later paraphrased it, "the aim of women's education was to contribute to their all-round development and fulfillment of their potential". In a Bengali essay titled ''The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge'' she wrote, In 1921, she was one of the leaders, along with Kumudini Mitra (Basu) and Mrinalini Sen, of the Bangiya Nari Samaj, an organization formed to fight for woman's suffrage. The Bengal Legislative Council granted limited suffrage to women in 1925, allowing Bengali women to exercise their right for the first time in the 1926 Indian general election. She was a member of the Female Labour Investigation Commission (1922–23).

Honors and laurels

Roy supported younger writers and poets, including Sufia Kamal, who she visited in 1923. She was president of the Bengali Literary Conference in 1930 and vice-president of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad in 1932–33. She was influenced by the poet

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

and

Sanskrit literature Sanskrit literature is a broad term for all literature composed in Sanskrit. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as some ...

. Calcutta University honoured her with the Jagattarini Gold Medal. On 12 October 2019,

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commemorated Roy with a

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on her 155th birth anniversary. The accompanying write up started with her quote, “Why should a woman be confined to home and denied her rightful place in society?”

Works

Selected works include: * ''Mahasweta'', ''Pundorik'' * ''Pouraniki'' * ''Dwip O Dhup'' * ''Jibon Pathey'' * ''Nirmalya'' * ''Malya O Nirmalya'' * ''Ashok Sangeet'' * ''Gunjan (Children's book)'' * ''Balika Sikkhar Adarsha (Essays)''

References

External links