Chapter 27 · 7 min read · 9 min listen
Appendix B: Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Reflection Guide
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.”
— James 1:22, ASV
This guide is for personal reflection, small groups, or a reading course of about twenty-four weeks. Its purpose is not to make Pandita Ramabai an object of admiration, but to let her life hold up a mirror in which readers can examine their own discipleship under Scripture. Groups may find it helpful to begin each session with the chapter’s opening verse and to end with prayer. Several chapters raise hard questions about women, caste, conversion, colonial rule, and the relationship between Christianity and other faiths. They are meant to be discussed honestly, not settled quickly.
Introduction - The Pandita and Her Biographers
Central idea
Ramabai is remembered as a reformer, a saint, and a missionary; her own words are the surest guide to which she was.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Why do different groups remember the same person so differently? 2. What is the difference between finding a religion and finding Christ?
Chapter 1 - The Forest School
Central idea
A father who defied his caste to teach his wife and daughters shaped everything Ramabai became.
Scriptures to revisit
Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Proverbs 22:6.
Reflection
1. What did your parents teach you that has lasted? 2. Who in your community is being kept from learning?
Chapter 2 - Pilgrims
Central idea
A child who saw no golden city learned to prefer the truth to the approval of the crowd.
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 115:4-8; Jeremiah 10:14.
Reflection
1. Have you ever pretended to see something you did not see? 2. How should Christians speak honestly but respectfully about other religions?
Chapter 3 - The Famine
Central idea
Her father gave her into the hands of the only God he knew, and she came to believe that God had heard him.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What does it mean that God may answer prayers offered in ignorance? 2. What did pride of caste cost her family?
Chapter 4 - Four Thousand Miles
Central idea
Suffering does not of itself make people kind; Ramabai believed only grace can give a heart of flesh.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Has suffering made you harder or softer? 2. What changed Ramabai’s heart?
Chapter 5 - Pandita
Central idea
Honoured for her learning, she found that the sacred books held no hope for her as a woman.
Scriptures to revisit
Job 28:12-13, 28.
Reflection
1. Where do people look for wisdom today? 2. What did Keshab Chandra Sen’s smile give her?
Chapter 6 - Nineteen Months
Central idea
Widowed at twenty-three, she found that grief drew her nearer to a God she did not yet know.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What did widowhood mean in Ramabai’s world? 2. How has God drawn you?
Chapter 7 - “Open Thy Mouth for the Dumb”
Central idea
She spoke publicly for India’s women when almost no woman had a public voice.
Scriptures to revisit
Proverbs 31:8-9; Psalm 10:17-18.
Reflection
1. Who in your society has no voice? 2. What did it cost Ramabai to speak?
Chapter 8 - As Abraham
Central idea
Christians caring for outcast women, and the story of the woman at the well, drew her to Christ.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Why did the rescue homes at Fulham move her so deeply? 2. What did Father Goreh’s book add?
Chapter 9 - The Religion Without Christ
Central idea
She refused to let others govern her conscience, and went to the Bible itself.
Scriptures to revisit
1 Thessalonians 5:21; Acts 17:11.
Reflection
1. Was Ramabai right to resist the Wantage sisters? 2. What is the difference between independence and pride?
Chapter 10 - The High-Caste Hindu Woman
Central idea
In America she pleaded for India’s widows, believing that the despised could redeem their nation.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What did she mean by “out of Nazareth”? 2. Why did she criticise British rule even while seeking Western help?
Chapter 11 - Sharada Sadan
Central idea
She opened a home of learning for widows, and left the door of her room open.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Was the promise of neutrality wise? 2. What would you have done about the open door?
Chapter 12 - The Storm of 1893
Central idea
Honest people on both sides clashed over her school, and she learned not to fear men.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Were the reformers wrong to resign? 2. When is it right to keep a promise, and when to break it?
Chapter 13 - “I Had Not Found Christ”
Central idea
She surrendered to Christ and found salvation freely given to a woman.
Scriptures to revisit
Matthew 4:16; Romans 5:8; Galatians 3:28.
Reflection
1. Have you found the religion, or Christ? 2. Why was the gospel good news “for me, a woman”?
Chapter 14 - Remember the Days of Old
Central idea
Remembering her own famine, she went into the famine districts to rescue girls.
Scriptures to revisit
Deuteronomy 32:7; Esther 4:14; Romans 5:8.
Reflection
1. What do you need to remember about where God found you? 2. What does the story of Girija teach about mercy?
Chapter 15 - “My Great Sin”
Central idea
She exposed injustice in the poorhouses and the army, and was punished for saving starving girls.
Scriptures to revisit
Proverbs 24:11-12; Deuteronomy 10:18.
Reflection
1. Was her anger righteous? 2. Where do we say “we knew not this” today?
Chapter 16 - Prove Me Now
Central idea
She began a work of faith herself instead of wishing others would, and proved God faithful.
Scriptures to revisit
Malachi 3:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:24.
Reflection
1. What are you wishing someone else would do? 2. What are the gifts and the costs of a faith mission?
Chapter 17 - The Sweeper
Central idea
She swept up the people India had thrown away, and gave them work and a home.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What did it mean for a Brahman to call herself a sweeper? 2. How should Christians answer the charge of making “Christian outcasts”?
Chapter 18 - “Ramabai Is Dead”
Central idea
She told her American supporters plainly that her work had changed, and gave them back what was theirs.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Was Ramabai fair to her supporters? 2. What did she mean by “Ramabai is dead”?
Chapter 19 - Fire
Central idea
A prayer circle that began by praying for itself saw revival spread across India.
Scriptures to revisit
Acts 2:17-18; 1 Corinthians 13:1.
Reflection
1. Why did they pray “including ourselves”? 2. How did Ramabai keep spiritual gifts in their place?
Chapter 20 - A Famine of the Word
Central idea
She translated the Bible into the plain speech of village women and gave it away.
Scriptures to revisit
Amos 8:11; Psalm 119:130; Zechariah 4:6.
Reflection
1. Why does plain language matter in Scripture? 2. Did she go too far in rejecting her Hindu heritage?
Chapter 21 - Manorama
Central idea
Her daughter gave her life to her mother’s work, and died before her.
Scriptures to revisit
Job 1:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13.
Reflection
1. What might Manorama’s life have cost her? 2. How do Christians grieve with hope?
Chapter 22 - Having Nothing
Central idea
She died owning almost nothing, and left behind a community, a Bible, and thousands of lives restored.
Scriptures to revisit
2 Corinthians 6:10; 2 Timothy 4:7.
Reflection
1. What does it mean to be “poor, yet making many rich”? 2. What did the old Brahman widow’s cry reveal?
Chapter 23 - No Caste, No Sex
Central idea
Her feminism and her faith were one, rooted in the freedom of the gospel.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Which of the three Ramabais do you find most compelling, and why? 2. Whom might God be calling you to set in a family?
Chapter 27 complete
Appendix B: Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Reflection Guide