From the Home into the World: Re-Viewing Shudha Mazumdar’s Memoirs

The autobiographical narrative of Sudha Majumdar is a valuable historical and literary resource for gaining insights into the everyday life of a middle class Bengali woman from the early 20th century. This memoir is unique by virtue of the details that it unveils about one of the most common yet privy institutions of India, namely the purdah. Her memoir is a sincere account of her trials and triumphs as a woman in a patriarchal-colonial social milieu. This paper traces Sudha’s life-trajectory from behind the purdah to her appearance in public life with the support of her father and husband