Sex and the Family in Colonial India: The Making of Empire (Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society, Series Number 13) - Hardcover

Ghosh, Durba

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 052185704X ISBN 13: 9780521857048

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2006

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Book Description:

An original contribution to scholarship on colonialism, gender and sexuality in India. By following the stories of a number of mixed-race families, at all levels of the social scale, Durba Ghosh offers a fascinating account of how gender, class and race affected the cultural and social mores of the period.

About the Author:

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).

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 052185704X
• ISBN 13: 9780521857048
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 292