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Ayesha's World: A Butcher's Family in Nineteenth-Century Bombay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2001

Asiya Siddiqi
Asiya Siddiqi
Affiliation:
c/o Professor Obaid Siddiqi F.R.S., National Center for Biological Sciences, G.K.V.K. Campus, Bangalore 560065.
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Abstract

Little is known of the private worlds of working people in the growing cities of nineteenth-century India, still less of the space women occupied in them. Historical documentation is almost silent on information about their everyday lives. An exception perhaps are certain legal records, such as the proceedings on petitions of insolvents. From the early nineteenth century onwards, many humble citizens of metropolitan cities were able to petition the courts for protection from their creditors. It is here that we find the striking record of the personality and concerns of Ayesha, mother of an insolvent butcher in nineteenth-century Bombay. This article draws upon the documentation generated by the hearings on Ismail Sobhan's petition to the High Court of Bombay for protection.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 101 - 129
Copyright
© 2001 Society for Comparative Study of Society and History

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Footnotes

I am grateful for access to the records of the Bombay High Court and the Maharashtra State Archives, and to the Indian Council of Historical Research for support. I thank the many friends who have commented on earlier drafts of this essay.The article draws mainly on the following records of the Bombay High Court: (1) insolvency schedule of Ismail Sobhan and his wife, Hamidabai, no. 8743, 1872; (2) minutes of evidence of the hearings on Ismail's petition, July to December 1873, recorded in notebook entitled “Notes by Justice Pinhey, Insolvent Court, Bombay, 1873.” I cite the evidence of the witnesses by their names. All insolvency schedules refer to the records of the Bombay High Court and are cited by number and date.“Working people” refers to the subordinate classes generally, and includes smaller traders, artisans and service people.