Dr. Arunima Datta, who teaches at Department of History, University of North Texas, delivered a talk on her latest book Waiting on Empire: A History of Indian Travelling Ayahs in Britain (Oxford University Press, 2023) at the University of Hyderabad. The talk was organized by the Department of History under the aegis of the Brokering Mobility project, being funded by the Institution of Eminence (IoE). An outstanding young historian, Dr. Datta has been a recipient of several awards like NWSA Whaley Book Award, the WAWH Chaudhuri Prize, and the NACBS Stansky Award for her previously published book titled Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya (2021).
Dr. V.J. Varghese, the Principal Investigator of the Brokering Mobility project and Associate Professor in History welcomed the speaker and the audience, apart from introducing academic work and intellectual life of Dr. Datta.
In the talk, Dr. Datta provided a backdrop of the journey with the research that she undertook for the book i.e. a chance encounter of stumbling upon travelling ayahs in the archive while she was working for her first book. In continuation from Fleeting Agency, where she looked at the history of coolie women working in British Malaya and instances of their agency exercised situationally, Dr. Datta in the new book has brought forward another group of voiceless working women i.e. ayahs to the fore who have otherwise been either forgotten or misremembered. Both these works thus has been part of a considered attempt of giving expression to the suppressed voices and make visible the stories of invisible women.
Her presentation started with an introduction to the world of travelling ayahs i.e. how they came to be, the demographic (age, religion, region etc.) that formed part of that profession, their relationship with the employers and the life on board. Then she journeyed into the next part of the presentation i.e. the Arrival where she looked at the disembarkment on reaching the destination and their living conditions henceforth while performing the care work.
She interspersed her presentation in the middle with an introduction to a section of her book titled “Profiles of Travelling Ayahs”. It appears towards the end in her book where she provides detailed profiles of 124 travelling ayahs alongside their photographs and their thick life-stories.
The final part of the presentation i.e. the Waiting, looked at another aspect of the life of travelling ayahs, that the life worlds and negotiations of stranded ayahs post-arrival. She elaborated upon the struggles and assertions, the “fleeting agencies” through the lens of the concept of waiting. The waiting, as Dr. Datta emphasised in her talk was not to be viewed as a passive act but rather a period where the ayahs were consistently engaging with their emotions, employers, the Ayah Houses and the state.
The hallmark of the talk remained the extensive use of visuals that Dr. Datta made in her presentation. Apart from the visual archive of paintings and photographs, she employed animations and some sketches she had herself created which made the story come alive and completely transported the audience to their life. In doing this, she was truly able to make visible these women who have been erased and silenced in the archival world as well as historiographical discourses.
The talk gave way to a captivating session of Questions and Answers with Dr. Datta on diverse aspects of the book. The moderator, Prof. Anindita Mukhopadhyay (Professor, Department of History, University of Hyderabad) guided the flow and engagement with the audience and Prof. Sujith Parayil (Professor, Department of History, University of Hyderabad) proposed the votes of thanks.
Contributed by: Mimansa Sharma, Research Scholar in History.