Women Movements in India

Submitted to: Rev. Dr. V. S Varughese Submitted by Ajin Mathew Varghese

Introduction

Women movements are the pursuit of women's rights within the society seeking gender equality
the right to work for equal wages, the right to equal access to health and education, and equal
political rights1.The women’s movement has a long history in India. The Shakti cults go back
centuries, and the concept of Shakti – the female power principle – was recognized thousands of
years ago. In this form the women’s movement represents, not merely an oppositional force
fuelled by anger, a rather negative reaction to oppression, but the development of a distinctive
female culture, a positive creative force inspiring men and women alike.2

The history of women movements in India can be divided into three phases: the first phase,
beginning in the mid-19th century, initiated when male European colonists began to speak out
against the social evils like Sati; the second phase, from 1915 to Indian independence, when
Gandhi incorporated women's movements into the Quit India movement and independent
women's organisations began to emerge and finally, and the third phase, post-independence,
which has focused on fair treatment of women at home after marriage, in the work force and
right to political equivalence. There have been various ideological shades in the women’s
movement. Old women’s organisations have an elitist bias. To them, privileged ‘women from
good families’ do some philanthropic, social work activities for common, poor, miserable
women. They do not believe in transcending the existing social order. In their personal lives,
they abide by the rules of caste system and generally believe in maintaining the status-quo.
During last 3 decades, women from marginalized sections-Dalit & tribal, workers and
agricultural labourers, poor women in urban and rural areas have mobilised against violence
against women in the community and in the family, witch-hunting of female headed households,
mass rape of tribal and dalit women, dowry murders and alcoholism. The members of new
women’s groups believe in fight against all forms of sexual oppression and consider women as
an oppressed sex. They believe, like casteism and communalism, sexism is also one of the most
effective weapons utilised by the ruling class to divide masses. Hence, they believe in fighting
against caste system, religious chauvinism and sexism simultaneously.

Role of Education

Christianity has played a vital role for the emancipation of women in India. It was during the
period between 1821 and 1880, that the mission societies started their effort for reaching girls
and women in India. The beginning of the missionary efforts to educate girls began with the

1
Ray, Raka. Fields of Protest: Women's Movements in India (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1999), 13.
2
Joanna Liddle and R. Joshi, Daughters of Independence: Gender, Caste and Class in India (London: Zed
Books, 1986), 5
small initiatives undertaken by the wives of missionaries around 1813. This small missionary
endeavor was “extended to all womanhood wherever possible”. 3 And this work can be viewed as
the first direct work done for the Women in India. Even in the midst of protest against women
education, the missionaries and their families tried to educate women. Calcutta Ladies’ society
for Native Female Education was established by Mrs. Wilson, forming a centralised educational
institution by forming 24 schools for women.4 Education for women has revolutionized India.
The first generation of English educated empowered women became pioneers of the women’s
movement in the pre-independence period. Most of them channelized their energies in building
pioneer women’s organisations such as All India Women’s Conference (AIWC), Young Women
Christian Association (YWCA) and Anjuman-e-Islam.

All India Women’s Conference (AIWC)

The All-India Women’s Conference was founded in 1927 as a nonsectarian, social

reform organization to promote Indian women’s education and health.The political agenda of
AIWC was to fight against child marriage, mobilise public opinion in favour of voting rights for
women, impart basic skills (such as tailoring, embroidery, cookery, hair-style, childcare, folk and
classical music and dance,letter-writing etc) to women to become efficient home-makers.
Cultural ambiance of AIWC suited the needs and aspirations of the high caste Hindu women.
AIWC women had their male family members as facilitators.

YWCA

For all practical purpose, YWCA was multireligious in terms of its areas of activities and
beneficiaries, though its decision-makers happened to be the Christian wives of politicians,
bureaucrats, professionals and managerial cadre who were in the close proximity of the British
rulers. YWCA provided vocational training courses to groom nurses, typists, secretaries and
teachers, classes in bakery products, flower arrangements, Western and Indian classical dance
and music classes. YWCA women had to face outside world with nominal male protection.

Anjuman Trust was committed to the cause of women’s education and skill formation, which
would enable them to be home-based workers. They had to work within the matrix of purdah.
Women leaders from Anjuman Trust interacted only with the Muslim community. Differences in
eating habits, dress-code and language barriers prevented them from collaborative ventures
though their leadership was from the economically better-off section.

Autonomous Groups

3
Huigald Grafe, History of Christianity in India: Tamilnadu in the Nineteenth and the Twentienth Century
Vol. IV, Part II (Banglore: CHAI, 1990), 205.
4
Sameuel Nellimukal, Keralathile Samoohya parivarthanam (Kottayam: KS Books, 2003)333.
‘Autonomy’ was not a new concept in India’s political scenario in the 1970s, as India had
already experienced the influence of liberalism on the reform and nationalist movements. post-
1975 saw the growth of ‘autonomous’ women’s organisations with expanding base in both urban
and rural India. These organisations particularly in the towns and cities had a specific ‘feminist’
focus and there were attempts by women’s groups that were dissatisfied with their
marginalization as well as the hierarchy and bureaucracy they experienced with organisations
that they had had affiliation to, to create alternate and more decentralized organisation structures.
These organisations rejected formal structure and traditional leadership styles and despite having
no prototype to follow, they experimented with leaderless collectives with decision making by
consensus, a volunteering of tasks and rotation of responsibility. ‘The variety of organisations
usually listed as belonging to the present phase of the IWM are support groups, agitational
groups, grassroots groups, wings of political parties, professional women’s groups and research
and documentationcentres’5
Nationwide anti-rape campaign in 1980 resulted into emergence and proliferation of the
autonomous women’s organisations in several cities and towns of India. These groups such as
Forum Against Oppression of Women (Mumbai), Saheli (Delhi), Stree Shakti Sangathana
(Hyderabad), Vimochana (Banglore) managed to get tremendous publicity in the print as well as
the audio-visual media because at that time ’violence against women’ was the most sensational
and the newest issue. They led Campaign against Violence against Women. They voiced against
the unjust family laws too.

Women Movements and Nation Building

In 1917, Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949), read a statement to the Viceroy of India - Lord
Chelmsford – and the Secretary of State for India – Edwin Montagu - signed by women across
India in favor of women’s franchise. The statement demanded India’s self-rule and that women
be included among India’s full citizens. Signed by dozens of Indian women, it stated, “the voice
of India approves of its women being considered responsible and acknowledged citizens; and we
urgently claim that, in drawing up of all provisions regarding representation, our sex shall not be
made a disqualification for the exercise of the franchise or for service in public life.”
Non-violent means of protest actions under the leadership of Gandhiji, ensured massive
participation of women in the national liberation movement. Women family members of the
Congress leaders gave up purdah participated in public functions, rallies, demonstrations and
experienced prison-life. Families, which allowed women to take political risks, emerged as
powerful politicians. Some of the highly educated women joined educational institutions,
diplomatic crew, public service boards, public and private sector industries. The rest became
enlightened home-makers with a strong commitment for their daughters’ education.

Examples of Women Movements

5
Nandita Gandhi and Shah, “The Issues at stake Theory and Practice in the Contemporary Women’s
Movement in India” Journal of Asian Studies 54(1995)
The Channar Mutiny

In the early 1800s, both men and women of the lower caste – mainly the Nadar and Ezhava
communities – weren’t allowed to cover their chests in front of members of the upper caste. This
was considered a sign of modesty and it was important they complied. The Nair women were
not exempted from the purview of this oppressive system either, they too weren’t allowed to
cover their chests in front of Brahmins and while entering temples, to induce modesty. Severe
punishments were given in those days to those lower caste women who participated in the
festival with chests covered. As the system became increasingly oppressive, conversion into
Christianity was seen as a ticket to a better life. Christian women were allowed to cover their
breasts with a jacket-like blouse known as the kuppayam. . This culminated in a series of violent
clashes in the Travancore region of Southern Kerala in what came to be known as the Channar
Revolt or the Channar Lahala. It is also referred to as the Maaru Marakkal Samaram is said to
have been one of the very first struggles for female liberation in Kerala. The practice came to an
end in the wake of the agitation. Cries for equality began to rise not just from various parts of
kerala, but from the whole of south India after the channar mutiny. the agitation to end
‘oozhiyam vela’ or work without pay, the agitation to secure entry into temples, the agitation to
secure the right to walk on public roads, all these struggles that went on to change the face of
kerala were inspired by the success of the upper cloth mutiny The victory of the Channar revolt
after half a century of violence and struggle by the lower castes and untouchables, is widely seen
as the reframing incident that started a wave of revival movements that moulded modern Kerala 6

Brahma Kumaris movement

The women in Sindh society were subjugated. Eventhough they were leading a family life, the
business activities abroad kept their men away from home for years. The absentee fathers and
husbands in the Sindh families resulted in the flourishing of Brahma Kumari movement in 1937. 7
It organized the SIndhs to address cultural, and social issues. Women leadership were the
highlight of this missionary movement.

Chipko Movement

In the Himalayan valleys, under the leadership of Gandhian community workers the struggle
against arbitrary felling of the trees which led to deforestation and massive scarcity of fuel,
fodder, water and seasonal fruits, landslides devastating villages after villages began. Women
evolved creative method to protect the trees from the axes of contractors’ henchmen. This
movement was popularly known as Chipko because women hugged the trees when their
adversaries made ferocious efforts at felling the trees.

6
Sameuel NEllimukal, Keralathile Samoohya parivarthanam (Kottayam: KS Books, 2003)265-276
7
Jagadish Chander, Aadhidevan ( Thiruvananthapuram: Prajapita Brahmakumarishwairya Vishva
Vidyalaya, 1983), 3
Narmada Bachao Andolan- the movement to save the Narmada river from being damned. this
movement has carried on its battle against destructive development planning since the mid
eighities. if the Sardar Sarovar Dam is heightened, Medha Padkar leadership in organising the
protests was very inspiring.8

The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) movement in Ahmedabad led by Ela Bhatt,
which was a sort of pioneering women’s trade union movement that began in 1972, was another
such landmark in the history of the contemporary women’s movement. Women involved in
various trades in the informal sector were brought together by their shared experiences such as
low earnings, harassment at home, harassment by contractors and the police, poor work
conditions, non-recognition of their labour to list just a few. Apart from collective bargaining,
the movement strove to improve working conditions through training.
The Nav Nirman movement of 1974, which began as a student movement in Gujarat, chiefly
against corruption, was another such turning point in the history of agitations for ‘rights’ and
‘lokniti’ (people’s rule of law). Influenced by concepts of ‘revolution’, the movement critiqued
the caste system and religious rituals. Besides involvement in political and economic issues it
was also concerned with those that were considered private such as family violence, domestic
roles and challenged patriarchal stereotypes.

Major Women Leaders

Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922) began the Arya Mahila Samaj (Arya Women’s Society) in 1882 to
promote women’s education and fight child marriage. She linked her commitment to gender
issues in the social reform movement to India’s self-governance organizing, and was one of ten
women delegates at the Indian National Congress’ fifth meeting in 1889. As more women joined
the social reform movement, it became increasingly inter-communal, and shared the leadership
among Muslim, Christian and Hindu women as well as women from a wide range of caste
backgrounds. It linked women from different religions and regions to focus on alleviating
women’s dependence on men, and to a certain degree, on their families and their
communities.Pandita Ramabhai started a home and school for widows in Bombay which was
known by the name Sarada Sadan which was later shifted to Pune in 1890. When the famine in
1896 left hundreds of girls helpless, she developed a settlement at Mukthi largely for girls. John
Caldwell rightly said that, this Mukthi mission” has been instrumental in saving hundreds of girls
and child widows from a fate worse than death”.9 Thus her life contributed a lot to the
emancipation of women in India.

Savitribai Phule (1831-1897) was an Indian activist who challenged the caste system and
sought to educate adivasi (indigenous) and dalit (oppressed caste) women in a caste-mixed girls’

8
Gabriele Dietrich, A New Thing on Earth Hopes and Fears facing Feminist Theology (Delhi: ISPCK,
2004, 233-235
9
John Caldwell Thiessen, A survey of World Mission (Chicago: Moody Press, 1961), 44.
school that she founded in 1848. She also opened up a house for raped girls and women who
were pregnant to provide a place to give birth and care for their children.

Conclusion
Every movement once become stagnant, it get institutionalized. The role of women in religious
and secular movements in India have relevance in current Indian Situation too. The #meetoo
campaign, the protests against CAA and NRC. The protests from students of Jamia Milia, JNU
universities, Shaheen Bagh protests by the women signifies the women participation in political,
cultural, social and economic spaces. C. K Janu, Mayillamma portrays that life of women can
influence a whole community and women can resist the domination and can declare the message
of equality and conservation of nature with their voices too. In in the initial stage, women
movement addressed patriarchy, caste issues etc, but today the ecological concerns, the need for
fundamental rights are voiced by women because they portray the universal need of addressing
human issues rather distinguishing it to men/women issues.

Bibliography

Chander, Jagadish. Aadhidevan. Thiruvananthapuram: Prajapita Brahmakumarishwairya Vishva

Vidyalaya, 1983.

Dietrich, Gabriele. A New Thing on Earth Hopes and Fears facing Feminist Theology. Delhi:
ISPCK, 2004.

Gandhi, Nandita and Shah, “The Issues at stake Theory and Practice in the Contemporary
Women’s Movement in India” Journal of Asian Studies 54 (1995).

Grafe, Huigald. History of Christianity in India: Tamilnadu in the Nineteenth and the Twentienth
Century Vol. IV, Part II. Banglore: CHAI, 1990.

Liddle, Joanna and R. Joshi, Daughters of Independenc: Gender, Caste and Class in India.
London: Zed Books, 1986.

Nellimukal, Sameuel. Keralathile Samoohya parivarthanam. Kottayam: KS Books, 2003.

Ray, Raka. Fields of Protest: Women's Movements in India . Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 1999.

Thiessen, John Caldwell. A Survey of World Mission. Chicago: Moody Press, 1961.