Indian women's movements - 1850-1900

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the ways historians have characterised the nationalist women's movements in colonial India between 1850 and 1900. The author has also looked at three different schools of thought as separate chapters, in order to look at the notions of practices such as sati and Purdah that were prevalent in colonial India during the time in question.

Outline:
Introduction
The Cambridge School
The Feminist School
The Subaltern Approach
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Most of the government reports were written by men, either by British colonial officials, people appointed by the Raj or people associated with the nationalist parties like the Congress Party. They help to provide the public context of the anti-colonial movement and the British response to it, however this was the public context viewed through male only eyes and so cannot provide the entire picture.
"Furthermore, there is not much information concerning women's contributions in the domestic domain, which is central to women's experiences and so consequently is the main concern of women's writings. I will try to illuminate the work of historians who have looked at the role of women's agency both 'hidden' and 'seen', inside and outside of the domestic sphere.
"There are some perspectives that have not produced a sufficient amount of research to look at on the topic in question with one such perspective being Marxism, whereby there have been no major historical writings on the issue of Indian women."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Alam, S.M. Shamsul, 'When will the subaltern speak?', Asian Profile, 21:5, (1993)
• Mies, Maria, 'Indian Women and Leadership', Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 7:1, (1975)
• Masselos, Jim, 'The dis/appearance of subalterns: a reading of a decade of subaltern studies', South Asian, 15:1, (1992)
• Geraldine Forbes, 'Women in Modern India', (London,1996)
• Padma Anagol, 'The Emergence of Feminism in India, 1850-1920', (London, 2005)

More papers on Indian women's movements - 1850-1900:

• Article Review # 102820 : "Indian Women's Feminist Movements"
• Comparison Essay # 70617 : "Puritan and Indian Women"

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