The expansion of the British Empire facilitated movement across the globe for both the colonizers and the colonized. This talk will focus on the largely forgotten group of South Asian travelling ayahs (servants and nannies), who travelled between India and Britain while caring for British families on the move. Delving into the stories of individual traveling ayahs from a wide range of sources, this talk will illuminate their influences on British consumption cultures, their brave struggle to assert their rights and more.
Dr. Arunima Datta is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Texas.
The series is supported by the Department of History, the Mershon Center, the South Asian Studies Initiative, the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
