From yearning to be a doctor to becoming the first Indian woman English novelist

The first woman novelist from India to write in English was Krupabai Satthianadhan (1862–1894). Though hailing from Bombay Presidency, it was Madras where she found and flourished the talent for writing. Her novel that published after her premature death was perhaps the first piece of Indian writing read by the Empress of India, Queen Victoria.

Krupabai was born in Ahmednagar, then in the Bombay Presidency, into a family of Hindus who converted to Christianity. She was one of the 14 children. After her father died early, it was her elder brother, Bhasker, who had a strong influence on her. He encouraged her to read and often used to discuss societal matters with her.

However, as fate would have it, he too died young. Krupabai was deeply aggrieved by Bhasker’s death and turned her attention towards saving lives by becoming a doctor. She was also convinced that she could help other women, especially those in purdah who would be too shy to go to a male doctor even if it cost their lives. Her eyes turned south.

Krupa boarded a train to Madras to study medicine in 1878 after the Madras Medical College granted her admission. (The MMC admitting women students was a revolutionary step at that time when even Europe was still debating the matter. There was only one institution in the US that had admitted a woman a year or two earlier.)

Her academic performance was brilliant right from the start – she was the topper in the first year. But after catching tuberculosis, possibly from a patient, she was sent out of the college. But she was hopeful of recovering and resuming studies, and was hence unwilling to leave Madras. Thus, she took a boat to cross the Cooum and became a boarder at the house of Reverend WT Satthianadhan, at the Zion church in Chintadripet.

Rev Satthianadhan was the first Tamil Presbyter of the church for nearly 30 years from 1860. And the Zion church was the oldest church built by US missionaries in Chennai on the banks of the Cooum. The banks of the river winding through the city of Madras thus became the location of the first English novel written by a woman.

There, as she recuperated, Krupa met Samuel, the Reverend’s son, and developed a friendship. In 1881, Samuel and Krupa got married and soon thereafter Samuel got a job as the headmaster of a school in Ootacamund (Ooty).

While dealing with her boredom, Krupa discovered her writing skills and started off with articles published in leading periodicals under the byline ‘An Indian Lady’. After staying in Rajahmundry and Kumbakonam, the couple returned to Madras.

By the time they reached here, she was ready to write her first novel – Saguna: A Story of Native Christian Life. It was serialised between 1887 and 1888 in the prestigious Madras Christian College magazine.

But misfortunes chased her. Her only child died and doctors found her tuberculosis as beyond cure. Knowing that she had very little time left to live, she began work on her second novel, Kamala, on which she worked continuously till her death.

In the foreword, Krupa starts the book with her desire of wanting to present a faithful picture of the experiences and thoughts of a simple Indian girl. No wonder her novels mirror a woman’s viewpoint on gender, caste, ethnicity and cultural identity in the late 1900s. Her viewpoint of a woman intellectual governed by rigid traditions within a male dominated society was often found in her female characters. There are critics who deem both her novels autobiographical on the first and second halves of her life.

Her novels had predominantly Christian overtones. However, she portrayed an Indian sensibility and stance in her novel. The reader understands the torments encountered by the protagonists as common among women of her age living in the subcontinent.

The book was presented to Queen Victoria who, upon reading it, was so impressed that she asked for more books by the same author. The books were popular for a decade or two and then went out of print. A sudden focus on female writers in the 1990s brought Krupa’s book back into focus and it was reprinted.

As a tribute to the writer who broke the glass ceiling of social tradition, an endowment for scholarship for a native Indian but not of European or Eurasian descent was set up in her memory at the Madras Medical College. The University of Madras, too, instituted a memorial medal for the best female matriculation candidate in English, acknowledging both her dreams and achievements.

—The author is a historian