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{{Short description|Indian physician (1867–1930)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox medical person
| name = Motibai Kapadia
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|LRCP|FRCS}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1867}}
| birth_place = [[Mumbai|Bombay]], Bombay Presidency, British India
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1930|1867}}
| education = [[Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals|Grant Medical College]], Mumbai
| known_for = First Indian female graduate of Grant Medical College
| profession = [[Physician]]
| field =
| work_institutions = [[Victoria Jubilee Hospital for women]], [[Ahmedabad]], [[Bombay Presidency]]
| specialism =
| research_field =
| notable_works =
| prizes = [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]] (1911)
| child =
}}
'''Motibai Rustomji Kapadia''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|LRCP|FRCS}} (1867–1930) was an Indian doctor who is credited as the first Indian female physician in Western medicine to have trained alongside men in India. In 1884, she gained admission to [[Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals|Grant Medical College]], Mumbai, from where she graduated. After gaining her [[Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians]] (LRCP) she was appointed to head the [[Victoria Jubilee Hospital for women]] in [[Ahmedabad]]. In 1891, she qualified [[Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons|FRCS]].

In 1911, Kapadia received the [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]] in the [[1911 Delhi Durbar Honours]] following the [[Coronation of George V and Mary]].

==Early life and education==
[[File:Grant medical college 1860.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Old Grant Medical College building, 1860]]
Motibai Kapadia was born in 1867 in Mumbai, then Bombay, into a wealthy [[Parsis|Parsi]] family.<ref name=Bhadra2011>{{cite journal |last1=Bhadra |first1=Mita |title=Indian Women in Medicine: An Enquiry Since 1880 |journal=Indian Anthropologist |date=2011 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=17–43 |jstor=41921931 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41921931 |issn=0970-0927|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="Times">{{cite news |date=18 May 2013 |title=Gujarat's first lady doctor treated sexism and untouchability too |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/gujarats-first-lady-doctor-treated-sexism-and-untouchability-too/articleshow/20113657.cms |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512014413/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Gujarats-first-lady-doctor-treated-sexism-and-untouchability-too/articleshow/20113657.cms |archive-date=12 May 2024 |access-date= |work=The Times of India}}</ref> In 1884, despite opposition from several people she knew,<ref name=JFW1975>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tO0nAAAAYAAJ&pg=PH68 |title=The Journal of Family Welfare |date=1975 |publisher=Family Planning Association of India |pages=68 |language=en}}</ref> Kapadia gained admission to Mumbai's [[Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals|Grant Medical College]] through the [[Countess of Dufferin Fund|Dufferin Fund]].<ref name=Bhadra2011/><ref name=EEN1888/>{{efn|62 women were admitted to Grant in the six years preceding 1892.<ref name=TS1892/>}} There, her father allowed her to study alongside men.<ref name=JFW1975/> She graduated in 1887 and then worked at the [[Cama Hospital]] for a year.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Indian Magazine |date=1889 |publisher=National Indian Association in Aid of Social Progress and Education in India. |page=545 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HUJBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA545|language=en}}</ref> In 1888 she travelled to England and received the [[Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians|LRCP]], along with [[Rattonbai Malabari]].<ref name=Bhadra2011/><ref name=EEN1888>{{cite news |title=Memoirs from a woman's notebook |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001842/18880206/055/0003 |access-date=7 July 2024 |work=Eastern Evening News |date=6 February 1888 |page=3|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Career==
[[File:Dr Motibai Rustomji Kapadia Public Hall for Women.jpg|thumb|Dr Motibai Rustomji Kapadia Public Hall for Women (21 February 1928)]]
In 1889, after returning from Britain, the industrialist [[Ranchhodlal Chhotalal]] appointed Kapadia in charge of his newly established [[Victoria Jubilee Hospital for women|Victoria Jubilee Hospital]] and its dispensary in [[Ahmedabad]], [[Gujarat]], then in [[Bombay Presidency]].<ref name="Times"/><ref name=TS1892>{{cite news |title=Latest News |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000540/18920128/105/0005 |access-date=7 July 2024 |work=The Scotsman |date=28 January 1892 |page=5|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name=Ramanna2008>{{cite journal |last1=Ramanna |first1=Mridula |title=Women Physicians as Vital Intermediaries in Colonial Bombay |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=2008 |volume=43 |issue=12/13 |pages=71–78 |jstor=40277287 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40277287 |issn=0012-9976|url-access=subscription}}</ref> There, she was a well-known lady doctor,<ref name="Darukhanawala">{{cite book |last1=Darukhanawala |first1=H. D. |title=Parsi Lustre On Indian Soil Vol Ii |date=1953 |page=132 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.62648/page/n145/mode/2up?q=motibai}}</ref> who accomplished good work,<ref name=CODF>{{cite book |title=National Association For Supplying Female Medical Aid To The Women Of India Twenty-fifth Annual Report |date=1909 |publisher=Superintendent Government Printing |location=India |page=9 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.116847/page/n393/mode/2up?q=kapadia |chapter=The Countess of Dufferin's Fund (1911)}}</ref> and remained in that post for 36 years.<ref name=Lahiri2000>{{cite book |last1=Lahiri |first1=Shompa |title=Indians in Britain: Anglo-Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880-1930 |date=2000 |publisher=Frank Cass Publishers |location=London |isbn=0-7146-4986-4 |pages=12–13 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oemNAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |language=en |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> In 1891, she qualified [[Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons|FRCS]].<ref name=JFW1975/> In Ahmedabad, she lived in a street somewhere between [[Kalupur]] and [[Khadia, Ahmedabad|Khadia]].<ref name=Shastri2022>{{cite news |last1=Shastri |first1=Parth |title=From industrial to intangible aspects, city's legacy assessed |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/from-industrial-to-intangible-aspects-citys-legacy-assessed/articleshow/95648865.cms |access-date=12 July 2024 |work=The Times of India |date=21 November 2022}}</ref> In 1897, she was chosen to represent the [[Ladies Club at Ahmedabad]] to deliver the draft English address in preparation for the [[Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria]].<ref name=IndiaOffice1897>India Office Library and Records. “[https://www.jstor.org/stable/saoa.crl.25636183?searchText=Report+on+native+papers+for+the+week+ending+June+19%2C+1897+India+Office+Library+and+Records.+June+19%2C+1897&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DReport%2Bon%2Bnative%2Bpapers%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bweek%2Bending%2BJune%2B19%252C%2B1897%2BIndia%2BOffice%2BLibrary%2Band%2BRecords.%2BJune%2B19%252C%2B1897%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A12792095315657c25435d24dd857eab6 Report on Native Papers for the Week Ending June 19, 1897.]” Report on Native Papers for the Week Ending ..., 19 June 1897. https://jstor.org/stable/saoa.crl.25636183.
</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Ladies Club |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001712/18970705/012/0005 |access-date=7 July 2024 |work=Homeward Mail from India, China and the East County |date=5 July 1897 |location=London |page=5|via=British Newspaper Archives|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Kapadia later travelled back to Britain, after which she returned to India on the [[SS Devanha|SS ''Devanha'']] in 1921.<ref name=Devanha1921>{{cite web |title=UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2997/images/40610_B000952-00035?treeid=&personid=&rc=&queryId=90da2162-0845-4e06-ba74-47b2ab92f465&usePUB=true&_phsrc=zuL1&_phstart=successSource&pId=42559329 |website=ancestry.co.uk |publisher=The National Archive |access-date=7 July 2024 |ref=Series BT27-117400 |location=Kew, Surrey, England |page=21 |date=15 July 1921|via=Ancestry.com|url-access=subscription}}</ref> According to Canadian educator [[Geraldine Forbes]], Western medicine expanded in Bengal as a result of hospital assistants who trained in that field by physicians from Bombay that included Kapadia.<ref name=Ramanna2012>{{cite book |last1=Ramanna |first1=Mridula |title=Health Care in Bombay Presidency, 1896-1930 |date=2012 |publisher=Primus Books |location=Delhi |isbn=978-93-80607-24-5 |page=103 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mm14U_6JVwoC&pg=PA103 |language=en |chapter=3. Changing reactions to hospitalisation}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
On 12 December 1911, Kapadia received the [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]] in the [[1911 Delhi Durbar Honours]] following the [[Coronation of George V and Mary]].<ref name="Who1912">{{cite book |title=Who's who in India |date=1912 |publisher=Newul Kishore Press |location=Lucknow |isbn=978-5-87230-125-7 |page=180 |url=https://archive.org/details/supplementtowhos00luckrich/page/180/mode/2up?q=kapadia |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=UK, Registers of Employees of the East India Company and the India Office, 1746-1939 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/61468/images/47593_83024005549_1587-00248?treeid=&personid=&rc=&queryId=967184e9-25ba-4251-b358-c2da7adebd4d&usePUB=true&_phsrc=zuL5&_phstart=successSource&pId=243146 |publisher=The India Office List India |access-date=7 July 2024 |ref=b2166033~S10 1915 |page=193 |date=1911|via=Ancestry.com|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Kapadia died in 1930.<ref name="Times"/> She has been credited with being the first Indian female physician in Western medicine to have trained alongside men in India.<ref name=Abidi1988>{{cite journal |last1=Abidi |first1=Nigar Fatima |title=Women's participation in the medical profession: the Indian case |journal=International Sociology |date=September 1988 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=235–249 |doi=10.1177/026858088003003003 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026858088003003003 |language=en |issn=0268-5809|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Historian [[Makrand Mehta]] credits Kapadia as a significant influencer of Gujarat.<ref name=Times/> Author [[Kavitha Rao]] considered Kapadia notable enough to be included in her book ''[[Lady Doctors]]'', though omitted her due to being unable to find enough archival material on her.<ref name=Narayanan2021>{{cite web |last1=Narayanan |first1=Nayantara |title="There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears": The price that India's first women doctors paid to break barriers |url=https://caravanmagazine.in/books/interview-lady-doctor-book-kavitha-rao |website=caravanmagazine.in |access-date=9 July 2024 |language=en |date=8 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928220537/https://caravanmagazine.in/books/interview-lady-doctor-book-kavitha-rao|archive-date=28 September 2023}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapadia, Motibai}}
[[Category:1867 births]]
[[Category:1930 deaths]]
[[Category:Parsi women]]
[[Category:Parsi people]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian women medical doctors]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian medical doctors]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women medical doctors]]

Motibai Kapadia - Revision history

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