The Story of a Forgotten Orientalist of Bengal: Annette Susannah “Akroyd” Beveridge (1842-1929)

The contribution of Annette Akroyd to women’s educational reforms in Bengal is largely forgotten. She was born December 13, 1842, in Stourbridge, England to William and Saran Akroyd. Anette was a noted British Orientalist and a Victorian reformer. She was conservative and opposed to the Women’s Suffrage Movement (the right of women to vote in elections by law). To this end, she served as the secretary of the anti-women’s suffrage league in England. Educated in Bedford College, Annette was very well-prepared to teach with her pragmatic no-nonsense outlook.

Annette Akroyd with the students of Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya, 1875. 

From Henry Beveridge’s India Called Them: 1947

Annette traveled to Calcutta, India in 1872 upon invitation from Keshub Chandra Sen, a notable leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a Hindu reformist sect. Sen wanted Annette to promote non-sectarian education to Hindu women. Within a year, she founded the “Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya”, located near Beniapukur Lane, Kolkata. The school imparted secular education and etiquette to women along the Western lines. Some notable names associated with the school were Dwarkanath Ganguly, Ananda Mohan Bose, and Shibnath Shastri. However, Annette was largely disillusioned with the school’s progress and fell trap into the tensions between the Indians and the British Raj. Her school did not receive any major sponsorship except some meager aid from Hindu families. Moreover, it received opposition from some of Keshub Sen’s followers leading to the infamous cross-cultural conflict between Sen and Annette. Annette quit her school and moved on to accept her marriage offer. The school was closed but reopened in 1876 as “Bangla Mahila Vidyalaya (Bengal Women’s College)”, first women’s liberal arts college in India. This college propagated advanced education for women and was greatly patronized by a group of people from Brahmo Samaj. Within couple of years, the college merged with Bethune School (formerly Hindu Female School). This amalgamation further led to the development of Bethune College, in Kolkata. History presented Annette as culturally rigid, trying to force progressive education in India without much cultural awareness about India itself.

 

Annette got married to Henry Beveridge in 1875. Beveridge was a free thinker and a judge in the Indian Civil Service. They were a couple with similar tastes but arguably the second phase of Annette’s life was a deviation from her reformer role. She adopted a more scholarly temperament and prioritized her duties as a wife and a mother. The couple had two children – Annette Jeanie Beveridge (daughter) and William Beveridge (son), a renowned British Economist. Shortly after marriage, the couple got transferred to Rangpur (now in Bangladesh) where they revived their friendship with Dr. KD Ghose and his wife Swarnalata. Annette met Dr. KD Ghose in 1872 at 4, Theatre Road, Calcutta where she was staying as a guest to Manmohan Ghose, first practicing Barrister of Indian origin. She was a part of the “naming ceremony” of Dr. KD Ghose’s third son, Aurobindo. Coincidentally, Manmohan was also a bosom pal of Dr. KD Ghose. Dr. Ghose named his son Aurobindo “Akroyd” Ghose. In the later years, Aurobindo preferred to drop his middle name.

 

Annette is notably remembered for her monumental contributions to some of the famous translations. She translated “Babur Namah” in 1922, an autobiographical memoir of the first Mughal Emperor Babur. This was the first translation in English from Chaghatai Turkic (now extinct). She also translated Gulbadan Begum’s Humayun Namah, memoirs of Mughal Emperor Humayun, Babur’s son. These projects initially started as an informal exercise while Annette was learning Persian but soon became a significant body of work, widely read across the globe.

 

Annette died peacefully in her late 80’s at her son’s residence in London.