The Queen's Daughters in India

The authors document and condemn official systems that regulated and controlled prostitution in colonial India, combining eyewitness accounts from cantonments, descriptions of the places where marginalized women live, legal and medical critique of the Contagious Diseases Acts and compulsory examinations, and appeals for reform and compassion. They recount encounters with outcast women, detail administrative practices that enforce sexual control, and analyse moral attitudes among Anglo-Indian society. The work mixes narrative reportage, moral argument, and appendices of supporting material to urge abolition of state-sanctioned regulation and protection of vulnerable women.