{"id":350132,"date":"2026-03-21T02:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/350132\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T02:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:32:11","slug":"the-forgotten-indian-woman-trailblazer-in-british-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/350132\/","title":{"rendered":"The forgotten Indian woman trailblazer in British medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early 20th Century, when medicine was still overwhelmingly male and European institutions largely closed their doors to women, a young doctor from colonial India’s Bengal broke through one of its most formidable gates.<\/p>\n

In 1912, Jamini Sen became the first woman ever admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow<\/a> – an institution founded in 1599 and long closed to women.<\/p>\n

Yet, unlike many pioneers of modern medicine, her story largely disappeared from view.<\/p>\n

Now, more than a century later, Sen’s remarkable life – spanning palace wards in Nepal, examination halls in Britain and epidemic-stricken towns in colonial India – has been reconstructed in Daktarin Jamini Sen, a new biography by her great-niece Deepta Roy Chakraverti. (Daktarin is female doctor in a number of north Indian languages.)<\/p>\n

The biography draws on letters, diaries, a slim journal kept by Sen herself, her article in a journal called Mahila Parishad, and a synopsis written by her elder sister, Kamini. The book restores to history a woman of fierce intellect and radical resolve from pre-independent Bengal.<\/p>\n

Born in 1871 in Barisal in the Bengal Presidency as one of seven siblings in a progressive family, Sen’s journey began far from Europe’s medical citadels.<\/p>\n

Educated at Bethune College in Calcutta (now Kolkata), she qualified from Calcutta Medical College in 1897, entering a profession that remained overwhelmingly male and rigidly stratified by race.<\/p>\n

\"Jamini<\/p>\n

Sen, cradling a baby, in an undated photograph [Courtesy of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow]<\/p>\n

Soon after graduating, she accepted an offer that would define her early career: a post in Nepal as house physician to the royal household and head of the Kathmandu Zenana Hospital.<\/p>\n

For nearly a decade she practised medicine at the highest level, earning the confidence of King Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah while introducing modern clinical methods within deeply traditional settings.<\/p>\n

Her years in Nepal were not without drama.<\/p>\n

Amid looming palace unrest and rumours of coups, Sen eventually left the country. The king who had honoured her with a gold watch bearing his crest would soon die, with poisoning suspected to be the reason.<\/p>\n

Ambition, however, carried her further.<\/p>\n

In 1911, with support from the Lady Dufferin Fund, she travelled to Britain, took a medical licence in Dublin, studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and went on to sit the fellowship examinations in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

The Royal College had only just opened its exams to women. In 1912, she passed, becoming the first female Fellow at an institution founded in 1599.<\/p>\n

The triumph, however, was incomplete. The college’s records note that Sen “was unable to hold office… meaning that her privileges as a female Fellow were restricted compared to those of her male counterparts”.<\/p>\n

It would take another 11 years for a second woman, Margaret Hogg Grant, to be admitted in 1923.<\/p>\n

\"Tsog<\/p>\n

Sen received this Tibetan tsog spoon gifted in recognition of her medical service [Deepta Roy Chakraverti]<\/p>\n

\"King<\/p>\n

King Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal gifted Sen a gold watch bearing his crest [Deepta Roy Chakraverti]<\/p>\n

She then travelled to Berlin in 1912, to further her clinical knowledge at a time when continental Europe was at the forefront of medical research in tropical diseases. This intellectual restlessness defined her career.<\/p>\n

“I have a lot of responsibilities towards my sisters in my country,” Sen is quoted as saying in the archives of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Returning to India, she joined the Women’s Medical Service and worked in cities including Agra, Shimla and Puri.<\/p>\n

In Agra, during local unrest directed at British doctors, Sen was brought in to steady tensions – her presence as an Indian woman physician proved crucial.<\/p>\n

Women sought her out specifically; they trusted her. Patients affectionately called her the “saree-wali daktarin sahib” or the sari-clad lady doctor.<\/p>\n

In Shimla and Puri she continued working through outbreaks of epidemics and difficult conditions that some colonial doctors resisted.<\/p>\n

Many young mothers suffered from post-childbirth sepsis – a crisis she confronted head-on. “The greatest improvement has taken place in maternal cases,” she wrote in her journal with quiet pride.<\/p>\n

Even in the way she dressed, Sen signalled a quiet modernity.<\/p>\n

She adopted a practical working style – a pinned sari and full-sleeved blouse with a lace collar – a departure from older Indian drapes and one better suited to hospital wards than drawing rooms.<\/p>\n

\"Royal<\/p>\n

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow was founded in 1599 [Courtesy of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow]<\/p>\n

Sen’s personal life carried its own burdens.<\/p>\n

While in Nepal she adopted a baby girl, Bhutu, whose mother had died in childbirth. A single mother during a period largely unforgiving of female independence, Sen balanced professional rigour with private responsibility within the confines of traditional Bengali society. But later, in Calcutta, the child died after a debilitating illness, a devastating personal loss.<\/p>\n

A few objects from Sen’s life survive today, preserved by her biographer.<\/p>\n

Among them are the watch given to her by Nepal’s king – which she wore pinned to her sari – a Tibetan tsog spoon gifted in recognition of her medical service and a delicate blue-wing brooch she purchased in London. Only two grainy black-and-white photographs of her remain, now submitted to the Glasgow College archives.<\/p>\n

Chakraverti’s portrait is of a woman shaped equally by ambition and sorrow – a doctor who confronted racism in pre-independence India and sexism in Britain, yet remained steadfast in her vocation.<\/p>\n

“In celebrating Dr Jamini Sen today,” Chakraverti writes, “we honour not just a doctor but a trailblazer whose courage laid the groundwork for generations of women in medicine both in India, in Britain, and beyond.”<\/p>\n

Sen died in 1932. For decades, her name receded into obscurity. In 2024, more than a century after her historic Fellowship, her portrait was finally unveiled in Glasgow – a symbolic restoration of a life that had quietly bent history’s arc.<\/p>\n

Her story reminds us that the making of modern medicine was never solely a European tale, nor exclusively a male one.<\/p>\n

It was also written in pinned saris, palace wards, epidemic outposts and examination halls where a determined Bengali woman refused to step aside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the early 20th Century, when medicine was still overwhelmingly male and European institutions largely closed their doors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[170420,170415,170419,170416,163,85,46,170413,170418,5086,170417,170414,170412,123832],"class_list":["post-350132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-bengal-presidency","tag-calcutta-medical-college","tag-colonial-india","tag-deepta-roy-chakraverti","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jamini-sen","tag-modern-medicine","tag-nepal","tag-prithvi-bir-bikram-shah","tag-royal-college","tag-royal-college-of-physicians","tag-sen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}