Pandita Ramabai on Patriarchy

Pandita Ramabai was an educator, a social reformer, and a feminist. In 19th century India, she
was one of the first Brahmin women to break patriarchal norms and move out of the confined
boundaries that were set for Brahmin women. She was the rare woman who had learned
Sanskrit, the ancient Hindu liturgical language reserved for Brahmin men; the rare Brahmin
to marry out of caste; the rare widow who remained in public view, defying customs; and the
rare Indian woman to decide, on her own, to convert to Christianity. She was
unapologetically courageous as she went across the world delivering lectures about women’s
emancipation and women’s education.
WORKS
Ramabai, entered the feminist discourse of those times through her first Marathi book, Stri
Dharma-Niti1 (Morals for Women) .She founded the Arya Mahila Samaj in Pune which
focused on promoting women’s education and stopping child marriage. This may be termed
as the first feminist organization of India. The object of this institution was to promote
education among native women and discouragement of child marriage. she opened Sharada
Sadan (or Home for Learning) in Mumbai. It was the first institution in India to provide
residential school for Brahmin women, mainly widows, but also unmarried girls. It was the
first organisation to provide them formal and regular school education and vocational
training. She urged women to free themselves from the tyranny of Hinduisim Her most
important published work was “The High Caste Hindu Woman,”It focused on the plight of
Hindu widows .
HER VIEWS ON WIDOWHOOD AND MARRIAGE
The caste system that was prevalent in the society during those times did not have any impact
on the progressive thinking of Ramabai. . These caste-based differences coupled with gender-
based differences deeply affected the Indian women. Ramabai understood that the patriarchal
ideology of the society placed women within the domestic sphere as a wife/mother/housewife
according to her sexual, reproductive and home-making roles. In this caste-ridden, patriarchal
society, the highest status for a woman was that of a saubhagyavati (or blessed woman whose
husband was alive) and a mother of sons, rather than daughters. A woman only with
daughters or one without children had a lower status and lived under the fear of being
deserted by her husband. A widow had the lowest status, especially a child widow or one
without children. A widow had to wear a plain borderless sari, no ornaments and had to shave
her head which had to be carefully covered. A widow was expected to sleep on floor, spend
time in ritual acts and eat little food. The cruelties that widows have to face, in the form of
daily taunts from in-laws, are a slow, torturous death. A widow is considered to be
inauspicious. The caste system, the Hindu shastras, society and social customs helped
patriarchy to not only thrive but to grow larger. She thought that the low account of women’s
nature and character depicted in Manusmriti was, to a large extent, responsible for their
seclusion and suppression. all sacred books in Sanskrit literature shared hateful sentiments
about women. she explains caste endogamy in detail, as well as the custom of matching the
horoscopes of the marriageable girl and boy, lest there be widowhood in her destiny and the
boy would die. There was never any eagerness to see if the boy has widower-hood in his
destiny.. Child marriage, polygamy and enforced widowhood thus turned out to be the great

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 social evils in India which were responsible for the pathetic condition of Indian women and
which needed to be changed. According to her, biggest curse for a Hindu woman—her
becoming a widow, especially a child widow. She called widowhood “the worst and most
dreaded period of a high-caste woman’s life.” Her main contribution was her desire to protect
the upper-caste widow, who was the symbol of Hindu patriarchal oppression.
SOLUTION
It was established among the Hindu society that women education was improper and even
dangerous as there was superstition that education led to widowhood and pursuing of
knowledge was tantamount to suicide. Therefore, women were fully depended on their
husbands and confined within the obscurantism of cultural dogmas . Pandita Ramabai,
without much discouragement, propagated that early marriage of girls denied proper
education as it is the best age to acquire knowledge. As a suggestion to improve the condition
of widows, Pandita suggested three areas where focus had to be made: self-reliance,
education and native women teachers. Pandita’s hope was that women’s education would
lead to the rejection of Brahminism and realize the deception of sacred literature. She noted
that ‘women being one half of the people of this country are oppressed and cruelly treated by
the other half’. She also asked for training women as medical doctors to save women who
could not consult male physicians.

CONCLUSION
Pandita Ramabai was a truly remarkable woman who pioneered women’s education and
championed women’s rights and empowerment, leading by example. As an upper-caste woman, she
used her privilege to spread education . She spent all her life struggling against Brahmin patriarchal
structures and refused to back down. She was a feminist who not only worked on the emancipation
of women but also understood caste, race, and religious issues that were barriers towards equality.
Her vision continues to drive the feminist movement and scholarship even today, as it also continues
to impact the lives of many women and young girls. She remains one of the most prominent women
leader of Maharashtra and India.

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