Kamala Satthianadhan and the Indian Ladies' Magazine: Women's Editorship and Transnational Print Networks in Late Colonial India

Abstract:The Indian Ladies' Magazine, launched in 1901 under the editorship of Kamala Satthianadhan, quickly evolved into a platform where the future of Indian womanhood was fiercely debated. Publishing anonymous writers alongside household names like Sarojini Naidu, it made a crucial intervention in the ongoing conversation about the public and private roles of Indian women at a time when both colonial rule and patriarchal notions of domesticity were being unsettled. This essay focuses on Satthianadhan's editorial persona and the first run of the magazine (1901–18), arguing that this first iteration provided the editor and contributing authors a significant platform for advocating social reform, creating a community of readers, and fashioning the New Indian Woman.