Hana Catherine Mullens (1826–1861) was a European Christian missionary, educator, translator and writer. She was a leader of zenana missions, setting up schools for girls and writing what is arguably the first novel in Bengali. She spent most of her life in Calcutta, then the capital of British India (now Kolkata, West Bengal), and was fluent in the Bengali language.

Early life and education

Hana Catherine Lacroix was born in Calcutta. Her father was

Alphonse François Lacroix Alphonse François Lacroix (1799–1859) was a Swiss missionary in Bengal. Life Lacroix was born in the canton of Neuchâtel on 10 May 1799. He was educated there under the care of his uncle, named Chanel, until he was 17 years of age. In 181 ...

, a Swiss Protestant missionary who went to Chinsurah in 1821 to preach Christianity on behalf of the London Missionary Society (LMS). Her mother, Hannah Herklots, was from a Dutch colonial family. Hana grew up in the mission in Bhowanipore, one of the '' Dihi Panchannagram'' villages then on the suburbs of the capital of the Raj. She learned Bengali, the language of her '' amah'' and other servants, at a period when Sanskrit was used only for liturgical and religious purposes; and Bengali was only a language of conversation. At the age of 12 she started teaching Bengali in a newly established school. She was educated mostly by her parents until the family travelled back to Europe when she was 15. Living in London gave her the opportunity to study at the Home and Colonial School Society, where she trained to be a teacher, and then returned to Calcutta.

Career

Educator

In 1845, she married

Joseph Mullens Joseph Mullens (2 September 1820 – 10 July 1879) worked with the London Missionary Society (LMS) in India. Life Joseph Mullens, son of Richard Mullens, was born on 2 September 1820 in London. He studied at Coward College, a dissenting academy ...

also of the LMS, who had travelled out to India on the same ship as her father. The missionary couple continued their work in Calcutta for a dozen years. Using her fluency in Bengali, Hana Catherine Mullens was head of a girls'

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

, and taught

Bible class The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacredness, sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of ...

es to women. It was at the invitation of Rev. Mullens, chairing the Bengal Missionary Conference of 1855, that Rev. John Fordyce first reported on his female teaching initiative in the '' zenana''. (The word refers to the secluded living quarters of girls and women, similar to purdah.) Hana Catherine Mullens became known for her devotion to the outreach programme of the zenana missions. Shortly after the conference, she persuaded the widow of a Hindu doctor to accommodate ''zenana'' teaching in her home, and then negotiated other similar arrangements. These Indian Christians were known as

Bible women In missions history, a Bible woman was a local woman who supported foreign female missionaries in their Christian evangelistic and social work. Background The title "Bible woman" was first used in London in connection with a female evangelist, ...

. In 1858, she and her husband visited Britain to spread the word about their missionary work in India. By the time of her death in 1861, she had four zenanas under her care and was visiting a further eleven every afternoon.

Writer

She is credited by some with having written the first novel in the Bengali language, ''Phulmani O Karunar Bibaran'' (Description of Phulmani and Karuna), in 1852.Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), (1976/1998), ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, , p 423, . It was aimed at native Christian women. This book was published six years before Peary Chand Mitra published his '' Alaler Gharer Dulal''. There are other claimants to earlier novels. ''Nabababubilas'' published by

Bhabani Charan Bandyopadhyay Bhabani Charan Bandyopadhyay ( bn, ভবানীচরণ বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়) (1787 – 20 February 1848) was a noted Indian journalist, author and an orator. He was adored for his deftness in speech. He was a conser ...

in 1825 is claimed as one but others think of it as being merely a story. Similar reservation has also been expressed about ''Phulmani O Karunar Bibaran''. The first Bengali woman to write a novel was

Swarnakumari Devi Swarnakumari Devi (1855 or 1856 – 1932), also known as Swarnakumari Tagore, Swarnakumari Ghosal, Svarṇakumārī Debī and Srimati Svarna Kumari Devi, was an Indian Bengali writer, editor, essayist, poet, novelist, playwright, composer, and ...

, with her ''Deepnirban'' in 1876.Banerjee, Hiranmay, ''Thakurbarir Katha'', , p. 119, Sishu Sahitya Sansad. Mullens wrote another book, ''The Missionary on the Ganges or What is Christianity'', in both English and Bengali. She translated Charlotte Maria Tucker's ''Daybreak in Britain'' into Bengali.

References

Bibliography

* Dutta, Sutapa. ''British Women Missionaries in Bengal, 1793-1861''. U.K. Anthem Press, 2017

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mullens, Hana Catherine 1826 births 1861 deaths Writers from Kolkata Bengali-language writers Translators from English Translators to Bengali 19th-century Indian translators British Indian history Christianity in India Protestant missionaries in India Indian educators Europeans in India Missionary linguists