Subur Parthasarathy (1911 – 10 October 1966), born Subur Mugaseth, was an Indian educator and legislator. She was the first principal at Ethiraj College for Women, and served in the upper house of the Indian Parliament from 1960 to 1966.

Early life

Subur Mugaseth was born in

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

, the daughter of Khodadad Mugaseth, into a family prominent in the city's

Parsi The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...

community. Her only brother died in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. She attended the

University of Madras The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

and

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and earned a master's degree in English, and completed a doctorate in 1936.

Career

Parthasarathy taught English at Queen Mary's College in Madras. She was the first principal of Ethiraj College for Women, serving from 1948 to 1952. She was succeeded in the principalship by Mona Hensman. In 1952, she traveled in the United States studying universities and colleges. Parthasarathy was elected to the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

from 1960 to 1966.

Personal life

In 1939, Subur Mugaseth married journalist and diplomat

Gopalaswami Parthasarathy Captain Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, popularly known as G. Parthasarathy (born 13 May 1940) is a former commissioned officer in the Indian Army (1963-1968) and a diplomat and author. He has served as the High Commissioner of India, Cyprus (199 ...

, after they met at Oxford. They had a son, Ashok Parthasarathi (1940–2019) who followed his parents into government work and academia. She died from heart and kidney ailments in New York, in 1966, while her husband was representing India at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. Actor and playwright

Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian playwright, actor, film director, Kannada writer, and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwr ...

was her niece's husband; and journalist Raghu Karnad is her grand-nephew.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parthasarathy, Subur 1911 births 1966 deaths Parsi people Indian educators People from Kozhikode Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu Women members of the Rajya Sabha 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians