Krupabai Satthianadhan

Krupabai Satthianadhan (1862–1894) was an Indian writer who wrote in English.

Early life Krupabai was born to Haripunt and Radhabai Khisty, Hindu converts to Christianity, in Ahmednagar, then in the Bombay Presidency, on 14 February 1862. Her father died when she was still a child, and she was brought up by her mother and elder brother, Bhasker. Bhasker, who was much older, had a strong influence on her and endeavoured to awaken her intellect by lending her books and discussing many issues with her. However, he too died young, and Krupabai immortalized him in her semi-autobiographical novel Saguna: A Story of Native Christian Life.

She also wrote another novel entitled Kamala, A Story of Hindu Life (1894). Both these novels are bildungsromane, in which she speaks about gender, caste, ethnicity and cultural identity. Despite the difference in social milieu, two novels deals with a similar theme: the predicament of women who resist being cast in the slandered mould of domesticity. Kamala and Saguna are both attracted to books and face varying degrees hostility such an unnatural inclination. Saguna is largely autobiographical. As the daughter of a Christian convert, the protagonist manages, despite the odds, not only to receive formal education, but also to get admission to a medical college, and eventually meets a man who could share her life as equal.

Training in medicine Krupabai was deeply wounded by Bhasker's death, and two European missionary ladies took charge of her and her education. This was her first encounter with the British at close quarters, and as Saguna shows it was a mixed experience. Later on she went to boarding school in the city of Bombay. She met an American woman doctor there who got her interested in medicine. Krupabai had absorbed her father's missionary ideals early in life and decided that by becoming a doctor she could help other women, especially those in purdah. By this time her health was already showing signs of deterioration, so although she won a scholarship to go to England and study medicine, she was not allowed to go. However, the Madras Medical College agreed to admit her in 1878, and she became a boarder at the house of the Reverend W. T. Satthianadhan, an extremely well known Christian missionary. Her death came as a great blow to her admirers, and just a few months afterwards a scholarship for women was set up in her memory at the Madras Medical College, as well as a memorial medal at the University of Madras for the best female Matriculation candidate in English. Her novels were published as books and translated into Tamil.

Works Saguna: A Story of Native Christian Life, edited by Chandani Lokugé, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998). Kamala: A Story of Hindu Life, edited by Chandani Lokuge.