Which one among the following statements about Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy, a freedom fighter, is not correct?

Correct — D, She was honoured with Bharat Ratna in 1956. This is the statement that is not correct, which is what the question asks for. The honour Muthulakshmi Reddy received in 1956 was the Padma Bhushan, conferred for her services to the nation; she has never been a Bharat Ratna awardee, and the year in the option is the giveaway that a real award has been swapped for a grander one. The other three are all true. She was the first female student admitted to a men's college: the Principal of Maharaja's College at Pudukkottai objected that her presence would unsettle the male students, and the Maharaja overruled him, admitting her on a scholarship with a three-month probation and a screen between her and her classmates. She was the first woman legislator in British India, appointed to the Madras Legislative Council in 1926 and then elected unanimously as its deputy president — the first woman to hold that office. And she was a medical professional: she entered Madras Medical College in 1907 as the first woman admitted there, graduated in 1912 with seven gold medals, and became the first woman house surgeon at the government hospital for women and children in Madras. Her legislative work followed from the medicine — in 1926 she moved the bill against the devadasi system, she built the Avvai Home in 1931 for destitute girls, and the Adyar Cancer Institute she founded began working on 18 June 1954.

• (a)She was the first girl student to be admitted into a men's college. — True, so it cannot answer a 'not correct' stem. Maharaja's College at Pudukkottai took her in over the Principal's objection, on the Maharaja's own decision.
• (b)She was the first woman legislator in British India. — Also true. She was appointed to the Madras Legislative Council in 1926 and went on to be elected its deputy president, the first woman in that chair.
• (c)She was a medical professional. — Also true, and it is the foundation of everything else she did. She was the first woman admitted to Madras Medical College, finished in 1912 with seven gold medals and served as a house surgeon before entering public life.

Muthulakshmi Reddy (1886-1968) belongs to the generation of Indian women who entered public life through the professions rather than through the nationalist platform alone. Trained as a doctor when almost no Indian woman was, she used a nominated seat in the Madras Legislative Council to legislate on the questions her practice had shown her: child marriage, the age of consent, the devadasi system and the want of medical care for poor women. She resigned her seat in 1930 in protest at Gandhi's arrest, and afterwards built institutions — the Avvai Home for destitute girls and the cancer hospital at Adyar, founded in memory of a sister who died of cancer.

Biographical items of this shape are decided by one statement being quietly inflated, and the inflation is almost always an award or a 'first'. Here three statements describe things she actually did and the fourth upgrades a real award into the highest civilian honour. Two checks catch it. First, the Bharat Ratna list is short enough to hold in your head, and in 1956 there was no award at all — the honours conferred in that year were Padma awards, and hers was the Padma Bhushan. Second, when an option pairs a specific year with the country's highest honour for someone remembered mainly as a reformer and physician, treat it as the suspect statement and test the others against ordinary biography. Distinguish her also from the two other women often listed beside her — Sarojini Naidu, the first woman president of the Indian National Congress and later Governor of the United Provinces, and Anandibai Joshi, generally counted the first Indian woman to earn a degree in Western medicine, in 1886 in the United States.

• The Government of India conferred the Padma Bhushan on Muthulakshmi Reddy in 1956; she was never awarded the Bharat Ratna.
• She was the first female student admitted to a men's college, at Maharaja's College, Pudukkottai.
• She entered Madras Medical College in 1907 as its first woman student and completed her studies in 1912 with seven gold medals.
• She was appointed to the Madras Legislative Council in 1926, the first woman legislator in British India, and was elected unanimously its deputy president.
• She moved the bill in 1926 to abolish the devadasi system, and campaigned for raising the age of consent.
• She built the Avvai Home in 1931, and the Adyar Cancer Institute she founded began functioning on 18 June 1954, its foundation stone having been laid by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952.

• Reading 'Padma Bhushan' as 'Bharat Ratna'; the two are different honours and this item turns on exactly that swap.
• Confusing her with Anandibai Joshi, usually counted the first Indian woman to obtain a degree in Western medicine, or with Kadambini Ganguly and Rukhmabai among the early women physicians.
• Assuming the first woman legislator must have been elected; she was appointed to the Madras Legislative Council.

As a 'which statement is not correct' item like this one, as a match between reformers and the institutions they founded, or by asking who was the first woman legislator in British India.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy became the first woman legislator in British India when she was appointed in 1926 to which body?

  • (a)The Central Legislative Assembly
  • (b)The Madras Legislative Council
  • (c)The Bombay Legislative Council
  • (d)The Council of State

  Answer(b) The Madras Legislative Council — she was later elected unanimously as its deputy president.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Adyar Cancer Institute at Chennai was founded by which one of the following?

  • (a)Sarojini Naidu
  • (b)Muthulakshmi Reddy
  • (c)Annie Besant
  • (d)Rukhmabai

  Answer(b) Muthulakshmi Reddy — the institute began functioning on 18 June 1954, its foundation stone having been laid by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952.