Anandi Gopal Joshi Biography

Anandi Gopal Joshi was the first Indian female doctor. She is remembered as the first woman from India to graduate in western medicine in USA. Originally named Yamuna, she grew up in Kalyan, present day’s Thane district in Maharashtra. As her family followed the tradition of child marriage, she was married at the age of nine to a widower Gopalrao Joshi who was about twenty years older than she was. Upon her marriage, she was renamed 'Anandi'. At the age of 14, Joshi became a mother of a boy who died just ten days after birth. Her child’s death due to the lack of medical care as well as her husband’s obsession with her education inspired her to become a physician. Joshi started her medical training in USA at the age of 19. She soon contracted tuberculosis but nevertheless graduated after completing a two-year degree program in 1886. In February 1887, she died from the disease before turning 22.