Santha Rama Rau (24 January 1923 – 21 April 2009) was an

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n-born

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writer.

Early life and background

While Santha's father was a

Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin Chitrapur Saraswats are a small Konkani-speaking community of Hindu Brahmins in India. They are traditionally found along the Kanara coast and call themselves ''Bhanaps'' in the Konkani language. This is a small community from India spread th ...

from

Canara Kanara, also known as Karavali is the historically significant stretch of land situated by the southwestern coast of India, alongside the Arabian Sea in the present-day Indian state of Karnataka. The region comprises three civil districts, ...

whose mother-tongue was Konkani, her mother was a Kashmiri Brahmin from the far north of India, who had however grown up in

Hubli Hubli, officially known as Hubballi, is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. The twin cities Hubli–Dharwad form the second largest city in the state by area and population and the largest city in North Karnataka. Hubli is in Dharwad distr ...

. In her early years, Rama Rau lived in an India under

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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".

Career

When India won its independence in 1947, Rama Rau's father was appointed as his nation's first

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. While in

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, Japan, she met her future husband, an

Faubion Bowers Faubion Bowers (January 29, 1917 – November 17, 1999) was an American academic and writer in the area of Asian Studies, especially Japanese theatre. He also wrote the first full-length biography of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. During t ...

. After extensive traveling through Asia and a bit of Africa and Europe, the couple settled in

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, New York. Rama Rau became an instructor in the English language faculty of

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

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, New York, in 1971, also working as a freelance writer. She adapted the novel ''

A Passage to India ''A Passage to India'' is a 1924 novel by English author E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of 20th century English liter ...

'', with author

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...

’s approval, for the theater. The play of the same name was produced for the

Oxford Playhouse Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by Edward Maufe and F.G.M. Chancellor. It is situated in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum. History The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road, North Oxfor ...

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, moved to the West End in

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, United Kingdom, in 1960 for 261 performances, and then on to

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in New York City where it was staged 109 times. It was adapted by John Maynard and directed by

Waris Hussein Waris Hussein (''né'' Habibullah; born 9 December 1938) is a British-Indian television and film director. At the beginning of his career he was employed by the BBC as its youngest drama director. He directed early episodes of ''Doctor Who'', inc ...

for BBC television's ''

Play of the Month ''Play of the Month'' is a BBC television anthology series, which ran from 1965 to 1983 featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays (or adaptations) which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different wor ...

'' in 1965. Although the film rights originally required Rama Rau to write the screenplay, director David 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. Rama Rau is the author of ''Home 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'', and ''An Inheritance'', as well as co-author (with

Gayatri Devi Gayatri Devi (born as Princess Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar; 23 May 1919 − 29 July 2009) was the third Maharani consort of Jaipur from 1940 to 1949 through her marriage to Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II. Following her husband's signature for th ...

) of ''A Princess Remembers: the memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur''.

Private life

She married

in 1951 and had one son, Jai Peter Bowers in 1952. The couple divorced in 1966. In 1970, Rama Rau married Gurdon B. Wattles, and had no children.

died in November 1999.

References

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rau, Santha Rama 1923 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century American women writers American dramatists and playwrights of Indian descent American Hindus American women writers of Indian descent Dramatists and playwrights from Tamil Nadu Indian emigrants to the United States Indian women novelists Novelists from Tamil Nadu Sarah Lawrence College faculty Wellesley College alumni Women writers from Tamil Nadu Writers from Chennai American women academics 21st-century American women