The zenana missions were outreach programmes established in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
with the aim of
converting women to Christianity. From the mid 19th century, they sent female missionaries into the homes of
Indian women
The status of women in India has been subject to many changes over the span of recorded Indian history. Their position in society deteriorated early in India's ancient period, especially in the Indo-Aryan speaking regions, and their subordinat ...
, including the private areas of houses - known as ''
zenana
Zenana ( fa, زنانه, ur, , bn, জেনানা, hi, ज़नाना) literally meaning "of the women" or "pertaining to women", in Persian language contextually refers to the part of a house belonging to a Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu f ...
'' - that male visitors were not allowed to see. Gradually these missions expanded from purely evangelical work to providing medical and education services. Hospitals and schools established by these missions are still active, making the ''zenana'' missions an important part of the history of
Christianity in India
Christianity is India's third-largest religion with about 27.8 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census. The written records of the Saint Thomas Christians state that Christianity was introduced to th ...
.
Background
Women in India at this time were segregated under the
purdah
Pardah or purdah (from Hindi-Urdu , , meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that wom ...
system, being confined to women's quarters known as a
zenana
Zenana ( fa, زنانه, ur, , bn, জেনানা, hi, ज़नाना) literally meaning "of the women" or "pertaining to women", in Persian language contextually refers to the part of a house belonging to a Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu f ...
, which men unrelated to them were forbidden to enter. The zenana missions were made up of female missionaries who could visit Indian women in their own homes with the aim of converting them to Christianity.
The purdah system made it impossible for many Indian women, especially high status women, to access
health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
, and many were needlessly dying and suffering. By training as doctors and nurses, the women of the zenana missions could be accepted by the women of India in a way that men would not have been.
History
The
Baptist Missionary Society
BMS World Mission is a Mission (Christian), Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its ...
inaugurated
zenana
Zenana ( fa, زنانه, ur, , bn, জেনানা, hi, ज़नाना) literally meaning "of the women" or "pertaining to women", in Persian language contextually refers to the part of a house belonging to a Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu f ...
missions in India in the mid 19th century. The first zenana mission resulted from a proposal by
Thomas Smith in 1840, with the mission beginning in 1854, under the supervision of
John Fordyce.
Hana Catherine Mullens
Hana Catherine Mullens (1826–1861) was a European Christian missionary, educator, translator and writer. She was a leader of zenana missions, setting up schools for girls and writing what is arguably the first novel in Bengali. She spent most ...
is known as one of the most efficient zenana workers in India, and won the title of "the Apostle of the Zenanas." In 1856, Mrs. Mullens set up a small school at Bhawanipur, with twenty three students aged between eight and twenty. The Calcutta Normal school was established in the same year, to train native women for zenana work.
By the 1880s, the zenana missions had expanded their ministry, opening schools to provide education for girls, including the principles of the Christian faith. This programme also included home visits, the establishment women's hospitals and the opening of segregated women's wards in general hospitals. One society, the
Zenana Bible and Medical Mission The International Service Fellowship, more commonly known as Interserve, is an interdenominational Protestant Christian charity which was founded in London in 1852. For many years it was known as the Zenana Bible and Medical Missionary Society and i ...
, was involved in recruiting female doctors, both by persuading female doctors in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
to come to India and by encouraging Indian women to study medicine in their pursuit of conversion. As a result, the Zenana missions helped break down the male bias against colonial medicine in India to a small extent.
In the 1930s, the Zenana missions expanded further into healthcare. The Elizabeth Newman Hospital was opened by
Beatrice Marianne Smyth. This sixty bed hospital assisted with blood transfusions, child births, and anaemia cases among men, women, children, and people from all over Kashmir, India.
The work of the Baptists inspired the formation of a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
missionary society, the
Church of England Zenana Missionary Society The Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS; founded 1880), also known as the Church of England Zenana Mission, was a British Anglican missionary society established to spread Christianity in India. It would later expand its Christian mi ...
(founded 1880), which was involved in sending missionaries to mission stations in countries such as India (19th and 20th centuries) and late
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, beginning in 1884.
Zenana missionaries had their establishments at
Trivandrum
Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...
,
Palamcotta (Sarah Tucker College),
Masulipatnam
Machilipatnam (), also known as Masulipatnam and Bandar, is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and the administrative headquarters of Krishna district. It is also the mandal headquarte ...
and
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
in South India, and
Meerut
Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...
,
Jabalpur
Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...
,
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
and
Amritsar
Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...
in North India.
Bible women in India
Educated Indian Christian women, who worked as assistants to the zenana missionaries were known as
Bible women. They came from notable families and worked among poor women in villages, towns, hospitals, schools, etc. The Bible women, helped bridge the vast cultural differences between the English missionaries and the village folk. The Bible women used indigenous ideas to teach and preach their ideals of a Christian God to the women of the subcontinent. They used music to reach out to its wide audience - to attract more women and to provide a commentary on the verses from Bible. Bible women wore white saris and carried cloth covered Bibles, representative of their virtuous identity. They stopped wearing jewellery and deprived themselves of all forms of vanity. Bible women took up various roles in the zenana missions. They taught in girls' schools, which were attended by all classes. Bible women visited the zenana, taught women and girls there, preached religious values and worked for the general good of the women. They also visited native women in hospitals and homes, providing healthcare services and facilities.
References
{{Reflist
External links
*Emma Raymond Pitman
Indian Zenana Missions'. London: John Snow,
890?*Helen Catharine Mackenzie: ''Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenáná; or Six Years in India.'' London: Richard Bentley, 1853.
Christian missions in China
Christian missions in India
Women-only spaces
Health care