Out of india

Abstract

Abstract In the rhetoric of the contemporary world, Muslim women are portrayed as silent and secluded, withering beneath veils of male oppression. Yet in the small Central Indian state of Bhopal, four generatioms of Muslim queens ruled throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, distinguishing themselves as warriors, scholars, builders, and social reformers and assuring the independence and prestige of their state under British paramountcy. The last of these rulers, Nawab Sultan Jahan Begam Saheba, is a prominent example of female Indian activists of this era, whose behaviour contrasted sharply with the above stereotype. Not only was she highly politicised, vocal in the national press, and a vociferous writer, but she was also a keen traveller. This paper proposes to look at the reciprocal effects of her several journeys out of India, including one to the Middle East and Hijaz (1903) one around Europe (1911) and two to England (1911 and 1925), investigating her reception and reactions to various foreign ideas, affiliates, and organisations.