Sitting at the Conference of Indian Social Evils, organised by a British Member of Parliament Elenor Rathbone, the Indian scholar and activist Dhanvanthi Rama Rau was utterly frustrated. The reason for her frustration was explicitly elucidated in her memoir. She wrote:
I asked for permission to speak, and was graciously allowed five minutes. I did not speak on any of the subjects on the agenda, and merely disputed the right of British women to arrange a conference on Indian social evils in London, when all speakers were British and many of them had never visited India. Not one of them…asked if there were any Indian women’s organisations dealing with the problems….that British women were exploring from the great and deceptive distance of 15,000 miles.
Her words reflect her plain annoyance at the hypocrisy of the conference. For Dhanvanthi–the person who had dedicated her life to uplifting Indian women–this attitude was downright disrespectful.
Dhanvanthi was born in 1893 in Hubli (present-day Karnataka). Her parents–Bhagbhari Handoo and Rup Krishna Handoo–were Kashmiri Brahmins. She completed her schooling in her hometown, Hubli, after which she studied at the prestigious Presidency College in Madras. She graduated with an honours degree and the Griggs Gold Medal in English. After completing her degree, Dhanvanthi joined Queen Mary’s College as an assistant professor.
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