An Indian Mother

An Indian Mother: A Daughter’s Memories contains the memories of Sudha Dubey Newman of her mother, Sharda Devi Dubey, a story of a mother and daughter and their long voyage through the rapidly-changing India of the 20th century. Daughter of a high school principal in U.P., Sharda Devi was married off at the age of twelve and a half and sent to live in a remote Maharashtra village with a traditional landowner family. After some time, she returned with her husband to U.P. where his job with an electric company necessitated changing residence to various towns and cities every few years. Though she had never set foot in a school, Sharda Devi learned painting, music, poetry writing, cooking and sewing, all of which she tried to impart to her six children of whom the author was the second. She enthusiastically participated in the Indian independence movement. Through her strong will, she gave her children the ability to carry on traditions while adapting to the modern world as well. This memoir of an Indian woman who did not speak English and never went to school provides rare insight into the lives of those millions of Indians who have not been commonly represented in India’s history of the last century.