Jasodhara Bagchi

Jasodhara Bagchi (born 1937 in Kolkata – 9 January 2015) was a leading Indian feminist critic and activist.

She was born in 1937 in Kolkata and educated at Presidency College, Kolkata which was then affiliated with the University of Calcutta, Somerville College, Oxford, and New Hall, Cambridge. The larger part of her working life was spent at Jadavpur University, where she was a professor of English. She is married to the economist, Amiya Kumar Bagchi.

In 1988 she became the Founder-Director of the School of Women's Studies at Jadavpur University, in which capacity she led the activities of the centre until her retirement in 1997. She is also one of the founder members of the feminist organization Sachetana in Kolkata.

Her focus areas of research include women's studies, women's writings, 19th century English and Bengali literature, the reception of Positivism in Bengal, motherhood and the Partition of India.

She initiated and spearheaded the pioneering Bengali Women Writers Reprint Series edited by the School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University, which continues to bring out new editions of writers such as Jyotirmoyee Devi. She was also Chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Women until April 2008.

She was part of the five-member team of emeritus professors that met West Bengal Governor and University Chancellor Keshari Nath Tripathi and demanded that a more "able" Vice-Chancellor be appointed.

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