The ‘Incumberances’: British Women in India, 1615–1856

The British memsahib has been stereotyped as a single, colourless group—bored, gossipy, and whiny, plagued with prickly heat, and sweating about in clothes completely incongruous with Indias climate—blamed by some to be responsible for half the bitter feelings between races. This perception is as old as the East India Company, whose Court of Directors saw only two roles that British women might play in India—either they would be incumberances, getting in the way of the men engaged in generating profits for the Company, or they could be spiritual and emotional supports for their men. Contrary to this description we realize that the expressions of these women as they encountered India were immensely varied, highly individual, and unique, coloured by personal, social, religious, and cultural backgrounds.