Gendered transactions: The white woman in colonial India, <i>c</i>. 1820–1930

This book explores colonial gendered interactions, with a special focus on the white woman in colonial India. It examines missionary and memsahibs' colonial writings, probing their construction of Indian women of different classes and regions, such as zenana women, peasants, ayahs and wet-nurses. The three groups of white women focused upon are memsahibs, missionaries and, to a certain extent, ordinary soldiers' wives. Among white women in colonial India, it was the female missionaries who undoubtedly participated most closely in the colonial 'civilising mission'. The book addresses through a scrutiny of the literary works written by 'New Indian Women', such as Flora Annie Steel. Cross-racial gendered interactions were inflected by regional diversities, and the complexity of the category of the 'native woman'. The colonial household was a site of tension, and 'the anxieties of colonial rule manifest themselves most clearly in the home'. The dynamics of the memsahib-ayah relationship were rooted in race/class hierarchies, domestic power structures and predicated on the superiority of the colonising memsahib. The book also examines colonial medical texts, scrutinising how they wielded authoritative power over vulnerable young European women through the power/knowledge of their medical directives. Colonial discourse sought to project the white woman's vulnerability to specific mental health problems, as well as the problem of addiction of 'barrack wives'. Giving voice to the Indian woman, the book scrutinises the fiction of the first generation of western-educated Indian women who wrote in English, exploring their construction of white women and their negotiations with colonial modernities. This Book Seeks To Capture The Complex Experience Of The White Woman In Colonial India Through An Exploration Of Gendered Interactions Over The Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries. It Examines Missionary And Memsahibs' Colonial Writings, Both Literary And Non-literary, Probing Their Construction Of Indian Women Of Different Classes And Regions, Such As Zenana Women, Peasants, Ayahs And Wet-nurses. Also Examined Are Delineations Of European Female Health Issues In Male Authored Colonial Medical Handbooks, Which Underline The Misogyny Undergirding This Discourse. Giving Voice To The Indian Woman, This Book Also Scrutinises The Fiction Of The First Generation Of Western-educated Indian Women Who Wrote In English, Exploring Their Construction Of White Women And Their Negotiations With Colonial Modernities. This Fascinating Book Will Be Of Interest To The General Reader And To Experts And Students Of Gender Studies, Colonial History, Literary And Cultural Studies As Well As The Social History Of Health And Medicine. Front matter Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: The white woman and the ‘civilising mission’ The missionary ‘gaze’ and the ‘civilising mission’: zenana encounters in nineteenth-century Bengal Flora Annie Steel, social reform and female education in late nineteenth-century Punjab Returning the ‘gaze’: colonial encounters in Indian women’s English writings in late nineteenth-century western India PART II: Colonial domesticity, white women’s health and gender disadvantage The ambivalences of power inside the colonial home: memsahibs, ayahs and wet-nurses Marginalising the memsahib: the white woman’s health issues in colonial medical writings The colonial ‘female malady’: European women’s mental health and addiction in the late nineteenth century Conclusion Select bibliography Index Explores Indian gender issues through diverse sources including letters, memoirs, fiction, housekeeping manuals, and forgotten texts from the colonial archives. -- .