American Women in India: the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Creation of a "World-Wide Sisterhood," 1887-1900

The World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU) was founded in 1884 making it one of the earliest transnational women’s organizations. Though spreading the twin gospels of Christianity and temperance was always a priority, the emancipation of women worldwide was the real purpose of the WWCTU.

One of the first international unions was the WCTU of India (1887) and here the goals of the WWCTU were especially challenging. Alcohol abuse was brought there and fostered by the British (and the Christian missionaries), and its consumption, like opium, was encouraged by the government for the tax revenue it generated. The women of the WWCTU soon found themselves critiquing their so-called allies from a distinctly American post-colonial perspective. They discovered that the connection they felt with native women superseded any national, political or even religious affiliations. The usual barriers of language, culture, and custom existed, but the women of the India WCTU found their faith-led reform had unexpected allies and co-workers in native women and native reformers.

My paper will examine the work of the WWCTU in India during the early years of the organization. A close examination of the organization’s records, newly discovered in the Willard Archives, reveals not only how it’s leaders adapted and changed as their knowledge of the country and the status of women there grew, but how their arguments and allegiances shifted over time. The critical stance the organization occupied in these years complicates our ideas of “benevolent colonialism,” revealing a more nuanced story.