Modern Currents: Electricity and Its Impact on Middle-Class Women

Electricity arrived in colonial Bengal in the late nineteenth century, initially serving elite institutions and commercial centers in Calcutta. Its gradual adoption in middle-class homes signaled more than infrastructural change. It transformed the social and emotional rhythms of domestic life. For bhadramahila (middle-class women) committed to ideals of respectability and reform, the illuminated home introduced new regimes of visibility, comfort, hygiene and discipline. This paper focuses on how electricity affected women