"... [A] rare and remarkable insight into an Indian woman's take on                  American culture in the 19th century, refracted through her own experiences with                  British colonialism, Indian nationalism, and Christian culture on no less than three                  continents.... a fabulous resource for undergraduate teaching." -- Antoinette Burton                  In the 1880s, Pandita Ramabai traveled from India to England and                  then to the U.S., where she spent three years immersed in the milieu of progressive                  social reform movements of the day. Born into a Brahmin family and widowed while                  still young, she converted to Christianity while in England. In India, she was an                  activist for the education of women and the improvement of the status of widows.                  Abroad, she was iconized as a champion of the "oppressed Hindu woman." The                  Peoples of the United States is Ramabai's comprehensive description of American                  life, ranging from government to economy, education to domestic activity. As an                  account of a Western society by an Indian woman and a feminist, it reverses the                  established equation of male, Orientalist travel narratives. First published in                  Marathi in 1889, it is offered here in an elegant and engaging English translation                  by Meera Kosambi, who also provides a critical introduction and extensive                  annotations.

Pandita Ramabai's American Encounter: The Peoples of the United States (1889) PDF

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