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Introduction : the ultimate unveiling -- Life/history/archive -- The sociology of authorship -- The autobiographical map -- Staging the self -- Autobiographical genealogies -- Coda : unveiling and its attributes

Raihana Tyabji is best known in history, not for her writing or even her singing, but as a devotee of Gandhi. Yet in 1924 this at least nominally Muslim woman composed a small book of bhakti devotionalism that has continued to garner popular interest right into the twenty-first century. She gave it the evocative title,The Heart of a Gopi, on the basis that what had been revealed to her was the very 'soul', the inner self, of the gopi and, through that, an understanding of Lord Krishna himself. This paper considers the question of how far this piece of bhakti devotionalism may be read as a kind of personal narrative, an evocation of the self. Does the referencing of an established narrative tradition give the author's feelings and experiences, especially as a Muslim woman devoted to Krishna at a time of increasing religious rigidity and growing communal strife, a kind of validity not achievable otherwise? And, if so, how do we separate out the author's 'self' from the literary conventions—in this case, the gopi tradition—that structure the story? In the tradition of Islamic life-writing, can the gap between the miraculous and the mundane be breached in order to understand the mystical experience charted here as a kind of autobiography? Even from the rationalist's perspective, should not the life of the imagination still be considered part of the life?

For historians, the debates surrounding autobiography have focused on the question of reliability: can it be considered an appropriate historical source only when verified by "real" material from "real" archives? Scholars from other disciplines have been more interested in defining autobiography as a genre by asking if it can be distinguished from other literary forms. Far from hypothetical, these questions about where to draw the line are pertinent to the historian in the field faced with the very real problem of identifying materials. The problem seems compounded when the historian's subject is Muslim women in South Asia, a group often characterized as silent and secluded and thus presumed not to write autobiography at all. As part of the task of "defining the genre," this article considers the range of possibilities to be included under the labels of personal narratives, life histories, or, ultimately, autobiographical writing—from autobiographical biographies and biographical autobiographies to travelogues, reformist literature, novels, devotionalism, letters, diaries, interviews, and ghosted narratives. It raises questions about the nature of archives and the distinctiveness of women's writing as these relate to nomenclature, structure, chronology, language, voice, and regional specificity.

This article focuses on the activities of the All-India Ladies' Association. Founded in 1918 at the instigation of an elite group of primarily Muslim women in the princely state of Bhopal in central India, it represents one of the earliest efforts to introduce ideas of women's autonomy across geographic or sectarian boundaries to the movement for women's rights in India. It also signifies the consolidation of colonial and indigenous models of reform with regard to education, child marriage, health, and other social issues. A controversial debate on purdah (seclusion) also provides insight into the role of intermediaries in bridging ideological gaps between generations. Overall, this study suggests that Muslim identity was central to these women's conceptions of themselves, but it was not monolithic, nor was it exclusive. Rather, it informed and was informed by a range of other identities, including gender, in a dynamic process of interaction.

Abstract
Bhopal in central India has a unique history as a city ruled by a dynasty of four successive Muslim women rulers (1819–1926). Yet, in Bhopal city today, they are rarely commemorated or even remembered. This article documents an initial study undertaken by an interdisciplinary academic team (including a historian, a sociologist and an applied education researcher) in collaboration with local women's organization Mahashakti Seva Kendra. The project explores how the inspirational life stories of the Begums of Bhopal can be recovered to empower contemporary women, revealing the immediate impact and future potential of local history for women's learning and gender empowerment.

Contributed articles presented at a workshop held in Dhaka, December 2002 on gender identity and family life of Indian women organised by Bangladesh Chapter of International Federation for Research in Women's History