{{Short description|Indian social worker and writer (1882-1970)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}} {{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}} {{Infobox person |name = Sharda Mehta |image = Sharda Sumant Mehta.jpg |image_size = |caption = Sharda Mehta |birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1882|6|26}} |birth_place = Ahmedabad, British India |death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1970|11|13|1882|6|26}} |death_place = Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India |other_names = |spouse = {{marriage |Sumant Mehta |1898|1968|end=d.}} |children = Premlila Mehta, Sarla Mehta, Ramesh Sumant Mehta, Asoka Mehta, Indira Bhatt, Siddharth Mehta |occupation =Social reformer, educationist and writer |awards = |relatives = Vidyagauri Nilkanth (sister) |education = Bachelor of Arts |alma_mater=Gujarat College |father = Gopilal Manilal Dhruva | mother = Balaben }} '''Sharda Mehta''' (26 June 1882 – 13 November 1970) was an Indian social worker, proponent of women's education, and a Gujarati writer. She was among the first two women to graduate in what is now the modern state of Gujarat, India. <ref name=":1" /> She established institutes for women's education and women's welfare. She wrote several essays and an autobiography as well as translated some works.
==Early life and education== [[File:Gandhi and Tagore 1920.jpg|thumb|Sharda Mehta (right) with Mahatma Gandhi (left) and Rabindranath Tagore (centre) at Mahila Vidyalaya, Ahmedabad, 1920]]
Sharda was born to a family of social reformers, on 26 June 1882 in Ahmedabad.<ref name=":GVK">{{Cite book|title=ગુજરાતી વિશ્વકોશ|last=Rajgor|first=Shivprasad|publisher=Gujarat Vishvakosh Trust|editor-last=Thaker|editor-first=Dhirubhai|editor-link=Dhirubhai Thaker|edition=1st|volume=XV|location=Ahmedabad|date=January 2002|pages=535–536|language=gu|trans-title=Gujarati Encyclopedia|oclc=248968453}}</ref> She was the daughter of a judicial officer, Gopilal Manilal Dhruva, and Balaben; a Nagar Brahmin family.<ref name=":GVK" /><ref name="Forbes20052">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ClNEJwXLNQIC&pg=PA173|title=Women in Colonial India: Essays on Politics, Medicine, and Historiography|author=Geraldine Hancock Forbes|publisher=Orient Blackswan|year=2005|isbn=978-81-8028-017-7|pages=124–142, 173}}</ref><ref name="DeviPruthi1998">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t11uAAAAMAAJ|title=Women and the Indian Freedom Struggle: Sarojini Naidu|author1=Rameshwari Devi|author2=Romila Pruthi|publisher=Pointer Publishers|year=1998|isbn=978-81-7132-164-3|page=249}}</ref> She was a maternal great-granddaughter of Bholanath Divetia, a social reformer and poet.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DeaVBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|journal=International Journal of Afro-Asian Studies|last=Sujata|first=Menon|publisher=Universal-Publishers|year=2013|isbn=978-1-61233-709-8|editor-last=Sarkar|editor-first=Siddhartha|volume=4|pages=17–18|issue=1|title=An Historical Analysis of the Economic Impact on the Political Empowerment of Women In British India|issn=0974-3537}}</ref><ref name=":GVK" />
She received her primary education at Raibahadur Maganbhai Girl's High School. She later joined Anglo-vernacular classes at the Mahalakshmi Teachers Training College and matriculated in 1897. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Logic and Moral Philosophy in 1901 from Gujarat College. She and her elder sister Vidyagauri Nilkanth were the first two women graduates in Gujarat.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":GVK" /><ref name=":20GW">{{Cite book|title=વીસમી સદીનું ગુજરાતી નારીલેખન|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|year=2005|isbn=8126020350|editor-last=Chaudhari|editor-first=Raghuveer|editor-link=Raghuveer Chaudhari|edition=1st|location=New Delhi|pages=349|language=gu|trans-title=20 Century Women's Writings in Gujarati|chapter=લેખિકા-પરિચય|trans-chapter=Introduction of Women Writers|oclc=70200087|editor-last2=Dalal|editor-first2=Anila|editor-link2=Anila Dalal}}</ref>
== Personal life == She married Sumant Mehta in 1898. He was a medical student then and four years senior to her.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":20GW" /> He later served as a personal doctor of Gaekwads of Baroda State and as a social worker.<ref name="PinkNoblit2017">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXLbDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA390|title=Second International Handbook of Urban Education|author1=William T. Pink|author2=George W. Noblit|date=6 January 2017|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-40317-5|pages=390–391}}</ref>
== Career ==
=== ''Social work'' === Mehta worked for social reforms and supported education, women's empowerment, opposition of caste restrictions, untouchability eradication, and Indian independence. She was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. From 1906, she promoted swadeshi (domestic) goods and khadi clothes. She organised a protest against indentured servitude (Girmitiya) in 1917.<ref name=":GVK" /> She helped Indulal Yagnik in editing ''Navjivan'' in 1919.<ref name=":GVK" /><ref name="Forbes20052" />
She participated in the Gujarat Kisan Parishad (Gujarat Farmer's Conference) held in Ahmedabad in 1928.<ref name=":GVK" /> She met the Governor of Bombay as a member of the deputation for a settlement of the Bardoli Satyagraha.<ref name=":GVK" /><ref name="Chatterjee1942">{{cite journal|last=Chatterjee|first=Ramananda|year=1942|title=The Modern Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mvwEAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Prabasi Press Private Limited|volume=72|page=118}}</ref> In 1929, she presented in front of the Royal Commission on Labour regarding labour conditions in textile mills in Ahmedabad. She picketed in front of the liquor shops during the civil disobedience movement in 1930.<ref name=":GVK" />{{efn-ua|During the disobedience movement, the protesters picketed liquor shops with the aim of opposing drinking habit as a social evil as well as decreasing the income of the British government earned as an excise duty on drinks.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vijailakshmi|first=Usha R.|title=Gandhi's Leadership and Civil Disobedience Movement in Mumbai, 1930: Events and Inferences|url=https://www.academia.edu/10401665|journal=Humanities and Social Sciences Review|format=CD-ROM|issn=2165-6258|volume=1|issue=2|pages=383–391|year=2012}}</ref>}} In 1931, she established a khadi store and worked at her husband's ashram near Shertha, Ahmedabad. In 1934, she established a co-operative store called {{transliteration|gu|Apna Ghar Ni Dukan}}.<ref name=":GVK" />
Mehta was associated with several educational and women's welfare institutes in Ahmedabad, Baroda, and Bombay during these years, as well as being a member of Baroda Praja Mandal (Baroda People's Association). She was a member of the Ahmedabad Municipality from 1931 to 1935. In 1934, she established the Jyoti Sangh for women's welfare.<ref name=":GVK" />
She was a proponent of women's education.<ref name=":1" /> She established the Vanita Vishram Mahila Vidyalaya in Ahmedabad.<ref name="Forbes20052" /> She also established a college affiliated with SNDT (Karve) Women's University.<ref name=":1" />
=== ''Literary career'' === Mehta had studied and was deeply influenced by Hindu texts, Sanskrit literature, and the works of Aurobindo, Sukhlal Sanghvi, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.<ref name=":GVK" />
She was an essayist, biographer, and translator.<ref name=":20GW" /><ref name="Datta1988">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29f0ugEACAAJ|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: K to Navalram|last=Jani|first=Balvant|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|year=1988|isbn=978-0-8364-2423-2|editor=Datta|editor-first=Amaresh|volume=VIII|location=New Delhi|pages=2658–2659}}</ref> She wrote essays on social issues in dailies and magazines.<ref name=":GVK" /> ''Puranoni Balbodhak Vartao'' (1906) is a collection of children's stories aimed at their development.<ref name=":GVK" /><ref name="Datta1988" /> She wrote ''Florence Nightingale Nu Jeevancharitra'' (1906), a biography of English social reformer Florence Nightingale.<ref name=":20GW" /><ref name="Datta1988" /> She also wrote ''Grihavyavasthashastra'' (1920). ''Balakonu Gruhshikshan'' (1922) is a work on child education.<ref name=":GVK" />
In 1938, she wrote her autobiography, about her public life and her efforts for women's education in ''Jeevansambharana'' (Reminiscences: The Memoirs of Shardaben Mehta).<ref name=":20GW" /><ref name="Datta1988" /><ref name="Srivastava2000">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AgHEF9QhJo8C&pg=PA157|title=Women's Higher Education in the 19th Century|author=Gouri Srivastava|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|year=2000|isbn=978-81-7022-823-3|page=157}}</ref> This work covers the period from 1882 to 1937 and includes the social, historical, and political situation and awakening of women.<ref name="Datta1988" /><ref name="Chavda1982">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jIluAAAAMAAJ|title=Modern Gujarat|last=Chavda|first=V. K.|publisher=New Order Book Company|year=1982|pages=52, 62}}</ref>
With her sister, Mehta translated Romesh Chunder Dutt's Bengali novel ''Sansar'' (''The Lake of Palms'', 1902) as ''Sudhahasini'' (1907)<ref name="Mukherjee2009">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AUwlf7LZgrUC&pg=PT275|title=An Indian for All Seasons: The Many Lives of R.C. Dutt|author=Meenakshi Mukherjee|publisher=Penguin Books India|year=2009|isbn=978-0-14-306789-4|pages=275–276}}</ref> and The Maharani of Baroda (Chimnabai II)'s ''Position of Women in Indian Life'' (1911) as ''Hindustanma Streeonu Samajik Sthan'' or ''Hindustanna Samajik Jeevanma Streenu Sthan'' (1915).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":20GW" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://gujaratisahityaparishad.com/prakashan/sarjako/savishesh/Savishesh-Vidyagauri-Nilkanth.html|title=વિદ્યાગૌરી નીલકંઠ|last=Bhatt|first=Pushpa|website=gujaratisahityaparishad.com|publisher=Gujarati Sahitya Parishad|language=gu|trans-title=Vidyagauri Nilkanth|access-date=2019-01-21}}</ref> She also translated Sathe Annabhau's novel as ''Varnane Kanthe''.<ref name="Datta1988" />
== Death == She died on 13 November 1970 at Vallabh Vidyanagar.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":GVK" />
== Bibliography == * {{Cite book|title=Reminiscences : The Memoirs of Sharadaben Mehta|last=Sharadaben|first=Mehta|publisher=Zubaan Publications|year=2007|isbn=9788189013653|location=New Delhi, India|translator-last=Mehta Bhatt|translator-first=Purnima|oclc=269250818}}
== See also == * List of Gujarati-language writers
==Notes and references== ===Notes=== {{notelist-ua}}
===References=== {{reflist|30em}} {{wikisourcelang|gu|સર્જક:શારદા મહેતા|Sharda Mehta}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehta, Sharda}} Category:1882 births Category:1970 deaths Category:Women writers from Gujarat Category:19th-century Indian writers Category:19th-century Indian women writers Category:Indian social reformers Category:20th-century Indian writers Category:20th-century Indian women writers Category:Writers from Ahmedabad Category:Indian women activists Category:20th-century Indian biographers Category:Indian women biographers Category:Indian women non-fiction writers Category:Indian translators Category:Indian social workers Category:Indian autobiographers Category:20th-century Indian essayists Category:Indian children's writers Category:Women's education in India Category:19th-century Indian translators Category:Indian independence activists from Gujarat Category:Gandhians Sharda Category:20th-century Indian translators Category:Writers from British India Category:20th-century Indian educators Category:20th-century Indian women educators