British Women Writers and India 1740-1857
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British Women Writers and India 1740-1857 II
July 01, 2007
REVIEWS: Ladies first
Reviewed by Zahrah Nasir
The diverse roles played by memsahibs in British India has come under intense scrutiny in the rather scholarly tome titled In Their Own Words: British Women Writers and India 1740-1857 by Rosemary Raza, a former member of the British diplomatic service who is married to a Pakistani national and was until recently settled in Pakistan.
This hardcover publication, adapted from material used for a doctoral thesis, examines the quality of life as experienced by British women, from various levels of society, who resided in the subcontinent during the period specified. Making extensive use of the published writings of 90 such women, Raza sets out to prove that the popular stereotype of brittle, bored and imperial females as widely portrayed in films and books is in fact true for only a small percentage of otherwise very enterprising individuals. Nonetheless, it is still true to say that the ‘benevolence’ bestowed by many of them on the ‘natives’ of the country in which they found themselves was largely to blame for the unenviable reputation they quickly acquired and which, sadly, lingers to the present day.
These women, married and unmarried, housewives, missionaries, travellers and some entrepreneurs arrived in India largely unprepared for the rigours of an existence so dissimilar to the comparatively narrow confines of the lives they previously led back at ‘home’. Initially out of their depth in the climatic, cultural, religious, culinary and linguistic cauldron which enveloped them from the very moment they stepped ashore, it soon became apparent that they must either “sink or swim”. These women were, unlike other foreign females, made to carry the can for what was an empire already facing the pressure of disintegration caused, not by housewives trying to recreate the standard of life which they were comfortable with, but by the John Company’s interference and exploitation of a subject realm and its indigenous peoples.
Raza begins her book with a very detailed introduction to the controversial ladies under discussion, out of necessity using more of her own words than theirs to present an historical guide to the socio-cultural and religio-political complexities existing at the time. In the first of eight meticulously researched chapters, Raza delves into the varied reasons for, and styles of, writing which first emerged from the pens of some truly historical characters. “You know how female authors are looked down upon.
The women fear and hate; the men ridicule and dislike them,” wrote Elizabeth Hamilton (1756-1816) who was initially wary of pursuing a literary career but who, nevertheless, went on to have an excellent one as a novelist after the publication of Letters of a Hindoo Rajah in 1796. Such women authors of the period played a major role in portraying life and times in India to eager readers in Britain although their views and opinions were often completely out of sync with “officialdom”.
These women were made to carry the can for what was an empire already facing the pressure of this integration caused by the John Company’s interference and exploitation of a subject realm and its indigenous peoples
The following two chapters, ‘The growing Anglo-Indian family’ and ‘Moulding society’ explore domestic life and the problems faced on a daily basis, the rituals of courtship and marriage in a community where men vastly outnumbered available women; ‘Motherhood and Children’ and the basic circumstances of a family life in which, all to often, children were sent back to Britain for a reasonable education.
‘The Outward Show’ makes for quite an interesting chapter but is vastly outclassed by the astonishing contents of ‘Beyond Domesticity: The Challenge of India’ in which the reader learns of an amazing lady, Mrs Hall, the wife of ‘a respectable barrister in Madras’ who actually took ‘command of a battalion in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad’ as was reported by prolific writer and artist Marianne Postans (1811- 1897). ‘She was handsome and courageous, and dressed in the Moslem fashion, with full trowsers, a flowing vest, having a Damascus sword, and a plumed helmet, and was well spoken of, and liked’ reported Postans who was one of the most informed ladies of her time in regard to all matters Indian.
Women travelers such as Fanny Parks (1794-1875) and Julia Harvey (1825- ?) openly flouted convention by exploring the length and breath of India and adjacent countries such as Tibet, China and Kashmir minus the presence of the socially required acceptable British male attendant and, in Harvey’s case, obtained quite a deplorable reputation due to her unchaperoned association with a string of officers.
Chapter six ‘Crossing boundaries’ deals with the relationship between British and Indian ladies, and the lack of understanding on both sides which was further complicated by the class and caste systems. This is followed by the chapter ‘Depicting India’ in which it becomes clear that a large percentage of British women there longed for ‘home’ and in the final chapter, ‘British Women and Colonial Authority’ Raza presents contrasting accounts of the status held by women, of how some of them ultimately rebelled against circumstances and spoke out against the military administration and even the British Empire as a whole, going as far as saying that the Mutiny of 1857 was inevitable.
In Their Own Words: British Women Writers and India 1740-1857 makes for interesting though in certain places, rather heavy and tedious reading. It seems to be more suitable for historians and ‘feminists’ rather than the general reader. This is not to say that the work isn’t worth studying.
The groundbreaking Biographical Index of women writers in particular serves to encourage the dedicated reader to search for reprints of original books which would really be ‘In Their Own Words’ minus the overload of well-intentioned scholarly observations.
In their Own Words: British Women Writers and India 1740-1857
By Rosemary Raza
OUP, New Delhi. Available with Oxford University Press,
Plot # 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi
Tel: 111-693-673
ouppak@theoffice.net
www.oup.com.pk
289pp. Rs976
