Down memory lane: Representations of domestic workers in middle class personal narratives of colonial Bengal

Journal of Social History

Volumn 37, Issue 3, 2004, Pages

  Banerjee, Swapna M ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA   (United States)

^b Department of History ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1942539333     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2004.0001     Document Type: Review

References (141)

1. Bruce Robbins, The Servant's Hand English Fictions From Below (New York, 1986).
2. See Census of India, 1911, vol. 1, India, Part I, Report by E.A. Gait. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1913. Census of India, 1921, vol. 1, India. Part I, Report by J.T. Marten (Calcutta, 1924); Census of India, 1931, vol. V, Bengal and Sikkim, Part I, Report by A. E. Porter (Calcutta, 1933).
3. See Census of India, 1911, vol. 1, India, Part I, Report by E.A. Gait. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1913. Census of India, 1921, vol. 1, India. Part I, Report by J.T. Marten (Calcutta, 1924); Census of India, 1931, vol. V, Bengal and Sikkim, Part I, Report by A. E. Porter (Calcutta, 1933).
4. See Census of India, 1911, vol. 1, India, Part I, Report by E.A. Gait. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1913. Census of India, 1921, vol. 1, India. Part I, Report by J.T. Marten (Calcutta, 1924); Census of India, 1931, vol. V, Bengal and Sikkim, Part I, Report by A. E. Porter (Calcutta, 1933).
5. Census of India, 1911, vol. 1, India, Part 1. Part I, Report by E.A. Gait (Calcutta, 1913).
6. See Kathleen Adams & Sarah Dickey eds., Home and Hegemony: Domestic Service and Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor, 2000). Some other leading works on lower social groups in Bengal are Sumanta Banerjee, Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century Bengal (Calcutta, 1998). Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law (New Delhi, 1999). Leela Fernandez, Producing Workers: the Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills (Philadelphia, 1997). Raka Ray, "Masculinity, Femininity, and Servitude: Domestic Workers in Calcutta in th eTwentieth Century" in Feminist Studies 26: 3 (2000). Samita Sen, Women and Labor in Late Colonial India: the Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge, UK, 1999).
7. See Kathleen Adams & Sarah Dickey eds., Home and Hegemony: Domestic Service and Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor, 2000). Some other leading works on lower social groups in Bengal are Sumanta Banerjee, Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century Bengal (Calcutta, 1998). Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law (New Delhi, 1999). Leela Fernandez, Producing Workers: the Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills (Philadelphia, 1997). Raka Ray, "Masculinity, Femininity, and Servitude: Domestic Workers in Calcutta in th eTwentieth Century" in Feminist Studies 26: 3 (2000). Samita Sen, Women and Labor in Late Colonial India: the Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge, UK, 1999).
8. See Kathleen Adams & Sarah Dickey eds., Home and Hegemony: Domestic Service and Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor, 2000). Some other leading works on lower social groups in Bengal are Sumanta Banerjee, Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century Bengal (Calcutta, 1998). Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law (New Delhi, 1999). Leela Fernandez, Producing Workers: the Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills (Philadelphia, 1997). Raka Ray, "Masculinity, Femininity, and Servitude: Domestic Workers in Calcutta in th eTwentieth Century" in Feminist Studies 26: 3 (2000). Samita Sen, Women and Labor in Late Colonial India: the Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge, UK, 1999).
9. See Kathleen Adams & Sarah Dickey eds., Home and Hegemony: Domestic Service and Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor, 2000). Some other leading works on lower social groups in Bengal are Sumanta Banerjee, Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century Bengal (Calcutta, 1998). Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law (New Delhi, 1999). Leela Fernandez, Producing Workers: the Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills (Philadelphia, 1997). Raka Ray, "Masculinity, Femininity, and Servitude: Domestic Workers in Calcutta in th eTwentieth Century" in Feminist Studies 26: 3 (2000). Samita Sen, Women and Labor in Late Colonial India: the Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge, UK, 1999).
10. See Kathleen Adams & Sarah Dickey eds., Home and Hegemony: Domestic Service and Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor, 2000). Some other leading works on lower social groups in Bengal are Sumanta Banerjee, Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century Bengal (Calcutta, 1998). Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law (New Delhi, 1999). Leela Fernandez, Producing Workers: the Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills (Philadelphia, 1997). Raka Ray, "Masculinity, Femininity, and Servitude: Domestic Workers in Calcutta in th eTwentieth Century" in Feminist Studies 26: 3 (2000). Samita Sen, Women and Labor in Late Colonial India: the Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge, UK, 1999).
11. See Kathleen Adams & Sarah Dickey eds., Home and Hegemony: Domestic Service and Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor, 2000). Some other leading works on lower social groups in Bengal are Sumanta Banerjee, Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitutes in Nineteenth Century Bengal (Calcutta, 1998). Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law (New Delhi, 1999). Leela Fernandez, Producing Workers: the Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills (Philadelphia, 1997). Raka Ray, "Masculinity, Femininity, and Servitude: Domestic Workers in Calcutta in th eTwentieth Century" in Feminist Studies 26: 3 (2000). Samita Sen, Women and Labor in Late Colonial India: the Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge, UK, 1999).
12. Meredith Borthwick, The Changing Role of Women in Bengal 1849-1905 (Princeton, 1984).
13. Radhika Singha, A Despotism of Law: Crime and Justice in Early Colonial India (Delhi, 1998).
14. Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law (Delhi, 1999).
15. See for example Adams and Dickey (2000) and Ray (2000) mentioned above for the contemporary period. For the colonial period see Tanika Sarkar "The Hindu Wife and the Hindu Nation: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal" in Studies in History, 8, 2, n.s. (1992) and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question" in Kumkum Sangari & Sudesh Vaid eds. Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick, NJ, 1990); and "The Nationalist Elite" in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, NJ, 1993).
16. See for example Adams and Dickey (2000) and Ray (2000) mentioned above for the contemporary period. For the colonial period see Tanika Sarkar "The Hindu Wife and the Hindu Nation: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal" in Studies in History, 8, 2, n.s. (1992) and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question" in Kumkum Sangari & Sudesh Vaid eds. Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick, NJ, 1990); and "The Nationalist Elite" in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, NJ, 1993).
17. See for example Adams and Dickey (2000) and Ray (2000) mentioned above for the contemporary period. For the colonial period see Tanika Sarkar "The Hindu Wife and the Hindu Nation: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal" in Studies in History, 8, 2, n.s. (1992) and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question" in Kumkum Sangari & Sudesh Vaid eds. Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick, NJ, 1990); and "The Nationalist Elite" in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, NJ, 1993).
18. Indrani Chatterjee's work mentioned above is an exception to that trend but it spanned across the early colonial period and was restricted to the study of a noble house-hold.
19. See Partha Chatterjee, op. cit.
20. This is a problem faced by most scholars working on subaltern population. See for example, Karen Tranberg Hansen who expresses similar concern in her work Distant Companions, Servants and Employers in Zambia, 1900-1985 (Ithaca, NY, 1989).
21. Authors working on servants in different regions of the world have discussed the common problem of invisibility of servants in recent scholarship. For discussion of servant's low status and their consequent neglect in scholarly work, see Jacklyn Cock, Maids and Madams: Domestic Workers Under Apartheid (London, 1989; first published 1980); Shellee Cohen, "Just a Little Respect: West Indian Domestic Servants in New York City" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More: Household Workers in the Latin America and the Caribbean (Philadelphia, 1989); Patricia Mohamed, "Domestic Workers in the Caribbean" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More; Judith Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers (Philadelphia, 1985); V. Tellis-Nayak, "Power and Solidarity: Clientage in Domestic Service," Current Anthropology, 23:1 (Feb. 1982): 67-79.
22. Authors working on servants in different regions of the world have discussed the common problem of invisibility of servants in recent scholarship. For discussion of servant's low status and their consequent neglect in scholarly work, see Jacklyn Cock, Maids and Madams: Domestic Workers Under Apartheid (London, 1989; first published 1980); Shellee Cohen, "Just a Little Respect: West Indian Domestic Servants in New York City" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More: Household Workers in the Latin America and the Caribbean (Philadelphia, 1989); Patricia Mohamed, "Domestic Workers in the Caribbean" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More; Judith Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers (Philadelphia, 1985); V. Tellis-Nayak, "Power and Solidarity: Clientage in Domestic Service," Current Anthropology, 23:1 (Feb. 1982): 67-79.
23. Authors working on servants in different regions of the world have discussed the common problem of invisibility of servants in recent scholarship. For discussion of servant's low status and their consequent neglect in scholarly work, see Jacklyn Cock, Maids and Madams: Domestic Workers Under Apartheid (London, 1989; first published 1980); Shellee Cohen, "Just a Little Respect: West Indian Domestic Servants in New York City" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More: Household Workers in the Latin America and the Caribbean (Philadelphia, 1989); Patricia Mohamed, "Domestic Workers in the Caribbean" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More; Judith Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers (Philadelphia, 1985); V. Tellis-Nayak, "Power and Solidarity: Clientage in Domestic Service," Current Anthropology, 23:1 (Feb. 1982): 67-79.
24. Authors working on servants in different regions of the world have discussed the common problem of invisibility of servants in recent scholarship. For discussion of servant's low status and their consequent neglect in scholarly work, see Jacklyn Cock, Maids and Madams: Domestic Workers Under Apartheid (London, 1989; first published 1980); Shellee Cohen, "Just a Little Respect: West Indian Domestic Servants in New York City" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More: Household Workers in the Latin America and the Caribbean (Philadelphia, 1989); Patricia Mohamed, "Domestic Workers in the Caribbean" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More; Judith Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers (Philadelphia, 1985); V. Tellis-Nayak, "Power and Solidarity: Clientage in Domestic Service," Current Anthropology, 23:1 (Feb. 1982): 67-79.
25. Authors working on servants in different regions of the world have discussed the common problem of invisibility of servants in recent scholarship. For discussion of servant's low status and their consequent neglect in scholarly work, see Jacklyn Cock, Maids and Madams: Domestic Workers Under Apartheid (London, 1989; first published 1980); Shellee Cohen, "Just a Little Respect: West Indian Domestic Servants in New York City" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More: Household Workers in the Latin America and the Caribbean (Philadelphia, 1989); Patricia Mohamed, "Domestic Workers in the Caribbean" in Elsa Chaney & Mary Garcia Castro eds., Muchachas No More; Judith Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers (Philadelphia, 1985); V. Tellis-Nayak, "Power and Solidarity: Clientage in Domestic Service," Current Anthropology, 23:1 (Feb. 1982): 67-79.
26. In the United States of America, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), actively concerned with problems of domestic service, formed its first Commission on Household Employment in 1915. The National Women's Trade Union League passed the resolution "Standardization of Domestic Service" in 1919. Under the aegis and initiative of YWCA, National Committee on Employer-Employee Relationships was formed in 1928. Their records have been used by scholars to analyse domestic employment relationships in the U.S. See Phyllis Palmer, Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945 (Philadelphia, 1989); Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and their Employers. For records left by servants, the classic example is Liz Stanley, ed. The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant (London, 1984). Among others are: Peter Beard, collector, Longing for Darkness: Kamante's Tales from Out of Africa, with Original Photographs (January 1914-July 1931) and Quotations from Isak Dinesen (New York, 1975); Hans C. and Judith-Maria Buechler, Carmen: The Autobiography of a Spanish Galician Woman (Cambridge, Mass., 1981); Elsa Joubart's recording of Poppie's story is a remarkable addition in this genre: The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena (Johannesburg, 1980).
27. In the United States of America, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), actively concerned with problems of domestic service, formed its first Commission on Household Employment in 1915. The National Women's Trade Union League passed the resolution "Standardization of Domestic Service" in 1919. Under the aegis and initiative of YWCA, National Committee on Employer-Employee Relationships was formed in 1928. Their records have been used by scholars to analyse domestic employment relationships in the U.S. See Phyllis Palmer, Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945 (Philadelphia, 1989); Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and their Employers. For records left by servants, the classic example is Liz Stanley, ed. The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant (London, 1984). Among others are: Peter Beard, collector, Longing for Darkness: Kamante's Tales from Out of Africa, with Original Photographs (January 1914-July 1931) and Quotations from Isak Dinesen (New York, 1975); Hans C. and Judith-Maria Buechler, Carmen: The Autobiography of a Spanish Galician Woman (Cambridge, Mass., 1981); Elsa Joubart's recording of Poppie's story is a remarkable addition in this genre: The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena (Johannesburg, 1980).
28. In the United States of America, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), actively concerned with problems of domestic service, formed its first Commission on Household Employment in 1915. The National Women's Trade Union League passed the resolution "Standardization of Domestic Service" in 1919. Under the aegis and initiative of YWCA, National Committee on Employer-Employee Relationships was formed in 1928. Their records have been used by scholars to analyse domestic employment relationships in the U.S. See Phyllis Palmer, Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945 (Philadelphia, 1989); Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and their Employers. For records left by servants, the classic example is Liz Stanley, ed. The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant (London, 1984). Among others are: Peter Beard, collector, Longing for Darkness: Kamante's Tales from Out of Africa, with Original Photographs (January 1914-July 1931) and Quotations from Isak Dinesen (New York, 1975); Hans C. and Judith-Maria Buechler, Carmen: The Autobiography of a Spanish Galician Woman (Cambridge, Mass., 1981); Elsa Joubart's recording of Poppie's story is a remarkable addition in this genre: The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena (Johannesburg, 1980).
29. In the United States of America, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), actively concerned with problems of domestic service, formed its first Commission on Household Employment in 1915. The National Women's Trade Union League passed the resolution "Standardization of Domestic Service" in 1919. Under the aegis and initiative of YWCA, National Committee on Employer-Employee Relationships was formed in 1928. Their records have been used by scholars to analyse domestic employment relationships in the U.S. See Phyllis Palmer, Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945 (Philadelphia, 1989); Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and their Employers. For records left by servants, the classic example is Liz Stanley, ed. The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant (London, 1984). Among others are: Peter Beard, collector, Longing for Darkness: Kamante's Tales from Out of Africa, with Original Photographs (January 1914-July 1931) and Quotations from Isak Dinesen (New York, 1975); Hans C. and Judith-Maria Buechler, Carmen: The Autobiography of a Spanish Galician Woman (Cambridge, Mass., 1981); Elsa Joubart's recording of Poppie's story is a remarkable addition in this genre: The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena (Johannesburg, 1980).
30. In the United States of America, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), actively concerned with problems of domestic service, formed its first Commission on Household Employment in 1915. The National Women's Trade Union League passed the resolution "Standardization of Domestic Service" in 1919. Under the aegis and initiative of YWCA, National Committee on Employer-Employee Relationships was formed in 1928. Their records have been used by scholars to analyse domestic employment relationships in the U.S. See Phyllis Palmer, Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945 (Philadelphia, 1989); Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and their Employers. For records left by servants, the classic example is Liz Stanley, ed. The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant (London, 1984). Among others are: Peter Beard, collector, Longing for Darkness: Kamante's Tales from Out of Africa, with Original Photographs (January 1914-July 1931) and Quotations from Isak Dinesen (New York, 1975); Hans C. and Judith-Maria Buechler, Carmen: The Autobiography of a Spanish Galician Woman (Cambridge, Mass., 1981); Elsa Joubart's recording of Poppie's story is a remarkable addition in this genre: The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena (Johannesburg, 1980).
31. In the United States of America, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), actively concerned with problems of domestic service, formed its first Commission on Household Employment in 1915. The National Women's Trade Union League passed the resolution "Standardization of Domestic Service" in 1919. Under the aegis and initiative of YWCA, National Committee on Employer-Employee Relationships was formed in 1928. Their records have been used by scholars to analyse domestic employment relationships in the U.S. See Phyllis Palmer, Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945 (Philadelphia, 1989); Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and their Employers. For records left by servants, the classic example is Liz Stanley, ed. The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant (London, 1984). Among others are: Peter Beard, collector, Longing for Darkness: Kamante's Tales from Out of Africa, with Original Photographs (January 1914-July 1931) and Quotations from Isak Dinesen (New York, 1975); Hans C. and Judith-Maria Buechler, Carmen: The Autobiography of a Spanish Galician Woman (Cambridge, Mass., 1981); Elsa Joubart's recording of Poppie's story is a remarkable addition in this genre: The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena (Johannesburg, 1980).
32. This paper draws its sources mainly from Hindu and Brahmo writers who constituted a significant proportion of the Bengali middle class. A similar process of hiring of domestic workers as a sign of gaining respectability was also at work in Muslim households of colonial Bengal. See for example Taslima Nasrin's recent memoir Amar Meyebela (Calcutta, 2000).
33. See Rayna Rapp, "Examining Family History" in Feminist Studies, vol. 5, #1 (1979), 174-200.
34. See Maitreyi Krishnaraj and Karuna Chanana eds. Gender and the Household Domain and Cultural Dimensions (New Delhi,/London, 1989). pp. 17-30.
35. For negative portrayals of servants focusing on such issues as sexuality, dishonesty, etc. in middle-class autobiographies see my article "Subverting the Moral Universe: Analyzing 'Narratives of Transgression' in the Construction of Bengali Middle-Class Identity" in Crispin Bates ed. Beyond Representations: Construction of Indian Identity (forthcoming)
36. Based on an article by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak there is a reigning debate in the field whether subalterns can speak or not. See Gayatri Chakrabarty Spivak, "Can Subaltern Speak?" in Carey Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg eds. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (Urbana, 1988), pp. 271-313. For an interesting spin on Spivak's argument see Kamala Visweswaran's "Small Speeches, Subaltern Gender: Nationalist Ideology and Its Historiography" in Shahid Amin and Dipesh Chakrabarty eds. Subaltern Studies IX (Delhi, 1996), pp. 83-125.
37. Based on an article by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak there is a reigning debate in the field whether subalterns can speak or not. See Gayatri Chakrabarty Spivak, "Can Subaltern Speak?" in Carey Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg eds. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (Urbana, 1988), pp. 271-313. For an interesting spin on Spivak's argument see Kamala Visweswaran's "Small Speeches, Subaltern Gender: Nationalist Ideology and Its Historiography" in Shahid Amin and Dipesh Chakrabarty eds. Subaltern Studies IX (Delhi, 1996), pp. 83-125.
38. The Tagores, who came to reside in Jorasanko in North Calcutta around 1784, were one of the aristocratic families of early Calcutta. Members of this family such as Dwarkanath Tagore, one of the leading Indian entrepreneurs, developed close business ties with the British. Dwarkanath was also a pioneering member of leading Indian assoications such as the Landholder's Society. In the nineteenth century Dwarkanath's son, and Rabindranath's father, Debendranath became involved in the leadership of the Brahmo movement in Calcutta. In many respects the Tagore family of Jorasanko was the culture-builder and the trendsetter of contemporaneous middle class in Calcutta. See Blair Kling, Partners in Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in Eastern India (Berkeley, 1976).
39. The importance that the Brahmos attached to caste was evident from the accounts of Rabindranath Tagore himself. On his way to the zamindari estate of Selaidah in Eastern Bengal Rabindranath wrote a letter to his wife Mrinalini Debi in a somewhat funny but confessional mode that he brought with him a part-time Brahmin cook at a rather high rate (one rupee a day). He exhorted in a tone of sarcasm that he was paying the cook so highly because being a Brahmin how could he eat food cooked by a non-Brahmin servant! See Rabindranath Tagore, Chithipatra, vol. 1. Letter # 32 written to Mrinalini Debi in 1901 from Kustia on his way to Selaidaha (Calcutta, 1993). Another interesting case in point was the encounter between Ramtanu Lahiri, an activitist Brahmo leader and the famous Hindu social reformer Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, where Ramtanu insisted on finding a Brahmin cook. It is both revealing and ironic that despite the community's avowed repudiation of casteism, such prominent Brahmo members as Rabindranath Tagore and Ramtanu Lahiri could not transcend the caste rules in their daily practices. For more on this see Indra Mitra, Karunasagar Vidyasagar (Calcutta, 1992), p. 343. For a detailed discussion of caste issues for hiring of servants see my "A Genealogy of Servants: Dominance and Subordination in Households of Colonial Bengal" in Men, Women, and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal (forthcoming).
40. The importance that the Brahmos attached to caste was evident from the accounts of Rabindranath Tagore himself. On his way to the zamindari estate of Selaidah in Eastern Bengal Rabindranath wrote a letter to his wife Mrinalini Debi in a somewhat funny but confessional mode that he brought with him a part-time Brahmin cook at a rather high rate (one rupee a day). He exhorted in a tone of sarcasm that he was paying the cook so highly because being a Brahmin how could he eat food cooked by a non-Brahmin servant! See Rabindranath Tagore, Chithipatra, vol. 1. Letter # 32 written to Mrinalini Debi in 1901 from Kustia on his way to Selaidaha (Calcutta, 1993). Another interesting case in point was the encounter between Ramtanu Lahiri, an activitist Brahmo leader and the famous Hindu social reformer Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, where Ramtanu insisted on finding a Brahmin cook. It is both revealing and ironic that despite the community's avowed repudiation of casteism, such prominent Brahmo members as Rabindranath Tagore and Ramtanu Lahiri could not transcend the caste rules in their daily practices. For more on this see Indra Mitra, Karunasagar Vidyasagar (Calcutta, 1992), p. 343. For a detailed discussion of caste issues for hiring of servants see my "A Genealogy of Servants: Dominance and Subordination in Households of Colonial Bengal" in Men, Women, and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal (forthcoming).
41. The importance that the Brahmos attached to caste was evident from the accounts of Rabindranath Tagore himself. On his way to the zamindari estate of Selaidah in Eastern Bengal Rabindranath wrote a letter to his wife Mrinalini Debi in a somewhat funny but confessional mode that he brought with him a part-time Brahmin cook at a rather high rate (one rupee a day). He exhorted in a tone of sarcasm that he was paying the cook so highly because being a Brahmin how could he eat food cooked by a non-Brahmin servant! See Rabindranath Tagore, Chithipatra, vol. 1. Letter # 32 written to Mrinalini Debi in 1901 from Kustia on his way to Selaidaha (Calcutta, 1993). Another interesting case in point was the encounter between Ramtanu Lahiri, an activitist Brahmo leader and the famous Hindu social reformer Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, where Ramtanu insisted on finding a Brahmin cook. It is both revealing and ironic that despite the community's avowed repudiation of casteism, such prominent Brahmo members as Rabindranath Tagore and Ramtanu Lahiri could not transcend the caste rules in their daily practices. For more on this see Indra Mitra, Karunasagar Vidyasagar (Calcutta, 1992), p. 343. For a detailed discussion of caste issues for hiring of servants see my "A Genealogy of Servants: Dominance and Subordination in Households of Colonial Bengal" in Men, Women, and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal (forthcoming).
42. Sumit Sarkar, "The City Imagined: Calcutta of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries" in Writing Social History (Delhi, 1998), pp. 159-185.
43. S.N. Mukherjee, "Classs, Caste and Politics in Calcutta, 1815- 1838" in Calcutta: Essays in Urban History, (Calcutta, 1993).
44. Pradip Sinha, Calcutta in Urban History (Calcutta, 1978).
45. S.N. Mukherjee, Op. cit.
46. Bhabicharan Bandyopadhyaya, Kalikata Kamalalaya (Calcutta: Samachar Chandrika, original pub 1230 B.S. [1823]) pp. 7-8. Reprinted in Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyaya (1787-1848), Rasrachanasamagra. (Calcutta, 1987). Also cited in S.N. Mukherjee, Calcutta: Essays in urban History (Calcutta, 1993).
47. Bhabicharan Bandyopadhyaya, Kalikata Kamalalaya (Calcutta: Samachar Chandrika, original pub 1230 B.S. [1823]) pp. 7-8. Reprinted in Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyaya (1787-1848), Rasrachanasamagra. (Calcutta, 1987). Also cited in S.N. Mukherjee, Calcutta: Essays in urban History (Calcutta, 1993).
48. Bhabicharan Bandyopadhyaya, Kalikata Kamalalaya (Calcutta: Samachar Chandrika, original pub 1230 B.S. [1823]) pp. 7-8. Reprinted in Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyaya (1787-1848), Rasrachanasamagra. (Calcutta, 1987). Also cited in S.N. Mukherjee, Calcutta: Essays in urban History (Calcutta, 1993).
49. See both Sumit Sarkar (1998) and S.N. Mukherjee (1993) cited above.
50. See Rajat K. Ray, Social Conflict and Political Unrest in Bengal 1875-1927 (Delhi, 1984).
51. The Swadeshi movement of 1905 was launched against Viceroy Lord Curzon's plan to divide Bengal into two separate provinces: the Hindu dominated Western Bengal and the Muslim dominated Eastern Bengal. Although the pretext for the partition was administrative convenience, it was a classic example of the deployment of the British policy of "divide and rule." For more on Swadeshi movement see Sumit Sarkar, Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903-1908 (New Delhi, 1973).
52. Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay, Kolikata Kamalalaya (Calcutta: Samachar Chandrika, 1230 BS. [1823]).
53. S.N. Mukherjee, Op. cit.
54. Meredith Borthwick, Op. cit.
55. See Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography (New Delhi, 1999); "The Hindu Wife and the Hindu Nation: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal" in Studies in History, 8, 2, n.s. (1992). Also see Malabika.Karlekar, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991) and Meredith Borthwick, Changing Role of Women in Bengal, cited above.
56. See Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography (New Delhi, 1999); "The Hindu Wife and the Hindu Nation: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal" in Studies in History, 8, 2, n.s. (1992). Also see Malabika.Karlekar, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991) and Meredith Borthwick, Changing Role of Women in Bengal, cited above.
57. See Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography (New Delhi, 1999); "The Hindu Wife and the Hindu Nation: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal" in Studies in History, 8, 2, n.s. (1992). Also see Malabika.Karlekar, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991) and Meredith Borthwick, Changing Role of Women in Bengal, cited above.
58. See Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography (New Delhi, 1999); "The Hindu Wife and the Hindu Nation: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal" in Studies in History, 8, 2, n.s. (1992). Also see Malabika.Karlekar, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991) and Meredith Borthwick, Changing Role of Women in Bengal, cited above.
59. Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question" in Sangari & Vaid eds. Recasting Women (New Brunswick, NJ, 1990), pp. 233-253.
60. Sumanta Banerjee, "Marginalization of Women's Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta" in Sangari and Vaid eds. Recasting Women, pp. 127-179.
61. Sumanta Banerjee, "The World of Ramjan Ostagar: The Common Man of Old Calcutta" in Sukanta Chaudhury ed. Calcutta The Living City, vol. 1 Past, (Calcutta, 1990), pp. 76-84.
62. Nirmala Banerjee, "Working Women in Colonial Bengal: Modernization and Marginalization" in Sangari and Vaid eds. Recasting Women, pp. 269-301.
63. Census of India 1931, vol. V, Bengal and Sikkim, Part I, Report by A. E. Porter (Calcutta, 1933).
64. See Samita Sen, Women and Labor in Late Colonial India: the Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge, UK, 1999), and Nirmala Banerjee, op. cit.
65. See Samita Sen, Women and Labor in Late Colonial India: the Bengal Jute Industry (Cambridge, UK, 1999), and Nirmala Banerjee, op. cit.
66. It is important to note that the same three words are also used to explain the meaning of servant in Haricharan Bandyopadhyay ed. Bangiya Shabdakosh (Calcutta, 1966).
67. For an insightful analysis of the definitional struggle with slavery see Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India (Delhi, 1999), pp. 1-5.
68. Gideon Colquhoun Sconce, A Handy Book on the Law of Master and Servant (Calcutta, 1870), p. 2.
69. The examples cited above are a very limited list of the wide range of servants that prevailed in colonial Bengal.
70. The caste and ethnic composition of the servants were as varied as that of the nature of their work. For various socio-cultural and ethnic reasons pinning down the actual caste background of the domestic workers is highly enigmatic. As Mahendranath Datta (1929) pointed out in his social commentary on old Calcutta, until about the twentieth century most of the servants hired in the Bengali families came from Bengal proper and belonged mainly to the Kaibarta caste of Midnapore and Aguri caste of Burdwan district in current West Bengal. Besides, there was a Kayastha caste in Midnapore, known as Kast or Banshkaet, who also worked as servants. Maids too came from these castes. From the turn of the century domestic workers started coming out from Bihar, Orissa, and the United Provinces (Census of India 1911, 1921, 1931). For a detailed breakdown of the caste composition of the domestic workers see my "A Genealogy of Servants: Dominance and Subordination in Households of Early Calcutta - Eighteenth through Twentieth Centuries" in Men, Women, and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal, Oxford University Press, 2004, forthcoming.
71. For a thorough discussion on advice manuals and domestic workers see my article "Domestic Manuals on Mistress-Servant Relationships: Constructing Bengali Middle-Class Identity through Appropriate Codes of Conduct" in Modern Historical Studies, vol. 2 (June-July 2001). Also see Judith E. Walsh, "What Women Learned When Men Gave Them Advice: Rewriting Patriarchy in Late Nineteenth-Century Bengal" in The Journal of Asian Studies, 56, # 3 (August 1997): 641-677.
72. For a thorough discussion on advice manuals and domestic workers see my article "Domestic Manuals on Mistress-Servant Relationships: Constructing Bengali Middle-Class Identity through Appropriate Codes of Conduct" in Modern Historical Studies, vol. 2 (June-July 2001). Also see Judith E. Walsh, "What Women Learned When Men Gave Them Advice: Rewriting Patriarchy in Late Nineteenth-Century Bengal" in The Journal of Asian Studies, 56, # 3 (August 1997): 641-677.
73. All translations from Bengali, except otherwise stated, are mine.
74. See Ambikacharan Gupta, Grihastha Jivan: Amulya Jnan Bhandar (Calcutta, 1887). Some other important domestic manuals of colonial Bengal are Dineshchandra Sen, Grihasree (Calcutta, 1925); Anandachandra Sen Gupta, Grihinir Kartavya (Calcutta, no date indicated); Ishanchandra Basu, Jananir Kartavya (Calcutta, 1920); Satishchandra Chakrabarty, Lalana-Suhrid (Calcutta, 1847).
75. See Ambikacharan Gupta, Grihastha Jivan: Amulya Jnan Bhandar (Calcutta, 1887). Some other important domestic manuals of colonial Bengal are Dineshchandra Sen, Grihasree (Calcutta, 1925); Anandachandra Sen Gupta, Grihinir Kartavya (Calcutta, no date indicated); Ishanchandra Basu, Jananir Kartavya (Calcutta, 1920); Satishchandra Chakrabarty, Lalana-Suhrid (Calcutta, 1847).
76. See Ambikacharan Gupta, Grihastha Jivan: Amulya Jnan Bhandar (Calcutta, 1887). Some other important domestic manuals of colonial Bengal are Dineshchandra Sen, Grihasree (Calcutta, 1925); Anandachandra Sen Gupta, Grihinir Kartavya (Calcutta, no date indicated); Ishanchandra Basu, Jananir Kartavya (Calcutta, 1920); Satishchandra Chakrabarty, Lalana-Suhrid (Calcutta, 1847).
77. See Ambikacharan Gupta, Grihastha Jivan: Amulya Jnan Bhandar (Calcutta, 1887). Some other important domestic manuals of colonial Bengal are Dineshchandra Sen, Grihasree (Calcutta, 1925); Anandachandra Sen Gupta, Grihinir Kartavya (Calcutta, no date indicated); Ishanchandra Basu, Jananir Kartavya (Calcutta, 1920); Satishchandra Chakrabarty, Lalana-Suhrid (Calcutta, 1847).
78. See Ambikacharan Gupta, Grihastha Jivan: Amulya Jnan Bhandar (Calcutta, 1887). Some other important domestic manuals of colonial Bengal are Dineshchandra Sen, Grihasree (Calcutta, 1925); Anandachandra Sen Gupta, Grihinir Kartavya (Calcutta, no date indicated); Ishanchandra Basu, Jananir Kartavya (Calcutta, 1920); Satishchandra Chakrabarty, Lalana-Suhrid (Calcutta, 1847).
79. See Ann Stoler, "Domestic Subversions and Children's Sexuality" in Race and the Education of Desire (Durham, NC, 1995), pp. 137-164. James Clifford, Predicament of Culture (Cambridge, Mass, 1988); Also see, Karen Tranberg Hansen, ed., African Encounters with Domesticity (New Brunswick, NJ, 1992). Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, "Below Stairs: the Maid and the Family Romance" in The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (Ithaca, NY, 1986), pp. 149-170.
80. See Ann Stoler, "Domestic Subversions and Children's Sexuality" in Race and the Education of Desire (Durham, NC, 1995), pp. 137-164. James Clifford, Predicament of Culture (Cambridge, Mass, 1988); Also see, Karen Tranberg Hansen, ed., African Encounters with Domesticity (New Brunswick, NJ, 1992). Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, "Below Stairs: the Maid and the Family Romance" in The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (Ithaca, NY, 1986), pp. 149-170.
81. See Ann Stoler, "Domestic Subversions and Children's Sexuality" in Race and the Education of Desire (Durham, NC, 1995), pp. 137-164. James Clifford, Predicament of Culture (Cambridge, Mass, 1988); Also see, Karen Tranberg Hansen, ed., African Encounters with Domesticity (New Brunswick, NJ, 1992). Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, "Below Stairs: the Maid and the Family Romance" in The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (Ithaca, NY, 1986), pp. 149-170.
82. See Ann Stoler, "Domestic Subversions and Children's Sexuality" in Race and the Education of Desire (Durham, NC, 1995), pp. 137-164. James Clifford, Predicament of Culture (Cambridge, Mass, 1988); Also see, Karen Tranberg Hansen, ed., African Encounters with Domesticity (New Brunswick, NJ, 1992). Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, "Below Stairs: the Maid and the Family Romance" in The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (Ithaca, NY, 1986), pp. 149-170.
83. For a detailed discussion of care-giving and different areas of intimacies between domestic workers and employers see my chapter "Remembering and Writing the Subaltern: Bengali Middle Class Recalls and Represents Domestic Workers" in Men, Women, and Domestic Workers; Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal, forthcoming.
84. Although we know from other sources such as family records and manuals that there was a power differential between male and female servants and that the males ranked higher in the hierarchy of servants, the personal narratives under consideration do not register such differences. In the same way the theme of sexuality of servants and the question of sexual exploitation are also suppressed in these narratives. For detailed treatment of such themes see my "A Genealogy of Servants: Dominance and Subordination in Households of Early Calcutta - Eighteenth through Twentieth Centuries" in Men, Women, and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal (forthcoming) and "Subverting the Moral Universe: Narratives of Transgression in the Construction of Bengali Middle-class Identity" in Crispin Bates ed. Beyond Representation: Construction of Indian Identity, forthcoming.
85. Although we know from other sources such as family records and manuals that there was a power differential between male and female servants and that the males ranked higher in the hierarchy of servants, the personal narratives under consideration do not register such differences. In the same way the theme of sexuality of servants and the question of sexual exploitation are also suppressed in these narratives. For detailed treatment of such themes see my "A Genealogy of Servants: Dominance and Subordination in Households of Early Calcutta - Eighteenth through Twentieth Centuries" in Men, Women, and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal (forthcoming) and "Subverting the Moral Universe: Narratives of Transgression in the Construction of Bengali Middle-class Identity" in Crispin Bates ed. Beyond Representation: Construction of Indian Identity, forthcoming.
86. The suffices "dada" in "Kunjadada" and "didi" in "Bejodidi" are the Bengali terms for addressing the elder brother and sister respectively. The fact that servants were thus addressed indicates that they were held with respect by younger members in the employer's family.
87. Kalyani Datta, Thod Bodi Khada (Calcutta, 1993), p. 75.
88. As Kalyani Datta mentions she is not alone in doing this. There is ample evidence of other writers, such as Sibnath Sastri (1847-1919), a social reformer and an early architect of Indian nationalism, who openly admitted in his autobiography how he tried to make his faithful servant Khodai immortal, by making him a central character in his novel Mejobou. (Sibnath Sastri, Atmacharit [Calcutta, 1882]). Girishchandra Ghosh (1844-1912), the famous nineteenth century playwright, also perpetuated the memory of his wet-nurse in his short story Gobra (Girishchandra Ghosh: Girish Racanabali, vol. 1 [Calcutta, 1991], 3rd ed.).
89. As Kalyani Datta mentions she is not alone in doing this. There is ample evidence of other writers, such as Sibnath Sastri (1847-1919), a social reformer and an early architect of Indian nationalism, who openly admitted in his autobiography how he tried to make his faithful servant Khodai immortal, by making him a central character in his novel Mejobou. (Sibnath Sastri, Atmacharit [Calcutta, 1882]). Girishchandra Ghosh (1844-1912), the famous nineteenth century playwright, also perpetuated the memory of his wet-nurse in his short story Gobra (Girishchandra Ghosh: Girish Racanabali, vol. 1 [Calcutta, 1991], 3rd ed.).
90. For more on memory and its different "forms" in colonial studies see Ann L. Stoler & Karen Strassler, "Castings for the Colonial: Memory Work in 'New Order' Java" in Comparative Studies of Society and History, vol. 42, Number 1 (Jan. 2000): 4-48.
91. In contrast to Western literature where autobiography originated in the fourth century with St. Augustine's Confessions, personal narratives in the autobiographical genre consituted a strikingly modern phenomenon in the Indian print culture that came with colonial rule. While Bengali personal narratives mostly displayed suppressed treatment of personal or intimate themes, they nonetheless reflect the desire to project the desired self-image of the authors. For an argument along the above lines see Dipesh Chakrabarty, "Postcoloniality and the Articfice of History: Who Speaks for 'Indian' Pasts?" in Representations, Winter (1992) #37, pp. 1-26
92. For more on colonial critique of Bengali middle class men see Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The 'manly Englishman' and the 'effiminate Bengali' in the late nineteenth century (Manchester, U.K., 1995). For more on auto-critique, self-ridicule, and self-irony of the middle class see Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Elite" in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, 1993), pp. 35-75. Indira Chowdhury, The Frail Hero and Virile History : gender and the politics of culture in colonial Bengal (Delhi, 1998); Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography (New Delhi, 1999).
93. For more on colonial critique of Bengali middle class men see Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The 'manly Englishman' and the 'effiminate Bengali' in the late nineteenth century (Manchester, U.K., 1995). For more on auto-critique, self-ridicule, and self-irony of the middle class see Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Elite" in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, 1993), pp. 35-75. Indira Chowdhury, The Frail Hero and Virile History : gender and the politics of culture in colonial Bengal (Delhi, 1998); Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography (New Delhi, 1999).
94. For more on colonial critique of Bengali middle class men see Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The 'manly Englishman' and the 'effiminate Bengali' in the late nineteenth century (Manchester, U.K., 1995). For more on auto-critique, self-ridicule, and self-irony of the middle class see Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Elite" in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, 1993), pp. 35-75. Indira Chowdhury, The Frail Hero and Virile History : gender and the politics of culture in colonial Bengal (Delhi, 1998); Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography (New Delhi, 1999).
95. For more on colonial critique of Bengali middle class men see Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The 'manly Englishman' and the 'effiminate Bengali' in the late nineteenth century (Manchester, U.K., 1995). For more on auto-critique, self-ridicule, and self-irony of the middle class see Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Elite" in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, 1993), pp. 35-75. Indira Chowdhury, The Frail Hero and Virile History : gender and the politics of culture in colonial Bengal (Delhi, 1998); Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography (New Delhi, 1999).
96. See Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography.
97. See Philippe Lejeune, "The Ironic Narrative of Childhood: Vallès" in Philippe Lejeune, On Autobiography, with foreword by Paul John Eakin, trans. by Katherine Leary (Minneapolis, 1988).
98. Rabindranath Tagore, Jivansmriti (Calcutta, 1912).
99. Rabindranath Tagore, Chhelebela (Calcutta, 1940).
100. For a more detailed treatment of Tagore's poem Puraton Vritya (The Old Servant) see my "Subverting the Moral Universe: Narratives of Transgression in the Construction of Bengali Middle-class Identity" in Crispin Bates ed. Beyond Representation: Construction of Indian Identity, forthcoming.
101. Abanindranath Tagore, Apan Katha (Calcutta, 1988, originally published in 1946), pp. 13-14.
102. Sarala Debi Chaudhurani, Jivaner Jhara Pata (Calcutta, 1975, originally pub. in 1879).
103. Pramodkumar Chattopadhyaya, Prankumarér Smriticharan (Calcutta, 1967).
104. Pramodkumar Chattopadhyaya, op. cit., p. 42.
105. I b i d.
106. The word Dukhi, as derived from Dukhia, means "Sorrowful"/ "Mournful". As the author implies, the servant's name was synonymous with his character.
107. The word Maharaj means "the great King". Dukhi Maharaj implies an attribute to Dukhi.
108. Premankur Atarthi, Mahasthabir Jatak (Calcutta, 1994), new edition, p. 28.
109. Premankur Atarthi, op. cit. pp. 28-29.
110. For a particularly instructive discussion on persuasive and coercive modes of domination see Ranajit Guha, "Discipline and Mobilize" in Partha Chatterjee and Gyanendra Pandey eds. Subattern Studies, vol. VII (Delhi, 1993), pp. 69-120; and "Dominance without Hegemony and its Historiography" in Ranajit Guha ed. Subaltern Studies vol. VI (Delhi, 1992).
111. For a particularly instructive discussion on persuasive and coercive modes of domination see Ranajit Guha, "Discipline and Mobilize" in Partha Chatterjee and Gyanendra Pandey eds. Subattern Studies, vol. VII (Delhi, 1993), pp. 69-120; and "Dominance without Hegemony and its Historiography" in Ranajit Guha ed. Subaltern Studies vol. VI (Delhi, 1992).
112. Leonore Davidoff, Worlds Between: Historical Perspectives on Gender and Class (New York, 1995).
113. For more on Bengali women's autobiography see Chitra Deb, Antahpurér Atmakatha (Calcutta, 1984); Srabashi Ghosh, "'Birds in a Cage': Changes in Bengali Social Life as Recorded in Autobiographies by Women," in Economic and Political Weekly: Review of Women's Studies 21 (October 1986); Meenakshi Mukherjee, "The Unperceived Self: A Study of Five Nineteenth Century Autobiographies," in Karuna Chanana, ed., Socialization, Education and Women: Explorations in Gender Identity (New Delhi, 1988). Also see Malabika Karlekar, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991).
114. For more on Bengali women's autobiography see Chitra Deb, Antahpurér Atmakatha (Calcutta, 1984); Srabashi Ghosh, "'Birds in a Cage': Changes in Bengali Social Life as Recorded in Autobiographies by Women," in Economic and Political Weekly: Review of Women's Studies 21 (October 1986); Meenakshi Mukherjee, "The Unperceived Self: A Study of Five Nineteenth Century Autobiographies," in Karuna Chanana, ed., Socialization, Education and Women: Explorations in Gender Identity (New Delhi, 1988). Also see Malabika Karlekar, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991).
115. For more on Bengali women's autobiography see Chitra Deb, Antahpurér Atmakatha (Calcutta, 1984); Srabashi Ghosh, "'Birds in a Cage': Changes in Bengali Social Life as Recorded in Autobiographies by Women," in Economic and Political Weekly: Review of Women's Studies 21 (October 1986); Meenakshi Mukherjee, "The Unperceived Self: A Study of Five Nineteenth Century Autobiographies," in Karuna Chanana, ed., Socialization, Education and Women: Explorations in Gender Identity (New Delhi, 1988). Also see Malabika Karlekar, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991).
116. For more on Bengali women's autobiography see Chitra Deb, Antahpurér Atmakatha (Calcutta, 1984); Srabashi Ghosh, "'Birds in a Cage': Changes in Bengali Social Life as Recorded in Autobiographies by Women," in Economic and Political Weekly: Review of Women's Studies 21 (October 1986); Meenakshi Mukherjee, "The Unperceived Self: A Study of Five Nineteenth Century Autobiographies," in Karuna Chanana, ed., Socialization, Education and Women: Explorations in Gender Identity (New Delhi, 1988). Also see Malabika Karlekar, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, 1991).
117. See Abhijit Sen & Abhijit Bhattacharya eds. Shekele Katha: Shatak Suchonoai Meyeder Smritikatha (Calcutta, 1997). Also see Sukumar Sen, Women's Dialect in Bengal (Calcutta, 1979).
118. See Abhijit Sen & Abhijit Bhattacharya eds. Shekele Katha: Shatak Suchonoai Meyeder Smritikatha (Calcutta, 1997). Also see Sukumar Sen, Women's Dialect in Bengal (Calcutta, 1979).
119. For women's writings in colonial Bengal see Bharati Ray ed. Sekalér Nareeshiksha: Bamabodhini Patrika (Calcutta, 1994), a collection of women's writings from Bamabodhini Patrika (1270-1329 B.S.), a leading women's journal in colonial India. Also see Nita Kumar, Women as Subjects (Calcutta, 1994).
120. For women's writings in colonial Bengal see Bharati Ray ed. Sekalér Nareeshiksha: Bamabodhini Patrika (Calcutta, 1994), a collection of women's writings from Bamabodhini Patrika (1270-1329 B.S.), a leading women's journal in colonial India. Also see Nita Kumar, Women as Subjects (Calcutta, 1994).
121. For women's writings in colonial Bengal see Bharati Ray ed. Sekalér Nareeshiksha: Bamabodhini Patrika (Calcutta, 1994), a collection of women's writings from Bamabodhini Patrika (1270-1329 B.S.), a leading women's journal in colonial India. Also see Nita Kumar, Women as Subjects (Calcutta, 1994).
122. The term midwife is used coterminously with wet-nurse in Bengali literature.
123. Sarala Debi Chaudhurani, Jivaner Jhara Pata (Calcutta, 1975, originally
124. The instances of maids substituting biological mothers was not confined to Tagore family alone. An important case in point comes from the family of the "Bengal Tiger," Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (1864-1924), the famous chief justice of the Calcutta High Court and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. Sir Ashutosh's father Gangaprasad along with his three siblings, following the death of their mother, were raised by an old maid called Jahnabi, or Jani, a destitute Kayastha woman. She was so loyal and kind-hearted that she took care of the children without even receiving any wages for a long time. She spent the rest of her life, with the Mukherjee family as a surrogate mother until her death. Due to the severe illness of his mother following his birth, Girishchandra Ghosh, the eminent nineteenth century Bengali playwright and dramatist, also grew up under the care of a maid belonging to the low Bagdi caste. See Umaprosad Mukherjee, Dheyaney Alokrekha (Calcutta, 1993), pp. 5-10. Later in his life, Girishchandra often remarked humorously that his mischievous and fidgety childhood could perhaps be attributed to the fact that he grew up suckled by a low-caste Bagdi woman. Ghosh's statement, while conveying the pejorative attitude of the middle-class towards lower-caste working women, also affirms middle class's dependence on domestic workers, and the fact that maids substituted for birth mothers in extreme cases. In fact, despite the obvious reservation that Girish Ghosh nursed about women of the lower class and castes, he did pay his tribute to his maid by writing a short story called Gobra about her. See Girish Racanabali Vol. 1 (Calcutta, 1991), p. 12 For more critical insights see Mahasweta Devi's short story "The Breast-Giver" (trans. Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak) that illustrates the practice of hiring wet-nurses even among less acclaimed families and brings out the emotive and social distance that existed between the patron families and the hired care-giver. See Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York/London, 1988).
125. The instances of maids substituting biological mothers was not confined to Tagore family alone. An important case in point comes from the family of the "Bengal Tiger," Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (1864-1924), the famous chief justice of the Calcutta High Court and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. Sir Ashutosh's father Gangaprasad along with his three siblings, following the death of their mother, were raised by an old maid called Jahnabi, or Jani, a destitute Kayastha woman. She was so loyal and kind-hearted that she took care of the children without even receiving any wages for a long time. She spent the rest of her life, with the Mukherjee family as a surrogate mother until her death. Due to the severe illness of his mother following his birth, Girishchandra Ghosh, the eminent nineteenth century Bengali playwright and dramatist, also grew up under the care of a maid belonging to the low Bagdi caste. See Umaprosad Mukherjee, Dheyaney Alokrekha (Calcutta, 1993), pp. 5-10. Later in his life, Girishchandra often remarked humorously that his mischievous and fidgety childhood could perhaps be attributed to the fact that he grew up suckled by a low-caste Bagdi woman. Ghosh's statement, while conveying the pejorative attitude of the middle-class towards lower-caste working women, also affirms middle class's dependence on domestic workers, and the fact that maids substituted for birth mothers in extreme cases. In fact, despite the obvious reservation that Girish Ghosh nursed about women of the lower class and castes, he did pay his tribute to his maid by writing a short story called Gobra about her. See Girish Racanabali Vol. 1 (Calcutta, 1991), p. 12 For more critical insights see Mahasweta Devi's short story "The Breast-Giver" (trans. Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak) that illustrates the practice of hiring wet-nurses even among less acclaimed families and brings out the emotive and social distance that existed between the patron families and the hired care-giver. See Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York/London, 1988).
126. The instances of maids substituting biological mothers was not confined to Tagore family alone. An important case in point comes from the family of the "Bengal Tiger," Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (1864-1924), the famous chief justice of the Calcutta High Court and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. Sir Ashutosh's father Gangaprasad along with his three siblings, following the death of their mother, were raised by an old maid called Jahnabi, or Jani, a destitute Kayastha woman. She was so loyal and kind-hearted that she took care of the children without even receiving any wages for a long time. She spent the rest of her life, with the Mukherjee family as a surrogate mother until her death. Due to the severe illness of his mother following his birth, Girishchandra Ghosh, the eminent nineteenth century Bengali playwright and dramatist, also grew up under the care of a maid belonging to the low Bagdi caste. See Umaprosad Mukherjee, Dheyaney Alokrekha (Calcutta, 1993), pp. 5-10. Later in his life, Girishchandra often remarked humorously that his mischievous and fidgety childhood could perhaps be attributed to the fact that he grew up suckled by a low-caste Bagdi woman. Ghosh's statement, while conveying the pejorative attitude of the middle-class towards lower-caste working women, also affirms middle class's dependence on domestic workers, and the fact that maids substituted for birth mothers in extreme cases. In fact, despite the obvious reservation that Girish Ghosh nursed about women of the lower class and castes, he did pay his tribute to his maid by writing a short story called Gobra about her. See Girish Racanabali Vol. 1 (Calcutta, 1991), p. 12 For more critical insights see Mahasweta Devi's short story "The Breast-Giver" (trans. Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak) that illustrates the practice of hiring wet-nurses even among less acclaimed families and brings out the emotive and social distance that existed between the patron families and the hired care-giver. See Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York/London, 1988).
127. The instances of maids substituting biological mothers was not confined to Tagore family alone. An important case in point comes from the family of the "Bengal Tiger," Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (1864-1924), the famous chief justice of the Calcutta High Court and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. Sir Ashutosh's father Gangaprasad along with his three siblings, following the death of their mother, were raised by an old maid called Jahnabi, or Jani, a destitute Kayastha woman. She was so loyal and kind-hearted that she took care of the children without even receiving any wages for a long time. She spent the rest of her life, with the Mukherjee family as a surrogate mother until her death. Due to the severe illness of his mother following his birth, Girishchandra Ghosh, the eminent nineteenth century Bengali playwright and dramatist, also grew up under the care of a maid belonging to the low Bagdi caste. See Umaprosad Mukherjee, Dheyaney Alokrekha (Calcutta, 1993), pp. 5-10. Later in his life, Girishchandra often remarked humorously that his mischievous and fidgety childhood could perhaps be attributed to the fact that he grew up suckled by a low-caste Bagdi woman. Ghosh's statement, while conveying the pejorative attitude of the middle-class towards lower-caste working women, also affirms middle class's dependence on domestic workers, and the fact that maids substituted for birth mothers in extreme cases. In fact, despite the obvious reservation that Girish Ghosh nursed about women of the lower class and castes, he did pay his tribute to his maid by writing a short story called Gobra about her. See Girish Racanabali Vol. 1 (Calcutta, 1991), p. 12 For more critical insights see Mahasweta Devi's short story "The Breast-Giver" (trans. Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak) that illustrates the practice of hiring wet-nurses even among less acclaimed families and brings out the emotive and social distance that existed between the patron families and the hired care-giver. See Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York/London, 1988).
128. Sarala Debi Chaudhurani, Jivaner Jhara Pata
129. One may argue in this context that Rabindranath Tagore's accounts were marked by the same terror and hostility that characterized women's accounts. While the critical contents of the two accounts definitely overlap it is instructive to note the lightness of tone and sarcasm with which Rabindranath represented the issues with domestic workers in his reminiscences.
130. It needs to be pointed out that the majority of the Bengali women writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came from this religious community. For more on Prasannamayi Debi and her memoir Purbakatha, see Partha Chatterjee, "Women and the Nation" in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton, 1993), 148-149.
131. Prasannamayi Debi, "Sekalér Katha" in Antahpur, Jaistha, 1308 B.S. (1901): 107-110.
132. See Rassundari Debi, "Amar Jiban" in Nareshchandra Jana et al. eds. Atmakatha (Calcutta, 1981). Rassundari Debi mentions in her autobiography that she was probably born in 1216 B.S. (1809); when her book was first published in 1275 B.S. (1868) she was about fifty-nine year old.
133. See Dineshchandra Sen, Grihasree (Calcutta, 1925) (10th ed.).
134. While hiring of servants was very common, the cooks had a rather belated entry in colonial Bengali households. Employment of cooks was a new phenomenon among the Bengali middle class in the second half of the nineteenth century. See my chapter, "A Genealogy of Servants: Dominance and Subordination in Households of Early Calcutta - Eighteenth through Twentieth Centuries" in Men, Women, and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal (forthcoming).
135. Hemantakumari Sen Gupta, "Sekalér Ramani," in Antahpur, Baisakh, 1308 B.S. (April 1901): 82-89.
136. Indira Debi-Chaudhurani, "Jivan Katha" (written between 1953-'55) published in Sardadiya Ekkshan 1399 B.S. (1992).
137. Giribala Debi, Raibari, eds. Subir Ray Chandhuri and Abhijit Sen (Calcutta, 1991). Giribala Debi, Raibari was published as a whole book in 1991 by the De's Publishing and the School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, in 1991. It first came out as a series in Prabasi in 1962 (1369 B.S.). Although published at a later date the novel relates the experiences of the author in colonial times. For more on Giribala Debi and her work see the "Introduction" to Raibari by Jasodhara Bagchi and Bani Ray.
138. "Kamini's Mother" was not the name of the maid herself. Kamini must have been her daughter's name, and she was addressed as her mother. It is still a custom in Bengal to address elderly women not by their own names, but by referring to them as mothers of their sons and daughters.
139. Renuka Debi Chaudhurani, Rakamari Niramish Ranna (Calcutta, 1988).
140. "Mother" (Ma) is a common term of respectful address for elderly women. Domestics and workers most commonly address the mistress and sometimes otner female members of the employer's household by this term. In this address, age and gender of the addresser are less important determinants.
141. See Renuka Debi Chaudhurani, op. cit.