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{{short description|Indian Catholic nun}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Karuna Mary Braganza
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_date = 1924
| birth_place = [[Mapusa]], [[Goa]], India
| death_date =
| death_place =
| restingplace =
| restingplacecoordinates =
| othername = [[Karuṇā|Karuna]], "compassion"
| occupation = Educationist<br>Social worker
| yearsactive = Since 1950
| known for = Developmental education<br>[[Sophia College, Mumbai]]
| spouse =
| domesticpartner =
| children =
| parents =
| website =
| awards = [[Padma Shri]]
}}
'''Mary Braganza''' (born 1924), popularly known as '''Karuna Mary''', is an Indian Catholic [[nun]], educator, social worker, writer, developmental education promoter, and former principal of [[Sophia College, Mumbai]].<ref name="Sr Karuna Mary Braganza on Archives.org">{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/SrKarunaMaryBraganza | title=Sr Karuna Mary Braganza on Archives.org | publisher=Archives.org | date=2016 | access-date=31 January 2016}}</ref> A member of the [[Society of the Sacred Heart]] (RSCJ),<ref name="RSCJ">{{cite web | url=http://vd.pcn.net/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1516:rscj-75-years-of-rich-history-now-looks-to-the-future&catid=44:news-2014&Itemid=49 | title=RSCJ | publisher=Vidimus Dominum | date=21 May 2014 | access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> Sr. Karuna Mary formerly led 204 colleges managed by the Order.<ref name="Mary has a little lamp">{{cite web | url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/pune-times/Mary-has-a-little-lamp/articleshow/1422569533.cms | title=Mary has a little lamp | publisher=Times of India | date=18 October 2001 | access-date=31 January 2016}}</ref> During her tenure at Sophia College, in 1970, the institution started [[Sophia Polytechnic]].<ref name="About Sophia Polytechnic">{{cite web | url=http://www.sophiapolytechnic.com/about.html#profile | title=About Sophia Polytechnic | publisher=Sophia Polytechnic | date=2016 | access-date=31 January 2016}}</ref> In 2008 the Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour, the [[Padma Shri]] for her social contributions.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web|url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2016 |access-date=3 January 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6U68ulwpb?url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 November 2014 }}</ref>

== Biography ==
Braganza, née Mary, was born in 1924 in [[Mapuca]] in the Indian state of [[Goa]], the fifth of what became 10 children in the family, but grew up in [[Bandra]], a suburb of [[Mumbai]].<ref name="A school, a flood and an 84-yr-old nun who is always on the move">{{cite web | url=http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA4LzA1LzA3I0FyMDAyMDA=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom | title=A school, a flood and an 84-yr-old nun who is always on the move | publisher=Times of India | date=7 May 2008 | access-date=31 January 2016}}</ref> She graduated from [[St. Xavier's College, Mumbai]], and secured her post-graduate degree from the same institution. Her social activities had already begun during her college days when she organized mission camps in [[Talasari]]. She joined the [[Society of the Sacred Heart]] as a nun in 1950, her [[ordination]] taking place in England. Returning to India, she was a teacher at [[Sophia High School]], [[Bengaluru]], and, after working there for a few years, joined [[Sophia College, Mumbai]], in the English department. She rose to become head of that department, vice principal, then principal of the college in 1965, the first Indian to hold the position.<ref name="A Nun Named Compassion">{{cite web|url=http://www.sparrowonline.org/downloads/SNL_14.pdf|title=A Nun Named Compassion|date=April 2008|publisher=Sparrow Online|access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref>

During her tenure as the principal of the college, she initiated several educational and social projects. She founded ''Bhabha Institute of Science'', a division of the college for science education up to graduate level and started new departments for sociology, psychology, and biochemistry.<ref name="Mary has a little lamp" /> In 1970, the college started a vocational education centre under the name [[Sophia Polytechnic]] and five years late began a junior college.<ref name="Milestones">{{cite web | url=http://www.sophiacollegemumbai.com/about-info.html | title=Milestones | publisher=Sophia College | date=2016 | access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> Another of her major contributions was the establishment of ''S.P.J. Sadhana School for the Developmentally Challenged'', on the college campus, where [[differently abled]] children were given vocational training and provided with opportunities for rehabilitation.<ref name="S.P.J. Sadhana School for the Developmentally Challenged ">{{cite web | url=http://www.karmayog.com/lists/mentalschoolmum.htm | title=S.P.J. Sadhana School for the Developmentally Challenged | publisher=Karmayog | date=2016 | access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> She is also known to have encouraged students to take up social activities; student involvement with [[Warli|Warli tribals]] and at [[Kosbad]] were two such programmes.<ref name="A Nun Named Compassion" />

After retiring from Sophia College, Braganza moved to Delhi and took up the post of Secretary of the ''All India Association for Christian Higher Education'', holding the responsibility of 204 colleges under its jurisdiction.<ref name="A Nun Named Compassion" /> She served the Association for six years till her move to [[Torpa, India|Torpa]], a tribal area in present-day [[Jharkhand]] state, in 1998, as a teacher of English language at St. Joseph's College. Learning the local dialect of [[Mundari language|Mundari]], she worked among the tribal people and founded the Centre for Women's Development (CWD) and a women's [[Self-help group (finance)|self-help group]] in 1990. The movement, later, grew to host 5000 members. Her efforts have been reported behind the establishment of an English medium school, creche, children's play school, and a girls' hostel. She was also instrumental in the documentation of indigenous herbs of the area.<ref name="A Nun Named Compassion" /> During this period, she had to face resistance from some of the dissenting locals who alleged [[Conversion to Christianity|conversion]], and she survived an attack by local thugs.<ref name="Mary has a little lamp" />

In 2000, Braganza went back to Mumbai where she revived the Alumni Association of Sophia College and became involved with their activities as the director of the association for five years. She was also involved in rural programmes of ''Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault'' (SCESA) such as [[rainwater harvesting]] in [[Mangaon]] in the [[Raigad district]] of [[Maharashtra]].<ref name="A school, a flood and an 84-yr-old nun who is always on the move" /> In 2005, when Zainab Tobaccowala Secular High School, a local school, was devastated by the floods, she took up the cause and generated funds for the reconstruction and assisted in the re-establishment of the school by helping to hire competent teachers.<ref name="A school, a flood and an 84-yr-old nun who is always on the move" /><ref name="Zainab Tobaccowala School">{{cite web | url=http://www.edelgive.org/education_ngos.php?id=40 | title=Zainab Tobaccowala School | publisher=EdleGive Foundation | date=2016 | access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> Her involvement is also reported in the establishment of ''Sophia Center for Women's Studies'', division for vocational studies, at Sophia College,<ref name="Mary has a little lamp" /> and in the relocation and rebuilding of [[St. Mary's Convent Matara|St Mary's Convent School]], [[Matara, Sri Lanka|Matara]], a [[Tsunami in Indian ocean|Tsunami]]-affected school in Sri Lanka.<ref name="St Mary’s Convent School Improvement Matara Sri Lanka">{{cite web | url=http://www.sosmalta.org/news-details?id=22 | title=St Mary's Convent School Improvement Matara Sri Lanka | publisher=SOS Malta | date=5 May 2005 | access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> A periodic writer on developmental education,<ref name="Cultural forces shaping India">{{cite book | url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/555020 | title=Cultural forces shaping India | publisher=Macmillan India | author=Braganza, Karuna Mary | year=1989 | pages=224 | isbn=0333909720}}</ref> she has served as the editor of the newsletter published by the ''Indian Association for Women's Studies'' (IAWS),<ref name="Newsletter">{{cite web | url=http://iaws.org/publications/newsletter/ | title=Newsletter | publisher=Indian Association for Women's Studies | date=2016 | access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> where she regularly contributed editorial articles.<ref name="Editorial">{{cite web | url=http://iaws.org/wp-content/themes/pdf/newsletters/NLA002-1986.pdf | title=Editorial | publisher=Indian Association for Women's Studies | work=Newsletter No. 2 | date=May 1986 | access-date=31 January 2016 | author=Karuna Mary Braganza}}</ref>

The Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of the [[Padma Shri]] in 2008. Braganza, a life member of the ''Centre for Women's Development Studies'' (CWDS),<ref name="Life Member CWDS">{{cite web | url=http://www.cwds.ac.in/LifeMembers.pdf | title=Life Member CWDS | publisher=Centre for Women's Development Studies | date=2016 | access-date=1 February 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304194254/http://www.cwds.ac.in/LifeMembers.pdf | archive-date=4 March 2016 | url-status=dead }}</ref> retired in 2006 and lives in [[Pune]].<ref name="A Nun Named Compassion" /> Her life has been documented in a 396-page book, ''The Charism of Karuna - Life Story of Sister Karuna Mary Braganza'', published in 2011.<ref name="The Charism of Karuna - Life Story of Sister Karuna Mary Braganza">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ysr9g_bis94C | title=The Charism of Karuna - Life Story of Sister Karuna Mary Braganza | publisher=Alfreruby Publishers | author=Nuns | year=2011 | pages=396 | isbn=9788186236109}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[St. Xavier's College, Mumbai]]
* [[Sophia College, Mumbai]]
* [[Society of the Sacred Heart]]
{{portal|India|Education}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite web | url=http://www.indiaart.com/art-events/Live-Painting-&-Sculpting-with-Women-Artists/Live-Painting-&-Sculpting-with-Women-Artists.asp | title=Live Painting and Sculpting by Women Artists | publisher=India Art | date=March 2008 | access-date=1 February 2016}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book | title=The Charism of Karuna - Life Story of Sister Karuna Mary Braganza | publisher=Alfreruby Publishers | author=Nuns | year=2011 | pages=396 | isbn=9788186236109}}
* {{cite book | title=Cultural forces shaping India | publisher=Macmillan India | author=Braganza, Karuna Mary | year=1989 | pages=224 | isbn=0333909720}}
* {{cite web | url=http://iaws.org/wp-content/themes/pdf/newsletters/NLA002-1986.pdf | title=Editorial | publisher=Indian Association for Women's Studies | work=Newsletter No. 2 | date=May 1986 | access-date=31 January 2016 | author=Karuna Mary Braganza}}
{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Social Work}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braganza, Karuna Mary}}
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in social work]]
[[Category:Indian nuns]]
[[Category:Indian women educational theorists]]
[[Category:Social workers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian educational theorists]]
[[Category:St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Mapusa]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women scientists]]
[[Category:Women educators from Goa]]
[[Category:Educators from Goa]]
[[Category:Social workers from Goa]]
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:20th-century women educators]]

Karuna Mary Braganza - Revision history

>Citation bot at 01:43, 2 December 2021