ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the pioneering Indian feminist Pandita Ramabai. In the process, it aims to offer new insights into the significance of informal cross-cultural networks of association during the nineteenth-century age of empire. The chapter on Pandita Ramabai seeks to advance the project of writing such critical transnational histories of South Asia by moving beyond their current focus on male actors and anti-imperialist alliances to explore female agency and cross-cultural collaboration on issues of social reform. It evaluates how significant the network was in offering her practical and moral support in developing her work with Indian women and the part it played in the evolution of her religious beliefs and her feminist ideas. The chapter exposes the complex set of specific challenges she faced in each of the distinct but interconnected national arenas of colonial India, imperial Britain and republican America, arenas within and among which she sought to pursue her intertwined faith and feminist journeys.
