Google on Saturday marked the 155th birth anniversary of Bengali poet and activist Kamini Roy with a doodle for its Indian users. Roy, the first woman to graduate with honours in India, is known for her role in advocating women’s rights.

Kamini Roy was born on October 12, 1864, in the Bakerganj district of present-day Bangladesh. She was interested in mathematics but began writing poetry at an early age. After graduating in Sanskrit from Bethune College at the age of 22, Roy became a teacher at the college and published her first book of poetry, Alo O Chhaya, in 1889.

“By forming organisations to champion causes she believed in, she helped advance feminism on the Indian subcontinent,” Google’s statement describing the doodle said. “She also worked to help Bengali women win the right to vote in 1926. For her literary accomplishments, Kamini Roy was awarded the Jagattarini medal by Calcutta University in 1929.”

Google also quoted Roy for her remark from 1924: “Why should a woman be confined to home and denied her rightful place in society?”

Roy died in 1933, days before her 69th birthday.

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