The lives of Indian women began to change significantly in the late nineteenth century when the colonial government, critical of the treatment of both Hindu and Muslim women, found allies among Indian reformers. Keen to reform their own society, these men agreed that women should be educated and play some role in public life. By the end of the nineteenth century, Indian women were attending schools and colleges, becoming teachers and doctors, writing works of fiction and essays about their condition, joining organizations to promote social reform, and participating in political meetings. They were referred to as "new women", and like the next generation who joined the freedom movement, they entered public spaces reserved for men.

This collection of essays on politics, medicine, and historiography is about these women, as participants in nationalist politics and colonial schemes to provide Western medicine for women, and as subjects of women's history. Among the first historians to research and write about the lives of Indian women, Geraldine Forbes utilizes personal accounts, oral history, and photographs alongside more conventional archival documents. The author's fascination with how people learn about, modify, and apply ideas and technology that come from outside their society is evident in these essays.