Pedagogy of the “secluded” women and changing femininity in colonial India, 1830s–1930s

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women missionaries who came to India with a superior Protestant religious imaginary were keen on critiquing Hindu cultural practices that created divergences and transfigurations. They blatantly proclaimed that the deep-rooted custom of women’s “seclusion” was a stumbling block to education, evangelisation and modernisation. This study demonstrates how missionary construction of “secluded” women’s femininity through civilisational, religious and pedagogical pretentions created conflicting emotions among a section of the orthodox Hindu and converted Christian women who defied the controversial missionary narratives that depicted women’s seclusion in a rather poor light. Nonetheless, the continued missionary encounters through education impelled a section of the secluded Hindu women to be critical of what is conveniently referred to by missionaries as orthodox femininity. This article takes a close look at and critiques how missionaries negotiated with both the conflicting emotions and orthodox femininity by constructing an alternative narrative – Christian femininity that sought to confront gender stereotypes in a more nuanced manner. It argues that the changing femininity in colonial India needs to be understood largely through missionary education, character-building zenana pedagogy and normative construction of femininity.