Pandita Ramabai's American encounter : the peoples of the United States (1889) / by Pandita Ramabai ; translated and edited by Meera Kosambi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ramabai Sarasvati, 1858-1922.

Contributor:

Kosambi, Meera.

Language:

English

Marathi

Subjects (All):

Ramabai Sarasvati, 1858-1922--Travel--United States.

Ramabai Sarasvati.

Ramabai Sarasvati, 1858-1922.

Travel.

Women social reformers.

United States.

Women social reformers--India--Maharashtra.

United States--Description and travel.

India--Maharashtra.

Physical Description:

xi, 284 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2003]

Language Note:

Translated from the Marathi.

Summary:

In the 1890s Pandita Ramabai traveled from India to England and then to the U.S., where she spent three years immersed in the milieu of progressive social reform movements of the day. Born into a Brahmin family and widowed while still young, she converted to Christianity while in England. In India, she was an activist for the education of women and the improvement of the status of widows. Abroad, she was iconized as a champion of the "oppressed Hindu woman." The Peoples of the United States is Ramabai's comprehensive description of American life, ranging from government to economy, education to domestic activity. As an account of a Western society by an Indian woman and a feminist, it reverses the established equation of male, Orientalist travel narratives. First published in Marathi in 1889, it is offered here in an elegant and engaging English translation by Meera Kosambi, who also provides a critical introduction and extensive annotations.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [267]-273) and index.

ISBN:

0253341906

0253215714

OCLC:

49727698