A passage from India : British women travelling home, 1915-1947

Abstract

This study explores the repatriation processes of the white, British, middle-class wives of army officers and civil servants who made return journeys to the home-land between 1915 and 1947, and examines their notions of home and senses of belonging in both Britain and India. In order to do this I travel between three inter-related themes. The first of these is the fluidity and instability of home, constructed on a number of scales, and its co-existence over both time and space. Second, I explore repatriation as a process that can destabilize notions of home and belonging. Third, I consider that return home is capable of disrupting, rather than stabilizing or confirming, subjectivities. I explore these themes by investigating narratives of repatriation as recorded in personal texts such as life writings and recorded interviews, as well as a range of other published and unpublished material. I begin by tracing the influences of class and gender on geographies of repatriation in the home-land, and discuss representations of Britain as home. Considering women's personal accounts of return, I then examine discourses mobilized on departure, the physical journey from India, and on arrival in Britain, as women travelled to the home-land for periods of long leave, to visit friends and relatives, for reasons of ill-health and pregnancy, or, as children to attend school. I also consider women's final departure, usually made due to the ill-health, death or retirement of their husbands, or due to Indian Independence. I am concerned with repatriation as an extended process, and consider return home as more than a physical journey between two clearly definable points.

For memsahibs, imperial movement was not one way, and they moved repeatedly between Britain and India whilst based in the sub-continent. However, such return travels have not yet received detailed critical attention from historical and cultural geographers. Homecomings are inextricably linked to the shaping of subjectivity, and can be problematic as both imaginative constructions and the material existence of homes are disrupted on return. Linked to this, I stress throughout that repatriates occupy an ambiguous position between forced and voluntary movement. Many women felt a deep sense of attachment to the sub-continent, and considered their departure to be an uprooting. I also highlight the difficulties in attempting to define either a beginning or an ending to journeys. Just as the boundaries between travel and dwelling are blurred, so too are the borders between departure and arrival. The accounts of British women returning from India challenge dominant imperial discourses of Britain as home, and highlight the significance of returning home at both national and household scales.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata