From Suffragist to an anti-colonial Feminist Margaret Cousins In Colonial India and Ireland

<strong>Centre for Historical Studies School of Social Sciences</strong> a Lecture <strong>From Suffragist to an anti-colonial Feminist Margaret Cousins In Colonial India and Ireland</strong> <strong>Jyoti Atwal</strong> Centre for Historical Studies, JNU <strong>26th August 2015</strong> Scholarship on the Western women's work in colonial India has over subscribed to the idea that most of these women were either 'extensions' of the empire or 'maternal' imperialists. Western women's travel/personal writings were often soft literary - cultural contributions to the realm of writings on the exotic oriental. While missionary schools, colleges, and hospitals remained important workshops for politico-cultural training of Western women, it is the women outside missionary fold seeking spiritual freedom who proved to be immensely creative and independent. However such women have been left out by both Indian and Western feminist scholarship. Women from Ireland in colonial India were positioned very differently from their British sisters vis a vis the colonial state. Amongst the Irish women, Margaret or Gretta Cousins (1878-1954) stands out. This presentation discusses Cousins and tries to fill in this gap in women's history writing from both India and the Ireland. Dr Jyoti Atwal teaches gender history at the Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi. She has been a Long Room Hub Visiting Fellow at Trinity College Dublin in 2012 and a Visiting Professor at Dublin City University in 2013. She is an advisory member of the India Study Centre Cork at University College Cork, Ireland.