Home to India

by Santha Rama Rau

This book is a classic. It is a memoir of a girl returning to India at age 16 after living in another country for most of her life.. Very interesting about India, customs of her family, and the new developing country that she returns to.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Memoir

236 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Santha Rama Rau (24 January 1923 – 21 April 2009) was an Indian American travel writer.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a memoir originally published in 1944 which made me brutally aware of how little I actually know of this rather momentous period of Indian history. The author left India at age six, sent by her parents to England to receive an education there. Ten years later, the outbreak of WII precipitates a return to India, which feels like a foreign country to her. To an extent, the book's an engaging and sometimes amusing account of culture shock and gradual acclimatization, but much of it has a rather more serious tone as young Santha becomes immersed in the political scene, and wonders what she, as a relative outsider, can contribute to India and its struggle for independence.

Towards the end, she decides that in order to understand the mechanisms of democracy, she wants to experience life in a democratic country, and decides to attend college in the US. Although this is something of a postscript, and not at all the most important part of the book, for the amusement of my friends who are interested in the history of Seven Sisters Colleges, here's a passage in which Santha and her family are choosing a college:

One of Mother's friends gave her a list of the better known girls' schools which included Radcliffe, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Smith and Wellesley. We spent an evening studying it, wondering on what possible basis we could decide. Premila [the author's sister] suggested that we toss a coin, but Mother told her coldly that she had not the scientific approach.

"No daughter of mine," said Mother decisively, "will go to any college called Smith. I cannot pronounce Bryn Mawr, and I doubt any of my friends can. I refuse to be prohibited from talking about you because I can't say the name of your college. As for Vassar, Caroline tells me it has a reputation for country club life, so that is out of the question."

"As I remember," Premila put in, "Anne of Green Gables went to Radcliffe."

"Then I consider Wellesley as chosen," said Mother, and tore up Caroline's list.

I don't know what amuses me more -- the idea of Anne Shirley attending Radcliffe (her fictional college was called "Redmond"), or the idea that this would be an instant disqualification! Santha Rama Rau went on to write a number of other memoirs and travelogues, but sadly none of them seem to be about her Wellesley experience. She graduated in 1945 -- a year after publishing this book.

[Rachel Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of the author’s teenage years in India during WWII. Rau and her older sister grew up in London, but returned to Bombay with their mother when their diplomat father was stationed in South Africa. (They tried living in South Africa, but her mother packed them up when she went to a movie theatre and found a sign reading “Indians, natives, and dogs are not allowed.”)

It’s hard to review this in a way that differentiates it from the many other books about people grappling with cultural identity and loyalty during a return to their homeland after a long separation. I did particularly like this one, though. It’s not primarily a comedy, but there are many funny bits, often involving her deadpan sister and a grandfather who reinvents Descartes via musings on the existence or nonexistence of the Indian sweet on his plate. Rau’s ear for dialogue is as sharp as her observation of a country and cultures she’s more or less encountering as a newcomer, as she had left India when she was six.

Unsurprisingly, she gets involved in the political scene. Her mother is a friend of the politician and poet Sarojini Naidu, who comes across particularly vividly, reigning over a dinner party in a blouse printed with the cover of her favorite book! She also meets Nehru a couple of times. Rau captures the excitement of the political scene, as friends often call up to apologize in advance for missing dinner parties, as they’ve decided to get arrested for civil disobedience instead.

The book was published in 1944, when Rau was about 21. It feels very immediate, with little mediation by hindsight. Her thoughts on politics and identity are honest and serious: you can see her growing up intellectually as the book progresses.

But though the content is weighty, the touch is light. It’s a quick, easy, enjoyable read. I was not surprised to learn that Rau became quite a successful writer, author of a number of books and the film version of A Passage To India.

[Evie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure how to explain it, but reading her travel novels always gives me the sense that I would have loved to have been her friend. Her insights and observations are so candid. Of course, she's still very much writing for a Western audience with editors pushing and prodding her work in the direction they feel is most profitable. On one hand, she has to lure the West into seeing India as a cosmopolitan country filled with promise; on the other, she has to sell books.

I could go on and on, but The Postcolonial Careers of Santha Rama Rau goes into all of this very nicely and is an invaluable resource if you wish to read further into her life and career.

[Helen Epstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading the new eversion of this memoir and am delighted by its tone of voice and intimate depiction of a family of women in India during the second world war. Santha Rama Rau is a witty, engaging story-teller with an astute eye for personal foibles as well as state politics. This is one of the first popular books by an Indian woman writer in the U.S.

[Barby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read this book when I was twelve or so and enjoyed it; however, I think the historical content was somewhat beyond my scope of knowledge. Rau shares her memories of returning to India at the beginning of WWII after spending a decade being educated in England. The India to which she returns is strange to her, and she finds herself caught between two cultures. Her family is prominent: her father is a diplomat, and her mother is an activist. Rau actually meets Nehru and hears Gandhi's speech once again accepting leadership. She gives us a glimpse of crucial time when India is struggling to remove itself from the British Empire and become a country in its own right.

[Camille Cusumano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this little memoir and read it twice, wanting more. Written just as WW II was in full force, its backdrop is the period leading up to India's violent, bloody independence from Great Britain. The author, Indian born, has lived and studied in England from the age of 6. So when she, her mother, and sister return home to Bombay, India and its mannerisms are a bit foreign to her. She is clearly more western at age 16 but so hoping to embrace her Brahmin home land. She scandalizes her grandmother by not being married or even close yet. After all her grandmother was married off at age 9. Lots of culture clash like that and much of it is charming. The author had to be only about 20 or 21 when she wrote this book with a degree of maturity, insight, and worldliness that is impressive and refreshing.

[Jorge · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was interesting to learn from an Indian Brahmin how India was changing during WWII. Her descriptions of the conflicts between generations and the changes that India would be experiencing were insightful. Rama Rau, knew Gandhi and Nehru personally. Although superficial, her perspective of the men were very interesting. I got this book at a holiday church fair and it has sat on my self for a few years. I am glad that I finally got to it.