Kamini Roy

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Kamini Roy

Born	12 October 1864 Basanda, Bengal Presidency, British India (Now Barisal District, Bangladesh)
Died	27 September 1933 Hazaribagh, Bihar and Orissa Province, British India (Now Jharkhand, India)
Alma mater	Bethune College University of Calcutta
Occupation	Poet, scholar
Spouse(s)	Kedarnath Roy

Kamini Roy (Bengali: কামিনী রায়) (12 October 1864 - 27 September 1933) was a leading Bengali poet, social worker and feminist in British India . She was the first woman honours graduate in British India.^[1]

Early life

Born on 12 October 1864 in the village of Basanda, then in Bakergunj district of Bengal Presidency and now in Barisal District of Bangladesh, she joined Bethune School and passed the First Arts examination in 1883. A part of the earliest batch of girls to attend school, she was the first woman honours graduate in the country, having passed her bachelor of arts degree with Sanskrit honours from Bethune College of the University of Calcutta in 1886. Kadambini Ganguly was three years senior to her in the same institution. She continued her association with Bethune College as a teacher.^[1]

She hailed from an elite Bengali family. Her father, Chandi Charan Sen, a judge and a writer, was a leading member of the Brahmo Samaj. Nisith Chandra Sen, her brother, was a renowned barrister in the Calcutta High Court, and later the Mayor of Calcutta. Another sister, Jamini was the house physician of the then Nepal Royal family. In 1894 she married Kedarnath Roy.^[1]

Feminism

Bethune School and College will take just pride in Kamini Roy (1864-1933), the first woman lyrist who began composing from 1880 and published her Alo Chhaya in 1889 which created a stir in the literary world as much by its rare sensibilities as by the profundity of woman’s self-realisation… Kamini Roy worked with her pen for nearly fifty years and witnessed the emergence of a new generation of womanhood enriching the social, artistic and literary life of Bengal through their original creations.^[2]

Nag, Kalidas

Kamini Roy was a feminist in an age when even women's education was a taboo. She picked up the cue for feminism from a fellow student of Bethune School, Abala Bose. In an address delivered at a girls' school in Calcutta she declared that the aim of women's education was to contribute to their all-round development and fulfilment of their potential.^[3]

In a Bengali essay titled The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge she wrote,

“The male desire to rule is the primary, if not the only, stumbling block to women’s enlightenment... They are extremely suspicious of women’s emancipation. Why? The same old fear -‘Lest they become like us’.”^[4]

In 1921, she was one of the leaders, along with Kumudini Mitra (Basu) and Mrinalini Sen of the Bangiya Nari Samaj to fight for woman’s suffrage. Limited suffrage was granted to women in 1925, and in 1926 Bengali women exercised their right for the first time.^[3] She was in the Female Labour Investigation Commission (1922–23).^[1]

Later life

She went out of her way to encourage other writers and poets. In 1923, she visited Barisal and encouraged Sufia Kamal, then a young girl, to continue writing. She was president of the Bengali Literary Conference in 1930 and vice-president of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad in 1932-33.^[1]

She was influenced by the poet Rabindranath Tagore and Sanskrit literature. Calcutta University honoured her with the Jagattarini Gold Medal.^[1]

In her later life, she lived at Hazaribagh for some years. In that small town, she often had discussions on literary and other topics with such scholars as Mahesh Chandra Ghosh and Dhirendranath Choudhury. She died on 27 September 1933.

Works

Amongst her notable literary contributions were –Mahasweta, Pundorik, Pouraniki, Dwip O Dhup, Jibon Pathey, Nirmalya, Malya O Nirmalya, and Ashok Sangeet. She wrote Gunjan for children and a book of essays Balika Sikkhar Adarsha.^[1]

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, (Bengali), p83, ISBN 81-85626-65-0
↑ Nag, Kalidas, Introduction to the Bethune School and College Centenary Volume, 1949.
↑ 3.0 3.1 Ray, Bharati, Women in Calcutta: the Years of Change, in Calcutta The Living City Vol II, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, Oxford University Press, first published 1990, paperback edition 2005, page 36-37. ISBN 0-19-563697-X.
↑ This has been included in an English book Talking of Power - Early Writings of Bengali Women from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century edited by Malini Bhattacharya and Abhijit Sen.

v t e Bengal Renaissance

People	Sri Aurobindo Rajnarayan Basu Jagadish Chandra Bose Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Satyendra Nath Bose Bethune Upendranath Brahmachari Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Akshay Kumar Datta Henry Derozio Alexander Duff Michael Madhusudan Dutt Romesh Chunder Dutt Dwarkanath Ganguly Kadambini Ganguly Monomohun Ghose Ramgopal Ghosh Aghore Nath Gupta David Hare Kazi Nazrul Islam Eugène Lafont Ashutosh Mukherjee Harish Chandra Mukherjee Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Gour Govinda Ray Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury Raja Ram Mohan Roy Meghnad Saha Akshay Chandra Sarkar Mahendralal Sarkar Brajendra Nath Seal Girish Chandra Sen Keshub Chandra Sen Haraprasad Shastri Debendranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore Satyendranath Tagore Sitanath Tattwabhushan Brahmabandhav Upadhyay Ram Chandra Vidyabagish Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Swami Vivekananda Begum Rokeya

Topics	Adi Dharm Bengali literature Bengali poetry Bengali music Brahmo Samaj British Raj British Indian Association History of Bengal Nazrul geeti Rabindra Nritya Natya Rabindra Sangeet Sambad Prabhakar Socialism in Bengal Swadeshi Satyagraha Tattwabodhini Patrika Tagore family Vangiya Sahitya Parishad Young Bengal

Institutions	Anandamohan College Asiatic Society Banga Mahila Vidyalaya Bangabasi College Bethune College Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur Calcutta Madrasah College Calcutta Medical College Fort William College General Assembly's Institution Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya Hindu Theatre Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science Midnapore College National Council of Education, Bengal Oriental Seminary Presidency College Ripon College Sanskrit College Scottish Church College Serampore College Vidyasagar College Visva-Bharati University University of Calcutta University of Dhaka

Other renaissance/ revolutionary movements in Bengal	Bhakti movement Gaudiya Vaishnavism Brahmoism Bengal School of Art Kalighat painting Kallol Gananatya Andolan Bratachari movement Bengali Little Magazine Movement Parallel Cinema Indian Communism Naxalism Hungryalism Prakalpana Movement

Authority control	VIAF: 31135598

Persondata
Name	Kamini Roy
Alternative names
Short description	Poet, scholar
Date of birth	12 October 1864
Place of birth	Basanda, Barisal
Date of death	27 September 1933
Place of death	Hazaribagh

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