A glorious yellow bloom in honour of botanist E.K. Janaki Ammal in passing, the article says “Records of her life available publicly note that caste and gender discrimination forced her move to the U.K. where she joined the John Innes Institute, Norwich, as a cytologist. ”
A long write up about her Gender, race and science in twentieth-century india: e. K. JanaKi ammal and the history of science by Vinita Damodaran gives more details. A shorter version here. Some excepts from Vinita Damodaran’s article:
“Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn- gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.24 Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.25 The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.”
One of the early references to brahminism is by J.C. Bose in a 1917 letter”“you know that Brahmanism and priestcraft are not unknown in English science. The evil is far more accentuated here [in India] where the number of scientific men are few, and where wire pullers have succeeded in securing positions of authority”
And “Darlington was typical of the scientific mentors of his period in that in extending his largesse to female employees under him, he often formed intimate relationships with them, if only briefly. Janaki was to prove no exception and in three of her let-ters written in the 1930s she indicates her emotional involvement with him. This was only to be a brief interlude but the relationship was one that was to dominate her life. “
A long write up about her Gender, race and science in twentieth-century india: e. K. JanaKi ammal and the history of science by Vinita Damodaran gives more details. A shorter version here. Some excepts from Vinita Damodaran’s article:
“Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn- gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.24 Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.25 The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.”
One of the early references to brahminism is by J.C. Bose in a 1917 letter”“you know that Brahmanism and priestcraft are not unknown in English science. The evil is far more accentuated here [in India] where the number of scientific men are few, and where wire pullers have succeeded in securing positions of authority”
And “Darlington was typical of the scientific mentors of his period in that in extending his largesse to female employees under him, he often formed intimate relationships with them, if only briefly. Janaki was to prove no exception and in three of her let-ters written in the 1930s she indicates her emotional involvement with him. This was only to be a brief interlude but the relationship was one that was to dominate her life. “
Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn-gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.
24
Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.
25
The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company
officials to have Indian wives.
Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn-gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.
24
Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.
25
The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.
