Women, biographies, and philanthropic inspiration in nineteenth-century Bengali periodicals

Abstract

This article reviews conceptions of philanthropy and charity in nineteenth-century colonial Bengali society and examines how Bengali Hindu women appropriated these concepts via Western role models. Bengali Hindu women’s perceptions of the presence or lack of humanitarian ideals in their society, and their search for alternative models and ideals in Western women, are also explored. The focus of this paper is not the tangible results of Bengali women’s charitable work; instead, the primary focus is on how prototypical biographies of Western women — tracts, stories, life narratives, and advice columns — were reconstructed and rewritten in notable Bengali periodicals of the time, to encourage and inspire Bengali women to participate in charitable acts.