Learning femininity in colonial India, 1820-1932

354 Pages·2016·2.006 MB·English

by  Tim Allender

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General editor: Andrew S. Thompson
Founding editor: John M. MacKenzie
When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded
by Professor John M. MacKenzie more than thirty
years ago, emphasis was laid upon the conviction that
‘imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had as significant
an effect on the dominant as on the subordinate societies’.
With well over a hundred titles now published, this remains
the prime concern of the series. Cross-disciplinary work
has indeed appeared covering the full spectrum of cultural
phenomena, as well as examining aspects of gender and sex,
frontiers and law, science and the environment, language
and literature, migration and patriotic societies, and much
else. Moreover, the series has always wished to present
comparative work on European and American imperialism,
and particularly welcomes the submission of books in these
areas. The fascination with imperialism, in all its aspects,
shows no sign of abating, and this series will continue to
lead the way in encouraging the widest possible range of
studies in the field. ‘Studies in Imperialism’ is fully organic
in its development, always seeking to be at the cutting edge,
responding to the latest interests of scholars and the needs
of this ever-expanding area of scholarship.
Learning femininity in colonial India,
1820–1932
SELECTED TITLES AVAILABLE IN THE SERIES
WRITING IMPERIAL HISTORIES
ed. Andrew S. Thompson
MUSEUMS AND EMPIRE
Natural history, human cultures and colonial identities
John M. MacKenzie
MISSIONARY FAMILIES
Race, gender and generation on the spiritual frontier
Emily J. Manktelow
THE COLONISATION OF TIME
Ritual, routine and resistance in the British Empire
Giordano Nanni
BRITISH CULTURE AND THE END OF EMPIRE
ed. Stuart Ward
SCIENCE, RACE RELATIONS AND RESISTANCE
Britain, 1870–1914
Douglas A. Lorimer
GENTEEL WOMEN
Empire and domestic material culture, 1840–1910
Dianne Lawrence
EUROPEAN EMPIRES AND THE PEOPLE
Popular responses to imperialism in France, Britain, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Germany and Italy
ed. John M. MacKenzie
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
ed. Saul Dubow
Learning femininity

in colonial India,
1820–1932
Tim Allender
MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © Tim Allender 2016
The right of Tim Allender to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
ALTRINCHAM STREET, MANCHESTER M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 8579 6 hardback
First published 2016
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for
any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by Out of House Publishing
Frontispiece An accomplishments geography lesson learning about the
‘mother country’.
This book is dedicated to the memory of

Doris Embling
A lifelong mentor and much loved friend
CONTENTS

List of illustrations—viii
Preface and acknowledgements—ix
List of abbreviations—xiii
Glossary—xv
Introduction: learning femininity in colonial India, 1820–1932 1
1 Finding feminine scholars, 1820–65 39
2 Shaping a new Eurasian moral body, 1840–67 71
3 Mary Carpenter and feminine ‘rescue’ from Europe, 1866–77 91
4 Both sides of the mission wall, 1875–84 129
5 Female medical care: a new professional learning space,
1865–90 159
6 Feminine missionary medical professionalism and
secular medical feminists, 1880–1927 178
7 Code school accomplishments and Froebel: race and
pedagogy, 1883–1903 202
8 ‘Better mothers’: feminine and feminist educators and
thresholds of Indian female interaction, 1870–1932 233
9 Loreto and the paradigm of piety, 1890–1932 271
Conclusion 297
Bibliography—308
Index—327
ILLUSTRATIONS

Map: British India, 1915. xvii
1 Lithograph of Mary Ann Cooke’s central CMS girls’
school, Calcutta. 51
2 Lawrence Military Asylum, Sanawar. Eurasian girls
in the shade. 80
3 Mrs Priscilla Winter, SPG. 143
4 Mrs Margaret Elmslie and her rooftop zenana class. 152
5 Dr Frances Reid, a SPG Eurasian physician (in white
clinical European dress), taking the pulse of an Indian
patient with nurses looking on. 173
6 Going home: SPG-trained midwife with mother and baby. 186
7 Rosalie Harvey at Nasik in 1901 demonstrating a practical
way to treat leprosy ulcers. 195
8 Dow Hill Girls’ School, Kurseong. 218
9 A bilingual nature study class: sunflowers for little girls. 226
10 Loreto Darjeeling: middle-class schoolgirls taking in the
air in the hills. 280
11 A rare photograph of a Loreto woman religious bandaging
the head of a Hindu patient in a village near Morapai. 288