Ratanbai traces the poignant life story of a Marathi Brahmin girl from early childhood, through to child-marriage and into maturity. As the daughter of a westernized lawyer father and a deeply traditional mother, young Ratanbai is caught in the grips of the east-west encounter within the precincts of her own home. The novel serves as a socio-historic document offering insights into the domestic routine and distinctive familial and religious customs of Marathi Brahmin women in late nineteenth-century Bombay, as well as a feminist text about the intellectual and emotional awakening of its female protagonist. Intimate and moving, Ratanbai includes eloquent photographs of child-wives which tell a narrative of their own. Very little is known about the author, Shevantibai Nikambe, except that she was the Head of school for young wives, widows, and grown-up girls from the high-caste Hindu community. The novel is a rare contribution to Indian fiction written in English, and to women’s studies.
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