I want to do something splendid....
Something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead... Jo March, Little Women
What, you want to be a lawyer? Out of the question. You are a woman, you're not meant to study! A doctor? But who would come to you for treatment? A dancer? No, good girls' don't dance!
These are just some of the problems that the women in this book faced and triumphed over. -
You might know some of them very well - many of these women are famous in the parts of the country they came from. You might be kind of familiar with some others and think, 'Oh, wait, isn't there a road named after her?' Or, so that's whose statue that is!"
You'll find a good number of them in your history books because these are the women who actually made history. But you might not know just why their lives were so remarkable. There may be several reasons for that.
Some of them lived so long ago that it's difficult to remember exactly what they did that made them so great. Some of their achievements may not seem quite as awesome anymore, because there are, after all, a lot of women doctors and lawyers nowadays, and engineers and writers and film stars and politicians. But the women who did these jobs first and alone had a very tough fight indeed, and had to struggle hard practically all their lives so that we can now have it easier.
This book is about these 'first women. Their stories have been collected from a great many sources - books, journals, websites and video interviews - and put together in small easy-to-read snippets that will hopefully nudge you into digging up even more interesting details about them.
Many of these pioneering women lived in the 1800s and 1900s, a time of great change, when the entire country was caught up in the fight for independence, which is why along with their stories you will also find fascinating details of how independent India, the one that you know today, was shaped. Almost all the women from this period were freedom fighters, fighting a dual battle - freedom from foreign rule AND the freedom to do what they wanted to do.
You can read these stories in any way you like - from the end to the beginning, or from the middle, or you could just close your eyes and pick a page randomly. (Pssst... I recommend reading them in the order they've been put here, because then you can see just how each of them made life easier for those who came after them.)
Go on... turn the page, and prepare to be amazed. These wonder women may not have had capes and masks (oh wait.... one of them did), but they are as swashbuckling and inspiring as any of your favourite superheroes, that's for sure.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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