Pandita Ramabai's American Encounter: The Peoples of the United States (1889)

"... [A] rare and remarkable insight into an Indian woman's take on
American culture in the 19th century, refracted through her own experiences with
British colonialism, Indian nationalism, and Christian culture on no less than three
continents.... a fabulous resource for undergraduate teaching." -- Antoinette Burton

In the 1880s, Pandita Ramabai traveled from India to England and
then to the U.S., where she spent three years immersed in the milieu of progressive
social reform movements of the day. Born into a Brahmin family and widowed while
still young, she converted to Christianity while in England. In India, she was an
activist for the education of women and the improvement of the status of widows.
Abroad, she was iconized as a champion of the "oppressed Hindu woman." The
Peoples of the United States is Ramabai's comprehensive description of American
life, ranging from government to economy, education to domestic activity. As an
account of a Western society by an Indian woman and a feminist, it reverses the
established equation of male, Orientalist travel narratives. First published in
Marathi in 1889, it is offered here in an elegant and engaging English translation
by Meera Kosambi, who also provides a critical introduction and extensive
annotations.