ABSTRACT
Pandita Ramabai's death was a tragic loss in more ways than has been realized in terms of her achievements. She was a unique and extraordinary person, and Maharashtrian society, having yet to produce an individual of her stature engaged in gender-related reform on such a vast and variegated scale, still remains unwilling to remember her and unable to forget. Kesari's obituary still remains the last word on Ramabai in mainstream Maharashtra. But the paper's assessment conveniently elides its own strong opposition to Ramabai's activities for women's education and mobilization. South Asian feminists have in recent years sought to reclaim Ramabai as a role model who has inspired generations of Indian feminists. Japan's modernization project of the post-restoration Meiji government included the creation of the new Japanese woman. The other, Indian woman of importance in South Africa was Sarojini Naidu; and these two renowned women enabled the diasporic Indian women to maintain an umbilical cord with their original homeland with pride.
