The Scholar Who Gathered the Forgotten Girls

In 1889, Pandita Ramabai opened the doors of Sharada Sadan in Bombay — a shelter for child widows whom Indian society had discarded. These were girls as young as eight, shaved and stripped of their jewelry, condemned to lives of silence and servitude after their husbands died. Most reformers of the era thundered from podiums and published fiery manifestos. Ramabai, a Sanskrit scholar fluent in seven languages, chose a different way.…