Books Set in India

The Girl From Foreign, by Sadia Shepard (2008)

The Girl from Foreign is both a memoir and a loving tribute to the author’s maternal grandmother. Sadia Shepard grew up in Chestnut Hill, a posh suburb outside of Boston, where she lived with her American father, Pakistani-born mother and Indian-born grandmother. Her father was Christian and her mother was Muslim. When Shepard was a teenager, she discovered that her grandmother was born Rachel Jacobs into a Jewish family in India’s Bene Israel community. When her grandmother secretly married her father’s business partner at age 17, she agreed to raise any children from the marriage as Muslims. She also changed her name to Rahat. She also may or may not have converted herself.

Shepard promises her grandmother that she will seek out her Indian heritage. Her trek begins a few years following her grandmother’s death. When Shepard is awarded a Fullbright scholarship, she makes good her promise. This book is a part of that search.

As Rachel Jacobs, the author’s grandmother lived in the Bene Israel community of India. The Bene Israel are believed to be descendants from a ship-wrecked group of Jews who washed up on Indian shores sometime before 166 BCE. There are still a few remnants of the Bene Israel in India today, although many have now immigrated to Israel.

Upon her marriage, Rachel became the third wife of a Muslim business man. She was believed to be the wife he married for love, the first two marriages were business arrangements. Rachel’s children, including the author’s mother, were raised Muslim in an environment of tolerance.
The author embraces her varied religious heritage, but is on a journey to determine where she fits. While in India, she connects with the Jewish community and attends Shabbat services as well as other Jewish festival services. Clearly, she feels comfortable in this setting. She also befriends a young Hindi man who often accompanies her on her travels to the small Jewish enclaves in India.

In her later life, Rachel began to look back into her faith and wanted to be buried as a Jew. Although her family buried her in a traditional Muslim manner, on the anniversary of her death, she was remembered in a traditionally Jewish service.

Shepard also recounts how, as a child, she and her family would make trips to Pakistan to visit relatives. When she returns as an adult, after September 11, 2001, she finds her Pakistani relatives to have moved to a more militant brand of Islam. She also learns how her grandfather’s other wives and families have decimated her estate.

The Girl from Foreign is a beautifully written book. It is a lesson in understanding cultures that are making headlines in today’s news stories.

Read: August 8, 2010