Shruthi Rao: Interviewed by Anuradha Sengupta

Shruthi Rao’s 10 Indian Women Who Were the First to Do What They Did is the newest book in The 10s series, coming in August 2019.

She is interviewed by Anuradha Sengupta, writer, journalist, editor and founder of award-winning youth media collective, Jalebi Ink.

AS: What is the big idea behind this book?

SR: History is constantly being made and our world being changed in countless little ways. Just because we don’t study these events in our textbooks doesn’t make them any less important. This book is an attempt to tell a few of those stories–with the right context. Because context is what puts any event into perspective.

AS: How did you find the women in the book? And why are they not so well known?

SR: I started with a simple google search “the first Indian woman to”–and it led me down paths and alleyways I never dreamed existed.

Historical accounts have largely been written by men about men. This trend has continued into the modern age. There are very few public records about women. So their names and stories just haven’t made their way into mainstream conversation the way that men’s stories have. Just do a quick search for “interesting anecdotes”. Even if you account for the fact that the proportion of women to men in the public sphere is small, you’ll find that almost all the anecdotes are men-centric. Women are just not talked about. This trend holds good even in personal family histories. I know more stories about random male ancestors than about, say, my great-grandmother.

AS: Why is it important for these stories to be told?

SR: Apart from the fact that they are so awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping? Because both women and men need to realise what a hard journey it has been for us to get here, and that we shouldn’t take our privileges for granted. I’ll also paraphrase Yuval Noah Harari: We need these stories told “to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we can imagine.”

AS: Some of the women featured in the book we have all heard of–like Savitrabai Phule, Lakshmi Sahgal, and of course, Indira Gandhi. But there are several others people may not know about. For instance, engineer A Lalitha, who was a single mother living alone with her daughter in a strange city in the 1940s. Musician Jaddan Bai Hussain is another marvellous find. Who did you think was the most unexpected of them ?

SR: I became obsessed with Cornelia Sorabji, and to a lesser extent, Jaddan Bai Hussain, during the writing of this book. But it was CB Muthamma who proved to be the biggest surprise for me, personally. She was just a name to begin with, a name to accompany the picture of a young, serious, bespectacled woman in a seemingly staid profession. There wasn’t even too much information about her readily available. I almost decided not to include her. But as I dug deeper and found her book of essays, a picture emerged, larger than life. I wish there were more records of her work, though.

AS: Why do you think successful women have not been in the limelight? Are they often overlooked? Did you find any instances of men taking credit where women did the job first?

SR: Yes it’s a combination of many reasons, including the ones you’ve mentioned, and those that I’ve talked about in my previous responses. And history is rife with men taking credit for women’s work, especially in science. An example that comes readily to mind–physicist Lise Meitner gave the first theoretical explanation of nuclear fission, but Otto Hahn got the Nobel Prize for the discovery.

AS: There’s a lot that you have put in as context in each chapter–the kind of world or society each person was living in. How did you do your research?

SR: I spent about six intense months on the book. I took a while to shortlist the final ten women, in discussion with my editors. Then I did some broad research on each woman and the time that she lived in. After that, I dug into each woman’s life, reading books written by her (when available) and about her, all the while getting a sense of her and her work and her world. Then I wrote, pruned, and edited each article many times over.

AS: It would be a good thing to get people to read more about women like this. Are there any other books you can recommend on this theme?

SR: There are many books that have come out on the line of the popular Rebel Girls, and most of them give you a basic introduction to many women . But I don’t know of too many books that deal with details. There’s a series on women in the World Wars–quiet civilians who made a difference–that’s something I want to read.

AS: What’s next? With all this research, you must have tonnes of great material. Will you do something else with that? Eg: ‘What’s common between computer compilers, caller ID, windscreen wipers, space station batteries, dishwashers, disposable diapers, home security systems, solar-heated homes, foot-pedal dustbins, bulletproof vests and invisible glass? (Apart from being part of a futuristic novel about a hygienically-inclined baby spy?). They were all invented by women.’ There’s a whole book here!

SR: Haha! There are already a couple of great books on this particular topic, for example,  Girls Think of Everything. But yes, you’re right, I have a whole lot of information that I couldn’t use, and during my research, I found scores of other women whose stories need to be told.