NEW DELHI: Google on Sunday celebrates the country's first woman doctor with a special doodle on her 160th birth anniversary.
The Goodle homepage showcases a portrait of Ganguly with the image of the main building of Kolkata Medical College and Hospital in the background. This has been designed by Bengaluru-based artist Oddrija.
Along with Anandi Joshi, Ganguly became the first woman in colonial India to study medicine and earn a degree in 1886. While Joshi studied at Womans Medical College of Pennsylvania in the US, Ganguly pursued western medicine at Calcutta Medical College (CMC).
Born in a Brahmo family on July 18, 1861, Ganguly, along with Chandramukhi Basu, became the first female graduates in India, from Bethune College in Kolkata.
After her marriage with Brahmo reformer Dwarkanath Ganguly, the couple battled CMCs prohibition on women studying there, and Kadambini joined the medical college on June 23, 1883 despite strong criticism from the colonial society.
She was awarded the Graduate of Medical College of Bengal (GMCB) degree in 1886, which even attracted the attention of Florence Nightingale who enquired about Ganguly from a friend in a letter in 1888. Ganguly later studied in Britain.
A champion of womens rights, Ganguly was among the six members of the first all-women delegation of the 1889 Indian National Congress.
After her husbands death in 1898, she practiced medicine in Kolkata till her death in 1923.
(With inputs from PTI)
