Geraldine Forbes – författare

In a compelling study of Indian women, Geraldine Forbes considers their recent history from the nineteenth century under colonial rule to the twentieth century after Independence. She begins with the reform movement, established by men to educate women, and demonstrates how education changed women's lives enabling them to take part in public life. Through their own accounts of their lives and activities, she documents the formation of their organisations, their participation in the struggle for freedom, their role in the colonial economy and the development of the women's movement in India since 1947.

In a compelling study of Indian women, Geraldine Forbes considers their recent history from the nineteenth century under colonial rule to the twentieth century after Independence. She begins with the reform movement, established by men to educate women, and demonstrates how education changed women's lives enabling them to take part in public life. Through their own accounts of their lives and activities, she documents the formation of their organisations, their participation in the struggle for freedom, their role in the colonial economy and the development of the women's movement in India since 1947.

This intimate autobiography, rich in details of a society in transition, was written by one of India's earliest women doctors. Though a child widow, driven from pillar to post, Haimabati nourished an ambition for higher education, eventually trained as a medical practitioner, and became the 'Lady Doctor' in charge of Hughli Dufferin Hospital for Women. Haimabati's memoir illustrates the predicament of a woman determined to earn an honourable living in a man's world. This extraordinary account, the longest and most detailed memoir yet discovered by an Indian woman born in the nineteenth century, was originally written in lined school notebooks in Haimabati's native language, Bengali.