European monasteries were segregated by sex — for men or women only — and the inhabitants were expected to be celebate. In South Asia, where many different religious traditions grew up side by side in the same terrain since the earliest times, monasticism neither insisted on absolute celibacy for men, nor did they exclude women. Many monastic men moved from site to site collecting food and exchanging information.
On Women and Nation in India
More books on women and colonialism in Northeast India.