What is Dastoori

Narratives by women travelers to European colonies from the early 19th century were marked by incomprehension because they experienced cultural unfamiliarity. Early encounters between European women and non-European people resulted in geographical and racial segregation in the “contact zones” of South Asia. Immigrant women's writings record strategies of utilizing their sense of spatial alienation. The notion, which was identified by colonial feminists such as Elizabeth Buettner and Mary Procida, establishes a narrative strengthening social fault lines in colonial India and South Asia. This chapter critiques relevant textual evidence to examine how women made use of reified moral/cultural coda from “home” (Britain) and reinforced racial identity in an alien land (India). The aim of the study is to establish how these uniquely gendered markers created colonial legacies of social entitlement in India.