Gendering the Rebellion of 1857: The ‘Loyal Indian Woman’ in ‘Mutiny Fiction’

Abstract

The colonial ‘Mutiny novel’ was a highly popular literary genre in the nineteenth century. An important trope that recurrently appeared in these writings was that of the ‘loyal Indian woman’. This was constituted in the figure of the devoted ayah, the loyal dancing girl and the English hero's faithful concubine/wife. Additionally, there was the trope of female friendship across the race divide. Far from being a reflection of existing social relations, however, this trope was a textual construct, shaped and reinforced by the exigencies of empire. It formed a part of the textual strategies deployed to address post-Rebellion insecurities and reinforce the hegemony of empire which the events of 1857 had seriously contested.