Pandita Ramabai - The Story of Her Life

Helen Dyer, unlike other biographers, knew Ramabai personally. She had visited the renowned social worker’s institutions in Pune and Kedgaon between 1895 and 1900. Her book, therefore, has greater level of detail than any other biography. Dyer has included rare photographs and Ramabai’s personal accounts of important events.
Dyer describes Ramabai’s childhood and early years, giving due credit to her parents for starting a revolution in India by educating their girl-child. She paints an accurate picture of the religious, economic, and social circumstances that led to Ramabai’s skepticism regarding her father’s faith although she was well-versed with all of its sacred writings in Sanskrit. Ramabai, in her late teenage and young adulthood, became an active campaigner for the promotion of girls’ education. In an age when all girls were given off in marriage well before they attained puberty, she was an exception. She held her audiences in spellbound silence as she challenged them to educate their daughters and to delay their marriage.
When Ramabai became a Christian, she continued to be burdened about the fate of child-widows in India. In Christ, she found a better reason to rescue them. Dyer tells us how Ramabai, in association with her American friends, set out to establish a school for Brahmin child-widows. From there, God led her to rescue victims of two major famines in 1897 and 1900; abandoned children; handicapped women; women rejected by their husbands. By the time this book was written, Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission was established in Kedgaon. This biography portrays Ramabai as an excellent manager and fund-raiser, educator, human-rights activist, evangelist, a compassionate mother, a Christian leader, an ardent disciple of Jesus Christ. This book is a must-read for all who wish to work among Indian women.