Abala Bose
Encyclopedia
Abala, Lady
Lady
The word lady is a polite term for a woman, specifically the female equivalent to, or spouse of, a lord or gentleman, and in many contexts a term for any adult woman...

 Bose
( Ôbola Boshu) (April 8, 1864 – August 26, 1951) was a social worker well-known for her efforts in the field of women’s education and her contribution towards the alleviation of the condition of widows.

Family

Daughter of the renowned Brahmo
Brahmo
A Brahmo is either an adherent of Brahmoism to the exclusion of all other religions, or a person with at least one Brahmo parent or guardian and who has never denied his faith...

 reformer Durga Mohan Das
Durga Mohan Das
Durgamohan Das was a Brahmo Samaj leader and a social reformer with notable contribution in the field of widow remarriage and women’s emancipation.- Early life :...

, sister of S.R.Das
Satish Ranjan Das
Satish Ranjan Das was the Advocate-General of Bengal and later the Law Member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy; he was sometime treasurer of the Boy Scouts of Bengal and the Lodge of Good Fellowship, and a prominent member of the reformist Brahmo Samaj in Bengal...

 and Sarala Roy
Sarala Roy
Sarala Roy was an educationist and is remembered as founder of the Gokhale Memorial School at Kolkata , at present the capital of the east Indian state of West Bengal.-Life:...

, and cousin of Chittaranjan Das
Chittaranjan Das
Chittaranjan Das was an eminent Bengali lawyer and a major figure in the Indian independence movement.-Personal life:...

, and also Chief Justice of India Sudhi Ranjan Das  she was born at Barisal on 8 April 1864. She belonged to the famous Das family of Telirbagh, Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

, now in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. She was married to Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, the renowned scientist, and had occasion to travel abroad with him many times.

Early life

She was amongst the early students of Banga Mahila Vidyalaya
Banga Mahila Vidyalaya
Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was the first women’s liberal arts college in India. Established at Kolkata on 1 June 1876, by the liberal section of the Brahmo Samaj, it was successor of Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya set up on 18 September 1873 by Annette Akroyd...

 and Bethune School
Bethune College
Bethune College is a women's college in India. It was founded as a school in 1849 by John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune and in 1879 developed as the first women's college in India. It is located at 181, Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata -700006, just opposite the current campus of Scottish Church College,...

 (established by Bethune
John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune
John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune , previously John Elliot Drinkwater, a barrister and law member of the Governor-General's Council, was an Anglo-Indian lawyer and a pioneer in promoting women's education in 19th-century India....

), and passed entrance with a scholarship in 1881. As she could not secure admission to Calcutta Medical College
Medical College Kolkata
Medical College,Kolkata was established 1835 as Medical College, Bengal in Kolkata, India as the first college of European medicine in Asia...

, being a woman, she went to Madras (Now Chennai) in 1882 on Bengal government scholarship to study medicine but had to give up because of ill health. She was married in 1887.

She was one of the early feminists, apart from being an educationist. Writing in the Modern Review, a leading English magazine in those days, she argued that women should have a deeper and extended education. ‘not because we may make better matches for our girls… not even that the services of the daughter-in-law may be more valuable in the home of her adoption, but because a woman like a man is first of all a mind, and only in the second place physical and a body.’ It was from her that Kamini Roy
Kamini Roy
Kamini Roy was a leading Bengali poet, social worker and feminist from India. She was the first woman honours graduate in India.-Early life:...

, who studied with her in Bethune School, picked up the threads of her feminism. Upon her husband's knighthood in 1916, she became Lady Bose.

Later life

She set up the Nari Shiksha Samiti for the spread of women’s education and for providing financial assistance to widows. This organisation had established around 200 schools in rural areas. In order to provide teachers for these schools she set up Vidyasagar Bani Bhaban, Mahila Shilpa Bhaban and Bani Bhaban Training School for young widows. After her husband’s death she donated Rs. 1 lakh to set up the Sister Nivedita
Sister Nivedita
- A benediction to Sister Nivedita by Swami Vivekananda Sister Nivedita ; ; , born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble, was a Scots-Irish social worker, author, teacher and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She met Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta, India in 1898...

 Women’s Education Fund, which set up the Adults Primary Education Centre. She was Secretary of Brahmo Balika Shikshalaya
Brahmo Balika Shikshalaya
≥Brahmo Balika Shikshalaya, popularly called "Brahmo Girls School", located at 294 APC Roy Road, Kolkata 700009, is a Bengali-medium girls' school founded by the Brahmo Samaj...

from 1910 to 1936. She died on 26 April 1951.

The principal aim of Nari Shiksha Samiti, set up in 1915, was to establish primary schools, prepare suitable text books and open maternity and child welfare centres. In its earlier years it established several schools, including Muralidhar College for girls bur from 1921, it shifted its focus to backward villages.
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