Gender, Religion, and the Heathen Lands: American Missionary Women in South Asia, 1860s-1940s

by Maina Chawla Singh

Overview

Seeking to extend existing scholarship on gender and colonialism and on women and American religion, this cross-cultural study examines the work of American missionary women in South Asia at several levels. A primary concern of the study is to historicize the interventions of these women and situate them within the dual contexts of the sending society and the receiving culture. It focuses on missionaries Isabella Thoburn and Ida Scudder, who founded some of the premier women's colleges and hospitals in British colonial India. The book also draws upon the narratives and reminiscences of South Asian women, now in their seventies, who attended such institutions in the 1940s, and whose voices texture our understanding of American women's missionary work in "Other" cultures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815328247
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/01/1999
Series:	Gender, Culture and Global Politics , #4
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Part I Chapter 1 The Missionary Scenario Chapter 2 Biblical Helpmeet and Evangelical Worker: The Missionary Wife Chapter 3 Darkness, Disease, The Zenana, and the Heathen Woman: Constructing Discourses and Saving Souls Chapter 4 Documenting Knowledge and Producing Texts: An Analysis of Missionary Literature Part II Chapter 5 Shifting Paradigms: Facing the Twentieth Century Chapter 6 Feminists, Philanthropists, Matriarchs, and Managers: The Single-Women Missionaries Chapter 7 Isabella Thoburn (1840-1901): The Lal Bagh School and the Isabella Thoburn College Chapter 8 Making Women Physicians and Christ-Filled Doctors: Ida Scudder (1870-1960) and the Christian Medical College, Vellore Chapter 9 Living Voices: Missionary Legacies and Indian Daughters