Zenana Mission Stories from India

This little book contains 27 accounts by the women of the Zenana Bible Medical Mission. Each illustrates their work within the hidden world of the women’s quarters of Indian homes. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing a copy of this book for digitisation. This book is in the public domain.

Z.B.M.M. Missionaries, Doors of Hope and Healing. London: “Z” Press, 1935. Pbk. pp.100. [Click to download the complete book in PDF]

Contents

• Foreword
• Introduction
• A Morning’s Round
• Pain
• Pashi’s Bride
• Ratnakar
• Surji
• Taramoni
• Sonia
• Mohammed Ali
• Gangubai
• “Lydia…”
• Saku
• Village Dispensing
• A Gospel Bus
• Jakur
• Bhanso
• Langri
• Moru
• Shanti
• Anandi
• Fatima
• Routine: The Daily Round
• Darkness and Light
• Lila and Shanti
• Star
• Noel
• Shanti
• Paul

Foreword

This little book, compiled by ladies engaged in the work of a well-known medical mission, is a microcosm of the real India. Its simplicity is impressive; it makes no pretence of literary art or finish; it just sets down what the writers have seen and done and endured, day by day, during their years of service for India. To anyone who knows the scenes which they depict, these sketches bring back vivid memories-the acrid odours of the bazaar, the dust-laden air shimmering with waves of merciless heat, the pathetic crowds at the hospital gates, the veil of mystery which shrouds the women’s quarters in most Indian homes. The writers get behind that veil and tell us something of the hidden lives of their Indian sisters.

The narrative is naturally a mixture of darkness and light, of depression and joyfulness. [Continue reading]