{"id":12685,"date":"2017-11-15T11:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T05:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak?p=12685"},"modified":"2019-03-25T14:34:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T09:04:18","slug":"feminism-ages-india-empowering-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/feminism-ages-india-empowering-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Feminism Through the Ages in India: An Empowering Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>\u00a0Sanchari Pal<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>

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A\u00a0hard hitting film that underlines a woman\u2019s freedom to her body and sexuality, the recently released movie\u00a0Pink<\/em>\u00a0has been making people sit up and ask questions that were long forgotten. Taking consent as its central theme, the film addresses society\u2019s unmistakable double standards: the pre-conceived notions of male privilege, moralising and misogyny that women across the country face or are likely to face on a daily basis.<\/div>\n
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Although patriarchy is deeply entrenched in modern-day India, the country has a long tradition of women who resisted conformity, even under severe societal pressure.\u00a0These stories of feminism are as\u00a0multicultural and diverse as India itself. Here is a look at the fascinating journey of feminism through the ages in India.<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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\"feminism\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

PHOTO SOURCE<\/a><\/h6>\n

In the literature of the early\u00a0Vedic period, there are several mentions of\u00a0female scholars like Lopamudra, Maitreyi\u00a0and Gargi. Among the educated women of the era, Gargi Vachaknavi is believed to be a pioneer. In the\u00a0Brihadaranyaka Upanishad<\/em>, she has been credited for having drawn forth from philosophers some of the most profound questions of Vedanta \u2013 the nature of the Soul (Brahman<\/em>) and the origins of the universe \u2013 during a public debate with Vedic philosopher\u00a0Yajnavalkya.<\/p>\n

In a court filled with male philosophers, Gargi fired question after question at the great sage, stumping a man who had never before been left at a loss for words.\u00a0At one point, Yajnavalkya even warned Gargi that her head would fall off if she continued but when others\u00a0failed to elicit the answer she was clearly aiming for, she continued her bold questioning. As Brian Black writes in his book,\u00a0The Character of the Self in Ancient India<\/em>,\u201dGargi was, in fact, Yajnavalkya\u2019s strongest opponent, stronger than even her male counterparts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later, Queen Didda, who had a leg disability, ruled\u00a0Kashmir with an iron hand for more than four decades during the 10th century. Her tremendous political survival skills, her ability to rule and her achievement of stability in the fractious kingdom she had inherited is why she is\u00a0sometimes called the Catherine of Kashmir, referring to the ruthless Catherine the Great\u00a0(the longest ruling female leader of Russia).<\/p>\n

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In the 17th century, Bibi Dalair Kaur, a Sikh woman, formed an all-woman army to fight Mughal forces.<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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\"mai_bhago\"<\/p>\n<\/div>

Bibi Dalair Kaur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
PHOTO SOURCE<\/a><\/h6>\n

When taunted by Mughal commander Wajir Khan about the weakness of women in the battlefield, she\u00a0is believed to have replied fiercely with the following words:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the hunters, not the hunted. Come forward and find out for yourself!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rani Velu Nachiyar of Sivaganga ruled her kingdom for over a decade,\u00a0led\u00a0her kingdom\u2019s army in numerous battles\u00a0and even formed a special women\u2019s army named\u00a0Udaiyaal<\/em>\u00a0after her daughter.<\/p>\n

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After succeeding her father to the Kakatiya Throne at the age of 14, Rani Rudrama Devi led several battles against the nobles in her kingdom who opposed her rule because of her gender.<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Rani Rudramma Devi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
PHOTO SOURCE<\/a><\/h6>\n

Rani Chenamma\u00a0of Kittur, a princely state in Karnataka, was the first Indian female ruler to lead an armed rebellion against the British East India Company. In Maratha history, Tarabai of Kolhapur, Anubai of Ichalkaranji and Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi are well known for their skill, efficiency, diplomacy, and bravery in fighting against their rivals.<\/p>\n

During the 19th century, the Indian woman\u2019s quest for civil, political and religious rights arose from the belly of the great social and religious reform movements of the era. Historians refer to the abolition of\u00a0Sati<\/em>\u00a0as the first watershed moment in India\u2019s modern feminist movement.<\/p>\n

A lot of the early struggle saw educated middle class men such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy (who crusaded against social evils like\u00a0Sati<\/em>, polygamy and child marriage), Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (who championed the cause of widow remarriage) and\u00a0DD Karve ( who worked towards eradicating the bias against widows) take a feminist stand. Mahadev Govind Ranade founded the\u00a0Widow Marriage Association in 1861 while Behram Malabari launched a campaign against child marriage\u00a0and demanded legislature to prevent it.<\/p>\n

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From left: Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and DD Karve<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
PHOTO SOURCE:\u00a0RAJA RAMMOHAN ROY<\/a>,\u00a0ISHWAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR<\/a>,\u00a0D D KARVE<\/a><\/h6>\n
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During this time Indian women also continued to challenge the status quo \u00a0in the background, struggling for their place in the sun. Some of the women who went on to become feminist ideals include Anandibai Joshi \u2013\u00a0the first Indian woman to study abroad, Kamini Roy\u00a0\u2013 who spearheaded India\u2019s suffragist movement and fought for a woman\u2019s right to education, Kadambini Ganguly\u00a0\u2013 the first woman to study Western medicine and, one of India\u2019s\u00a0first two women graduates, Muthulakshmi Reddy \u2013 who studied in a men\u2019s college to become a doctor and went on to abolish the\u00a0devadasi<\/em>\u00a0system. Others included Pandita Ramabai\u00a0\u2013 who started a centre to support widows and studied the Kindergarten method of education, Rukmabai \u2013 who defied her child marriage to become India\u2019s first practising lady doctor and Cornelia Sorabjee\u00a0\u2013 the first Indian woman lawyer.<\/p>\n

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A special mention must be made of the inspiring woman who is often described as one of the first modern Indian feminists. At a time when people hardly acknowledged the grievances of women in India, Savitribai Phule, along with her husband Jyotirao Phule, fought injustices against women with all they had.<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Savitribai Phule<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
PHOTO SOURCE<\/a><\/h6>\n

In those days, widows used to shave their heads, wear a simple white sari and live a life of austerity. It was Savitribai who decided to stand up against this practice and organized a strike against the barbers in order to persuade them to stop shaving the heads of the widows, most of whom were still children.<\/p>\n

She also noticed the plight of sexually exploited women who, after becoming pregnant, either committed suicide or killed the newborn due to fear of banishment by society. To cater to such women, she opened a care centre (called Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha or Infanticide Prohibition House) for pregnant rape victims and helped deliver their children.\u00a0She also founded the first school for women at Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848.<\/p>\n

The early 20th century too saw the rise of many courageous and strong-willed women who were\u00a0instrumental in India\u2019s freedom struggle.\u00a0The stories\u00a0of these women revolutionaries, trade union activists, and nationalists have long been an unsung part of the historical legacy that independent India inherited.<\/p>\n

A little known story is that of Rabindranath Tagore\u2019s sister, Swarnakumari Devi. A committed\u00a0social worker, Swarnakumari started an initiative,\u00a0Sakhi Samiti, in 1896, to help widows, orphan girls and poverty stricken women of Bengal. She also\u00a0played an active role in the Indian nationalist movement. Her daughter, Sarala Devi, also grew up to be an independent and confident\u00a0woman who believed in following her convictions.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0From Left: Swarnakumari Devi, Sarala Devi<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
PHOTO SOURCE:\u00a0SWARNAKUMARI DEVI<\/a>,\u00a0SARALA DEVI<\/a><\/h6>\n

An accomplished musician and poetess, Sarala Devi completed her education at Calcutta University and challenged the social conventions of her time by taking up a job in a school in Mysore at the age of 23. After she returned to Bengal,\u00a0she actively participated in\u00a0the militant nationalist movement of the state. She also attended meetings of societies that had all male members and presided over boxing, judo, swordplay and wrestling matches organised by her.<\/p>\n

The era\u00a0also saw the rise of many women\u2019s organizations like the All India Women\u2019s Conference (AIWC). Women within the national movement had begun insisting on greater political and economic participation.\u00a0These pioneering organizations included the Bharat Stri Mandal in Calcutta, formed in 1910 by Sarala Devi, and the Women\u2019s India Association founded in 1917 by Annie Besant, Dorothy Jinarajadasa, Malati Patwardhan, Ammu Swaminathan, Mrs Dadabhoy, and Mrs Ambujammal.<\/p>\n

Annie Besant also led the Home Rule League and was elected President of the Calcutta Congress session in 1917. The year 1917 was also significant as Sarojini Naidu led a delegation of women to meet the Montagu-Chelmsford Committee to demand a series of reforms in the condition of Indian women. In 1925, Sarojini Naidu was elected President of Indian National Congress, the first Indian woman to hold that post.<\/p>\n

It is easy to dismiss some of these achievements by pointing out that most of these women came from affluent, educated and urban households. But even within their spheres, they all fought uphill battles to establish themselves as different\u00a0and to speak out against\u00a0the norm.<\/p>\n

Post\u00a0Independence,\u00a0the question of women\u2019s rights appeared to retreat from public discourse for a few years. The second wave of\u00a0the women\u2019s rights movement began in the mid\u00a01970s. The issues raised this time were wide ranging \u2013 from land rights and political representation to divorce laws and child custody to sexual harassment at work, dowry and rape.\u00a0The women\u2019s movement interrogated the existing laws, with their questions becoming\u00a0central in public discourse.<\/p>\n

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Indian feminist writings, especially those by Toru Dutt, Lalithambika Antharajanam, Ismat Chugtai, and Mahashweta Devi, also made their presence felt globally.<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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From Left: Ishmat Chugtai, Toru Dutt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
PHOTO SOURCE:\u00a0ISHMAT CHUGTAI<\/a>,\u00a0TORU DUTT<\/a><\/h6>\n

In 1974, the Committee on Status of Women presented its findings in the form of a watershed report\u00a0Towards Equality<\/em>\u00a0that laid\u00a0the foundation of women\u2019s movement in independent India, highlighting discriminatory socio-cultural practices, political and economic processes.\u00a0Its authors included Vina Mazumdar and Lotika Sarkar, the duo\u00a0who later founded the Centre for Women\u2019s Development Studies in Delhi.<\/p>\n

In 1980, an anti-rape campaign was launched that led to emergence of autonomous women\u2019s organisation in several cities of India. There was Saheli in Delhi, Vimochana in Bengaluru, and Forum Against Oppression of Women in Mumbai among others.\u00a0Special Interest Groups that focused on legal aid for women also came into existence and several legal reforms took place.\u00a0A great example is that of\u00a0the landmark Vishaka Guidelines that came into being in 1997, outlining the process for dealing with sexual harassment at the workplace (later superseded by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace\u00a0Act of 2013).<\/p>\n

Entering\u00a0the\u00a021st<\/sup>\u00a0century, Indian feminism engaged with a whole host of issues \u2013 from domestic\u00a0violence and rape to victim shaming and consent.\u00a0Indira Jaisingh\u2019s tireless work was\u00a0instrumental in the framing of the Domestic Violence Act (2005).\u00a0Jaisingh was also the first woman to be appointed as an Additional Solicitor General of India in 2009.\u00a0Senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India, Meenakshi Arora\u2019s persistent efforts led to the framing of the Vishakha Guidelines, which later culminated in the legislation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act (2013).<\/p>\n

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From Left: Meenakshi Arora, Vrinda Grover, Indira Jaisingh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photo Source:\u00a0Meenakshi Arora<\/a>,\u00a0Vrinda Grover<\/a>,\u00a0Indira Jaisingh<\/a><\/p>\n

Activist Kavita Krishnan\u00a0set in motion a series of protests and uproar after the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case, which eventually led to the legislation of the Criminal Law Amendment 2013 that made\u00a0changes in the existing rape laws in the nation. Identified by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential women in 2013, lawyer Vrinda Grover was also\u00a0influential in the drafting of the Criminal Law Amendment of 2013.<\/p>\n

Even though there still remains a lot of work to be done,\u00a0the movement to secure rights for women in India has come a long way thanks to these inspiring and fierce personalities who made it possible by relentlessly\u00a0fighting the forces of patriarchy. There were and still are many other\u00a0individuals and organizations who are also working for gender equality and justice in India and their efforts are paying off.<\/p>\n

Feminism in present-day India has been showing\u00a0some encouraging trends. First, increasing economic liberty is allowing\u00a0women to fight stereotyping. Second, what women want is changing \u2013 from economic rights to social and sexual rights. Third,\u00a0women are not vacating their spaces \u2013 they are negotiating harder to expand them.\u00a0Fourth, there is genuine partnership and collaboration among men and women, particularly youngsters, to embrace meaningful gender equality. Finally, the internet and information revolution is helping women form communities and networks, giving them a bigger voice and tools to organize themselves, forge partnerships\u00a0and demand their rights.<\/p>\n

Most academics attribute\u00a0the growth of feminism in India\u00a0to western influence, disregarding the fact that feminism is multicultural \u2013\u00a0the\u00a0needs and problems of women who live in different countries are dissimilar. However,\u00a0Indians did not have to borrow feminism from the West. Throughout history, Indian women have asserted themselves in multiple ways and broken\u00a0free of oppressive social norms.\u00a0These whispers of rebellion were bypassed or ignored by patriarchal documentations, but they were always there and they must be remembered.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Sanchari Pal\u00a0about a year ago A\u00a0hard hitting film that underlines a woman\u2019s freedom to her body and sexuality, the recently…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":12688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,1,1446],"tags":[121,549,1467,1046,1466,499,980],"class_list":{"0":"post-12685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog-roll","8":"category-categories","9":"category-time-and-sexuality","10":"tag-feminism","11":"tag-history","12":"tag-sarala-devi","13":"tag-savitribai-phule","14":"tag-swarnakumari-devi","15":"tag-women","16":"tag-womens-rights"},"menu_order":857,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12685"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16064,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12685\/revisions\/16064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}