British Women Missionaries in Bengal, 17931861

British Women Missionaries in Bengal, 1793-1861 looks at the arrival of the early British women missionaries in Bengal, especially when travelling to India or working in missions was neither a spontaneous nor an acceptable career decision for white women. The book aims to throw light on a key moment in colonial contact, a new interface between two races, religions and ways of life. From a hesitant beginning as helpmeets to a more confident phase of mission activities in the form of setting up formal educational institutions, writing books and so on comprise a long legacy of white womens participation in overseas colonial encounters. Historicizing imperial feminism will enable those who choose to use the past to locate and interrogate its ramifications on more modern notions of feminism. The advent of the Baptist missionary William Carey in Bengal in 1793, followed by others, significantly altered how mission activity was perceived in India. From Hannah Marshman, who helped her more famous missionary husband Joshua Marshman to open schools for girls, to Mary Ann Cooke, the first single British woman missionary to come and work in India, to Hannah Mullenss contributions to zenana education, were all part of a long journey which helped professionalize womens missionary work in the colonies. With the death of Hannah Mullens in 1861, the early phase of missionary work came to an end and then began a more proactive phase of evangelization and missionary activity in India.