Old words and new readings

The British Memsahib in colonial India has always been a reviled figure swathed in bonnets and gowns, refusing to mix with the natives and preventing the white man from blending into Indian society through inter-marriage. Her stubborn refusal to let Indians and Indian weather into her domestic life has been cited as one of the main reasons why the British remained a disparate imperial power unlike the Mughals who came to conquer but turned into India converts. Her resistance to the idea of Indian women marrying British men was traced to her fear of losing eligible white men to native girls.

Was this really the case? More to the point, did the British woman in India during the Raj have such an exalted social position that she could influence the imperial discourse to suit her objectives? Much of the power enjoyed by the British woman in India is attributed to the fact that she was in fact a rare presence on the subcontinent, and thus in command of social regard that far exceeded what was available back home. Was that really so, or coupled with this scarcity was the fact that the British woman was as much an imperial tool as the British man? If the grand goal was to establish a British social structure to reinforce the difference between the ruler and the ruled, it is hardly likely that the woman would choose to stymie the effort.

Rosemary Raza, the author of this book, argues that the British woman was just part of the imperial juggernaut, and came to be unfairly blamed for the nature of British rule in India.

Through a wide gamut of writing from women occupying various positions in the colonial social structure, Raza paints a vivid picture of British women that suggests strongly that they were indeed a better bridge than the men between the British and Indians. Women were allowed access to Indian women, and also interacted with Indian men in various social situations. If British domestic life in India was a replication of that in Britain, it was as much the need to assert colonial power as it was the need to retain a semblance of home.

Before the events of 1857 overtook British India, there was much interaction between the two cultures, and British women were as much a participant in it as the men, in fact more so since they were allowed access to the hidden world of the zenana. Their status as repositories of the highest ideals of British society actually made them targets during the 1857 revolt.

Raza is also able to bring out not just the narrowness of colonial life, but also the adventure of it. British women frequently travelled in India with an ease and freedom not available to them in Britain, and often displayed a suprising level of trust in Indian servants. The travel writing of Julia Harvey, who travelled to remote outposts like Ladakh, Tibet and Baltistan unchaperoned but for the company of her Indian servants, makes for good reading and also breaks the myth that British women were wilting lilies.

This book could be considered a continuation of the historical review of events through politically correct perspectives of the modern age, and yet to do so would be an injustice. Maybe it's time the ghost of the imperious and insular imperial memsahib was finally laid to rest.

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS
BRITISH WOMEN WRITERS AND INDIA 1740-1857

Rosemary Raza
Oxford University Press
Price: Rs 595; Pages: 288