Manabi Bandyopadhyay was born in

Naihati Naihati is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Naihati Municipality is one of the oldest in the whol ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

to parents Chittaranjan Bandyopadhyay and Rima Bandyopadhyay in an educated family as a man. She is the first PhD professor in India who accepts her identity as a transgender person. Bandyopadhyay served as an associate professor in Bengali at Vivekananda Satobarshiki Mahavidyalaya. After completing her PhD in 2006, she took charge as Principal of Krishnagar Women's College on 7 June 2015 after a decade of struggling against patriarchy and convoluted notions regarding the

third gender Third gender is a concept in which individuals are categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither man nor woman. It is also a social category present in societies that recognize three or more genders. The term ''third'' is usually ...

. Unlike men who would have applied for the same post, and women, who would have been appointed earlier, she had to garner support by projecting her career spanning over 16 years as a teacher, made possible by the intervention of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Ms.

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

. She is India's first openly transgender college principal, and began work as such in 2015 at the

Krishnagar Women's College Krishnagar Women's College, established in 1958, is a women's college in Krishnagar, in Nadia district, West Bengal, India. It offers undergraduate courses in arts and sciences. It is affiliated to University of Kalyani. Manabi Bandopadhyay, ...

in Nadia district. Manabi is a devotee of Sarada Devi and she was introduced to spiritual life by

Swami Atmasthananda Swami Atmasthananda (21 May 1919 – 18 June 2017) was an Indian Hindu monk, who was the fifteenth president of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. Early life He was born on the auspicious Buddha's Birthday, Buddha Purnima Tith ...

. She wrote several books in the

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

literature. Her

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi speaks of her journey from her childhood to her becoming India's first Third Gender Principal and it was co-authored by Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey. She runs India's first transgender Magazine, Abomanob which is now an annual magazine which runs for more than 20 years. In 2019 Bandyopadhyay played a role in her debut film '' Purba Paschim Dakshin'' directed by Rajorshi Dey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bandyopadhyay, Manabi Living people Transgender women Indian transgender people Year of birth missing (living people) Bigg Boss Bangla contestants Transgender academics