Shevantibai Nikambe

Shevantibai Nikambe was an Indian Christian woman writer and educator known for her English-language novel, Ratanbai: A Sketch of a Bombay High-Caste Hindu Young Wife (1895). As an educator, she also founded a school for the advancement of female education.

Shevantibai Nikambe
Born	1865 (1865) Poona, Bombay
Occupation	Writer educator social reformer
Period	1890s–1930s
Subject	Child marriage child widow female education
Notable works	Ratanbai (1895)

Career

Born in a Brahmin family in Poona, western India, later converted into Christianity, Nikambe belonged to the first generation of English-educated Indian women writers. She received her early education at St. Peter's Girls' High School in Bombay. In 1890, she graduated and began teaching at Sharada Sadan High School, an institution founded by Pandita Ramabai for high-caste girls and widows.

Inspired by the works of Ramabai, she was actively involved in female education in Bombay. She also travelled abroad such as Europe and the United States to study Christian work and their educational methods, which helped her to serve as a headmistress at various institutions.

In 1912, Nikambe founded the Married Women's High School in Bombay for the advancement of high-caste Hindu child wives and widows. Through this institution, scholar Ishita Pande writes, "over 1,000 women passed during the first 16 years of its existence."

Literary works

In 1895, Nikambe wrote an English novel titled Ratanbai: A Sketch of a Bombay High-Caste Hindu Young Wife. In this novel, she discusses the life and problems faced by Ratanbai, a high caste woman and touches on several issues such as child widow and female education. In this context, she is sometimes referred as "one of the pioneers of the Indian women's literary canon in English." Apart from her novel Ratanbai (1895), she also published an essay in 1929 titled Pandita Ramabai and the Problem of India's Married Women and Widows, where she discussed Ramabai's works and the issues of women's reform and education.

References

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Nikambe, Shevantibai M. (2004). Ratanbai: A High-caste Child-wife. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-566311-2.

Secondary sources

• Sen, Indrani (2014). "Writing English, Writing Reform: Two Indian Women's Novels of the 19th Century". Indian Journal of Gender Studies. 21 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1177/0971521513511198. ISSN 0971-5215.
• Chandra, Shefali (2012). The Sexual Life of English: Languages of Caste and Desire in Colonial India. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-5227-3.
• Pande, Ishita (2015). "Feeling Like a Child: Narratives of Development and the Indian Child/Wife". In Olsen, S. (ed.). Childhood, Youth and Emotions in Modern History: National, Colonial and Global Perspectives. Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-137-48484-0.
• Souza, Eunice de (2006). "Recovering a Tradition: Forgotten Women's Voices". Economic and Political Weekly. 41 (17). Economic and Political Weekly: 1642–1645. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4418141.