Asian Descent > India Archives - Page 5 of 6

Savita Halappanavar

Halappanavar’s preventable death was the catalyst for change in Irish abortion laws

Pandita Saraswati Ramabai

Advocate for the education of women and the abandonment of the custom of child marriages

Bhama Srinivasan

Bhama Srinivasan is an Indian-born mathematician who has worked in England and America and is known for her work in the representation theory of finite groups.

Indra Nooyi, a business leader and strategic thinker, is widely considered to be one of the top CEOs in the world for her leadership of the global behemoth PepsiCo for 12 years. She was the first woman of color and first immigrant to head a Fortune 50 company.

Padma Menon

In 1976 Menon moved to Madras to work with Vempati Chinna Satyam in the Kuchipudi style and became a member of his dance company, which was attached to the Kuchipudi Art Academy in Madras. Menon performed extensively with this company in India and also gave solo performances across the country.

Bano Qudsia

Pakistani novelist, playwright and spiritualist Bano Qudsia wrote novels, dramas plays and short stories in Urdu and wrote for television and stage inUrdu and Punjabi languages. She is best recognized for her novel Raja Gidh and her critically acclaimed play Aadhi Baat.

Adrian Piper

Piper’s distinctly confrontational ability to address pertinent topics around racial segregation and stereotyping have established her voice as one which is fearless, powerful, and hugely influential.

Radha Poonoosamy

Radha Poonoosamy was a Mauritian politician who served as the country’s first female cabinet minister and was a member of the executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC). She was also an activist, campaigning for women’s rights and against apartheid and anti-Indian discrimination in her home country of South Africa. She continued her activism after moving to Mauritius in 1952, and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1975. She was appointed the inaugural minister in charge of the newly formed Ministry of Women’s Affairs, a role in which she helped passed laws against gender discrimination.

Pritilata Waddedar

Pritilata Waddedar was a Bengali revolutionary nationalist who was influential in the Indian independence movement.She graduated from Bethune College in Kolkata with a degree in philosophy with distinction and became a teacher.
Pritilata joined a revolutionary group headed by Surya Sen and is known for leading 15 revolutionaries in the 1932 armed attack on the Pahartali European Club, during which one person was killed and 11 injured. The revolutionaries set the club on fire and were later caught by British police. To avoid arrest, Pritilata committed suicide by cyanide poisoning.

Begum Samru

Joanna Nobilis Sombre began her career as a Nautch (dancing) girl in 1700s India, and eventually became the ruler of Sardhana, a small principality near Meerut.