ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the issue of how charity and philanthropy as noble and indispensable concepts were employed to uplift the Bengali society, and was sieved through a colonial understanding of the subject with European women role models serving as ideals to inspire their Bengali counterparts. It explores textual strategies of writing biographies of exemplary Western women and the politics of their portrayal in the periodicals, with the aim of analyzing the perception and characterization of the Western women to suit the purpose of a colonized society. The exemplary philanthropic Western women came from diverse personal, economic, social, and cultural backgrounds. One might question the need for female European role models for inspiration in Bengal, especially when major Bengali periodicals were replete with frequent references to arya-bhumi, her women, and their former greatness. With the purpose of inspiration, these columns selected and incorporated biographies of Western women whose philanthropic services involved courage and determination.
