Kamala Vishnu Nimbkar (January 5, 1900 – August 29, 1979), born Elizabeth Lundy, was an American-born

occupational therapist Occupational therapists (OTs) are health care professionals specializing in occupational therapy and occupational science. OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) use scientific bases and a holistic perspective to promote a person's abilit ...

in India.

Early life

Elizabeth Lundy was born in

Mount Holly, New Jersey Mount Holly is a township that is the county seat of Burlington County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is an eastern suburb of Philadelphia, the nation's sixth largest city as of 2020, As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township's population w ...

the daughter of Joseph Wilmer Lundy and Bessie Morris Roberts Lundy. Her father was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

businessman.An Inventory of the J. Wilmer Lundy Family Papers, 1781-1964
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. She attended the Quaker

George School George School is a private Quaker (Society of Friends) boarding and day high school located on a rural campus in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania ( Newtown postal address). It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown ...

, and earned a bachelor's degree in economics at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

in 1926. She returned to the United States later in her forties, to study occupational therapy at the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy.

Career

Before college, Lundy worked as a secretary on a statistical study of coal miners, for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mines. In India after she married, Nimbkar taught

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

by the Froebel method, and started several schools in that tradition. She is credited as founding the first school for occupational therapy (OT) in India in 1948, when she started the OT department at

KEM Hospital King Edward (VII) Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College, located in Mumbai, is one of the foremost teaching and medical care providing institution in India. It was founded in 1926; it is affiliated with Maharashtra Uni ...

. In 1958 she founded a second school for OT in

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

. She was also founder of the All India Occupational Therapists Association (AIOTA) in 1952, and served as the association's president until 1959. In 1960 she founded the Indian Society for the Rehabilitation of the Handicapped, and was its secretary-general until the 1970s.Sullivan, Timy
"Mrs. Kamala V. Nimbkar: Editor, The Journal of Rehabilitation in Asia"
''Rehabilitation Gazette'' 15(1972): 33. In 1957 she represented India at an international conference on rehabilitation, held in Indonesia. She visited Baltimore therapy programs in 1959. In 1965, she attended a reunion of patients and therapists from the Toomey Pavilion, a respiratory clinic in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, hosted by

Gini Laurie Virginia Grace Wilson "Gini" Laurie (June 10, 1913 – June 28, 1989) was a central figure in the 20th century development, in the United States, of the independent living movement for people with disabilities. It is sometimes said that she was ...

. At a conference in Australia in 1972, she was honored with the

Lasker Award The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, which was f ...

by the International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled. She edited and published AIOTA's journal, '' Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy'' from 1955, and ''The Journal of Rehabilitation in Asia'' from 1959. She also wrote articles for other scholarly journals. Her book, ''A New Life for the Handicapped: A History of Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy in India'', was published posthumously in 1980. She talked about her life and work in an oral interview given to University of Cambridge

Personal life

Lundy met her husband Vishnu Nimbkar, an Indian businessman, in New York, converted to

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

, and moved with him to India in 1930. She lived at the

Sabarmati Ashram Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Gandhi Ashram) is located in the Sabarmati suburb of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, adjoining the Ashram Road, on the banks of the River Sabarmati, from the town hall. This was one of the many residences of Mahatma Gandh ...

, the residence of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, for several months upon arrival. She died in 1979, aged 79 years, in India. Some of her letters are in her father's papers at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

. Her son was

B. V. Nimbkar Bonbehari Vishnu Nimbkar (17 July 1931 – 25 August 2021) was an Indian agricultural scientist and social worker, known for his work in the fields of animal husbandry and agriculture. He founded Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, an Indi ...

, and one of her granddaughters is

Nandini Nimbkar Nandini Nimbkar is an agricultural scientist from India, and currently the President of the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). She is the daughter of B. V. Nimbkar and granddaughter of Irawati Karve and Kamala Nimbkar. Nimbkar st ...

, both noted agricultural scientists. A secular,

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

medium school in

Phaltan Phaltan () is a town, a tehsil, and a municipal council in the Satara district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The town is about northeast of the city of Satara and about 110 km from Pune. History Phaltan was one of the non-salu ...

, Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan, is named after her.

References

External links

"Indian Occupations Captured: A tribute to Mrs Kamala Nimbkar"
''Let's OT'' (July 11, 2011), a blog post about Nimbkar, with photographs. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nimbkar, Kamala 1900 births 1979 deaths Occupational therapists People from Mount Holly, New Jersey Barnard College alumni American Quakers 20th-century Quakers