{"product_id":"colonial-caregivers-satya-shikha-chakraborty-9781009467148","title":"Colonial Caregivers: Ayahs and the Gendered History of Race and Caste in British India","description":"Colonial Caregivers offers a compelling cultural and social history of ayahs (nannies\/maids), by exploring domestic intimacy and exploitation in colonial South Asia. Working for British imperial families from the mid-1700s to the mid-1900s, South Asian ayahs, as Chakraborty shows, not only provided domestic labor, but also provided important moral labor for the British Empire. The desexualized racialized ayah archetype upheld British imperial whiteness and sexual purity, and later Indian elite 'upper' caste domestic modernity. Chakraborty argues that the pervasive cultural sentimentalization of the ayah morally legitimized British colonialism, while obscuring the vulnerabilities of caregivers in real-life. Using an archive of petitions and letters from ayahs, fairytales they told to British children, court cases, and vernacular sources, Chakraborty foregrounds the precarious lives, voices, and perspectives of these women. By placing care labor at the center of colonial history, the book decolonizes the history of South Asia and the British Empire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Satya Shikha Chakraborty\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 100946714X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781009467148\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Cambridge University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/30\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 318\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Satya Shikha Chakraborty","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47418977485055,"sku":"9781009467148","price":130.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_431e912d-4987-445c-9004-6f41f5e2f13f.jpg?v=1761508667","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/colonial-caregivers-satya-shikha-chakraborty-9781009467148","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}