British Zenana missions of the XIX century and their projects for the liberation of Indian women

Abstract

The article studies the goals, objectives, directions of work of the British zenana missions in the XIX th century based on the analysis of reports and articles in missionary magazines. It is shown that the creation of organizations was caused by the desire to help the disenfranchised women of India. Women missionaries sought to mitigate the social exclusion of Indian women, opposed cruel customs, slavery and humiliation of women, provided them with educational and medical services. Christianization was carried out without violence, through familiarization with Western culture. The author concludes that, the missionaries made a great contribution to the socio-cultural development of India, the improvement of social relations, the development of women’s education and the medical system of the British colony.

Keywords

• zenana
• great britain
• india
• xix th century
• colony
• empire
• education
• feminism