Coming of Age in Nineteenth-Century India

Book excerpt: In this eloquent history, Ruby Lal traces the lives of nineteenth-century Indian women in their transition from girlhood to maturity. In the north Indian patriarchal environment, women's lives were dominated by prescriptive household chores and domestic duties. What the book reveals, however, is that women in the early nineteenth century experienced greater freedoms, playfulness, and creativity than their counterparts in the more restricted colonial world at the end of the century.