Crusaders behind women empowerment in India

Rani Lakshmi Bai

Though women of India are not at par with her counterpart in Western world but she is struggling hard to make her mark in men’s world. We can count on certain names from the British India where women put the example of extraordinary bravery which even men might not be able to show. Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi was the one such woman. She was the one who put even British rulers to shame with her extraordinary feats in battle. She fought for her kingdom, which Dalhousie, British Governor General, had unlawfully annexed with vicious law of ‘Doctrine of Lapse’. She was in a true sense the leader of uprising of 1857.

The roots of the Indian women’s movement go back to the nineteenth century male social reformers who took up issues concerning women and started women’s organizations. Women started forming their own organization from the end of the nineteenth century first at the local and then at the national level. In the years before independence, the two main issues they took up were political rights and reform of personal laws. Women’s participation in the freedom struggle broadened the base of the women’s movement.

There are certain men who took the cause of women in India. There have been social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekanand, Jyothirao Phule, Swami Dayananda Saraswati who crusaded and helped women to gain a respectful status in Indian society.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Born on 22nd may 1772 he was the torchbearer of social reforms for the women and the first modern man of India. He was strictly against the evils prevalent in society in his time. In 1815, Raja Ram Mohan Roy formed Atmiya Sabha. Atmiya Sabha tried to initiate social and religious reforms in the society. Raja Ram Mohan Roy campaigned for rights for women, including the right for widows to remarry, and the right for women to hold property. He actively opposed Sati system and the practice of polygamy.

Raja Rammohan Roy

In 1811, Roy witnessed his brother's widow being burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre. Three years later, he retired and concentrated on campaigning against the practice of women dying as Sati. Raja Rammohan Roy was the first Indian to protest against this custom. In spite of protests from orthodox Hindus, he carried on his crusade against the custom. Finally, he won the cause when Lord William Bentick, the Governor General of India passed a law in 1829 abolishing the custom of Sati. According to this law the custom of Sati became illegal and punishable as culpable homicide. Raja Rammohan Roy also opposed child-marriage and supported widow remarriage.

Ram Mohan Roy also did great work in the field of women education. Raja Rammohan Roy supported Western education, including learning of English and the knowledge of science and philosophy. He, along with David Hare, a missionary, founded schools to impart English education to Indian children. He developed the Hindu College which finally developed into the Presidency College in Calcutta. He was against child marriage and favored widow remarriage. He himself married a widow thus setting the example for the whole society. Along with Dwarka Nath Tagore he founded “Brahmo Samaj” in 1830 for the reform of Indian society and emancipation of women.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

Vidyasagar was born on 26th September, 1820, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was popularly known as Vidyasagar, which means sea of knowledge. Testifying to his name he was truly the sea of knowledge. He was a pillar of social reform movement of Bengal in 19th century. He widely read ancient Hindu scriptures and came to know that the gender divide which was prevalent in Bengal was not encoded in our ancient texts instead it is the politics to keep women subordinate to men.

Vidysagar realized that there was no place for education of women in the society. With his tireless effort to uplift the status of women in the society, he was able to establish some Girl's schools in different places of Bengal. But there was no good Bengali text book for basic Bengali education. He wrote Bengali books with basic language construct and fundamentals, like, “Barnaparichay”, “Bodhoday”, “Kathamala” etc. and then easy grammar books like “Upakramonika” and “Byakaron Kaumudi”. He also introduced some basic books for Mathematical logic and also translated some masterpieces of Sanskrit and English literature into Bengali. Rabindranath Tagore called him as the father of modern Bengali language.

Vidyasagar took the initiative in proposing and pushing through the Widow Remarriage Act XV of 1856 in India. He also demonstrated that the system of polygamy without restriction was not sanctioned by the ancient Hindu Shastras. With valuable moral support from people like Akshay Kumar Dutta, Vidyasagar introduced the practice of widow remarriages to mainstream Hindu society. There was strong protest from the upper class and orthodox people of the society. He encouraged his son to get married to a widow. Sometimes, he spent money from himself to get widows married. Not withstanding the miserable condition of Hindu widows, he introduced 'Hindu Family Annuity Fund'.

Vidyasagar opened as many as 1200 schools for women in those early days of women education. Vidyasagar was one of the founder members of University of Calcutta which was established in 1857. With help from some friends, in 1859 he established Calcutta Training School. This school was later named as Metropolition Institution and later was converted to a college named after him as Vidyasagar College.

Jyotirao Govindrao Phule

Jyotirao Govindrao Phule

Born on April 11, 1827, Pune, Jyotirao Govindrao Phule was a real philanthropist. Jyotirao Govindrao Phule, was a prominent activist, thinker and social reformer from the Indian state of Maharashtra during the 19th century. He was famously known by the name of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. During his time, he tried bringing in positive renovations in the spheres of education, agriculture, caste system, social position of women et al. Out of everything that Phule ever did, he’s most remembered for his selfless service to educate women and lower caste people. Phule, after educating his wife Savitribai Phule, opened the first school for girls in India in August 1848. He is also credited with opening first home for widows of the upper caste in 1854 and a home for newborn girl children so that they can be saved from female infanticide. He also encouraged widow-remarriage.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Swami Dayananda Saraaswati

He was the founder of Arya Samaj in 1875 and gave a cry, “back to Vedas”. He translated Vedas from Sanskrit to Hindi so that a common man can read it and understand that the Vedic Hindu scriptures gave utmost importance to women. He emphasized for the equal rights for women in every field. He also worked tirelessly towards women education. Swami Dayananda’s creation, the Arya Samaj, unequivocally condemned child marriages and discrimination against women on the grounds that all these lacked Vedic sanction. He tried to change the mindset of people with his Vedic teachings.

Mahatma Gandhi

The social reformers of 19th century laid down the stage for the emancipation of women but it was Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi under whose influence these reforms reached masses. He was the one who liberated Indian women from the clutches of ‘Pardah’ and other social evils. He brought them from their confinement and asked them to participate in the struggle for independence. According to him women should be liberated from the slavery of kitchen only then their true potential could be realized. He said that responsibility of household is important for women but it should not be the only one. In fact she should come forward to share the responsibilities of nation.

Mahatma Gandhi

When Gandhi came to the stage of Indian struggle for independence then the average life span of Indian women was 27 years and only 2%women were educated. With the emergence of Gandhi, a new conception of women gradually gained currency. For Gandhi, women were not mere toys in the hands of men, neither their competitors. Women are at par with men, one complementing the other. According to Gandhi, education for women was the need of the time that would ensure their moral development and make them capable of occupying the same platform as that of men.

In Gandhi's views, women can never be considered to be the weaker sex. In fact, women for Gandhi were embodiments of virtues like knowledge, humility, tolerance, sacrifice and faith. These qualities were essential prerequisites for imbibing the virtue of Satyagraha. The capability of enduring endless suffering can be witnessed only in the women, according to the Mahatma. The doctrine of ahimsa as preached by Gandhi incorporates the virtue of suffering as is evident in the women. Therefore, Gandhi envisaged a critical role for women in establishing non-violence. It was due to his efforts that so many women like Sarojini Naidu, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kriplani and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur came forward.

He spread the message of equality of the gender to the masses and criticized the desire of Indian people to have male child instead of a female. Gandhi was strictly against the child marriage and favored widow remarriage. He urged the youth to come forward and accept young widows as their life partner. He said that the girls are also capable of everything boys can do but the need of the time is to give them opportunities so that they can prove themselves. It was mainly due to his efforts that when India got independence ‘right to vote’ came naturally to Indian women whereas in other developed nations like England and America women got this right very late and that too after lot of protest.

Women protest in Bombay,1930

There would have been no women’s empowerment in India if Indian men in the nineteenth century had not been concerned with modernizing women’s roles. They focused on certain issues such as sati, child marriage, condition of widows, education, etc, because they saw the world through the prism of their own class and caste. Their efforts led to bringing women of their own families into the new world created by colonial rule. Women came out and created a space for themselves. They started organizations of their own, first at the local, then at the national level. They were motivated by liberal feminist ideas and the belief that education, granting of political rights, and legislative reforms would improve women’s position. They fought for the country’s freedom and believed that independence from foreign rule would remove obstacles in women marching forward. In the second phase, the women’s movement was more radical and challenged patriarchy.

Ages of Agony for Indian Women

The worth of a civilization can be judged by the place given to women in the society. One of several factors that justify the greatness of India’s ancient culture is the honorable place granted to women. The influence of foreign rulers and religious dogmatism during medieval India caused considerable deterioration in the status of women. Still certain parts of this country are preaching the medieval theories against the women. In this blog I have tried to showcase the problems that women of our country faced from the inception of our civilization, and which they are still facing after so many centuries.

Ancient Indian Women

It cannot be clearly stated whether equal rights between men and women prevailed or not during the Vedic period. But available sources show that liberal attitudes and practices pertaining to women did exist. Women were actively involved in religious and social matters. They had some freedom to choose their partner in marriage and a widow was permitted to remarry.

Woman with her baby in ancient India

As India started taking steps towards civilization, social discrimination increased. Jainism and Buddhism emerged as potent religious reform movements. According to Buddha, women’s spiritual capacities were equal to men’s. “Buddhism began as a religion that treated women as equal to men in their capacity for personal spiritual development.” The high status that women enjoyed during early Vedic period gradually started deteriorating in the late Vedic period as heredity began to be traced in the male line and sons were the sole heirs to family property. As the economic and social status of sons began to rise, the position of women saw a steep decline.

The position of women reached an all-time low during the age of the “Dharmashastras” the ancient law books of Hindus. It is during this age that codes of conduct prescribing behavior norms for women were evolved. This period saw the exclusion of women from both economic and religious sphere. During the period of “Dharmashastra”, child marriage was encouraged and widow marriage was looked down upon. The birth of girl child was considered as an ill omen and many parents went to the extent of killing the female infants. The practice of Sati became quite wide spread because of the ill treatment meted out to widows.

Medieval Indian Women

Medieval India was not women’s age; it is supposed to be the 'dark age' for them. Medieval India saw many foreign conquests, which resulted in the decline in women's status. When foreign conquerors like Muslims invaded India they brought with them their own culture.

For them women was the sole property of her father, brother or husband and she does not have any will of her own. This type of thinking also crept into the minds of Indian people and they also began to treat their own women like this. One more reason for the decline in women's status and freedom was that original Indians wanted to shield their women folk from the barbarous Muslim invaders. As polygamy was a norm for these invaders they picked up any women they wanted and kept her in their “harems”. In order to protect those Indian women started using ‘Pardah’, i.e. veil, which covers body. Due to this reason their freedom also became affected and the diktats of Dharmashastra gained further momentum.

These problems related with women resulted in changed mindset of people. They began to consider a girl as misery and a burden, which has to be shielded from the eyes of intruders and needs extra care. Whereas a boy child will not need such extra care and instead will be helpful as an earning hand. Thus a vicious circle started in which women was at the receiving end. All this gave rise to new social evils such as Child Marriage, Sati, Jauhar and restriction on girl education.

Sati tradition

Sati: The ritual of dying at the funeral pyre of the husband is known as “Sati” or “Sahagaman”. According to some of the Hindu scriptures women dying at the funeral pyre of her husband go straight to heaven so it’s good to practice this ritual. Initially it was not obligatory for the women but if she practiced such a custom she was highly respected by the society. Sati was considered to be the better option then living as a widow as the plight of widows in Hindu society was even worse. Some of the scriptures on the other hand had different views it say that Sati is like committing suicide so one should avoid this.

Sati Handmarks, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodpur

Jauhar: It is also more or less similar to Sati but it is a mass suicide. Jauhar was prevalent in the Rajput societies. In this custom wives immolated themselves while their husbands were still alive. When people of Rajput clan became sure that they were going to die at the hands of their enemy then all the women arrange a large pyre and set themselves afire, while their husband used to fight the last decisive battle with the enemy protecting the sanctity of the women and the whole clan.

Child Marriage:  It was a norm in medieval India. Girls were married off at the age of 8-10. They were not allowed access to education and were treated as the material being. The plight of women can be imagined by one of the shloka of Tulsidas that animals, illiterates, lower castes and women should be subjected to beating. Thus women were compared with animals and were married off at an early age. The child marriage along with it brought some more problems such as increased birth rate, poor health of women due to repeated child bearing and high mortality rate of women and children.

Hindu widows

Restriction on Widow Remarriage: The condition of widows in medieval India was very bad. They were not treated as human beings and were subjected to a lot of restrictions. They were supposed to live pious life after their husband died and were not allowed entry in any celebration. Their presence in any good work was considered to be a bad omen. Sometimes heads of widows were also shaved down. They were not allowed to remarry. Any woman remarrying was looked down by the society. This cruelty on widows was one of the main reasons for the large number of women committing Sati. In medieval India living as a Hindu widow was a sort of a curse.

Pardah system among Hindu married women 

Pardah System: The veil or the ‘Pardah’ system was widely prevalent in medieval Indian society. It was used to protect the women folk from the eyes of foreign rulers who invaded India in medieval period. But this system eventually curtailed the freedom of women.

Girl Education: The girls of medieval India and especially Hindu society were not given formal education. They were given education related to household chores. But a famous Indian philosopher of that time wrote that women were supposed to be perfect in sixty four arts which included cooking, spinning, grinding, and knowledge of medicine, recitation and many more.

Though these evils were present in medieval Indian society but they were mainly confined to Hindu society. As compared to Hindu society other societies such as Buddhism, Jainism and Christians were a bit lenient. Women in those societies enjoyed far more freedom. The status of women in Southern India was better than the North India. In South India women had representation in each and every field. Domingo Paes, famous Portuguese traveler testifies to it. He has written in his account that in Vijaynagar kingdom women were present in each and every field. He says that women could wrestle, blow trumpet and handle sword with equal perfection. Nuniz, another famous traveler to the South also agrees to it and says that women were employed in writing accounts of expenses, recording the affairs of kingdom, which shows that they were educated. There is no evidence of any public school in northern India but according to famous historian Ibn Batuta there were 13 schools for girls and 24 for boys in Honavar. Between all this goods there was one major evil present in South India of medieval time. It was the custom of Devadasis.

An artistic depiction of Devadasi

Devadasis: It was a custom prevalent in Southern India. In this system girls were dedicated to temples in the name of gods and goddesses. The girls were then onwards known as ‘Devadasis’ meaning servant of god. These Devadasis were supposed to live the life of celibacy. All the requirements of Devadasis were fulfilled by the grants given to the temples. In temple they used to spend their time in worship of god and by singing and dancing for the god. Some kings used to invite temple dancers to perform at their court for the pleasure of courtiers and thus some Devadasis converted to Rajadasis.

Modern Indian Women

It's been over sixty years since our country gained independence, but Indian women are still not allowed to move independently. Though woman is worshipped in our country as Goddess, people can't just restrain from committing atrocities against them. Women even today experience many hardships at various places right from home to working places.

A modern Indian urban woman

Rural Indian women, still fighting with odds

The status of women in modern India is a sort of a paradox. If on one hand she is at the peak of ladder of success, on the other hand she is mutely suffering the violence afflicted on her by her own family members. As compared with past women in modern times have achieved a lot but in reality they have to still travel a long way to find equality in the society. Their path is full of roadblocks. The women have left the secured domain of their home and are now in the battlefield of life, fully armored with their talent. They had proven themselves in many fields. But in our country they are yet to get their dues. The sex ratio of India shows that the Indian society is still prejudiced against female. There are 940 females per thousand males in India according to the census of 2011, which is much below the world average of 984 females. There are many problems which women in India have to go through daily. These problems have become the part of life of Indian women and some of them have accepted them as their fate. The main problem of the modern Indian women includes Malnutrition, Poor health care facilities, Maternal Mortality, Mistreatment, Dowry and many more. 

Malnourished Indian women with her new born 

Malnutrition: Generally in India, women are the one who eat last and least in the whole family. So they eat whatever is left after men folk are satiated. As a result most of the times their food intake does not contain the nutritional value required in maintaining the healthy body. In villages, sometimes women do not get to eat the whole meal due to poverty. The UNICEF report of 1996 clearly states that the women of South Asia are not given proper care, which results in higher level of malnutrition among the women of South Asia than anywhere else in the world. This nutritional deficiency has two major consequences for women first they become anemic and second they never achieve their full growth, which leads to an unending cycle of undergrowth as malnourished women cannot give birth to a healthy baby. According to a WHO reports and statistics, prevalence of anemia among pregnant women worldwide, as of 2005 was 41.8 percent with the African region topping with 57.1 percent has maximum percentage of anemic pregnant women followed by Southeast Asia at 48.2 percent. But according to the recently released National Family Health Survey dated 2005-06, places India at 58.7% making it worse than Africa.

Poor Health: The malnutrition results in poor health of women. The women of India are prejudiced from the birth itself. They are not breastfed for long. In the want of a son the women wants to get pregnant as soon as possible which decreases the caring period to the girl child whereas the male members get adequate care and nutrition. Women are not given the right to free movement that means that they cannot go anywhere on their own if they want and they have to take the permission of male member of family or have to take them along. This results in decrease in women’s visit to doctor and she could not pay attention to her health as a result.

Critical health situation of a women post delivery 

Maternal Mortality: The mortality rate in India is among highest in the world. As females are not given proper attention, which results in the malnutrition and then they are married at an early age which leads to pregnancies at younger age when the body is not ready to bear the burden of a child. All this results in complications, which may lead to gynecological problems, which may become serious with time and may ultimately, lead to death. According to a report of 2007-2009 Sample Registration System data, released in 2011 the maternal mortality rate in India stands at 212 per 1,00,000 women. The figure may have come down by 17% compare to 2004-2006 but the country needs to go a long way to archive the target of Millennium Development Goals which is targeted to reduce the number to 109.

Girl outside her class room

Lack of education: In India women education never got its due share of attention. From the medieval India women were debarred from the educational field. According to medieval perception women need just household education and this perception of medieval India still persists in villages of India even today. Girls are supposed to fulfill domestic duties and education becomes secondary for them whereas it is considered to be important for boys. Although scenario in urban areas has changed a lot and women are opting for higher education but majority of Indian population residing in villages still live in medieval times. The people of most villages consider girls to be curse and they do not want to waste money and time on them as they think that women should be wedded off as soon as possible.

According to Census 2011, in India literacy rate stands at 74.04 percent out of which 82.14% are male and 65.46 are female. In case of rural India the women literacy stands at 58.75% compare to 78.57% male literates.

The main reason for not sending girls to school is the poor economic condition. Another reason is far off location of schools. In Indian society virginity and purity is given utmost importance during marriage and people are afraid to send their girl child to far off schools were male teacher teach them along with boys.

The lack of education is the root cause for many other problems. An uneducated mother cannot look after her children properly and she is not aware of the deadly diseases and their cure, which leads to the poor health of the children. An uneducated person does not know about hygiene this lack of knowledge of hygiene may lead to poor health of the whole family.

A scene depicting Domestic Violence against women in India

Mistreatment: In India violence against women is a common evil. Not just in remote parts but in cities also women bear the brunt. They are subjected to physical and mental violence. They are the one who work most but are not given their due. The women are not safe be it at home or at workplace. Every hour a woman is raped in India and every 93 minutes a woman is burnt to death due to dowry problem. There are many laws such as The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, The Hindu Succession Act of 1956, The Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856, The Hindu Women Right to Property Act of 1937, The Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, to protect women and punishment is severe but the conviction rate of crime against women is very low in India. According to a report of National Crime Record Bureau there has been a 4.8% increase in overall crime against women in 2010 compare to 2009. 

Group of women working on maize field

Overworked: Indian women work more than men of India but their work is hardly recognized as they mainly do unskilled work. Their household chores is never counted as a work, if a woman is working in a field to help her husband it will also be not counted as a work. A study conducted by an NGO in the states of Andhra Pradesh showed, a woman works around 15 hours a day during the agricultural season whereas a male on an average works for around 7 to 8 hours.

Lack of power: In India a large percentage of women do not have power. They cannot take decisions independently not even related to their own life. They have to take permission of male members for each and every issue. They don't have any say in important household matters and not in matter of their own marriage.

Marriage: The family mainly fixes the marriages in India. The scenario in villages is even worse. The girl is not consulted but is told to marry a guy whom her family has chosen for her. They are taught to abide by the whims and fancies of their husbands. Going against the wishes of husband is considered to be a sin. In marriage husband always has the upper hand. The groom and his parents show as if they are obliging the girl by marrying her and in return they demand hefty dowry.

An illustration on dowry system in our country

Dowry: It’s a serious issue. Courts are flooded with cases related to death due to dowry harassment by husband and in laws. In ancient times women were given ‘Stridhan’ when they departed from the house of their parents. This amount of money was given to her as a gift which she can use on her and her children but her in-laws did not have any right on that amount. This amount was supposed to help the girl in time of need. Slowly this tradition became obligatory and took the form of dowry. Nowadays parents have to give hefty amount in dowry, the in laws of their girl are not concerned whether they can afford it or not. If a girl brings large amount of dowry she is given respect and is treated well in her new home and if she does not bring dowry according to expectations of her in laws then she has to suffer harassment. There are laws like Dowry Prohibition (DP) Act 9161 to tackle such issues in the country but still the incidents of dowry death in India is increasing day by day.

A baby inside the womb

Female infanticide and female feticide: As women were supposed to be and in some areas of India are still considered to be curse by some strata of society and their birth are taken as a burden. So in past times they were killed as soon as they were born. In some of the Rajput clans of Rajasthan newly born girl child was dropped in a large bowl of milk and was killed. Today with the help of technology the sex of the unborn baby is determined and if it is a girl child then it is aborted down. In all this procedure women do not have any say they have to do according to the wish of their husbands even if she does not want to abort she have any choice. The reflection of female feticide and infanticide can very well be seen in the census 2011 data. According to the data there are only 914 female compare to 1000 male in the country.

A woman signing a divorce paper

Divorce: The divorce rate in India is not so high compared to western countries but it does not mean that marriages are more successful here. The reason behind low level of divorce rate is that it is looked down by the society. It is regarded as the sign of failure of marriage, especially of women. She is treated as if she has committed some crime by divorcing her husband. In some communities like Muslims women did not have the right to divorce their husband they were divorced at just the pronouncement of “Talak” by their husband thrice and they could not do anything except to be the mute spectator. Recently Muslim Law Board has given right of divorce to women. In Hindu society women get maintenance for themselves and their children after divorce.

Though there are problems in the lives of Indian women but they are always ready to fight all the odds and enjoy their life to the full they have their own talent, hobbies, and they socialize according to Indian customs.