On February 9, 1959, Anna Chandy made history by becoming the first Indian woman to hold the position of judge at a high court. Chandy served as a judge of the Kerala High Court for more than eight years, till April 5, 1967.
In the then Kingdom of Travancore, which is now Kerala, Chandy was born in 1905. She was reared in Thiruvananthapuram by a Syrian Christian family. Chandy became the first woman in the state to acquire a legal degree after graduating from the district's Government Law College in 1926.
In 1929, she began working as a barrister and focused on criminal law. She received a lot of praise for her work as a criminal defence attorney.
Cause of Women
Chandy campaigned for women's right to work because she was dedicated to improving society for women. She made a point of openly challenging her peers, including prominent intellectuals like TK Vellu Pillai, to call for quotas for women in public employment.
The Malayalam journal Shreemati was founded and edited by Chandy in 1930. The publication provided a forum for promoting women's rights. Chandy would challenge gender-based discriminatory conventions through her publications.
In her publishing, social themes like widow remarriage frequently appeared. Chandy also discussed the severe wage discrimination that women who work on farms must endure.
Politics
Chandy entered the male-dominated field of politics in 1930 by running for the Travancore state assembly.
Although she had the support of the Malayalam newspaper Nasrani Deepika, her foray into politics drew the ire of the Nair publication Malayala Rajyam.
Chandy ran for office in 1931 but was unable to win a seat for herself. She ran for office the next year, nevertheless, and was elected for a two-year term.
After stepping down from her position as a judge on the Kerala High Court in April 1967, Chandy served on the Indian Law Commission. Atmakatha was the name of her biography, which was serialised by Malayala Manorama and then published in Thrissur by Carmel Books in 1973. On July 20, 1996, she passed away.
