Translation and the christian conversion of women in colonial India: Rev. Sheshadri and Bāḷā Sundarābāī Ṭhākūr

Abstract

This article foregrounds the interstitial and hybrid third voice of a nineteenth-century Christian convert in colonial India. Bala Shundoree Tagore, a Bengali woman and wife to the esteemed Gyanendra Mohan Tagore, was declared spiritually Christian by missionaries, even though she died before being baptised. Bala’s narrative production by her biographers and translators obfuscated and transformed her voice, writing her into the history of Indian missions as a success story. Refashioned as a gendered symbol for Indian Christian women from the nineteenth century, Bala’s narrative was utilised by missionaries by divesting her of the agency she possessed.