Catholic Nuns, Convent Schools, and Global Knowledge Exchanges in Late Colonial India

Abstract

I explore the global interconnections of Christianity, gender, and knowledge production that linked late colonial India to Australia. Catholic convent schools in late colonial India served as spaces for transnational intellectual exchanges, conversations, and emotional attachments. By examining private letters exchanged between convent nuns in convent schools in India and Australia, I investigate how Catholic religiosity and personal relationships influenced the education of girls in India and facilitated the exchange of educational ideas, gifts, and endowments between these convent schools. My analysis focuses on platonic female emotional intimacies within social relationships. For the Australian convent nuns, their connection with India stemmed not only from its status as a sister British colony but also from their perception of India as reminiscent of Biblical times—the Wordsworthian “manuscript of God.” The exchange of letters and gifts forged a tangible link between the “new land” of Australia and the “old, old land of India,” enabling Australian nuns to serve as teachers and administrators in Indian convent schools. I examine how these personal relationships between the nuns extended to friendships among schoolgirls in India and Australia through writing and the circulation of letters and gifts. These interactions demonstrate how knowledge circulated globally via the schoolgirls in these convent schools.