Mothering India: Women's Fiction in English Shaping Cultural History (1890-1947)

Contents: 1.Timeline 2.Introduction: Mothering India 3.Burning Matters: Sati 4.Sin of Survival: Widow 5.Young Shoulders, Mighty Responsibilities: Child-Wife 6.Pain of Privacy: Purdahnashin 7.New Ideal Womanhood: Bharatiya Nari 8.Afterword: Legacy of Mother India Appendix I: Brief Biographical Information on the Writers discussed in this Book Appendix II: Glossary Bibliography.

Mothering India addresses this lack and concentrates on early Indian women's fiction written between 1890 and 1947. It not only evaluates the influence of women authors on the rise of IWE, but also explores how they reassessed and challenged stereotypes about womanhood in India, adding their voice to the larger debate about social reform legislations on women's rights. Moreover, in choosing to write in the colonizer's language, they seized the attention of a much wider international readership. In wielding their pens, these trendsetting women stepped into the literary landscape as 'speaking subjects', refusing the passivity of being 'spoken-of objects', and thereby 'mothering' India by redefining her image.