GENTLEWOMEN IN COLONIAL CALCUTTA: EXPERIENCES OF SCHOOLING

This article shows how two pioneering institutions for female education in colonial Bengal, Bethune and Sakhawat Memorial Girls' Schools, made significant contributions to female education at a time when women's education was mostly restricted to home teaching. The study brings out the underlying contradictions between traditional and modern approaches towards education displayed in the goals, admission process and curriculum structure of these two schools. Analysing their respective contributions demonstrates that Bethune and Sakhawat Memorial Girls' schools produced the modern Bengali bhadramahila (well-educated woman) who secured higher education, but was also rooted in traditional values. The final section illustrates how with the expansion of education in the twentieth century, the boundaries of the reformist zeal gradually blurred, so that educated women in Bengal could fight for greater equality.