Book Description

In the late nineteenth century, as dominance of British power in India led to the imposition of an alien culture on indigenous life-ways, the entire world of local domestic life and its most intimate relationships became contested ground. This anthology offers translated selections from nine Bengali domestic manuals written by both men and women in the course of these debates and contestations. In simple and often colloquial language these how to do it books act as guides to conducting relations within a family context, child rearing, and household management. Often presented in the form of an intimate dialogue between husband and wife in the dead of the night, the translations provide an unusual insight into the home of the Bengali bhadralok in colonial times. As one hurtles from one representation of middle-class reformism to another, it becomes clear that this anthology is an invaluable addition to the rather thin collection of translated primary sources of this period. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of gender studies, history, sociology, lay readers interested in the culture of the colonial period, as well as all informed women readers.