Sisters of Mokama The pioneering women who brought hope and healing to India

Jyoti Thottam

Book - 2022

"New York Times editor Jyoti Thottam's mother was part of an extraordinary group of Indian women. Born in 1946, a time when few women dared to leave their house without the protection of a man, she left home by herself at just fifteen years old and traveled to Bihar--an impoverished and isolated state in northern India that had been one of the bloodiest regions of Partition--in order to train to be a nurse under the tutelage of the determined and resourceful Appalachian nuns who ran Nazareth Hospital. Like Thottam's mother's journey, the hospital was a radical undertaking: it was run almost entirely by women, who insisted on giving the highest possible standard of care to everyone who walked through its doors, regardless... of caste or religion. Fascinated by her mother's story, Thottam set out to discover the full story of Nazareth Hospital, which had been established in 1947 by six nuns from Kentucky. With no knowledge of Hindi, and the awareness that they would likely never see their families again, the sisters had traveled to the small town of Mokama determined to live up to the pioneer spirit of their order, founded in the rough hills of the Kentucky frontier. A year later, they opened the doors of the hospital; soon they began taking in young Indian women as nursing students, offering them an opportunity that would change their lives. One of those women, of course, was Thottam's mother."--

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Subjects
Genres
Biography
Biographies
Published
[New York] : Viking [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Jyoti Thottam (author)
Physical Description
xxii, 356 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-356).
ISBN
9780525522355
  • The end of a great war
  • The mission at Mokama junction
  • A plea for help from India
  • The moment of freedom
  • Aboard the Steel Executive
  • "Millions are moving and stirring"
  • The opening of Nazareth hospital
  • "He is young, energetic and enthusiastic"
  • Heartbreak
  • The frontier women of Mokama
  • The making of a lady doctor
  • Women of the new India
  • The novices go on strike
  • The English-only rule
  • Miss Wiss and Dr. Kenny
  • The flood
  • Arrivals
  • Departures.
Review by Booklist Review

This is a story of India, starting about 1945, and the missionary nuns from Kentucky who ran a school and hospital in an especially poor part of the country. In the village of Mokama, Jesuits began a ministry with the intention of converting locals to Catholicism. They were followed by nuns with the goal of establishing a school and hospital to meet more physical needs. Women from rural Kentucky who had likely never left the state before traveled to a vastly different place, learned a new language, coped with the political upheaval of partition and the assassination of Gandhi, all while teaching and caring for the poor. This is told in a highly personal style--the author is the daughter of one of the nurses trained at the hospital--but above all it is the story of courage and faith seldom talked about and the longevity of a mission that is still in existence. This would be most appropriate for collections with an interest the history of India, the missionary movement, and the Catholic Church.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

New York Times opinion editor Thottam debuts with a vivid and uplifting portrait of a hospital in the small market town of Mokama in Bihar, India, built in 1947 by a group of Catholic nuns from Kentucky. Looking for a "new role as women in the Church," six nuns from the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth traveled to India, where the traumas of Partition and deficiencies in the healthcare system were causing diseases like cholera to run rampant. By July 1948, the nuns had built and staffed a 28-bed hospital; the following year, they opened a nursing school. Young Indian women, including the author's mother, came to Nazareth Hospital because they wanted a life beyond what tradition typically offered. Though students didn't hesitate to point out the racist attitudes of teachers and administrators, Thottam doesn't linger on disharmony, preferring to focus on the hard work and dedication of all the women of Nazareth Hospital. She also doesn't sugarcoat the stresses of missionary work, documenting how illness and exhaustion forced chief surgeon Mary Wiss to choose between her health, her medical career, and her commitment to the order. Full of complex characters and intriguing historical tidbits, this is a rousing story of hope and determination. Illus. (Apr.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

The story of six Kentucky nuns who forged a new life in India. In her debut book, New York Times Opinion editor Thottam draws on detailed archival sources and more than 60 interviews to create a vivid history of a hospital and nursing school established in the small Indian town of Mokama in 1947 by six members of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, whose "ambition and longing, passion and hunger" fueled their desire for bold, new challenges. Ranging in age from their early 20s to 50, buoyed with hope and excitement, they set out for India knowing no Hindi and without a clue about conditions in a nation that had just emerged from British rule and the trauma of Partition. After an arduous journey by sea and rail, they faced a stunning reality. Mokama, riddled by violence, was populated by the war-ravaged and destitute who had fled brutality and the loss of their homes. The physical conditions were daunting: The Jesuits who had invited them provided a large, unheated structure with no electricity or running water; no hospital beds; no medicines; and no doctors, nurses, or other staff. Weeks after their arrival, supplies finally came, and Nazareth Hospital, as they named it, began seeing patients. A young doctor arrived in 1948, and by 1949, the nuns, working tirelessly, offered basic primary care, a village health center, and a school to train nurses--aspiring young women like Thottam's mother--who came from all over India. In 1952, they established a leprosy clinic. Nearly eight decades later, the hospital still exists, serving "the poor and the extremely ill, for whom Nazareth is still the only option." The author offers candid, sympathetic portraits of the doctors and nurses who arrived through the years to staff the hospital and especially of the six original founders. "They are women," she writes, "who took hold of uncertainty, saw a void, and would not let go until they had shaped it into something closer to the life they desired." An inspiring story of faith and dedication. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.