Women becoming professionals: British secular reformers and missionaries in Colonial India, 1870-1900.

Abstract: (1993). The rhetoric of english India. History of European Ideas: Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 533-535.

Abstract: (1997). Gender, Sex and Subordination in England 1500–1800. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 117-118.

Abstract: 1st edition contents List of Illustrations Preface Introduction: Criticism in the contact zone Part I Science and sentiment, 1750-1800 Science, planetary consciousness, interiors Narrating the anti-conquest Anti-conquest II: The mystique of reciprocity Eros and Abolition Part II The reinvention of America, 1800-50 Alexander von Humboldt and the reinvention of America Reinventing America II: The capitalist vanguard and the exploratrices sociales Reinventing America/Reinventing Europe: Creole self-fashioning Part III Imperial Stylistics, 1860-1980 From the Victoria N'yanza to the Sheraton San Salvador Notes Index

Abstract: "Contentious Traditions" analyzes the debate on sati, or widow burning, in colonial India. Though the prohibition of widow burning in 1829 was heralded as a key step forward for women's emancipation in modern India, Lata Mani argues that the women who were burned were marginal to the debate and that the controversy was over definitions of Hindu tradition, the place of ritual in religious worship, the civilizing missions of colonialism and evangelism, and the proper role of the colonial state. Mani radically revises colonialist as well as nationalist historiography on the social reform of women's status in the colonial period and clarifies the complex and contradictory character of missionary writings on India. The history of widow burning is one of paradox. While the chief players in the debate argued over the religious basis of sati and the fine points of scriptural interpretation, the testimonials of women at the funeral pyres consistently addressed, the material hardships and societal expectations attached to widowhood. And although historiography has traditionally emphasized the colonial horror of sati, a fascinated ambivalence toward the practice suffused official discussions. The debate normalized the violence of sati and supported the misconception that it was a voluntary act of wifely devotion. Mani brilliantly illustrates how situated feminism and discourse analysis compel a rewriting of history, thus destabilizing the ways we are accustomed to look at women and men, at 'tradition', custom, and modernity.