Pandita Ramabai A Defender of Widows and Children, Part 3

When Pandita Ramabai, a woman who grew up in an impoverished Brahmin family in India, gave her life to Christ, she began to practically work for the betterment of poor widows and orphaned children in her country. She published her most important book, The High-Caste Hindu Woman, which revealed some of the darkest aspects of the life of Hindu women. It exposed the practice of child brides, the challenges of child widows, and the oppression of women.

In 1889, Pandita founded the Mukti Mission for broken women and orphaned children. She created a safe haven to educate women and provide them with hope. At the risk of her own life, she went throughout India to rescue poor women who were being forced into servitude. At Mukti they fed, nurtured, and educated the women. Many went on to become influential women in India and around the world.

During a severe famine, just a few years after the mission opened, Ramabai traveled through villages with a caravan of bullock carts and rescued thousands of outcast children, child widows, orphans, and other impoverished women. She brought them to a shelter constructed at Mukti where they were fed and cared for. The mission is still active to this day and is now called the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission.

Pandita knew seven languages and, in the last decade of her life, worked to translate the Bible into her mother tongue—Marathi—from the original Hebrew and Greek. During the completion of her work, Pandita’s daughter died. Then Pandita lost her hearing, but she pressed on with her translation.

The women of Mukti helped to set type for the Marathi Bible, and Pandita would carefully go over the proofs. When she became seriously ill, she prayed that God would give her ten more days to finish her editorial work. After completing her work, ten days later, she went to bed and died in her sleep on April 5, 1922.

Because of her Christian faith, Pandita’s story was not widely known for years in India, but over time many came to value her valiant work for the oppressed women of their country. In 1989, the government of India issued a commemorative postage stamp to honor her.

Reflect: If you could bring more Bibles to any country in the world, which country would you pick? Did you know one of the signs of Christ’s soon return is taking the gospel to all the world?

Key Bible Texts

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15 KJV)