Focusing on two texts—Ismat Chughtai’s “Dust of the Caravan” and Ashapurna Devi’s The First Promise (Prothom Protishruti in Bengali)—this article studies the mechanism and consequences of Farsi’s loss of administrative signifi cance, consequent interiorisation and “feminisation”—the shift from a masculine to a feminine accomplishment—in light of the 19th-century discourses of home and abroad.
