ABSTRACT This paper seeks to open up a field of enquiry and focus on encounters between the colonial regime in India and “foreign” women around the time of the World Wars. The terms on which trans-continental lives were negotiated came to be embedded in legal regimes which were continuously evolving. The interface of women and the colonial state needs to be studied from multiple socio-political locations. The lens of gender, generally invoked with reference to Indian women subjects, does not encompass the different categories of women with whom the state established formal juridical relations, through routes and relationships that had evolved over long periods of history. War and conflict led to the fracturing of the binary of Indian and foreign/ western women. Apart from British women, who traveled across the seas to “join” their families, there were other European women as well. Given the regulatory regimes of the times, their experiences were highly gendered and complex. Women from “hostile” countries came to be marked by their origins, identities and nationalities. Focusing on aspects of Citizenship and Gender, this paper underscores the need to trace these different trajectories, to uncover the layered experiences of “foreign” women, caught across borders in times of conflict.

中文翻译：

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性别与国籍：战时印度殖民地“外国”妇女的经历

摘要 本文旨在开辟一个研究领域，并重点关注印度殖民政权与“外国”妇女在世界大战期间的遭遇。跨大陆生活谈判的条款被嵌入在不断发展的法律制度中。需要从多个社会政治位置研究妇女与殖民国家的界面。性别视角，通常引用印度女性主体，不包括国家通过长期历史演变的路线和关系与之建立正式法律关系的不同类别的女性。战争和冲突导致印度和外国/西方女性二元对立。除了漂洋过海“加入”家人的英国女性，还有其他欧洲女性。鉴于当时的监管制度，他们的经历高度性别化和复杂化。来自“敌对”国家的妇女开始以其出身、身份和国籍为标志。本文关注公民身份和性别方面，强调有必要追踪这些不同的轨迹，以揭示在冲突时期跨越国界的“外国”女性的分层经历。