The white women of colonial India wrote extensively; they maintained journals and diaries, wrote letters home, authored novels and penned their memoirs. This anthology brings together a fascinating collection of such writings written over the period 1820s–1920s, focusing on their relations with ‘native’ women.

The compilation draws on the experiences of medical missionaries, travellers, journalists and administrators’ wives and is organised around key sites of contact.

A comprehensive introduction by Indrani Sen places these writings in historical perspective.

1. Nautch Girls
2. Religions, Regions, Class and Caste
3. Female Attire
4. Princely Women
5. Wet-nurses and Ayahs
6. Purdah
7. Social Evils and Social Reform
8. Health in the Zenana
9. Female Education
10. Faithful Indian Wife
11. Indian Woman—White Man
12. Purdah Parties
13. The New Indian Woman
14. The Indian ‘Gaze’