For bed and board only

The emancipating social implications of the ‘coming out’ of the bhadramahila (a gentlewoman), the development of her agency, in late colonial and post-Partition Kolkata have been discussed and celebrated in a number of studies (Bagchi 1995; Chakravartty 2005; Chatterji 2007; Ray 1995). The toils and struggles of the working middle class women whilst adjusting to their new role have also attracted the attention of a generation of film directors including Ritwik Ghatak (1960) ¹ and Satyajit Ray (1963) ² as well as novelists and short story writers. ³ In contrast, poorer women, the domestic maids or the petty traders struggling desperately to survive in post- Partition Kolkata (though many more in number than working middle class women), have failed to attract much academic or popular attention. However, a study of uprooted, single, migrant women from across the border who slaved in city homes, often receiving in return only food and shelter, reveals a different and much bleaker picture for women and work in post-Partition Kolkata. ⁴