About the Book: The Subhedars Son: A Narrative of Brahmin-Christian Conversion
from Nineteenth-century Maharashtra
The 19th century was a pioneering age for vernacular texts in India. Vernacular
writings became popular for making the first interventions of their kind,
written by Indians for Indians, and establishing new genres such as the
biographical novel. The Subhedars Son, an award-winning Marathi novel, was
written in 1895 and published by the Bombay Tract and Book Society, and
comprised overlapping personal and political trajectories. The author, Rev.
Dinkar Shankar Sawarkar, inscribed multiple viewpoints into his narrative,
including that of his own father, Rev. Shankar Nana (1819-1884), a Brahmin who
was one of the early