Returning the American Gaze: Pandita Ramabai’s The Peoples of the United States (1889)

Born into a Brahmin family and widowed as a young woman, Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922) has increasingly come to be recognised as one of India’s earliest spokeswomen for women’s causes and rights, specifically in relation to education and the status of widows. In the 1880s, Pandita Ramabai travelled from India to England and on to the United States, where she spent three years immersed in the milieu of social reform movements of the day. The Peoples of the United States is Pandita Ramabai’s response to and critique of American life, including the country’s government, economy, education and domestic life. As an account of Western society by an early Indian feminist, this is a major text which reverses the established equation of male, orientalist travel narratives. First published in Marathi in 1889, this work is translated into elegant English by Meera Kosambi, an authority on the life and work of Pandita Ramabai. A critical introduction and extensive notes are also part of Professor Kosambi’s pioneering English edition.