Today she is going to speak on the indian national movement and the women’s issue.
This is much wrtten about topic,people have debetted it written about it what was a connection between the women’s movement and the freedom movement,how far and in what we did the national movement takeup the women’s issue and what was its impact of women’s participation in the freedom movement.How far it liberate women,what was the focus on freedom of the country or freedom of women these are various issues and i am sure you take address some of those…~~
The problem today i m going to talk about is the role of women in the indian national movement.women were,how they were progressing,how they were trying to make a mark in the 19th centuary may be i want to devide it chronollogically as well as issue wise the first part would be about the social religious reform movements that took place in the 2nd half of the 19th century,going over to the first half of the 20th century the real national movement and its various phases and then i would also like to tie various threads together by analysing the fact that, were women really fighting for the freedom movement or what is it,there is lot of debate.so in the freedom movement what was their role that would be the focus of this talk today.
A small comment by Margret Meed on the role of the sexes and as you can read,this is clearly brings out the need is to treat women as human beings. contitution of india guarantees some rights to women and all the citizens of india. as ninteenth centuary marks the begining of the womens movement in the western coutries and the rise of the women question in the east. In europe the french revolution was instrumental in unleashing the forces of change,in several other westorn countries the women’s issues became prominent and the first issues that came,the issue of slavery and the issue of sufferage these were the two main problems which led to the upsurge of consicousness amongst women they started realizing that there is something wrong and there is some sort of discrimination thats going on. IN India the social reformers inspired by a golden past and liberal west,started the process of reform of religion and society along with that of women’s condition,several women were there who were actually very active during this period he say that the social reforming activity was undertaken by the men like raja ram mohan roy,iswar chandra vidya sagar,ramji malamari and they took several reforming issues like sati, the age of merriage ,age of consent,widow remerriage these were the issues but what was happening to women these women like Pandita Ramabai,she was scholar,she was a sanskrit scholar,she went abroad,she gathered money,she some how could manage to establish ashram and she could give people residencial education,she was actually a good social worker this is very well known,secondly there was Anandi bai joshi,she was also a scholar,she was the one of the first doctor in indian history, Savitri Bai Fule everyone knows she was wife of jyotiba fule and she also did a lot of work for the education and the upliftment of women and children and they also not just lower class women they were also working for widow remarriage various social reforming activity and educational activity several schools were set up. so what was driving these women to come forth,Tarabai shinde is very well known and her work is hard hitting work considerding by those standards this work a comparision between men and women known as the stree-purush Tulna,in this she has brought out the pain,if we go ahead further move on of course there was certain very important reforms that were undertaken during this period for example the rajaram mohan roy reforming activities considered as the pioneer among reformers,he took up the issues of sati and colonialism and polygamy and also spoke in the favour of the women’s property rights.similarly,Iswar chardra vidhyasagar and Malabari they also undertook very important reforms so the story which beagan actually in the beginning of the 19th centuary made several problems of the women were sort out,for example the female infantiside was made illigal,sati was abolished as we all know and the campain against sati made this practice illigal by 1829.
However, there was another area,not just these reforms which were dealing with social religious aspects of womens lives,there was another area of thrust which was the womens education movement.By 1810th,the first girls school were started by english and amarican missionaries.By 1830 womens education had become reasonably popular especially in bengal and by mid 19th century it had been adopted as a major issue by liberal reformers. the vadic society was rational,since it was based on equality of man and women which was the basis principal of social progress,the reformers recognises princiapal of liberty of indivisual equality of all humans and emulated from westorn liberal culture profusely. By 1860s the stage were set for another major breakthrough that of the campain against child merriage this culminated in the promligation of the 1891 age of consent act which raise the age of consumation of age of merriage girls from 10 to 12 years and the age of concent will controvercy raised a womens issue for the first time on an all india basis this was the period when there was increasing concern with the reform of the condition of hindu women and this was seen as an attack on the customs of the people of the country and this added fuel to the fire of the british policy of divide and rule,now this whole thing about social religious reform and the consiousness being generated on various classes and amongt women led also to acted as an inspiring force for nationalism in the country,one has to understand how all this was also leading to growing nationalism which was parallel with the anti westernism,the national movement which denotes the responce of indian people to the enrodes made by british traders and manufacturers who entered the land on the pretext of marketing but gradually assusmed controll of the country .the reaction of the indian people in the reform of national movement sphered by nationalistic feelings albeit a little delayed,was not only all about reforming but was also involved all the section of the indian society and in the process brought in mazor changes in reforms of perception and emulation in this long drown up process.women like all other section of indian society were also pulled into the war text,and all the shaking and churning produce a striking variety of their participation which is not to be surpassed apart from the nationalist and liberal enfluences which were spilling over from the west. thinkers with oriantalist,anglisist and utilitarian went up of mind, were enfluencing the policy decisions of the british rulers the status of women in indian society began to concern many especially during the 19th cenruary and several practices were thus attacked as we seen in the social religious reform movement,british encounter alone was not responcible for the emeluration of women’s illss.The 18th centuary was a period of mazor changes in india and the old order was of course destablize and the westorn liberal ideas came in a big way.apperantly, with the coming of various organizations,assosiations to all over the country which led to the formation of the indian national congress in 1885.Nationalism took up womens issues selectively this is been projected by several people this explain to some extent disappearence of womens issues from the agenda by the beginning of the 20th century i always pointed out.so this was the period when several womens organiseations women came together and women organizations were formed,when it became clear that national movement,the contribution to the national movement was alright what about our cause our issues infact Lala Lajpat Rai also has written in his autobiography being an extrimist,he still wrote that political goals are very important but what about the socio economic upliftment of the people and the go together they go hand in hand they are not saperate from each other,so that is why one thing one has to keep in mind that one blames women for all the time for saperating from the national movement at the some point and the other but it was the need of the time, in the colonial context one has to understand that this was required and this was happining not just in india on all over global phenomenon,in the course of india just with the west, saveral imbalances and changes appeared in the lives of people indian women had a double pronged role within a outside struggle as we have just seen the association of women with the freedom movement was too fold one there was the large canvas of the movement for liberation of the country,in which almost all sections of people had taken the plange by beginning of the 20th century on the other hand there was the concern for their own rights and betterment of their own conditions and just pointed out this was etential how indivisual grown the country,the indian national congress which were founded in 1885 was the first all india organisation which began work aginst british imperialism and in a planned manner and organised manner on a national scale however as you already know there was several other associations but they were local in nature this was also the time, when there was no barriors for women in joining the party and women from all cities like bombay and calcutta joined in.these were mainly upper or middle class women who were educated and actively involved in organizing the work for women. to mention a few Swarn kumari devi sister of Ravindra nath tagore was also the co editor of the Bengali journal Bharti and in 1886 started , sakhi samiti known as the womens association,the first women doctor of Bengal Kadambini ganguli attended the congress session as a deligate along with swarnkumari devi ,Pandita Ramabai,i already pointed out represented the arya mahila samaj ,Shanti bai nikambe,Kashibai Kanitkar,Manik ji kurshit ji,Sarladebi chaudhrani,they all compesed songs urging people from all parts of the country to join the struggle,join in the congress movement,and they would sing and urge the people inspiring them towards nationalism,sister nivedita closest assosiate of vivekanand became a great source of inspiration for the young generation .women also got involved in revolutionary activities and helped in the circulation of revolutionary litrature and maintainning layers of between different revolutionary readers. as the organizational activiety continued more remains group emerged like Bharat stree mahamandala was founded by sarla devi in 1910 in 1914 the begum of bhopal fouded the all india muslim league confrence at aligarh.
however, there agenda was mostly confined to charitable work within there localities and there was dirth of women leaders and the prevailing conservating ideology of that time did not permit them to same parity as men. in there early 20th century the mazor womens organizations cropped up which has an all india charactor like the womens india assosiation 1917 the all india womens conferrence in 1927 in NCWI national council of women in india in 1925 ,these contributed in there own way in mobilizing reforming efforts for women,aiw seeing campain demanded a comon civil court that would favourably affect women of all religions,these pressurise the govt to pass legislative reforms affecting women like the age of the merriage laws,regarding property and maintinence and adoption divorse and so forth and they were also instrumental in getting women and franchissed ,although in a very limited way of course in franchised way in a colonial set up was very far cry but like this was led by 1917th the deputation was led by annie basent and so many well known ladies were there when the reforrming the constitutional reforming activity won they took out a deligation to the governer general .This increasing awareness product women both of indian and westrn origin to organise themselves in order to be heard and also to take a position of power and responsibilty,few examples of such women leaders are like annie basent she was a london born theosophist of irish origin who revolutise the indian nationalist seen not only for women as a whole for the national movement itself and the knightingel of india sarojini naidu,who work tirelessly to serve the cause of nationalism and womenhood,there is a home rule league of annie basent and how she was arrested in 1917 under the defence of india act which followed a series of meetings in india and abroad then how several personalities right from the american president to subramaniam ayyiar they gave their knighthood and american president interseeded on her behalf to release her from jail as a result british govt not only announce majors to increase the number of indians in the admistration for devlopment of self governing institutions also released annie basent and her assosiates BP badia and arudel.this was not easy to come by and the realesed was secured after basent challanged the validity of the defence of india act challanged in a pettition to the king. she kept on her attack on british govt wheather the intern her or release her she was not to be put down.several govt files reflect the fact during this period the home rule league had almost replaced the indian national congress in term of importance more so because the extremist had also abandonned the congress so this,i have seen these files in archives where there threads to congress,home rule league as gon much ahead in term of their activities. Mrs basent to quote from one sourse,Msr basent however failed to plant her home rule movement on the congress soil but in susequent years she could exercise her influence and became the first women to be elected president of the congress in 1917s so ultimatly compromise was reached this however did not stop the govt from keeping the watch on this and the office of criminal intelligence kept record of the history sheeter ,she was known now as a history sheeter ,annie basent apart from closly wathing the activities of the theosophical society. in 1917 along with margret cousins,she was one of the pioneers in the field of establishing all india womens confrencess along with margret cousinns saroginie naidu and 8 other indian women accompanied a deputation to england to meet sacretery advin mountek to take demand voting rights to women.she truly believe in the strenth of women power yet politically she was opposed to the gandhian agenda of non cooperation revolt as it would land the country in ruing if success full almost surly in right in blood shed if it fails .this opposition cost her dear. she lost her popularity.this aspect of annie basent is very less known and i have actually seen it in one of the archives files. sarojini naidu born in family of sholors daughter of a scientist educated at cambrige and a litrery celebritie in her own right.she was drawn into indian politics quite early in life and also became the supporter of women’s rights, working with the congress the muslim league and the indian social conference ,gopal krishna gokhle was her political guru till his death in 1915 and he persuaded hem to join congress. she work specificly for the cause of widow remarriage,women’s education and suffurrage in 1914. she decided to work with gandhi and this trend lasted her lifetime 1917 she took up the cause of women’s sufferage took the delegation of women to london and in 1918,she got a resolution passed supporting women’s franchise of the special congress session in bombay again went to england into 1919 to propegate this cause ,she tried to convience the five thousands strong odience in bombay above the rational of extending the franchise to women by emphasizing that it was scientifically and politically sound copatible with readision and consistent with human rights ,dispelling the fears of men that this might meet interference by women in their official ,civic and public duties ,naidu stressed that this would rather help lay the foundation of national charactor in the hearts of children and would instill in them ideals of a national life but sarogini naidu or annie basent were exceptions in this field the fact is that women was till not active enough in the indian politics during this period.
however,coming to the next point ,the femenism in colonial india was essentially entoined with the issue nationalism an ideal that was driving force in anticolonial movement i also emphasised earlier. however, as the indian freedom movement progressed and got more effective during the leadership of mahatma gandhi role of women also got stronger,under his leadership not only the older system was being challanged never the newer roles for women were emerging. Elbeet within the patriorcal framework which was accquiring a new colour,patriarchy was the structure but something were changing at the same time women were getting increasingly aware and responsive about the right and duties and this conciousness definately help in the formation of first women’s movement in india.
However,the use of the word famininism in the indian context were still too far fetched.although impact was being felt all over, it still referain from using word by the second decade of the 20th century thing changed with the emergence of mahatma gandhi,known for his simplicity charisma and self control. In the 1930s the active particiaption of women in the national movement,this is very important point,i would like to highlight had gone a step further and the movement of the 1920s popularly known as non-cooperation. the year began with the pledge of indipendence and in march gandhi announce the breaking of the salt laws.Thus openning the new face of satyagrah also known as the civil disobedience movement mark by the dandi march but gandhi refused to include any women in the march on the ground quoting him..”it might be considered cowardish to keep women with them in the march as english man would not touch women just as hindus would not kill cow,of course the sentiment of the women were hurt and they jumped into the movement anyway getting arrested being moalested even being beated up and ties so you can see the spirit of revolution and rebelian coming for the shake of nationalism. there is evidence in archives to show that to show ,this is very important excert taken from one of the fills the authoritiess were contempleting ways to handle the trend of increasing participation of women in the gandhian movement and asked for suggestions from the constituent for ways of dealing with the womenhood took part in the campain,so that the beating or handling of women may be avoided,saveral suggestion for the amendment of section 28 of the emergancy power’s ordinence were recieved by the government it should be so midified as to make fines imposed on the women payable by their husbands,parents or gardiens.under the same condition as are laid down in the clause for the payment of fines imposed on young persons by their parents or gardians. the laws were in such a way formulated to include women and their families. however this hardly proved to be any deterence and incidences of womens participation kept on raising amongst. one could see the mass participation increasing at this time thousands of women from all books of life even housewives joined the prabhat pheries,protestation and pick it up. consiquently reports of police accross cities high handed ness locked in. in one instance it was alleged that the police at andra and madras stripped in flocked women political arestees ,in another such incidents there were alegation of ill treatment of women volunteers by the police of thasaswamedh, police station in banaras.the case was made out that about six seven women were going in prosession were arrested take it to the jail by the police man on duty and took away their clothes humilitated them and even and in every possible manner they were humiliated,one of the women even had two young with her.several political figures including .pt malvi intervine but the judges verdict led to quital of a nair and four constable who were procequeted in this connection so coming to the end of my talk today i would like to submit that these incidents which i quote jst now were seen all over calcutta, delhi, panjab,bihar, karnataka,all over the country and the whole women power of that time was incused with nationalinsm and there is no way to keeping them away from national movement.IT is very wrong to say that were all the time working for there own goals,at the same time ,it is said that they are politisized ,they were working in a politically motivated.one has to see that these political , social ,economic all these aspects setup were intertwine and they were all going together symontaniously and there appeares to be no single answer to this complex problem of what was the issues involved in the national movement but saveral factors like the socio economic mainstream of women and their acceptence in the society along with understanding of the structural functional aspects of society in india, and in the world as a whole in general ,might be some pointers in the right direction as to what was happening at that time and how women were participating generally in the national movement and that would make it easior to understand their role their contribution in the whole cenario. Thank you
