"Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer--into a selflessness which links us with all humanity…."- This extract from Nancy Astor`s My Two Countries (1923) asserts her belief in the magnanimous benefits of education. What Nancy Astor (1879-1964), the renowned crusader of women`s and children`s rights, and first woman member of the British House of Commons coveted, had much earlier been proved by the great Indian woman reformer, Mataji Maharani Tapaswini, in her welfare projects.

Mataji Maharani Tapaswini, initially called Ganga bai, was a Brahmin woman hailing from the Deccan region of British India. She was well versed in Sanskrit and sacred scriptures, related to the Hindu religion. Gangabai since the very beginning had this desire to distribute her wealth of education among the deprived sections of the prejudiced society. She took the initiative, by establishing her first school , consisting of thirty pupils. She arrived in Calcutta to propagate a pattern of female education compatible with the Hindu religious and ethical laws.

The Mahakali Pathshala (Pathshala means school) was a unique enterprise on the part of the innovative and welfare-spirited noble lady, Mataji Maharani Tapaswini. This school looked for no monetary aid from foreign organizations, unlike the Pandita Ramabai academic institutions. Even, Maharani Tapaswini showed no keenness for appointing foreign teachers for the purpose of instruction.

The members of the Foundation Committee of Mahakali Pathshala focused on the concept of school-education as a means to realize their goals of female education. However they were reluctant to the arrangement of a co-educational network and also prescribed different curriculum for male and female, since they believed that the needs of one differ from that of the other.

Pandita Ramabai used to resort to the help of Western learning, and conversion to Christianity, in order to introduce changes for the better. However, Gangabai adhered to the beneficial features of the national paradigm of ideology and practices. She believed that Hindu society had enough of innate potential to get its flaws corrected and to experience its revival.

Indeed, this educational method was precisely in harmony with the nationalists` agenda of a nation-wide regeneration, in all aspects of life. She gave expression to her ideas about the perfect mode of women`s education into a curriculum that she invented. The syllabus comprised of learning on the religious texts and history; a comprehension of the Indian myths and legends that elaborates about the roles of the daughter, wife, daughter-in-law, and mother; and domestic skills related to cooking and stitching. There was a popular false notion that cooking and kitchen were not the cup of tea for learned girls. But Gangabai demonstrated the eternal truth that household services are as important as educational qualifications. A balanced knowledge of both the spheres only makes any human being perfect.

This agreeable and indigenous structure of the syllabus was much extolled by Hindu traditionalists. Whereas, Hindu conservatism alleged that few of the educational campaigns of other groups had "demoralized and denationalized" young Hindu women, Gangabai had never tried anything of that unconventional sort. Funds for expansion of this school flowed in at a fast rate. Within a time period of ten successive years, there sprang up twenty-three branches, crowded with 450 students. The school with such enormous extensions then turned its attention to the composition and publication of Bengali and Sanskrit textbooks. Gangabai in the meantime got engrossed in the engineering of academic affairs of the school. And the eminent governing body, headed by the Maharaja of Darbhanga, the landlord of the biggest property in Bengal dexterously handled the administrative affairs.

The Mahakali Pathshala rose to prominence due to the significance it attached to religious studies, homemaking prowess and the purdah system. The little scope for proper reading and writing, provided by the initial curricular set-up was modified, and enlarged over time. In 1948, the Mahakali Pathshala achieved the status of affiliation to the educational authority of the Calcutta University.

One must infer the reality that the presence of this school in the beginning of the twentieth century speaks volumes for the fact that the orthodox Hindu society, grew lenient with time so as to allow females access the boon of education. The title Maharani Mataji Tapaswini , Queen Mother Nun was apt to describe her greatness. She was indeed the Mother of an educational activity and Queen who led the nation towards a destination of optimum improvement like a Nun, who with religious sincerity remained stuck to her ideals .