Men, women, and domestics
Subtitle: articulating middle-class identity in colonial Bengal
By: Swapna M. Banerjee.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New Delhi; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 247
Subjects: Domestics -- India -- Bengal; Master and servant -- India -- Bengal
Description: "By reclaiming the historical relationship between domesticity, housework, and domestic service in colonial Bengal, Men, Women, and Domestics contributes to a comprehensive understanding of domestic politics in the construction of national identity. Swapna M. Banerjee provides new insights into the Bengali middle-class perception of domestic workers, a subject that has not received much scholarly attention in social history writing in India." "Focusing upon stories of employers and servants, she demonstrates how caste-class formation among the predominantly Hindu Bengali middle class depended much upon its relationships with the subordinate social groups, of which domestic workers formed an integral part. Examining a wide variety of literary and official sources, the book establishes that the articulation of the Bengali middle-class self-identity was predicated on the definition of its women, who in turn, were carefully distinguished from members of lower socio-economic groups." "This book will be of interest to students and scholars of South Asia history, gender studies, culture, and social anthropology, as well as the growing readership of cross-cultural and comparative studies on the institutions of family, domesticity, domestic labour, and related forms of servitude."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [212]-235) and index.