Work

Widows, Violence and Death: The Construction of Imperial Identity and Memory by Women in Mourning across British India, 1857–1926

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: This article examines the work of British widows in the construction of their husbands’ memory following their violent deaths in British India, during the nineteenth and early‐twentieth centuries. Exploring the collections of a military, missionary and Indian Civil Service widow, it suggests that a specifically feminised culture of mourning nurtured imperial narratives. It moves between personal correspondence, to published accounts of frontier ‘murders’, to a new understanding of South Asian ‘condolence meetings’ and resolutions addressed to British widows, arguing that women were critical to the fashioning of men's identity in death and a broader colonial politics of grief.

Source: Gender & History

DOI: 10.1111/1468-0424.12716

Author: Ellen Smith

Institution: University of Leicester

Language: English

Topic: Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Gender equality

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,040