The most interesting ideas often emerge at intersections. This general observation serves as an apt introduction to Professor Mrinalini Sinha’s reflections at the 2024 Ursula Hirschmann Lecture, titled 'Gender and colonialism: a retrospective'. The lecture took place on 25 November, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Professor Sinha, the Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History at the University of Michigan, specialises in the political history of modern South Asia and the British Empire, with a focus on anti-colonialism, gender and sexuality, and transnational approaches. In her lecture, she offered a thought-provoking journey through 50 years of scholarship on the intersections of gender and colonialism.
The field of study, she explained, began with explorations of white women living in colonies but has since expanded to examine how colonialism shaped gender dynamics—and vice versa—both in colonised and colonising societies. Gender-focused approaches have been central to introducing fresh perspectives, particularly in two key debates: colonial modernity and anti-colonialism.
On the colonial modernity debate, feminist critiques have been vital in highlighting the contradictions and ambiguities of the so-called modernity introduced by colonial powers. At the same time, feminist approaches have added nuance to decolonial critiques, which often categorically rejected all societal changes brought about under colonial influence.
In the anti-colonialism debate, gendered perspectives have shed light on how colonial powers often imposed new gender orders on traditional practices within colonised societies. However, Professor Sinha emphasised the difficulty of drawing broad conclusions, as the impact of colonisers on gender systems varied significantly across contexts. She also discussed the perspective of feminist movements such as India’s in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose political actions aimed to reform both the colonial state and existing societal structures.
From this overview, it is clear that studying the gendered dimensions of colonialism has significantly enriched our understanding of colonialism and imperialism. These studies have placed colonial histories within a broader context, challenging simplistic narratives and interpretations.
However, Sinha noted that this field of research remains relatively marginalised, a phenomenon that may partly stem from gender biases. Additionally, she suggested, this marginalisation might also be tied to the very nature of these studies: their tendency to work alongside major historiographical shifts (e.g. the global turn) while questioning or complicating their assumptions.
To address this marginalisation, Sinha encouraged scholars in the field to further engage with macro-historical topics. As her lecture demonstrated, the study of gender and colonialism engages with broad themes such as rewriting narratives of modernity and complicating the dichotomy of resistance versus cooperation in colonisation.
The recording of the 2024 Ursula Hirschmann Lecture is available here.
---
The Ursula Hirschmann Lecture is an annual event dedicated to gender studies, jointly organised by the EUI History Department and the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies.
The 2023 Ursula Hirschmann Lecture is available here.