The dilemma the middle classes fall prey to

One can make an interesting observation on the title of the book itself where the first two common nouns make it most fascinating to general readers. The addition of the third certainly constricts its appeal to them, limiting it to the interest and need of a select group of readers comprising students, scholars and researchers of socio-cultural anthropology, South Asian history and gender studies. Viewing it from a broader perspective, one can as well discern elements of cross-cultural and comparative studies on the functioning of the family as the mainstay of a society taken collectively where it plays the role of a society in microcosm.
Thus the book Men, Women, And Domestics, is elevated to the quality and rank of a highly scholastic treatise befitting the standard of an Oxford University Press publication. Placing the word 'Domestics' on the cover of the book inside the box highlights the significance of the third actor in the matrix consisting of three, their interplay through the daily encounters in discharging business within a family and related matters. Swapna M. Banerjee, by stretching these particular modes of behaviour that are there on the domestic front, has very ably shown the family as political space culminating in the construction of a national identity. The characteristics forming traits of personality and their manifestations constitute the identity of the urban middle class Hindu families based in Calcutta during the colonial period. These English-educated Bengalis were much influenced by colonialism associated with the western sense of a modern man and/or woman, all of which made inroads into the psyche of a Bengali, so much so that it shaped and transformed Bengali domestic culture that gave rise to the bhadralok/ bhadramahila class on the one hand and the emergence of the 'other' or the lower social classes on the other. The distance between these two classes was a joint function of class, caste, and gender specific ideologies that came to the fore as Bengali middle class families articulated the identity of themselves definitely, consciously, oftentimes subconsciously as bourgeois ideology grew in their individual and national sphere of life.
Domestic workers at various jobs have always been there for the upkeep and maintenance of the household and serving its members and have remained an integral part thereof. But the subject has acquired very special significance through this research of the writer when seen against the background of the twin pressures of colonialism and nationalism seeping into the households of the educated middle class. The writer traces the origin and influx of people coming to Calcutta in search of a better scope for their traditional occupation only to find that the changed occupational scene vis-a-vis economic realities in the mid-nineteenth century dealt a hard blow to their fate, thereby reducing them to the ranks of the lowliest labourers. That included the job of a domestic helper among others. Thus gradually they were seen, their voices were heard, their jobs were carried out and their roles were played, although within the confines of the household injunctions but oftentimes with some form of transgressions that the writer notes. The servants having come from the hinterland thus turned into important actors in an establishment where governance existed with all kinds of rules and laws, hierarchy of persons wielding power and control, exercising sanctions and rewards --- all enunciated and crystallised in unwritten terms.
With the inclusion and acceptance of the domestic workers, both male and female, the role of a 'new' woman, meaning thereby the independent image of a woman as herself emerged within the domain of one's household. Thus along with the menfolk, even if not exactly in the same way and in the same degree, women also asserted themselves in exercising their autonomy in their relationships with their subalterns. At this point we see the interplay of dominance, subordination and an ensuing hegemonic process surfacing through the complexities of a household. It is far-fetched to conceive of the intricacies brought out by the researcher, those that worked in those days of colonialism both in the domestic and national arena, as we look back at it from the 21st century. However, the author's model of viewing the domestic domain as a prototype of the then colonial administration within its realm can best be comprehended by superimposing the former on the latter in terms of their structural organisation and implementation of policies. Who else other than a social researcher of such distinguished calibre would conceive of a theoretical framework paving the way for observing its concretisation in a life lived? Historiographical studies projecting domestics may not be something new in the social history of this subcontinent but for the paradigm used by the author where the three autonomous yet interdependent actors enter into the household domain of complexities. Many untold stories are revealed and there lies the uniqueness of her research. Banerjee has dredged up a wealth of data as if from the bottom of a sea that lay there unused for ages, which simply is fabulous. Interestingly, she has drawn heavily from the accounts of the Tagore family, among others. Also by citing relevant examples on the subalterns from the literary writings of well-known authors both male and female, she has made her book appealing. Otherwise it would have been rather dry reading, like any run-of-the-mill government report.
The most startling finding and the author's incisiveness in interpreting it is the fact that while the nationalist middle class tried hard to distinguish itself from its British rulers in order to construct its own identity, in the process encountering a sense of difference, domination and subordination and a constant unequal power struggle, nevertheless the same was resorted to by it over the less powerful segment of society employed in the domestic services. The colonised in their turn colonised others under their control. The same rules of conduct were applied and the same perceptions. And that was the irony.
As ex post facto research where a field study was undertaken, it is only natural that a researcher will meet with an overwhelming volume of related literature to fathom in order to turn it into a seminal work. Banerjee's treatise is both new of its kind and highly educational.

Nazma Yeasmeen Haque is Principal, Radiant International School .