The Forgotten Daughters of Empire: Anglican Sisterhoods, Christianity and Empire in India, 1890 – 1970
School: Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies
Supervisors: Dr Felicity Loughlin, Prof Emma Wild-Wood
About Lucy’s Research:
Between 1845 and 1900, some ninety Anglican religious orders for women (known as “sisterhoods”) were founded in Britain. In the early twentieth century, these spread across the British Empire, including to India, where sisters ran schools and hospitals, led missionary and social projects, and built close relationships with local communities. Despite their significant impact on religious, social, and political life, their history has been largely overlooked by historians and remains untold.
This project provides the first sustained historical study of Anglican sisterhoods in India, from the founding of the first missionary sisterhoods through to the period after Indian independence. It builds on the author’s previous study of the Sisterhood of the Epiphany, as well as on other British sisterhoods and Indian Sisterhoods across the subcontinent.
The research asks: what role did these sisterhoods play in shaping, and later unmaking, colonial Christianity in India? How did British and Indian women navigate questions of authority, class, race, religious calling, and belonging during a period of major political change? And what was their impact on the Indian communities they lived and worked alongside?
The project draws on newly available and largely uncatalogued archives, including letters, journals, photographs and financial records, held across the United Kingdom and, where possible, India and Bangladesh, alongside fieldwork and oral history with surviving sisterhoods. It pays particular attention to recovering the voices and experiences of Indian sisters, who have often been sidelined in historical accounts and archives that focus on British women.
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