Women movement in India – part 1 ( Early 19th century )

Social movement has been defined as an organized effort by a group of people either to bring or resist change in the society. Women’s movement is an important variant of social movement in the sense that it aims to bring changes in the institutional arrangements, values, customs and beliefs in the society that have subjugated women over the years.

women’s movement is discussed under four broad headings

1.) Reform Movements and Women’s issues,

2.) Women’s participation in the freedom movement  & Women Groups

3.) women’s issues in the post- Independence period

4.) Resurgence of women’s movement in the 70s and 80s.


Reform Movements and Women’s issues early 19 , 20 century

The position of women in India has varied in different periods and in different classes, religion and ethnic groups.

By nineteenth century there were several evil social practices like Sati (burning of widow on the funeral pyre of her husband), child marriage, ban on widow remarriage, polygamy etc. Which were a matter of debate.

During the British rule the spread of English education and Western
liberal ideology among Indians and spread of Christianity and missionary activities,resulted in a number of movements for social change and religious reform in the nineteenth century.

The broad objectives of these movements were caste reform, improvement in the status of women, promoting women’s education and an attack on social practices whose roots lay in social and legal inequalities and religious traditions of different communities.

In the earlier phase of the social reform movement during nineteenth century, the initiatives came largely from male reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

The issues that were taken up by them were Sati, ill treatment of widows, ban on widow remarriage, polygyny, child marriage and denial of property rights to women and the need to educate women. Struggle for women’s education initiated by men resulted in setting up of women’s schools, colleges, hostels, widow homes, protection homes etc. The social reformers’ assumptions were that female education would revitalise the family system, which was threatened by the increasing communication gap between educated men and their uneducated wives.

The social reform movement saw the emergence of women’s

organisations and institutions. However, the movement was led by men and originated in metropolitan cities.

Leaders of the social reform movement also realised that religious reforms cannot be separated from it. The British policy was to keep different religious communities separate from each other and maintain each system of family laws, which was closely related to the religious and customary traditions of each community.

Social reform movement never developed as a unified movement but developed within each community.

The Brahmo Samaj

It was founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1825, and attempted to remove restrictions and prejudices against women, which had their roots in religion.

These included child marriage, polygyny, limited rights to inherit property and seclusion of women. Education of women was seen as the major instrument to improve women’s position.
 
Keshab Chadra Sen stressed the need for  educating women at home and government support was sought for this purpose.

A women’s magazine called Bamabodhini Patrika was started. An inter-caste marriage was also solemnised under the auspices of the Brahmo Samaj.

Opposition to such moves from Hindu orthodoxy resulted in the passing of Civil Marriage Act, 1872. This Act, which permitted inter-caste marriage and divorce, fixed 14 and 18 as the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys respectively.

The influence of the Brahmo Samaj was confined to Bengal and North India.

The Prarthana Samaj

It was founded in 1867 and had more or less similar objectives as Brahmo Samaj. However, it remained confined to western India.

M.G. Ranade and R.G. Bhandarkar were the leading figures.

In 1869 the Bombay Widow Reforms Association was formed which arranged the first widow remarriage in 1869.

Two leaders of the Prarthana Samaj, R.G. Bhandarker and N.G. Chandravarkar, later became Vice-chancellors of the first Women’s University set up by Karve in 1916 in Bombay. This was later named as the SNDT Women’s University.

Both these movements stressed women’s education to bridge the widening gap between males who had the benefit of modern education and women of the family.

The idea was to make them better wives and mothers. The debate on women’s education that raged in nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shows that it did not originate from the influences of Western education only.

Other reformers also stressed the need for women’s education. Both these movements were the outcome of the reaction of urban, western educated men and aimed to change women’s position within the family.

Arya samaj :-


Dayanand Saraswati in 1875. Unlike the above two movements the Arya Samaj was a religious revivalist movement.

While rejecting Hindu religious orthodoxy, idol worship and the caste society, the slogan of this movement was to go back to the vedic period. Painting a glorious position of women in ancient India, it advocated reform in the caste system, compulsory education for both men and women, prohibition of child marriage by law, remarriage of child widows.

It was opposed to divorce and the caste group and emphasis on home-making roles of women limited its contribution to the cause of women’s emancipation.

Social reformers (like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, M.G. Ranade and Swami

Dayanand Saraswati) eulogised the position of women in ancient India.

However, the radicals like Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Jyotirao Phule and Lokhitvadi Gopal Hari Deshmukh attacked the caste system, which they said was responsible for the subjugation of women.

Phule said that Sudras and women had been denied education so that they would not understand the importance of human rights of equality and freedom and would accept the low position accorded to them in law, custom and traditions.

Muslim Women and Social Reform

Similar movements began, within the Islamic community in the late nineteenth century.

However, emphasis on purdah system and slow spread of education

among women delayed the development of a progressive movement to improve the opportunities for Muslim women.

People like Begum of Bhopal, Syed Ahmad Khan and Sheikh Abdullah in Aligarh and Karmat Hussain in Lucknow spearheaded a movement to improve women’s education.

In 1916 Begum of Bhopal formed the All-India Muslim Women’s Conference.

The traditionalists disapproved such activities and were enraged by the resolution passed by the Muslim Women’s Conference in 1917 that polygamy should be abolished.

In the later years several Muslim women joined the nationalist struggle and noncooperation movement against the British.

Similar movements also emerged among other communities in different

regions. A few women leaders like Pandita Ramabai and Vidyagouri Neelkant faced bitter opposition for marrying out of caste or obtaining education.

All these movements had a very limited perspective of changing the position of women within the family without challenging the social structure and caste inequalities, which perpetuated women’s lower position.

Their appeal was limited to urban middle class. The gender bias of the reform movement was most pronounced in the argument that education would improve women’s efficiency as housewives and mothers.

Gender equality was not on their agenda.


Source -  IGNOU