April in nonfiction: Six new books about the complexities of the ever-evolving Indian experience

All information sourced from publishers.

Wanderers, Adventurers, Missionaries: Early Americans in India, Anuradha Kumar

In 1833, Frederic Tudor, an American businessman, made history when he shipped 180 pounds of ice harvested from Walden Pond in Boston to Calcutta – this luxury item being much in demand amongst the elites of British India. Tudor was deservedly christened the “Ice King” and soon built a flourishing trade, exporting American ice to India.

Others were drawn to the country by less materialistic goals. Like the “medical missionaries” who were deeply concerned with the “women’s condition” in India. Ida Scudder’s efforts in the 1900s resulted in the setting up of the Christian Medical College in Vellore, which continues to save lives till this day; in 1873, “Doctor Miss Sahiba” Clara Swain set up the first hospital for women and children in Asia, in Bareilly, on land donated by the Nawab of Rampur.

There were also those who came to stay. 22-year-old Samuel Evans Stokes came to Kotgarh in the Himalayan foothills in 1904, embraced Hinduism and became Satyanand Stokes. He revolutionised apple cultivation in the area, now in Himachal Pradesh, by introducing the “Red Delicious” apples of Missouri; today, his descendants still live and work in the region. Likewise, the Alter family....

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