Kheroda Bose, The First Indian Adventist[i]

The teen-aged Kheroda Bose[ii] and other girls were bathing by the river with their mother-in-law when a missionary lady and a few other Bengali girls from the Baptist mission approached in a boat.  This was the first time Kheroda encountered a white lady and she was drawn to her.  Her mother-in-law showed no interest in the lady or her talk on Jesus.  She was however, attracted to her beautiful dress and when she discovered that it she had done the fine needlework herself the mother-in-law grudgingly invited the missionary to teach her sew.  This the missionary agreed to provided she was permitted to teach some religious things too.  Thus Kheroda received her introduction to Christianity.[iii] Despite the carefulness of the ladies to keep these visits secret, one day the menfolk returned unexpectedly and assaulted the missionary lady, throwing a brick at her.  She escaped death, but fell to the ground wounded.

Kheroda’s husband disappeared one day and no one ever discovered what happened to him. Thus Kheroda was widowed in her teen age years itself.[iv] The Bose family then moved to Benaras where Kheroda languished wishing she could meet the missionary lady again. Then one day the missionary appeared at their door. Though her mother-in-law tried to send her away, she recognized the family and asked for Kheroda. Despite the mother-in-law's strong disapproval the missionary was able to speak comforting words to Kheroda for a while. Soon after that in connivance with the family's servant girl whose support she bought with Rs 5 which the girl needed, Kheroda slipped out the house and into a carriage which was standing at the door. She urged the driver to go straight ahead not knowing what to do since it was her first time out of the house alone, and first time speaking to a male stranger.  Providentially she encountered the same missionary lady distributing tracts and who took her to another city and later stood by her as she faced the police and the court which finally let her go free. She was 16 years old at the time. The Baptist mission helped her complete a teacher training course in their school.

At the school Kheroda chanced upon some handbills announcing meetings where prophecies of the Bible would be explained. She slipped out of the school and found her way to the address but the watchman at the meeting place refused to let her in. A few days later a missionary from the Baptist school invited several of the Bengali girls to accompany her to the same meetings. She suspected that the Adventists were Jewish because they kept the seventh day Sabbath. At the meetings Kheroda learnt so much more of the Bible, but soon the missionary lady from the Baptist mission decided that they should stop attending the meetings.  However, before they did, Kheroda asked the Adventists if they had any work for her.  Georgia Burrus was most pleased because she had been looking for another Bengali teacher.[v]

After some Bible studies by Elder D A Robinson, Kheroda joined the Adventists. In time she joined the nurses training course and joined Dr O G Place working in the Sanitarium. In later years Kheroda did much to visit women and girls in their homes where no men could enter.

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     [i]There are several who erroneously state that Nanibala Biswas was the first convert of the Adventists in India. Nanibala herself states that she was the first convert from Hiinduism (see Noonaballa Burros Visits Seventh-day Campgrounds, Attleboro Sun, July 17, 1954), and Kheroda informs us that she was the first Indian Convert. See Mrs Kheroda Bose, “I Was the First Indian Convert,”Eastern Tidings—Southern Asia Division, 36:10 (May 15, 1941), p. 14.  In a table of “firsts” the editor lists Kheroda as the first convert, then the Mookerjee family, and then Nanibala, followed by B N Mitter.

     [ii] I have preferred the spelling “Kheroda” which Kheroda used rather than the spelling “Korada” as in the book about her by Elder G G Lowry who also certainly knew her personally.

     [iii] Most of the details of this story are excerpted from G G Lowry, Korada, A Child Widow of India, Southern Publishing Association (Nashville, TN: 1931).

[iv]http://www.samanvaya.com/main/contentframes/knowledge/articles/census1881.html reports that one in five women in the 1880s were widows. Out of 124 million women 21 million were widows.  Of these 669 thousand were below the age of 19, 286 were below the age of 15, and 79,000 were below the 9. Pundita Ramabai, quoted in the Daily Alto California 42: 14187 (July 6, 1888)

     [v] Dorothy Watts, “Our First School In India,” Faith Triumphant, (Pune, ICP: 2006) Dec 11, p 349,  places the contact with Kheroda through a Baptist friend at the YWCA.  Kheroda states that the Baptist missionary was from the school and only when she saw the determination of Kheroda to join the Adventists did she offer to take her there and recommend her (Lowry, 221). Georgia Burrus states that “a well-educated Bengali woman with whom I had become acquainted at the YWCA home and who had begun to keep the Sabbath, was employed to teach secular classes. See Mrs L J Burgess, “The Blessed Pioneer,” Eastern Tidings –Pioneer Number Extra, 36:9 (May 8, 1941), p 3.  Georgia goes on to write “As our girls’ school in Calcutta continued to grow, it became necessary to have an additional teacher. Kheroda, a young Baptist Christian . . .  was recommended by the Baptist missionaries. (Ibid, 4)