Travel and writing on travel became a means of self-expression for Bengalis, especially women, in the early twentieth century. Although social and religious restrictions coloured their experiences, these travellers’ tales to the East and West reflected their privileged status, their exposure to different forms of knowledge, and their cosmopolitanism and nationalism. Their eagerness to share their experience with other women helped create a world where women of all cultures could bond. Wandering Women presents sixteen travelogues that were originally published in Bengali periodicals (samayik patrikas) like Bamabodhini Patrika, Antahpur, and Mahila, among others, narrating the places these Bengali women visited and the people they met while highlighting nationalist and universalist values.

Unlike conventional Western women’s narratives, these travel narratives by colonized women are unique since they reiterate, confront, and subvert inherited colonial stereotypes in their encounters with the West; however, in their travels to the East they themselves become colonial in their analyses. Women’s travel narratives are hugely important for assessing the position of women and their intellectual development within societal growth in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in India. Publication in vernacular periodicals empowered both writer and reader, creating a world for, by, and of women.