At 86, ex-teacher fulfils GU dream with second master’s degree

Dhubri: Sarojini Bhagabati, an 86-year-old former rural school teacher from Assam, has completed her second master’s degree from Gauhati University, earning an MA in Assamese after two years of study.

Her coursework included subjects such as applied linguistics and western literary criticism, requiring sustained reading and analytical work. With the degree, Bhagabati is among the oldest students in Assam to earn a second master’s from the university.


The achievement follows an earlier milestone in 2012, when she earned an MA in political science at the age of 72, drawing attention for her persistence in higher education.

“Gauhati University had always been her dream education destination,” Bhagabati told TOI, recalling that during her younger days at Handique Hostel she would visit her younger brother Prof Ananda Bhagabati, former Vice-chancellor of Arunachal University, at his Gauhati University quarter and plan for an MA, even collecting the printed syllabus booklet.

After completing her BA, she returned to her village Barnarddi in Nalbari district, where she later founded Barnarddi High School, she said.

A graduate of Handique Girls’ College in the 1960s, Bhagabati taught for over two decades as a founder teacher at the rural institution. She worked without the security of a regular salary or pension, and the school was not provincialised during her tenure.

Decades later, Gauhati University’s distance education programme provided a route back to formal study, culminating in her second master’s degree in her mother tongue, Assamese.