Santha Rama Rau | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1923-01-24)24 January 1923 Madras,British India (now Chennai,India) |
| Died | 21 April 2009(2009-04-21) (aged 86) Amenia,New York,United States |
| Alma mater | Wellesley College,Wellesley,Massachusetts |
| Genre | Travel writer, novelist, playwright |
| Notable works | This is India (1953) (novel) A Passage to India (1960) (play adaptation) |
| Spouse | Faubion Bowers (1951–1966; divorced) Gurdon Wattles (1970–1995; his death) |
| Partner | ((Faubion Bowers)) |
Santha Rama Rau (24 January 1923 – 21 April 2009)[1] was anIndian-bornAmerican writer.
While Santha's father was aChitrapur Saraswat Brahmin fromCanara whose mother-tongue wasKonkani, her mother was aKashmiri Brahmin from the far north of India, who had however grown up inHubli.[2]
In her early years, Rama Rau lived in an India underBritish rule. When aged 5 and a half, with her 8-year-old sister Premila, she briefly attended an Anglo-Indian School where the teacher anglicized their names. Santha's name was changed to Cynthia and her sister's was changed to Pamela. The environment there they found to be condescending, as their teacher told them that "Indians cheat". They walked home, and never returned to that school. The incident was recounted in Rama Rau's short memoir entitled "By Any Other Name".[3]
When India won its independence in 1947, Rama Rau's father was appointed as his nation's firstambassador toJapan. While inTokyo, Japan, she met her future husband, anAmerican,Faubion Bowers. After extensive traveling through Asia and a bit of Africa and Europe, the couple settled inNew York City,New York. Rama Rau became an instructor in the English language faculty ofSarah Lawrence College,Bronxville, New York, in 1971, also working as a freelance writer.
She adapted the novelA Passage to India, with authorE. M. Forster’s approval, for the theater. The playof the same name was produced for theOxford Playhouse,Oxford,United Kingdom, moved to theWest End inLondon, United Kingdom, in 1960 for 261 performances, and then on toBroadway in New York City where it was staged 109 times. It was adapted by John Maynard and directed byWaris Hussein for BBC television'sPlay of the Month in 1965. Although the film rights originally required Rama Rau to write the screenplay, directorDavid Lean found her draft unsatisfactory and was able to reject it, although she is still credited in the titles because he still used some of her dialogue.[4]
Rama Rau is the author ofHome to India,East of Home,This is India,Remember the House (a novel),My Russian Journey,Gifts of Passage,The Adventuress, (a novel),View to the Southeast, andAn Inheritance, as well as co-author (withGayatri Devi) ofA Princess Remembers: the memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur.[5]
She marriedFaubion Bowers in 1951 and had one son, Jai Peter Bowers in 1952.[citation needed] The couple divorced in 1966. In 1970, Rama Rau married Gurdon B. Wattles, and had no children. Faubion Bowers died in November 1999.
Here Rama Rau details how her mother's ancestors had fled Muslim invaders three hundred years ago ("to settle inappropriately enough, in another Muslim stronghold, Allahabad"). Despite being migrants-and, of course, because of it-the women of the family preserved Kashmiri customs such as brewing green tea, cooking in ghee as opposed to oil, and preferring a variety of breads to rice. In all of this, their fierce sense of origins, their strong feeling for the "Kashmiri Brahmin" community," remained undiminished even though they were exiled in uncomprehending, if not hostile territory.
Mukherjee, Durba and Sayan Chattopadhyay. "Passage through India: self-fashioning in Santha Rama Rau's Indian Travel Writings."Studies in Travel Writings 24 (4), 366 - 384: 2020. <https://doi.org/10.1080/13645145.2021.1946735>
