Ansuyah Ratipul Singh
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Ansuyah Ratipul Singh (12 June 1917 – 27 November 1978) was a South African medical doctor and writer.
Ansuyah Ratipul Singh was born in Durban, the daughter of Chatrapul Ratipul Singh, an accountant, and Latchmee Singh. She attended the Durban Indian Girls' School. For medical school she went to the University of Edinburgh in 1936. She finished her degree in 1944, and returned to South Africa two years later.[1] Later, in 1962, she also earned a diploma in Public Health from the University of Natal.[2]
Career
Singh opened a private practice in Durban. In time she worked at the University of Natal Medical School, specializing in family medicine, obstetrics, and gynaecology. She was also on staff at the Clairwood Hospital. She took charge of the obstetric clinic at King Edward VIII Hospital in 1959. She founded a series of clinics to serve poor patients.[1]
In 1956, she became the first Indian woman to be appointed to the Natal Provincial Administration.
Works
Her 1960 historical novel Behold the Earth Mourns is considered the first published novel by an Indian South African writer,[3] and described by scholar Antoinette Burton as "a critical history of anti-apartheid struggle."[4]
- Behold the Earth Mourns. Cape Times. 1961.
- Cobwebs in the Garden
- A Tomb for thy Kingdom
- Summer Moonbeams on the Lake. 1970.[5]
