Sara Jeannette Duncan/Lily Lewis Archive

Anglo-Indian Housekeepers (Milwaukee Daily Journal, April 12 1890)

Duncan talks about the difficulty that the memsahib suffers during housekeeping because she is so busy watching her servants. She describes the different servant roles, but ascribes negative qualities to many of them. The khansamah (head butler) robs his bosses, the “kitmutgar” is physically unattractive, and the dhoby (washerman) is known to “dismember certain garments of the sahib and sent them in separate legs” to make certain quotas. She talks about how Anglo-Indian tempers are short, and how sahibs and memsahibs often hurt the “Hindoo’s” feelings. Still, the Indian servants always, per Duncan, respect and admire their masters.

 

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