Kadambini Ganguly, One Of India's First Female Modern Medicine Doctors

Kadambini Ganguly was the first woman to be admitted to Calcutta Medical College in 1884, a remarkable achievement by late-nineteenth-century standards when the institute was male-dominated. She further went on to study medicine in Scotland before returning to India and establishing a successful medical practice. Ganguly, along with Chandramukhi Basu, were the first women to graduate from Bethune College, and in the process became the first female graduates in the country as well as in the entirety of the British Empire. Along with other female doctors such as Anandibai Joshi, she established a successful medical practice for women in India. 

Kadambini Ganguly was a strong advocate for women's liberation at a time when solely men dominated almost all cultural and social arenas of the country. She was also the first woman speaker in the Indian National Congress's fifth session in 1889. Following the Partition of Bengal, she organised the 1906 Women's Conference in Calcutta. 

Kadambini Ganguly, A Trailblazer

Kadambini Bose was born in Bhagalpur (modern-day Bihar) on July 18, 1961, and was raised in Barisal (present-day Bangladesh).  Her father Braja Kishore Basu was the headmaster of Bhagalpur School. He started the movement for women’s emancipation with Abhay Charan Mallick and established the women’s organisation Bhagalpur Mahila Samiti in 1863, a first of its kind in India.  

Despite belonging to a community in which women's education was shunned, Kadambini Bose acquired her formal school education at Dacca (Dhaka) followed by Calcutta. She became the first woman to pass the University of Calcutta entrance examination in 1880. On June 12, 1883, she got married to Dwarakanath Ganguly, 11 days before joining Calcutta Medical College. 

In 1893, she sailed to England and received a triple certificate from the Scottish College. Ganguly holds the Licentiate of the College of Physicians, Edinburgh (LRCP), Licentiate of the College of Surgeons, Glasgow (LRCS), and Licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Dublin (LFPS) to her name. She was promoted to a senior specialist position upon her return. Soon after, she started a thriving private practice.

Activism And Social Reform

Ganguly was one of six female delegates to the Indian National Congress's fifth session in 1889. She was also the first female speaker with the INC. Following the Partition of Bengal, she organised the 1906 Women's Conference in Calcutta. She was also passionate about enabling women to get admitted to modern medicine. 

Ganguly was heavily criticised for her revolutionary ideologies by the conservative society of her time. After returning to India from Edinburgh and campaigning for women's rights, a Bengali magazine Bangabashi slung mud on her character. Her husband Dwarkanath Ganguly took the case to court and won, with a jail sentence of 6 months meted out to the editor Mahesh Pal.

Ganguly continued to fight for women's rights and worked in medicine until her very last breath. In fact, she performed surgery hours before her death on October 3, 1923.