Three Countries, Three Lives: A Doctor’s Story by Lindy Rajan Cartner [Paperback]

Set between three countries, Burma, India, and England, and spanning three generations, Three Countries, Three Lives: A Doctor’s Story spans the period 1870 to 1977. Tracing India’s journey towards Independence in 1947, Lindy Rajan Cartner’s story explores racial attitudes under the influence of the Raj and highlights the complexity of the relationship between Britain and India.

An Indian Tamil born in Rangoon, Cartner recounts her unusual childhood, the Mandalay bombing of 1942, her coming of age at the end of the British occupation of the subcontinent, and her remarkable experiences as a doctor and as a woman following India’s independence, in both India and, later, 1960s England. Beginning with the extraordinary experiences of her grandfather who became a doctor against all the odds, and her mother, an ardent woman in many ways ahead of her time and a despatch rider for the British in Rangoon during the war, the book is deeply revealing of Indian women’s struggles, exposing the conflicts between adhering to traditional customs and individual fulfilment.

Cartner’s dual perspective, as an Indian woman and as a doctor, adds a new dimension, as she recalls her career in both deprived Indian communities and in the NHS. This poignant memoir offers an acute insight into life under the Raj, the racial prejudices of both British and Indian society, and the changing lives of women in this transformative period of history. Her story sheds much needed light upon the lives of Indian women, the social transformations since India’s independence, and the challenges inherent in Britain and India’s shared history.