Early Feminists of Colonial India: Sarala Devi Chaudhurani and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

Bharati Ray taught History at Calcutta University and was Pro-Vice-Chancellor there from 1988 to 1995. She was Founder-Director of the Women's Studies Research Centre at the university and is currently Honorary Professor and Member, Peace Research Group, Department of History, Calcutta University, and Editorial Fellow of PHISPC. She is a bilingual author and has numerous books, both authored and edited, to her credit. Some of her Pramountcy (1988); Detecting Disadvantages: A Pilot Study of Scheduled Caste Women in Two Districts of West Bengal (1994_; Early Feminists in Colonial Bengal: Sarala Devi Chaudhurani and Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hassain (2002); Women's Struggle: A History of the All Indian Women's Conference 1927-1990, jointly authored with Aparna Basu (1990-2002); From the Seams of History: Essays on Women in Colonial India, ed.(1995); From Independence toward Freedom: Indian Women Since 1947. co-ed. (1999); Women and Politics: France, India and Russia, ed. (2000) and Politics and Identity in South Asia, jointly edited with David Taylor (2002). She has also compiled and edited two volumes of articles published in the earliest women's journal in Bengal,Bamabodhini Patrika, 1863-1922. She was a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), 1996-2002, and a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Empowerment of Women. Married with three children, Bharati Ray is fond of reading, writing, listening to music, watching plays, cooking and travelling. She loves the company of children and is currently President of the Children's Little Theatre, Kolkata.