Serampore College.

Faculty of Theology.
BTW14: Feminist Theology.
History of Feminist Traditions/ Movements in India.
Submitted by: Lewanki Roy Bareh.
Submitted to: Dr. Wandahilin Kharlukhi. Dt. 15th Feb 2022.
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1. Introduction:
The history of feminist tradition in India have experienced several discriminations on gender
issues or gender Inequality and oppression in every spheres of their life and work. Also, many
Indian women are still restricted to participate in the community in different areas. Inspite of
this, the Feminist movement which begun during the 19 th century where various women and
organizations have helped women in India to come forward to the society, participated in
different roles becoming leaders of the society.
2. Feminist Movement in India.
India is a multi-cultural society, rich in diversity, rich in culture, ethnicity, languages, caste and
religion. Through out history, women have generally confined to their homes as ‘Home-Maker’.
The patriarch system have failed to recognized the role of women in the community. For not so
long, until J.S. Gill in Britain and De Tocqueville in the United States focus on the need for
providing political right to women and make them equal in the social and political strata of the
nation1. This concept have made the pathways for the Indian women to liberate themselves from
the dictator rule of the Patriarchs.
Reformers like Swami Dayananda Saraswati and others have strongly voice the need for
emancipation in India by eliminating many evil laws of the Indian tradition system 2. For
instance, the evil law which is known as ‘Sati’, in which Sati was considered as social evil
because, in northern and pre-modern regions of South Asia, widow sacrifices herself by setting
herself in the funeral pyre of the deceased husband.
Raja Rammohun Roy, Shahajanand Swami, William Carey and Lord William Bentinck 3
began a campaign against the practice of Sati. Rammohun Roy tried to show through his writings
that the burning of the widow had no sanction in ancient texts. Finally, in 1829 British Governor-

1
Mangala Subramaniam. The Indian Women's Movement. No. 6 (Nov., 2004), pp. 635-639: American
Sociological Association: https://www.jstor.org/ accessed on 10th Feb 2022.
2
Mangala Subramaniam. The Indian Women's Movement pp. 640-643.
3
Mangala Subramaniam. The Indian Women's Movement pp. 644-647.
General of India Lord William Bentinck enacted Bengal Sati Regulation and banned it
completely and in 1987, Sati Prevention Act was passed criminalising the glorifying of Sati.
These reformers also fight for the struggle of the Indian women involving in child marriages and
widows. A girl who is married as a child is more likely to be out of school and not earn money
and contribute to the community. She is more likely to experience domestic violence and become
infected with HIV/AIDS. She is more likely to have children when she is still a child. There are
more chances of her dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Child
marriage, a deeply rooted social norm, provides glaring evidence of widespread gender
inequality and discrimination. It is the result of the interplay of economic and social forces. In
communities where the practice is prevalent, marrying a girl as a child is part of a cluster of
social norms and attitudes that reflect the low value accorded to the human rights of girls.
UNICEF’s approach to ending child marriage in India recognizes the complex nature of
the problem, and the socio-cultural and structural factors underpinning the practice 4. UNICEF
India accomplished its ‘scale-up strategy’ to prevent child marriage and increase adolescent
empowerment by working with government, partners and relevant stakeholders from the national
level down to the district level. The most significant development has been the gradual shift
from interventions that are small in scope and mainly sector-based to large scale district models
on adolescent empowerment and reduction of child marriage which rely on existing large
government programmes.
At the global level, child marriage is considered as the main goal “Achieve gender
equality and empower all women and girls”, “Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early
and forced marriage and female genital mutilation”.
Several other women too like Annie Besant, Sarojini Naidu, Vijay Laxmi Pandit, Amit
Kaur and others made huge contributions towards women empowerment in India in making the
rights of a woman be recognized the same that applies to all, equality, freedom and liberty.
3. Feminist movement.

3.1. Pre- Independent period.

There were many women movements during the 19 th century like Pandita Ramabhai, who
attacked Hindu religious orthodox and the mouthpiece for women’s freedom. She came to India
on 1st March 1889, the Sarada Sadan ‘Home of wisdom’ in Bombay. Also, women like
Swarnakumari Devi started the Ladies Theosophical society in 1882. It was also associated with
the Annie Besant, a British woman supporter of the Indian Nationalist movement.

4
https://www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/end-child-marriage. accessed on 11th Feb 2022.
 Mission workers in Zenanas brought to light the special need of medical help for women.
The American Methodist Mission who was the first to send a qualified lady doctor by the name
Clara Swain and started her medical ministry in 1870 at Bareilly. The Zenana and Bible Medical
Mission start their feminist movement since 1880. They built hospitals for women and children
in many places across India. Lastly, the famous and most prestigious medical institution for
Women in Vellore, the Christian Medical College founded by missionary Dr. Ida Scudder.
Dr. Ida Sophia Scudder5 (December 9, 1870 – May 23, 1960) was a third-generation American
medical missionary in India of the Reformed Church in America. She dedicated her life to the
plight of Indian women and the fight against bubonic plague, cholera and leprosy. In 1918, she
started one of Asia’s foremost teaching hospitals, the Christian Medical College &
Hospital, Vellore, India.
3.2. Post- Independent period.

The All-India Women Organization (AIWC)6 with a vision ‘Emancipation, Education and
Empowerment of Women’ and a Mission to ‘Work actively for the progress and welfare of
women and children. Help women utilize to the fullest the Fundamental Rights conferred on
them by the Constitution of India. To work for a society where women are free from all types of
violence, especially domestic violence and sexual harassment. To empower women and prepare
them for taking up leadership roles.’ Though the AIWC was founded in 1930, the organization
reoriented themselves as primarily social organizations providing services like schools and
colleges, working and associated with other women groups to widen its mission in different
areas.

There are great women leaders like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy 7 who was born in
Shillong have made her way to the debut. Suzanna Arundhati Roy, (born November 24, 1961,
Shillong, Meghalaya, India), Indian author, actress, and political activist who was best known for
the award-winning novel The God of Small Things (1997) and for her involvement in
environmental and human rights causes. She is a role model for women in today’s world.

Some of the most iconic environmental movements of the world - the Chipko Movement,
the Navdanya Movement, the Narmada Bachao Andolan - originated in India, helmed by women
who were breaking new ground.
4. Feminist movement Among the Margins.
Dalits are India’s former “untouchables”, so called because their touch was considered polluting
due to the work they did – handling dead matter (the hides of animals, tanning, cutting hair) or

5
https://www.cmch-vellore.edu/. accessed on 11th Feb 2022.
6
http://www.aiwc.org.in. accessed on 11th Feb 2022.
7
Arundhati Roy. Autobiography. https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/arundhati-roy . accessed on 11th
Feb 2022.
faces. The fight against untouchability is of long standing. The efforts of two great modern
Indian leaders, however, had the greatest impact in bringing public awareness of the need for
eradicating this acute and particular form of oppression: Mahatma Gandhi – who called them
“Harijans” or “children of God”, and B.R. Ambedkar, a brilliant lawyer, himself from an
untouchable caste, who led the drafting of India’s constitution 8. But although the Constitution of
independent India outlawed untouchability and its practice in any form, and directed the
government to take affirmative action to compensate untouchable castes for these historical
wrongs, the stigma against them continues in both subtle and overt forms to this day.
Accordingly, struggles by the oppressed castes have also persisted through both militant
movements and advocacy.
In the late Sixties and Seventies, vibrant mass movements of these oppressed castes adopted the
name “Dalit”, which derives from the Sanskrit root verb dal, meaning to crack or split. It is
interesting to note that the original conceptualization of the “Dalit” identity included all
oppressed groups, particularly women. The Dalit movement thus considered women of even the
highest castes as Dalits, because of their oppression9.
Significantly, the National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW), formed in 1995, has forced
women’s movements in India to address the caste question seriously. Dalit feminists have
articulated the three-fold oppression of Dalit women as: Dalits oppressed by upper castes;
Agricultural workers subject to class oppression, mainly at the hands of upper caste land owners;
and Women facing patriarchal oppression at the hands of all men, including men of their own
castes.
The Dalit Mahila Samiti (DMS) is the organizational name for a movement of Dalit women in
the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) 10. DMS is supported by Vanangana, a feminist NGO
that has its roots in the Mahila Samakhya (MS) program, which was launched by the
Government of India in the late 1980’s to empower women through the popular education
approach. The Mahila Samakhya staff were given a firm grounding in feminist thinking, and
trained in grassroots mobilization and leadership based on feminist empowerment principles. In
the Banda District of UP, the MS program achieved effective mobilization of Dalit women,
including training Dalit women as hand pump mechanics to repair and restore the hand pumps of
borewells, on which most of the local populace depended for their water supply. In 1993, the
leadership decided to form a separate voluntary organization, named Vanangana, to enable

8
Sharmila Rege. Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of 'Difference' and Towards a Dalit Feminist
Standpoint Position. Nos.44 (Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 1998), pp. WS39-WS46, accessed on 13 th Feb 2022,
http://www.jstor.org.
9
Jahnvi Andharia. The Dalit Women’s Movement in India: Dalit Mahila Samiti. AWID, Toronto, (2008),
pp. 5-7, accessed 13th Feb 2022, http://www.jstor.org.
10
Jahnvi Andharia. The Dalit Women’s Movement in India: Dalit Mahila Samiti. pp 10-17.
further work with Dalit women. Over the next few years, Vanangana developed a strong
presence in the villages in and around the Chitrakoot and Banda Districts of UP.
5. Feminist Movement Among the Tribals.
Tribal and Adivasi women activists like Dayani Barla, Kuni Sikala, Jamuna Tudu,
Neidonuo Angami, Soni Sori to name a few have set an example for many young women to fight
for their rights. It is appalling how even in this modern era, the abomination of women continues
to be an issue of rising concern. It would not be untrue to state that even after much development
in the domain of women’s rights, a majority of us are still struggling to be taken seriously as the
society continues to hold zillions of stigmas that place women in a derogatory position. Such
discrimination is so evident that we women continue to face inequality in terms of both
opportunity & outcome.
However, the condition of a subset of women, namely – tribal women, is far worse than that of
an average female living in a metropolitan city. This is not to say that the hardships women go
through in general are justified but that, addressing the status and the achievements of tribal
women in specific is imperative11.

Tribal women are at the peril of being subsumed within an exotic cultural trope as non-
speaking participants, passive data subjects, smiling servers waiting to be integrated into
mainstream governance and decision making. A Naga Feminist writes her account describing the
struggle of the tribal women in the region to attain something as basic as equality as she remains
hopeful of the rectitude of her people to ‘resist the money, power and attractions of authority
wrapped in Naga patriarchal and traditional cloaks12.’

6. Conclusion

Today, atrocities on women have become a matter of rising concern. Crimes against them
such as dowry, female infanticide/foeticide, and domestic violence, including marital rape,
continue to increase. Besides these, other problems that still afflict women are patriarchal
oppression, violence, gender discrimination, lack of opportunities, extreme poverty, etc.
Therefore, we talk about issues like women's liberation/emancipation and women empowerment.
Feminist movements, the world over, are reflective of such a reaction against the dichotomy or
division between sexes inherent in modern society. However, the status of women in the tribal
society stands in contrast with the mainstream experience. The Matrilineal society in the Khasi
hills, there is a happy blend of both patriarchy and matriarchy leaving none as the oppressor or

11
Sujata Gothoskar, Vithubai Patel, and Carol Wolkowitz. Documents from the Indian Women's Movement
Feminist Review, 1982, No. 12 (1982), pp. 92-103 : Sage Publications. accessed on 12th Feb 2022,
http://www.jstor.org.

12
Sujata Gothoskar. Documents from the Indian Women's Movement Feminist Review. pp.104-108.
oppressed. It is a society that exhibits a kind of relative equality between males and females that
deserves to be lauded.

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Bibliography.

Andharia Jahnvi. The Dalit Women’s Movement in India: Dalit Mahila Samiti.
AWID, Toronto, (2008), pp. 5-7, accessed 11th Feb 2022, http://www.jstor.org

Gothoskar Sujata, Vithubai Patel, and Carol Wolkowitz. Documents from the
Indian Women's Movement Feminist Review, 1982, No. 12 (1982), pp. 92-103 : Sage
Publications. accessed 12th Feb 2022, http://www.jstor.org.

Rege Sharmila. Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of 'Difference' and

Towards a Dalit Feminist Standpoint Position. Nos.44 (Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 1998), pp.
WS39-WS46, accessed 10th Feb 2022, http://www.jstor.org.

Subramaniam Mangala. The Indian Women's Movement. No. 6 (Nov., 2004), pp.
635-639: American Sociological Association: https://www.jstor.org/ accessed on 10th Feb
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http://www.aiwc.org.in. accessed 11th Feb 2022.

Roy Arundhati. Autobiography.

https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/arundhati-roy . accessed 11th Feb 2022.

https://www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/end-child-marriage. accessed on 11th

Feb 2022.
https://www.cmch-vellore.edu/. accessed on 11th Feb 2022.