The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminism in India 1800-1990: Women's Movement in India 0860914550, 9780860914556

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The History of Doin An

Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1990

Illustrated

Radha Kumar ^cs-

^:

The

History of Doing

/

The An for

History of Doing

Illustrated

Women's

Account of Movements

Rights and Feminism in India 1800-1990

RAD HA KU MAR

VERSO London New York

First

published by Kali for

Women, New

Delhi

and by Verso 1993 © Radha Kumar 1993 Photo research by

Kali for

Women

All rights reser\'ed

Verso

UK: 6 Meard Street, London WIV 3HR USA: 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001-2291 Verso

is

the imprint of New Left Books

ISBN 0-86091-455-0 ISBN 0-86091-665-0 (pbk) British Library Catalogiiing in Publication

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the

Data British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalogue

record for

this

book

is

available

from the Library of Congress

Typesetting by IPP Catalog Publications

New Delhi New Delhi

Pvt. Ltd.,

Printed in India by Indraprastha Press (CBT),

DEDICATION

This book

is

dedicated to the

memory of Rana Sen, who

exclaimed in tones of surprised gratification upon reading its very first draft 'good gracious, Radha, I believe you might produce a halfWay decent book!' My first meeting with Rana was one I never failed to

remind him of, maliciously: I was invited, as a 'girlfriend', to a political discussion on the new phase of the Indian Workers' movement, in 1978. Rana was standing on a bed (which served as a podium) declaiming; when there came a lull, I asked 'but what part do women workers ,

new struggle, or are they undifferentiated?' Rana bowed, and said: 'There is always a place in our

play in this

hearts for you.'

Our

I

subsided.

friendship began then: he had already captured

imagination. As we grew to know each other better, discovered a patriarch of an old and generous order; a

my I

man whose intellectual and emotional curiosity was such that what would begin as an often frivolous argument about feminism would be presented to me the next day as a feminist insight into human action. He helped me clarify my ideas; above all, by first rejecting and then

absorbing

And

gave me worth. Rana, with a song in my heart.

my views, he

so, to

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My

thanks go to Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, who when I was working as her research

first

suggested to me, assistant, that

I

might later use some of the data I colproduce a book of my own, and who is

lected for her to

sadly no longer alive to see the fruition of her suggestion. Thanks are also owed to the Centre for Informal Education and Developing Societies in Bangalore, who funded

part of this research.

There are so many individuals who contributed to this book that I would like to apologise in advance to anyone I have inadvertently omitted, but special thanks are owed to Shiela Rowbotham, Edward and Dorothy Thompson, and Mary PCaldor for reading and commenting on drafts; to

Madhu

Sarin, for not only reading a part of the book,

but cooking and keeping house while I wrote the introwho taught me how to

duction; to Shoba Sadagopan,

look anew at

many of my inherited

ideologies; to Vibhuti

sending

me documents

Patel

and Gail Omvedt,

which

could not have otherwise laid hands upon; and the women in Stri Sangharsh, and Women and

to all

for

I

two groups which I not only love deeply, but owe all I have learnt both politically and personally about feminism in India, and of course to my parents and grandparents for things too numerous to be

Politics,

great gratitude to for

named.

And

but not least, to use a popular Indian phrase, publisher Urvashi Butalia, whose patience throughout this endeavour is legendary amongst those last

thanks to

my

who know me

well.

CONTENTS

Dedication

v

Acknowledgements vi

1.

Introduction

1

The Nineteenth Century 7 Towards Becoming 'The Mothers of the Nation' 32 2.

3.

5.

4. Organization and Struggle 53 Constructing the Image of a Woman Activist

74

The Contemporary Feminist Movement 96 7. The Campaign Against Dowry 115 The Agitation Against Rape 127 8. 9. The Nineteen Eighties 143 10. Personal Law and Communal Identities 160 II. The Agitation Against Sati 1987-88 172 12. The Struggle for a Safe Environment 182 6.

Conclusion

Index

191 197

1.

Introduction

This book attempts a brief interpretative history of women's movements in India, from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the present day. Close on two hundred years of activity in a country the size of a continent cannot be adequately described in a volume

or are engaged

in,

but also reafiirms hierarchical lead-

and hides from history the majority which makes up any movement. Hence the reader will ership structures

find a

number of figures

in the first par t of this book,

autobiographies, memoirs, collections of speeches and

which deals with the pre-Independence perio d, and hardly any individual accounts, biographies, etc., in the se cond ^ art, which deals with the contemporary period. The division between pre and post-Independen ce feminisms in India is partiv descriptive and parUv convenient The experience of colonial rule was one of the most important formative influences on the feminis t movement of the earlv twentieth century, whereas an e quivalent influence on contemporary feminism has been the experiment of democracy in post-Independence India. T his does not mean that there is no conti nuity and women 's post-Independence pre between movements: not only are our roots in the former, but distinctions between the two are made in the context o f

writings throughout the

rnntini^i ty.

this kind, hence what of major campaigns, organizations and figures. concentradng on the terms in which issues were defined and fo ught for, the kinds ot movements which develo ped, and the historical attitudes which they revealed One of the major problems ot embarking on such a work has been the paucity of literature available as a source, and the unevenness of the sources which were traceable. For example, some information is available on

of

is

presented here

is

a selecti ve

s urvey

.

notable tury,

women

reformers in the

or on nationalist leaders

twentieth century.

tury fairly readily

We

find a

first

late

nineteenth cen-

who were women, in the number of biographies,

half of the twentieth cen-

—but these are largely about the

.

The nineteenth renniry was a period in which th e wronpfs of women became major issu es: if

lives

and work of individual women. There is perhaps a bare handful of texts describing women's movements, and even here the bias is towards middle class and upper caste movements. Given that the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a growing and active feminist movement, it is somewhat surprising that debates about the nature, tactics and strategy of campaigns, which are an inevitable part of any movement, have not been detailed. Unfortunately, this book does not do

within a couple of decades, by the thirties and fortie s, a

much

sp ecial category of 'women's activism' was constructed

to

fill

in

such lacunae, because of limitations of

ri gfus""and

under which were krgely conducted by men, by the Jate^riineteenth centuiy their wives, sisters, daughters, protegees and others affected by campaigns, such as that for women's education, had themselves joined in movements. By the early twentieth century women's own au tonomous organizations began to be formed, a nd early attempts at reforming the conditions

Indian

women

lived

.

time and space, and because other debates were not fully

'Equality between the sexes' was guaranteed by the

recorded. Possibly, such issues did not assume the

Constitution

importance which they do now, and in fact when reading

one gets the feeling that the simple coming together of large numbers of women from different backgrounds, especially in the movement, was so individual accounts

it overshadowed other questions. he contemporary feminist movem ent in India has concentrated mainly on documen ting women s movements i n particu lar 'hr.»p nf lanHl>-« la bourers and the working cla ss. Indeed, amongst large sections of the contemporary movement there is the

exhilarating that In contrast,

t

,

feeling that singling out individual women not only leads to a biased

and

partial view

of the movements they were

¥

—

of Independent India and there was a c omparative lull in feminist activities until th e nineteenseventies,

,

when

the Constitutional promise ot equa lity

was denounced as sham A spate of new women's organizati ons was bom and old one's revitalizedlBy thejiingteeneighties. The special category of 'women's activism was n ewly researched and expanded with a view to charting .

'

— \

r>rganir link^

ts specificities, as well as the 'logical' an J between feminism and M arxism, feminism and anti- I c ommunaliSffl, feminism and anti-^(^