Sr. Mary Braganza, or Sr. Karuna as she now prefers to be called, was born on 25th October 1923, the fifth child and first girl among ten brothers and sisters, of whom five became religious. While studying at Xavier’s College she was actively involved in the social service and mission camps to the villages of Talasari and developed a life-long passion to work for rural India and the tribals. Another deep interest that she developed while in College was theatre.  She was to utilise this in staging many wonderful productions at Sophia College, with plays like The Trojan Women, The First Born, etc. 

After completing her master’s degree, Karuna taught briefly at Sophia College before joining the novitiate of the Sacred Heart in England, where she made her first vows in 1950.  On her return to India, she served for a number of years at Sophia High School, Bangalore, and it was here that she honed her skills as an educator.  In 1959, she joined the staff of Sophia College, Mumbai, where she served as lecturer and Head of the Department of English, and as Vice-Principal before she took over as the first Indian principal of the college in January 1965. 

In the mid-1960s, the Kothari Education Commission called for a comprehensive review of the entire educational system, with a focus on issues like science education and research, work experience, vocational education, equality of access to education for all, social and national service.  Karuna was inspired by this – in fact, her career as principal was to be shaped by these calls.  Sophia College and Campus saw great expansion and academic innovation during her tenure. She initiated the induction of lay staff to important administrative posts. To commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the College in 1966, it was decided to introduce the B.Sc. course, and the Bhabha Institute of Science was constructed. Karuna’s passion for the upliftment of rural India and particularly of the tribals found expression in a project at Kosbad, where the College students worked with the Warli tribals as part of a social work and leadership training programme. In 1969, Sophia College was chosen for the NSS by the University of Bombay (as it was then called).  She was the moving force behind two academic initiatives on the Campus during this period, as part of a response to these same calls – Sophia Polytechnic, to give education a practical orientation; and Sadhana School for the Mentally Handicapped, to offer quality education even to those rejected by society as being “uneducable”.  Post-graduate Science courses were also introduced during this period, as were “work experience” and unsupervised examinations – all successful experiments, which are still operating, in a modified form even today.  

In 1973, Karuna was able to take a well-deserved sabbatical which was interrupted all too soon by her call to Rome by the then Superior General, Mother Camacho, to serve on her Council. After her three year stint in Rome, Mary returned to India and to Sophia in June 1977 for a further period of five years as principal. 

Academic life flourished under her dynamic leadership:  during her two tenures as principal, new full-fledged departments – Sociology, Psychology, Life Science, Biochemistry – as well as Sophia Junior College were started. With all this, there was a personal connection. Students still remember the personal interest taken in each one by Mother Braganza, and her phenomenal memory – even when the College expanded to 1800 students, she knew almost each one by name. 

Towards the end of her second tenure, Karuna’s eyes were already on the wider educational horizon.  While the day-to-day administration of the College from Nov. 1980 to May 1982, was taken care of by an acting principal, Karuna was being drawn into involvement at the national level. For the next six years, she was based in Delhi, serving as secretary for the All India Association for Christian Higher Education.  In this capacity, she liaised with over 200 colleges all over India.  

At the end of this term, she was finally able to realise her long-cherished dream of working directly for the tribals in rural India. She responded to an invitation from St. Joseph’s College Torpa, Ranchi Dt., to teach English and improve the quality of the education offered by this institution.  For the next 12 years at Torpa, Karuna’s vision and unquenchable energies had free play.  These years saw the birth of a large hostel for the girls of St. Joseph’s College,  the setting up of a centre for women’s development; the establishment of a primary teacher training institute, a balniketan and an English medium school, all at Torpa.  In addition, balwadis and women’s SHGs were set up in numerous and far-flung villages around Torpa.  She can also claim credit for having initiated a unique study that involved mapping indigenous herbs and documenting in a book each and every herb available in the district. 

In 2000, Karuna Mary had a well-earned sabbatical in Pune. Here, her energy and zeal found new outlets through the Sophia College Ex-students in Pune, who were working for street-children and other related causes. In response to a strongly felt need to revive the Ex-students Association, she then moved to Mumbai where she was the dynamic director of the Sophia College Chapter of the Association for the next five years. Karuna’s gift for networking coupled with her deep commitment to rural India led to a collaboration between SCESA and an NGO called SHARE in rural outreach projects such as water-harvesting, education, sanitation and health, initially in Raigad District, and now spreading to other areas. An educationist to the core, she has responded to the needs of rural schools in distress, whether a Sri Lankan school wiped out by the Tsunami, or the secular education trust school at Mangaon devastated by floods.  She and other educationists helped the Sri Lankan to relocate and revive its educational mission, while the latter was re-established with her help as the Zainab Tobaccowala Secular School.

Since June 2006, Karuna is based in Pune, where at 84, she is still actively involved in the care of the elderly and in social outreach. The award with which she has just been honoured salutes her lifelong commitment to social causes and the indomitable spirit and infectious zeal that she radiates.