ABSTRACT
With the growth of the print industry and that of a class of Western educated intellectuals and reformers in British Bengal – who had internalized the colonial stereotypes of Indians (particularly Bengalis) as ‘weak’, ’decadent’, ‘effeminate’ – there was the publication of numerous writings addressing the subject of health degeneration of the Indians.
‘Unhygienic’ practices as well as ‘harmful’ sexual behaviours were often blamed for making the physique weak and fragile. Many of these new discourses on sexuality and domestic practices focused on remodelling of women’s role as health-conscious good wives and mothers. Women were often portrayed as victims as well as agents of degeneration. As biological reproducers of the race, the mothers and good wives were required to give birth to and raise healthy children who would become the representatives of a strong, masculine nation.
