| Sex and the Family in Colonial India: Eight Indian Lives Contributor(s): Ghosh, Durba (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521673798 ISBN-13: 9780521673792 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $40.84 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2008 Annotation: In the early years of the British empire, cohabitation between Indian women and British men was commonplace and to some degree tolerated. However, as Durba Ghosh argues in a challenge to the existing historiography, anxieties about social status, appropriate sexuality, and the question of who could be counted as 'British' or 'Indian' were constant concerns of the colonial government even at this time. By following the stories of a number of mixed-race families, at all levels of the social scale, from high-ranking officials and noblewomen to rank-and-file soldiers and camp followers, and also the activities of indigenous female concubines, mistresses and wives, the author offers a fascinating account of how gender, class and race affected the cultural, social and even political mores of the period. The book makes an original and signal contribution to scholarship on colonialism, gender, and sexuality. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - India & South Asia - History | Europe - Great Britain - General - History | World - General |
| Dewey: 306.850 |
| Series: Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society |
| Physical Information: 0.66" H x 6" W x 9" (0.95 lbs) 292 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles - Cultural Region - Indian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In the early years of the British empire, cohabitation between Indian women and British men was commonplace and to some degree tolerated. However, as Durba Ghosh argues in a challenge to the existing historiography, anxieties about social status, appropriate sexuality, and the question of who could be counted as 'British' or 'Indian' were constant concerns of the colonial government even at this time. By following the stories of a number of mixed-race families, at all levels of the social scale, from high-ranking officials and noblewomen to rank-and-file soldiers and camp followers, and also the activities of indigenous female concubines, mistresses and wives, the author offers a fascinating account of how gender, class and race affected the cultural, social and even political mores of the period. The book makes an original and signal contribution to scholarship on colonialism, gender and sexuality. |
Contributor Bio(s): Ghosh, Durba: - Durba Ghosh is Assistant Professor in History at Cornell University. She has co-edited, with Dane Kennedy, Decentering Empire: Britain, India and the Transcolonial World (2006). |