Anandibai Joshee was the first South Asian woman to receive a degree in Western medicine in 1886 from the Women's College of Medicine of Pennsylvania, now known as the Drexel University School of Medicine. This speculative history brings life to the words of Anandibai's revolutionary 1886 thesis, exploring the dreams she carried for the field of obstetrics in Philadelphia in what may have been the very first insider feminist medical ethnography recorded in history.

Mariam Rizvi
Mariam Rizvi is a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying Biology and Bioethics. She is passionate about decolonial health, especially community health as a people's form of medicine. Mariam is involved in community-building for South Asian women on campus and hopes to promote health justice for women both locally and globally.

Anandabai Joshee

Anandabai Joshee, M.D., an 1886 graduate of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, set precedents and broke barriers when she became the first high-caste Hindu woman to receive a medical degree. Born in Poona, Bombay in 1865, she was married at the age of nine to an older man who had been her teacher. Joshee had a child at the age of 13, but the child died when only 10 days old. She believed that with better medical care, the child would have lived, and she frequently cited this as motivation for her desire to attend medical school. Her husband encouraged her in her academic pursuits, which ultimately led her to leave home in 1883 to voyage to America.

Joshee’s desire to honor her native customs during her stay in the West was compelling. Rachel Bodley, Dean of the Woman's Medical College at the time, noticed that the young woman's health appeared to be failing. She discovered that this was due to the fact that Joshee was unable to prepare the foods which were customary in her diet. For the remainder of her stay in Philadelphia, Joshee lived in the Dean's home, where she was able to have the food to which she was accustomed. Although the young woman's fellow students looked askance when she appeared in a sari at her first anatomy class, she continued to wear her native costume throughout her stay; it was noted, however, that she wore fewer and fewer ornaments as time passed.
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Upon completion of her medical studies, Joshee accepted the position of Physician-in-Charge of the female ward of the Albert Edward Hospital in Kolhapur, India. In recognition of the young doctor's accomplishments, Queen Victoria sent a special congratulatory note to the Medical College. Joshee sailed for home in October of 1886. Several months later, before she could begin her practice, she was stricken with tuberculosis. She died in Poona on February 26, 1887 and was cremated in accordance with traditional Hindu funeral rites. Although it was customary to scatter the ashes of the deceased to the "four winds," her husband, in recognition of her affection for this country, once again broke with tradition by sending her ashes to America for burial.

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Picture
A portrait photo of Dr. Anandibai Joshee, M.D., Class of 1886 at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Episode Audio Credits (in order of first appearance):

Indian Temple Bell (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/indian-temple-bell-68150/)- Expanding (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/expanding-55493/)- Train horn and passing (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/train-horn-and-passing-23815/)
Water splashing (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/water-splashing-108887/)
Tabla 150 bpm (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/tabla-150-bpm-264330/)
Writing with pencil on paper (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/writing-with-pencil-on-paper-68981/)
Hammering Nail (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/hammering-nail-96677/)
Pulling books from a bookcase (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/pulling-books-from-a-bookcase-102456/)
Flipping through books, pages (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/flipping-through-books-pages-book-sound-sheets-10763/)
Abstract background sound (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/abstract-background-sound-53417/)
Panting (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/panting-7108/)
Heartbeat (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/heartbeat-sound-effects-for-you-122458/)
Garden background (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/garden-background-7061/)
​Conversations (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/conversations-2-23754/)