Women of Grace and Guts: The Unlikely Heroes of the Ladies’ Zenana Auxiliary, Serving the Lord in India

Julia Jones takes us on a journey to 1900s Madras, India, by using archived Strict Baptist Mission reports. The narrative begins with Winifred Booth, a third generation Indian-born British subject living in Madras, married to missionary Ernest Booth. She knew the plight of the women hidden behind walls of Muslim and high-caste Hindu homes and longed for them to know the gospel. These women, termed the ‘Zenana’ (those confined to the women’s quarters of a home), spent their lives in service to their household and their religion. A nine-year old child-bride widow was made to live out her days as a slave in her in-laws’ home. It was a dark and hopeless life.