The Women’s Royal Indian Naval Service: Picturing India’s New Woman
Article
Vitali, V. 2019. The Women’s Royal Indian Naval Service: Picturing India’s New Woman. Women's History Review. 29 (7), pp. 1114-1148. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2019.1674468
Authors | Vitali, V. |
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Abstract | Lack of research on the Women’s Royal Indian Naval Service (W.R.I.N.S.) has led to the misconception that most of the women recruited into the Royal Indian Navy during World War 2 were either British or ‘Anglo-Indian’. In reality, by far the majority of the ‘Wrins’, as they came to be called, were Indian. In this paper I follow two parallel lines of enquiry. The first inspects the material stored in British archives - official navy documents, illustrated promotional pamphlets, photographs, memoirs, oral history and letters - to offer the first comprehensive account of the W.R.I.N.S.’ formation, operation and dismantlement. This provides the context for an examination of the visual material created to promote the service. More specifically, comparing the few surviving photographs of Wrins with Lee Miller’s photos of Wrens, I argue that W.R.I.N.S. material mediated a specific and, for the time, new set of discourses about Indian women, ideas about women’s role in a nation-in-making that may still speak to Indian women today. |
Journal | Women's History Review |
Journal citation | 29 (7), pp. 1114-1148 |
ISSN | 0961-2025 |
Year | 2019 |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Accepted author manuscript | License File Access Level Anyone |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2019.1674468 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 17 Oct 2019 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 01 Oct 2019 |
Accepted | 20 Aug 2019 |
Copyright holder | © 2019 Taylor & Francis |
Copyright information | This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Women's History Review on 17/10/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09612025.2019.1674468. |
https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/871qw
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Accepted author manuscript
article05072019_HA-VV - FINAL.pdf | ||
License: All rights reserved | ||
File access level: Anyone |
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