From the Publisher
"Sen combines her various research areas in the field... from the perspective of "gendered transactions" over... diverse topics such as missionary and civilizing mission by white women, social reform and women's education, English-speaking Literature of female actors and the complex relationships between British and Indian women and the memsahib. The various sources... are remarkable... memoirs, letters, diaries, biographies, newspaper articles, novels, household manuals and medical guides. ... Sen makes an important contribution to the feminist historiography of colonial India by placing the diverse voices of European and Indian women at the center of their analysis."
Manju Ludwig, Heidelberg, H.Soz. Cult (trans.)
"Sen's book has presented an extremely accessible account of white womens' experiences from the zenana to the colonial home to the barracks, all within an intricate web of gender, race and class relations." - Zoya Sameen, University of Chicago, Social History
"Sen brings out a perspective that is often doubly neglected in writings on India: the voice of colonised womenELSen's research uses an impressively wide array of sources, which is particularly apparent in her work in the colonial archives digging up medical manuals available to colonial doctors, Sen demonstrates how resolutely imperial and prescriptive of women's roles they wereELThe analysis of these transactions is useful and revealing. Sen's work is a good reminder that white women in India did not work and live entirely separately from Indian life. They were also, crucially, not the only ones who were imagining the world around them, and Sen's work on 'Returning the 'gaze' across the racial divide is particularly welcome." - James Watts, University of Bristol, Ex-Historia
