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{{Short description|Indian academic and feminist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Jasodhara Bagchi
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| image = JasodharaBagchiPic.jpg
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| birth_date = {{circa|1937}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age | df=yes |2015|01|09|1937}}
| death_place = [[Kolkata]], [[India]]
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| nationality = [[India]]n
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| alma_mater = [[Presidency College, Kolkata]]<br />[[Somerville College, Oxford]]<br />[[New Hall, Cambridge]]
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'''Jasodhara Bagchi''' (born {{circa|1937}} – 9 January 2015) was a leading [[India]]n [[feminist]] professor, author, critic and activist.<ref name="Hindu obit">{{Citation
|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/jasodhara-bagchi-is-no-more/article6772882.ece
|title=Jasodhara Bagchi is no more |last=Staff Reporter
|work=[[The Hindu]]
|date = 10 January 2015
}}</ref> She was the founder and director of the School of Women's Studies at [[Jadavpur University]].<ref name="Hindu obit"/> Her books include ''Loved and Unloved – The Girl Child'' and ''Trauma and Triumph – Gender and Partition in Eastern India''.<ref name="TNN 2015" /> She also founded the women's rights organization Sachetana.<ref name="TNN 2015" />

== Early life and education ==

Bagchi was born in 1937 in [[Kolkata]].<ref name="TNN 2015">{{cite news |last1=TNN |title=Jashodhara Bagchi passes away |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Jashodhara-Bagchi-passes-away/articleshow/45828419.cms |access-date=12 July 2021 |work=Times of India |date=January 10, 2015}}</ref> She was educated at [[Presidency College, Kolkata]] (then affiliated with the [[University of Calcutta]]), [[Somerville College, Oxford]], and [[New Hall, Cambridge]].<ref name="Hindu obit"/>

==Career==

Bagchi began teaching English at [[Jadavpur University]] in 1964 after teaching English at Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta.<ref name="Hindu obit"/> She became the founder-Director of the School of Women's Studies<ref>{{cite web |title=School of Women's Studies, Jadaypur University |url=http://www.swsju.org/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405182908/http://www.swsju.org/ |archive-date=April 5, 2005}}</ref> at [[Jadavpur University]]<ref name="Hindu obit"/> in 1988. After her 1997 retirement, she taught as an Emeritus Professor at the School of Women's Studies.<ref name="Hindu obit"/>

Bagchi served as Professor in English department from 1983, was Head of the Department from 1986 to 1988, and coordinated, in some crucial early years, the UGC Special Assistance Programme, which later became the Centre for Advanced Studies in English. Her focus areas of research include women's studies, women's writings, 19th century English and [[Bengali language|Bengali]] literature, the reception of [[Positivism]] in Bengal, motherhood and the [[Partition of India]].<ref name="TNN 2015" /> Along with co-editor Subhoranjan Dasgupta, she was one of the first scholars to research and collect the experiences of Bengali women during and after the Partition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Roy |first1=Rituparna |title=Partition in Bengal. Looking back after 70 Years |url=https://www.iias.asia/the-newsletter/article/partition-bengal-looking-back-after-70-years |website=International Institute for Asian Studies |access-date=12 July 2021 |date=2018}}</ref>

She began the Bengali Women Writers Reprint Series, which is edited by the School of [[Women's Studies]], [[Jadavpur University]].<ref name="TNN 2015" />

Professors Sajni Mukherji and [[Supriya Chaudhuri]], her friends and colleagues at this department, edited for her a distinguished [[Festschrift]] in 2002: ''Literature and Gender: Essays for Jasodhara Bagchi''. Contributors to this included Bagchi's cherished teachers, friends, former students, and colleagues, such as Peter Dronke, Kitty Scoular Datta, Himani Bannerji, Malini Bhattacharya, Sheila Lahiri Choudhury, Supriya Chaudhuri, [[Tanika Sarkar]], Bhaswati Chakravorty, and Aditi Dasgupta.

Prof. Bagchi remained a regular and active participant in seminars and lectures at the department of English till her death, and was also a member of its Board of Studies for some years after retirement. In a short span of time, she came to be recognised for her immense dedication to her work and to her students. Promoting a culture of research is considered as her most significant contribution to the Department of English at Jadavpur University.<ref name="Literature and Gender">{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SG67on-M658C&q=jasodhara+bagchi |title = Literature and Gender: Essays for Jasodhara Bagchi|isbn = 9788125022275|last1 = Chaudhuri|first1 = Supriya|last2 = Mukherji|first2 = Sajni|year = 2002| publisher=Orient Blackswan }}</ref>

In 2014, the organisers of the Kolkata Book Fair called off the release of her book, ''Parijayee Nari O Manabadhikar'' (Migrating Women and Human Rights), due to its "controversial" nature, according to her daughter Tista Bagchi.<ref name="Hindu obit" />

After her retirement, she attended several conferences in India and remained in close contact with the English Department at Jadavpur University.<ref name="Literature and Gender" />

==Activism==
She is one of the founding members of the feminist organization Sachetana<ref name="TNN 2015" /> in [[Kolkata]]. She was also Chairperson of the [http://www.wbcw.org West Bengal Commission for Women]<ref name="Hindu obit"/> from October 2001 until April 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wbcw.co.in/history/|title=West Bengal Commission of Women | » History}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Das |first1=Manjulika |title=Women's groups in India call on men to take more active role in contraception |journal=BMJ |date=2004 |volume=329 |issue=7464 |pages=476.9 |doi=10.1136/bmj.329.7464.476-h |pmid=15331463 |pmc=515233 |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/329/7464/476.9.full |access-date=12 July 2021}}</ref>

Bagchi lent her support to the Hok Kolorob movement [[2014 Jadavpur University protests]] ("let there be polyphony" in Bengali) which sought a fair and immediate investigation into the molestation of a female student in the Jadavpur University campus. She also spoke on behalf of the West Bengal Commission of Women in calling for an inquiry into molestation and rapes of females in Dhantala.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dhantala incident: six women molested and raped, says WBWC |url=https://zeenews.india.com/home/dhantala-incident-six-women-molested-and-raped-says-wbwc_82901.html |access-date=12 July 2021 |work=ZeeNews}}</ref>

She was part of a group of five of emeritus professors that met [[West Bengal]] Governor and University Chancellor [[Keshari Nath Tripathi]] to protest the current Vice-Chancellor.<ref name="Hindu obit" />

==Death and legacy==

Bagchi died on the morning of 9 January 2015, aged 77.<ref name="TNN 2015" />

Punarnaba, a voluntary organization that Bagchi was closely associated with, has organized every year since 2015 a Jasodhara Bagchi Memorial Programme, including a lecture in memory of Bagchi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/pg/Punarnaba-Kolkata-A-Social-Organisation-288718751199357/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1207505909320632|title=Log In or Sign Up to View|website=www.facebook.com}}</ref> The Jasodhara Bagchi Memorial Hardship Fund was set up in 2019 with the support of the family of Bagchi at the Department of English, Jadavpur University, to help cases of individual hardship among the students of the Department.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/132142227838?view=permalink&id=10156510539292839|title=Abhijit Gupta|website=www.facebook.com|access-date=2019-02-03}}</ref>

==Personal life==
She was married to the economist, [[Amiya Kumar Bagchi]].<ref name="TNN 2015" />

== Books (authored, edited, and co-edited) ==
* ''Literature, Society, and Ideology in the [[Victorian Era]]'' (edited volume), (1992)
* ''Indian Women: Myth and Reality'' (edited volume), (1995)
* ''Loved and Unloved: The Girl Child in the Family'' (with Jaba Guha and Piyali Sengupta)(1997)
* ''Gem-like Flame: [[Walter Pater]] and the 19th Century Paradigm of Modernity'' (1997)
* ''Thinking Social Science in India: Essays in Honour of Alice Thorner'' (co-edited with Krishna Raj and [[Sujata Patel]])(2002)
* ''The Trauma and the Triumph: [[Gender]] and Partition in Eastern India,'' 2 volumes (co-edited with Subhoranjan Dasgupta) (vol. 1 in 2003, vol. 2 in 2009)<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chatterjee |first1=Bhaskar |title=MEMORIES OF A TRAGEDY |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/memories-of-a-tragedy/cid/1026084 |access-date=12 July 2021 |work=[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]] |date=January 9, 2006}}</ref>
* ''The Changing Status of Women in [[West Bengal]] 1970–2000: The Challenges Ahead'' (edited volume), (2005)<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sen |first1=Benita |title=Towards an egalitarian world |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/towards-an-egalitarian-world/story-ovDAvyJn9kN7ZfdwMDf9AK.html |access-date=12 July 2021 |work=Hindustan Times |agency=PTI |date=May 24, 2005}}</ref>
* ''Interrogating Motherhood'' (2016)<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bhattacharya |first1=Mihir |title=Rethinking motherhood |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/books/rethinking-motherhood/article9921506.ece |access-date=12 July 2021 |work=[[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]] |date=November 10, 2017}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.india-seminar.com/2002/510/510%20jasodhara%20bagchi.htm Freedom in an Idiom of Loss]
* [http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit03062000/reflections.asp "Partition Through A Woman's Eye", article about Bagchi's academic work on gender and partition in eastern India.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070607213140/http://www.adb.org/Documents/Periodicals/ADB_Review/2005/vol37-2/gender-justice.asp "Gender Justice", Bagchi on gender perspectives in law reform, ''ADB Review'', 2005]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101213030218/http://boloji.com/wfs4/wfs433.htm "The Woman Shaped by Mother", Article on Bagchi's co-edited volume on Indian women's personal narratives]
* [http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit09192005/gendervoices.asp "The Devi Cult and the Girl Child". Article on the girl child drawing on Bagchi's co-edited volume on the girl child in Bengal]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagchi, Jasodhara}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:2015 deaths]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:20th-century Bengali people]]
[[Category:Bengali writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:Feminist studies scholars]]
[[Category:Indian feminist writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Women writers from West Bengal]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Jadavpur University]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Indian academics]]
[[Category:Indian women academics]]
[[Category:Indian women human rights activists]]
[[Category:Indian feminists]]
[[Category:Indian women's rights activists]]
[[Category:Indian women editors]]
[[Category:Indian women scholars]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women educational theorists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian educational theorists]]
[[Category:Indian critics]]
[[Category:Indian women critics]]
[[Category:Indian lecturers]]

Jasodhara Bagchi - Revision history

जाट at 22:23, 24 February 2026