Rajkumari Banerji or Rajkumari Devi (1847 — March 8, 1876) was an Indian social worker and

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 ...

philanthropist. She was said to be the first Indian woman to visit

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1871.

Family

In 1860, Banerji married

Sasipada Banerji Shasipada Banerjee (02 February, 1840– 15 December, 1924) was a social worker and leader of the Brahmo Samaj who is remembered as a champion of women's rights and education and as one of the earliest workers for labour welfare in India. He was ...

, a social worker when she was a thirteen-year-old girl. Sasipada taught her to read and write within a year. Her son,

Albion Rajkumar Banerji Sir Albion Rajkumar Banerjee (10 October 1871 – 25 February 1950) was an Indian civil servant and administrator who served as the Diwan of Cochin from 1907 to 1914, 21st Diwan of Mysore from 1922 to 1926, and as Prime Minister of Kashmir fr ...

, went on to become a member of the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

and served as Diwan of

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

Works

Banerji made numerous contributions to women's education of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Initially she was enlightened in modern culture by her husband. She completed her basic education after marriage with the help of her husband and thereafter taught children of her family. She was deeply involved with the social reforms and women's education movement after joining in

Brahmo Samaj Brahmo Samaj ( bn, ব্রহ্ম সমাজ, Brahmô Sômaj, ) is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement of the Hindu religion that appeared during the Bengal Renaissance. It was one of t ...

Mary Carpenter Mary Carpenter (3 April 1807 – 14 June 1877) was an English educational and social reformer. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, she founded a ragged school and reformatories, bringing previously unavailable educational opportunitie ...

came to their house in

Baranagar ("City of hogs") , settlement_type = City , image_seal = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , pushpin_map = India West Bengal#India3#Asia , pushpin_label_ ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

and Banerji joined her in working for the development of women's education. In 1871, she went to England with Mary Carpenter and returned to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

after eight months. The ''Asiatic'' of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

declared in 1872 that she was "the first

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

lady who has ever visited England". All her life she was active in promoting the spread of education, visiting many schools, and encouraging funding for the improvement of female education . Banerji and her husband made a shelter for homeless and poor women in their own house.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerji, Rajkumari 1847 births 1876 deaths 19th-century Bengalis Social workers Indian reformers Brahmos Indian social reformers 19th-century Indian women 19th-century Indian people Social workers from West Bengal Women educators from West Bengal 19th-century Indian educators Educators from West Bengal People from Baranagar