The Queen’s Daughters in India (1899) – Detailed Summary
By Elizabeth W. Andrew and Katharine C. Bushnell
1. Scope & Purpose
This investigative report, published in 1899, exposed the systemic exploitation of native Indian women and girls by the British Army through military-run brothels—called chaklas—within cantonments. The authors (who were members of Parliament) conducted a two-year undercover mission between 1891–1893, visiting around 100 British cantonments.
2. Military-Managed Brothels & Lock Hospitals
- Chaklas were sanctioned, licensed, and supervised by the British military.
- Native women were subjected to compulsory and invasive medical inspections.
- If found infected, women were imprisoned in Lock Hospitals; if cleared, they were returned to service.
- Those unable to work due to illness were abandoned to starve.
3. Graphic Exploitation Methods
- Debt bondage: Women earned little and remained in perpetual debt to procuresses.
- Forced confinement: Some were imprisoned in brothels or hospitals under threat.
- Underage exploitation: Girls as young as 11–12 were lured, sold, or trafficked into chaklas.
- Medical abuse: Regular “examinations” violated bodily autonomy and dignity.
- Child-bearing women: Mothers were not exempt, nor were they given support for their children.
4. Personal Cases & Narratives
The report documents over 300 individual cases, including:
- A high-caste Brahmin girl found starving and forced into registration as a prostitute.
- An 11-year-old Kabul girl sold into prostitution under false pretenses of marriage.
- A white woman held captive in a rooftop room by a knife-wielding guard.
- Girls trafficked from Egypt, hill regions, and famine-stricken areas of India.
5. Legal & Political Response
- Their work prompted an internal British investigation and telegrams from the India Office.
- It contributed to the 1895 amendment of the Cantonments Act.
- Helped amplify the abolitionist campaign led by Josephine Butler against the Contagious Diseases Acts.
6. Broader Impact
The report is one of the earliest feminist indictments of colonial policies that treated native women as disposable. It helped reframe prostitution in India not just as a medical or moral issue, but as a systemic abuse of power involving the British Army.
“I am only a black woman. They can do anything to me.” – Statement from a girl in the report
🔗 Read the Full Report
You can read or download the original report from Project Gutenberg: