MOVEMENTS FOR BETTERMENT OF POSITION OF WOMEN
- Both Hindu and Muslim women were economically and socially dependent on male relatives, while education was generally denied to them.
- The Hindu women did not enjoy the right to inherit property or to terminate an undesirable marriage.
- Muslim women could inherit property but only half as much as men could, while in matters of divorce there was no equality between men and women.
- Polygamy was prevalent among Hindus as well as Muslims.
- Their glorification as wives and mothers was the only way in which society recognised the contribution of women as members of society.
- The social reform movements, the freedom struggle movements led by enlightened women themselves and, later, free India's Constitution have done much for the emancipation of women.
- The reformers basically appealed to the doctrines of individualism and equality, and argued, to bolster their appeal, that true religion did not sanction an inferior status to women.
Steps Taken-
1.Abolition of Sati
- Influenced by the frontal attack launched by the enlightened Indian reformers led by RAJA RAMMOHAN ROY, the government declared the practice of sati illegal and punishable by criminal courts as culpable homicide.
- The regulation of 1829 (Regulation XVII, A.D. 1829 of the Bengal Code) was applicable in the FIRST INSTANCE TO BENGAL PRESIDENCY ALONE, BUT WAS EXTENDED IN SLIGHTLY MODIFIED FORMS TO MADRAS AND BOMBAY PRESIDENCIES IN 1830.
2.Preventing Female Infenticide
- The practice of murdering female infants immediately after their birth was a common practice among upper class Bengalis and Rajputs who considered females to be an economic burden.
- THE BENGAL REGULATIONS OF 1795 AND 1804 DECLARED INFANTICIDE ILLEGAL AND EQUIVALENT TO MURDER.
- An ACT PASSED IN 1870 made it compulsory for parents to register the birth of all babies and provided for verification of female children for some years after birth, particularly in areas where the custom was resorted to in utmost secrecy..
3.Widow remarriage and other women related reforms
A.Efforts of Ishwarchand Vidyasagar
- Due to the efforts of PANDIT ISHWAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR (1820-91), the principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta, that the HINDU WIDOWS REMARRIAGE ACT, 1856, was passed
- It legalised marriage of widows and declared issues from such marriages as legitimate.
- Vidyasagar cited Vedic texts to prove that the Hindu religion sanctioned widow remarriage.
B.Jaganath Shankar Seth & Bhau Daji
- They were among the active promoters of girls' schools in MAHARASHTRA.
C.Vishnu SHastri Pandit
- He the Widow Remarriage Association in the 1850s.
D. Karsondas Mulji-
- He started the SATYA PRAKASH IN GUJARATI IN 1852 TO ADVOCATE WIDOW REMARRIAGE.
E.D.K. Karve-
- Similar efforts were made by Professor DK. Karve in western India and by VEERASALINGAM PANTULU IN MADRAS.
- Karve himself married a widow in 1893.
- He dedicated his life to the upliftment of Hindu widows and became the secretary of the Widow Remarriage Association.
- He opened a widows' home in Poona to give the high caste widows an interest in life by providing them with facilities for vocational training.
- The Indian Women's University set up by Professor D.K. Karve in 1916 was one of the outstanding institutions imparting education to women.
- Lady Hardinge Medical College was also formed in same year in Delhi
F. B.M. MAlabari
- The right of widows to remarriage was also advocated by B.M. Malabari, Narmad (Narmadashankar B.M. Malabari,Labhshankar Dave), Justice Govind Mahadeo Ranade and K. Natarajan among others.
- Controlling Child Marriage The Native Marriage Act (or Civil Marriage Act), 1872 signified legislative action in prohibiting child marriage. It had a limited impact as the Act was not applicable to Hindus, Muslims and other recognised faiths.
- The relentless efforts of a Parsi reformer, B.M. Malabari, were rewarded by the enactment of the Age of Consent Act (1891) which forbade the marriage of girls below the age of 12.
- Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 1978 raised the age of marriage for girls from 15 to 18 years and for boys from 18 to 21.
G. J.E.D. Bethune-
- CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES were the first to set up the Calcutta Female Juvenile Society in 1819.
- The Bethune School, founded by J.E.D. Bethune, president of the Council of Education in Calcutta in 1849 was the first fruit of the powerful movement for women's education that arose in the 1840s and 1850s.
H. Pandit Ishwar Chand Vidyasagar
- He was associated with no less than 35 girls' schools in Bengal and is considered one of the pioneers of women's education.
- Charles Wood's Despatch on Education (1854) laid great stress on the need for female education. In
I. WOMEN REFORM MOVEMENT AFTER 1900 IN INDIA
i).1904
- RAMABAI RANADE founded the LADIES SOCIAL CONFERENCE (BHARAT MAHILA PARISHAD),under the parent organisation NATIONAL SOCIAL CONFERENCE, IN 1904 IN BOMBAY.
- Pandita Ramabai Saraswati founded the ARYA MAHILA SAMAJ to serve the cause of women. Later Ramabai Ranade established branch of Arya Mahila Samaj in Bombay.
ii).1910
- In 1910,SARLA DEVI CHAUDHURANI convened the first meeting of the BHARAT STREE MAHAMANDAL IN ALLAHABAD.
- it was Considered as the first major Indian women's organisation set up by a woman
Objectives-
- promotion of education for women, abolition of the purdah system and improvement in the socio-economic and political status of woman all over India.
iii)After 1910
- Home Rule movements during the opening decades of the twentieth century was a major liberating experience for the otherwise home-centred Indian women.
- SAROJINI NAIDU WENT on to become the president of the Indian National Congress (1925) and later the governor of the United Provinces (1947-49).
- ALL INDIA WOMEN'S CONFERENCE established in 1927 came up.
National council of women-1925
- the National Council of Women in India, a national branch of the International Council of Women, was formed
Mehribai Tata
- Played a vital role in its formation and advancement.
- She opined that the purdah system, caste differences and lack of education prevented women from working to solve societal problems.
Other women -
- Cornelia Sarabji, India's first lady barrister
- Tarabai Premchand, wife of a wealthy banker
- Shaffi Tyabji, a member of one of Mumbai's leading Muslim families etc.
The all India Women's Conference-
- Founder- Margaret Cousins
- Date-1927
- First Conference - Ferguson College, Pune.
- Founding Members- Maharani Chimnabai Gaekwad, Rani Sahiba of Sangli,Sarojini Naidu ,Kamla Devi Chattopadhyaya and Lady Dorab Tata.
- It was perhaps the first women's organisation with an egalitarian approach.
Objectives
- were to work for a society based on principles of social justice, integrity, equal righte and opportunities; and to secure for every human being, the essentials of life, not determined by accident of birth or see but by planned social distribution.
- For this purpose, the AIWC worked towards various legislative reforms before and after India's independence, some examples being Sarda Act (1929). Hindu Marriage and Divorce Act (1954). Special Marriage Act (1954), Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (1956), Maternity Benefits Act (1961), Dowry Prohibition Act (1961) etc.
MOVEMENT AGAINST CASTE BASED EXPLOITATION
- The concept of Hindu chaturvarnashrama dictated that the caste of a person determined the status and relative purity of different sections of population.
- It was caste that determined who could get education or ownership of landed property. the kind of profession one should pursue, whom one could dine with or marry, etc.
- The worst-hit by the discriminatory institution of caste were the 'untouchables' or the scheduled castes/dalits, as they came to be called later.
Steps Taken-
A.By Britishers-
- British rule in India unleashed certain forces, that may be DIRECT OR INDIRECT which led in development of caste based movement and their upliftment
- Though these measures had negative effects in one way, they had a positive effect too.
- Ex- the creation of private property in land and free sale of land upset caste equations.
- Modern commerce and Industry gave rise to several economic avenues while growing urbanisation and modern means of transport added to the mobility of populations.
Concept of Equality Before Law
- The British administration introduced the concept of equality before law in a uniformly applied system of law which helped in checking rising Inequalities
- The administrative services were made open to all castes and the new education system was on totally secular lines.
B.Social Reform Movements against cate based exploitation
- numerous organisations and groups such as the Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission, the Theosophists, the Social Conference and individuals worked to spread education among the untouchables and remove restrictions imposed on them from entering temples or using ponds, tanks, etc.
- some of the organisation defended the chaturvarna system, they criticised untouchability.
- THE ARYA SAMAJ while crusading against the disintegration of Hindu society into myriad sub-castes, aimed at reconstructing it on the original four-fold division and upholding the right of even the lowest castes to study the scriptures.
Gandhiji-
- He founded the All India Harijan Sangh in 1932
- He was against UNTOUCHABILITY
- He argued that the Shastras did not sanction untouchability and, even if they did, they should be ignored since truth cannot be confined within the covers of a book.
- The Congress governments in various provinces after 1937 did some useful work for the upliftment of the depressed classes for instance, free education for Harijans was introduced in some provinces.
Jyotiba Phule-
- In Maharashtra, Jyotiba Phule, born in a low caste Mali family, led a movement against the brahminical domination of Hindu society.
Babasaheb Ambedkar-
- He had experienced the worst form of casteist discrimination during his childhood, fought against upper caste tyranny throughout his life.
- He organised the ALL INDIA SCHEDULED CASTES FEDERATION, while several other leaders of the depressed classes founded the ALL INDIA DEPRESSED CLASSES ASSOCIATION.
- The struggle of the depressed classes led to the provision of special representation for these classes in the GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT, 1935.
Mahad satyagraha
- Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar led the Mahad Satyagraha in MARCH 1927 to challenge the regressive customs of the caste Hindus.
- He led a procession of some 2,500 'untouchables through the town of Mahad to the Chawdar tank, a public source of water tank from which the untouchables were not allowed to draw water. Dr Ambedkar took water from the tank and drank it. There were huge protests by caste Hindus.
- Later in December 1927, Ambedkar and his colleagues burnt the 'Manusmriti' at the same place as a gesture of getting rid of inequalities.
Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha
- Dr Ambedkar established the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha in 1924 to highlight the difficulties and grievances of the dalits before the government. Its motto was: "Educate. Agitate and Organise'.
Maharaja of Kolhapur
- Others in the 1900s, such as the Maharaja of Kolhapur, encouraged the non-brahmin movement which spread to the southern states
Self Respect Movement
- During the 1920s in South India, the non-brahmins organised the Self-Respect Movement led by E.V. RAMASWAMY NAICKER.
Sri Narayana Guru
- Sri Narayana Guru in Kerala led a lifelong struggle against upper caste domination. He coined the slogan "one religion, one caste, one God for mankind", which his disciple SAHADARAN AYYAPAN changed into "no religion, no caste, no God for mankind".