ABSTRACT
The closing years of the nineteenth century found Pandita Ramabai grappling with two natural disasters: famine and plague. Together they led to the establishment and phenomenal growth of Mukti Mission into a church-dominated settlement of more than 2,000 people spread over a large area. Kedgaon these famine victims numbering almost 2,000, brought through repeated massive rescue operations from 1896 onward, were housed in tents and sheds. This arrangement was later to be finalized, with Sharada Sadan becoming one of the many sections of the larger and burgeoning institution renamed Mukti Mission. Ramabai's own report described the forced evacuation of Sharada Sadan girls to Kedgaon because of the plague and also the routine followed by Mukti's inmates as well as the rescue of more famine victims. Mainstream Maharashtra took scant notice of these happenings, except in Kesari's occasional ideological attacks.
