Women movement in india part 2 ( Freedom struggle )

During the freedom movement, the struggle for Women’s right and equality was seen as an integral part of the struggle for national Independence.

 Many women who fought for the country’s freedom were also active on the issues of women’s rights.

In 1885 the Indian National Congress was founded , In 1889 congress meeting  10 women participated.

 With the spread of women’s education among middle class by the last part of the nineteenth century, several women became active in the social and political life of India.

Gandhiji’s call to women and large scale participation of women in India’s freedom movement brought about changes in the perception of nationalist leaders.

Role of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru

Mahatma Gandhi played the most significant role in involving large number of women in the nationalist movement.

Hence it is important to understand the impact of Gandhian ideology on women’s movement. He proclaimed:

“Woman is the companion of man gifted with equal mental capacities. She has the right to participate in the minutes details of activities of men and she has the same right to freedom and / liberty as he.... By sheer force of vicious custom, even the most ignorant and worthless men have been enjoying a superiority over women which they do not deserve and ought not to have”.

He said “I am uncompromising in the matter of women’s rights”.

The same time he idealised mythical figures like Sita, Damyanti who were symbols of women’s sufferings.

He stressed that participation of women in the freedom struggle was an integral part of women’s dharma (duty).

He felt that women were most suited for Satyagraha (protest) as they have qualities appropriate for non-violent struggle and for constructive social uplift programmes of the Congress.

 He said women had great qualities for selfsacrifice and tolerance and an ability to endure suffering, which were needed for non-violent struggle.

He saw women’s role as complementary to men.

Jawaharlal Nehru was influenced by the Western suffragettes and was exposed to liberal views on women’s question in the West.

He believed that ‘without economic freedom other aspects of women’s equality would not be realised’. He disagreed with the limited view that women’s education alone can bring about the desired changes and he wanted women trained in all human activities.

He said that “if women’s struggles remained isolated from the general political, economic and social struggles, the women’s movement would not gain strength and will remain confined to the upper classes”.

There cannot be any doubt that a single factor which contributed to the

transformation of women’s roles and status in the Indian society was their massive participation in the national freedom movement.

Equality between men and women was accepted as one of the objectives in the Fundamental Rights Resolution of the Indian National Congress in 1931.

Organisations and Issues

The emergence of women’s organisation was closely linked with both social reform movement and the nationalist movement.

During the early twentieth century several women’s organisations were formed. The Women’s India Association (WIA) was formed in 1917 by Margaret Cousins, an Irish and an Indian nationalist.

This was followed by the formation of the National Council

of Indian Women (NCIW) in 1926 and All India Women’s Conference (AIWC) in 1927.

Jyoti Singh in Gujarat (1934) played an active role in harnessing

energies of women. Several women active in the nationalist movement became founders of women’s organisations.

i) Women’s Suffrage

For the first time in 1917, the demand for women’s right to vote was raised. A deputation of women including Sarojini Naidu and Margaret Cousins met the Viceroy to put forward the demand for female franchise.

The Indian National Congress supported the idea and the constitutional reforms in 1919 allowed provincial legislatures to decide the issue.

Madras was the first province to allow women to vote. Women also became legislative councillors. Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy was the first woman to become legislative councillor in Madras in 1927.

The demand for women’s suffrage was later changed to adult franchise within the national movement.

The gradual change in looking at women’s issues, from social and educational Women’s and Movement to political perspectives, occurred with a closer link between the Congress and women’s groups and mass participation of women in the freedom movement.

Many advocates of women’s rights looked upon freedom for

women as dependent on freedom for the country.

In the 1920s and 1930s women participated actively in the Civil Disobedience movement.

Women were more active in Swadeshi movement (campaign to wear home spun Khadi) and picketing of shops selling foreign goods and liquor.

Advocates of women’s participation in the freedom movement, however,

stressed that though Indian culture approved women’s equality, it recognised their goals as separate from that of men.

ii) Question of Participation in the Freedom Movement

Despite women’s active participation in the freedom movement and demand for voting rights, when the civil disobedience movement began in 1930

No :- some of the women leaders took a position that women’s organisations should keep away from party politics as women were concerned with social issues and British Government’s help was necessary to bring about social change in women’s position through education and legislation.

Yes :- There were other women leaders, however, who believed that they should align themselves with the national movement. They believed that sitting on the fence served no purpose and women will progress only with political emancipation.

Forms of Women’s Participation in the Freedom Movement

1.) Women participated in the freedom movement in various ways. They

participated in political protests, picketed shops selling foreign goods and organised Prabhat Pheri (singing patriotic songs).

2.)Women all over the country provided food and shelter for underground political activists and carried messages to political prisoners.

3.) In 1930, women in large-number participated in Salt March (Gandhiji urged people to break the salt law by making salt themselves). Thousands of women were jailed.

4.) Within the Indian nationalist groups, however, there were a few more militant groups, which were active in Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra as well as abroad.

5.) Some foreign women also worked with Indian revolutionaries abroad.

Bhikaiji Cama, Perm D S Captain, Saraladevi Choudhurani (Bengal), Sushila Devi and Durga Devi (Punjab), Roopavati Jain (Delhi), Kalpana Dutt and Kamala Dasgupta (Calcutta),

6.)Lakshmi Sahgal (who was in charge of the Rani Jhansi Women’s regiment, part of the Indian National Army formed by Subhas Chandra Bose) were involved in revolutionary activities.

Women’s participation in the national movement helped in breaking several of the old barriers of tradition and custom. Women’s organisation side by side raised their voices for removal of social and legal disabilities; however, these organisations were dominated by urban middle and upper classes.

Women from poor working class families and their problems hardly came into the picture.

Source - IGNOU