Articles

Liberty, Vanity, Unity: Bengali Traveler Mrs. Krishnabhabini Das on the Nineteenth-century Great Britain

Vostok/Oriens '2018, №2

DOI: 10.31857/S086919080000115-3

 
This essay deals with the second half of the nineteenth century, when many Indian intellectuals enjoying European education started to see the metropolitan country as the beacon of social and political developments. As far as works of enlighteners and social figures are concerned, it is travel writings of those, who visited Great Britain, that capture my attention as they showcase how complicated their authors’ attitude to the rulers, oppressors and benefactors was. In this respect, analyzing “Bengali Lady in England” by Mrs. Krishnabhabini Das, who lived in London from 1882 to 1890, allows to understand, which aspects of British policy at the dawn of the national-liberation struggle were considered by Indian thinkers as either disgraceful or role-model.

Keywords: India, travel writing, Krishnabhabini Das, England, image of other, national liberation struggle

Pages: С. 59–70