Beyond the West: The Centuries-Old Feminisms of India

A brief history of feminist activists and inspiration of India before 1900

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Jayawardena, Kumari. source unknown

Women were oppressed in patriarchal civilizations the world over. And women the world refused those systems and structures. Women the world over rose up in rebellion against their oppression.

They chaffed against the private domestic sphere before leaving it. They found ways to acquire knowledge that was forbidden to their sex and gender. They defied the odds to take ruling power from men, or ruled alongside and equal to their husbands. During the colonial/imperialist era, they joined and were welcomed into anti-colonialist movements. Later, they came to together and forged feminist movements to throw off the shackles of domination and oppression that tried to contain and silence them.

In the West, we tend to focus on the feminist movements of the U.S. which inspired the movements in Europe. Most feminist authors we read are American, with a handful of French writers. We miss that the world is large, and women across the world rebelled and struggled against the constraints of patriarchy. Through deepening our collective understanding of the feminisms around the world, creativity can spark like a dialectic, as Audre Lorde said.

As the suffragette movement began in the U.S., feminist writers and activists began their own movement, which grew alongside the anti-colonist and reform movement.

I should like to remind the women present here that no group, no community, no country, has ever got rid of its disability by the generosity of the oppressor. India will not be free until we are strong enough to fore our will on England and the women of India will not attain their full rights by the mere generosity of the men of India. They will have to fight for them and force their will on the menfolk before they can succeed. ¹

The Queens: Sultan Razia, Nur Jahan, and Rani of Jhansi

Vedic India (1500 to 500 BCE) allowed for some freedoms of gender and for women. However, as that period came to a close, caste took precedence and stratified society narrowly and rigidly. The religion shifted so that righteous actions became tied to caste, caste further tied to family, and the family structure in India was already patriarchal² — increasing the oppression of women.

The feminist movements of 1800s India looked to both Vedic times and to a few ruling queens, as inspiration for women’s liberation.

Sultan Razia, full name Raziyyat-Ud-Dunya Wa Ud-Din, was the first and only female Muslim ruler of the Indian subcontinent. She learned the skill of leadership in ruling in her father’s place when he went to battle.

In 1236, Razia learned that her stepmother planned to execute her. She successfully instigated the public against her stepmother and her son. That her rebellion was supported by the public makes her rule unique. She asked the public to depose her if they were unhappy with her rule. The nobles that supported her expected her to remain a figurehead. Razia had other ideas, taking more power over the four years of her reign. She left the purdah (the private sphere that some women in India traditionally occupied), wore the traditionally male clothing of sultans (Muslim rulers), and made public appearances.

Nur Jahan ruled alongside her husband in the early 1600s³. When her husband became ill, she governed in his place. Scholars believe her political acumen and diplomatic skills rivaled those of more famous rulers. When her husband was captured, she led troops into battle to free him. She signed imperial orders, and coins were issued with her likeness.

Prior to her reign, Nur Jahan was an accomplished architect. She made innovations in the use of marble — which later inspired her stepson, Shah Jahan, who ordered the building of the Taj Mahal.

The Rani of Jhansi (rani means queen) was born Lakshmi Bai. Her complicity in colonization is questionable, but the British viewed her as an enemy. They captured her, but she escaped and became a rebel. Jhansi was a leading figure in the Indian rebellion of 1857, wrote on horseback into battle, and died on the battlefield.

Rassundari Devi

“If I am asked to describe my state of mind, I would say it was very much like the sacrificial goat being dragged to the altar, the same hopeless situation, the same agonized screams.” She adds, “People put birds in cages for their own amusement. Well, I was like a caged bird. And I would have to remain in this cage for life. I would never be freed.

For Rassundari Devi, feminism was a departure and a rebellion without precedent or support. She born to a high caste land-owning family in rural India in 1809 or 1810. Married off when she was only twelve, responsible for the household by the time she was fourteen, she bore twelve children. Women were not typically educated in that time and place, but she tried to learn by sitting outside a classroom while boys were taught the alphabet⁴.

Her book Amar Jiban (my life) was published in 1868. It’s the story of one woman’s life. An extraordinary book for its time and place, because in writing it, Rassundari Devi told the world that an ordinary woman’s life had worth and merit. Like an early Betty Friedan, she described “the problem that has no name”; that lack of fulfillment and spiritual boredom that came from the repetitive tediousness of domestic labor. She detailed the struggle to teach herself to read when she was twenty-six. In doing so, Rassundari Devi risked family and societal disapproval and ostracization. She described the process as a form of worship. Her faith was not curtailed to the passive feminine devotion of other women of her era. She read scripture, and she forged her own relationship with the gods.

In doing so, Rassundari Devi broke through the cage that was designed to contain her — broke through the social structures that kept the lives of women domestic and small.

Pandita Ramabai

"My soul thirsted for freedom, for knowledge, for spiritual light; and I am determined that I must seek them at any cost."⁵

Rassundari Devi’s book has survived, but the books of other feminist writers of India have been lost to history. One of those books was authored by Tarabai Shinde. Tarabai was a lower caste (class) woman whose work was explicitly feminist and theoretical: The Comparisons of Men and Women⁶.

Pandita Ramabai (1858- 1922) is the best-known of the feminist agitators and rebels of her time. She did not independently chose to leave the private sphere: she was thrust out of it. She helped start local women’s movements, travelled the globe to gain an education and to seek out feminist discourse, authored multiple books, and founding schools for girls.

Before her birth, her father, Anant Shastri Dongre, wanted to teach his wife Sanskrit (the ancient language of Hindu and dharmic scriptures). For this progressive rebellion, he was ostracized and driven away from his home before Pandita’s birth. Desperate for money, the family became nomadic scholars, reciting scriptures for pay. Pandita was taught by her mother, and could recite the 18,000 lines of the Bhagavata Purana from memory⁷. Pandita lost her family⁸ to the famines of 1874.

Although Pandita had religious knowledge that would rival that of scholarly man of her time, her family’s experiences made her turn from religion and to the cause of womankind. She had two great advantages: that she learned about social reality and occupied the public sphere because of her nomadic travels, and her deep learning and understanding of Hindu ideology⁹. Armed with these weapons of feminist rebellion, she travelled throughout India, agitating and starting women’s movements. She wrote a book arguing against religious practices that hurt women, and for women’s emancipation.

Pandita then travelled to England. Here, she learned English, learned about Christianity. Originally, she wanted to study medicine, but had to drop out because of her deafness. She then travelled to the U.S., where American feminism inspired her to start thinking of setting up schools for girls in India. To fundraise, she wrote The High Caste Hindu Woman, her most famous work. As the title implies, her views could be narrow because of her high caste and unwillingness to look to women outside of that caste. As well, she advocated from a position of feminine moral superiority — under the presumption that women were morally superior to men¹⁰.

How true is the claim of many Western scholars that a civilization should be judged by the conditions of its women! Women are inherently physically weaker than men, and possess innate powers of endurance; men therefore find it very easy to wrest their natural rights and reduce them to a state that suits the men. But, from a moral point of view, physical might is not real strength, nor is it a sign of nobility of character to deprive the weak of their rights. . . . [A]s men gain wisdom and progress further, they begin to disregard women's lack of strength to honor their good qualities, and elevate them to a high state. Their low opinion of women and of other such matters undergoes a change and gives way to respect. Thus, one can accurately assess a country's progress from the condition of its women.¹¹

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu rebelled early. She choosing to marry a man from a different state in India than her own (so their native languages and cultures were different), and marrying outside of her caste (class; marriages in India are typically arranged strictly within castes). She became a poet and orator before meeting Gandhi and joining the non-cooperation movement against British colonialism.

Sarojini’s anti-colonialism was part of her feminist advocacy. When arguing with anti-colonialists, she framed women as essential “nation builders” without whom the independence movement could not succeed. Through her advocacy, the women’s liberation movement became part of Indian nationalism.

Sarojini also advocated for women’s suffrage in India, helped start the Women's Indian Association, and helped women organize strikes and non-violent protests. She became the first Indian female president of Indian National Congress, the first modern nationalist movement of the British empire, and today, India’s major liberal political party.

Her sister-in-law, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, was a more radical feminist than Sarojini. Kamaladevi shocked society by choosing to remarry a playwright after she was widowed. She helped found the All-India Women's Conference. She’s best remembered for her work in promoting the socio-economic status of women through promoting the learning of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre.

The Reform Movements of the Early 1800s

Prior to the 1857-1858 conquest of South Asia, women and men in India had already begun to organize against casteism, poverty, and rape.

Reform movements began around the time of Rassundari Devi’s birth. The oppressions that the reformers wanted to reform included: sati (widow burning) widow remarriage, child marriage, women’s property rights, and polygamy.

The reformers argued to raise the age of consent and marriage to 16 or 18¹². Reformer K.C. Sen argued that child marriage was a “corruption of scriptures” and impeded India’s advancement. Reformer Dayananda Saraswati wrote that child marriage caused Indians to be “children of children”. He advocated for girls to be educated prior to marriage. In 1872, there was some success in the Marriage Act, which raised the marriageable age for girls to 14, and for boy to 18.

The reformers also advocated for the education of women. Both liberal and orthodox reformers supported the cause. Some believed that education would make women better wives and mothers, and better allow women to teach their children traditional values. Between 1855-1858, a forerunner of the movement, Vidyasagar, opened forty schools for girls¹³. The brahmins (highest caste) organized a 1920 meeting for the compulsory education of women (their demand was denied). Rabindranath Tagore — winner of 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature — revolutionized a school for the revival of Indian arts and culture that his father had started. The school not only allowed women, but emphasized the conditions necessary for bringing out the creative in women¹⁴. Women began to graduate from colleges by the 1880s. Some women went further: going to England to study law and establishing medical schools in India.

At the time, most of the reformers were male of high caste (rigid Hindu class system). There’s the shortcoming of movement spurred by men, with little input from women and the lived experiences of women. This led to a greater issue: that the issues that the reformers wanted to address mostly affected higher caste Hindu women, to the exclusion of women from other religions and the lower castes. It’s the same problem that’s plagued women’s movements across the world, and it’s a problem that still troubles India’s modern-day feminist movements.

There was some lower caste reformers, like Jotirao Phulu (1827 - 1890), who opposed child marriage and advocated for women’s education and remarriage. He started several schools: one for the education of girls, two for the education of the lower castes, and one for the education of the children of widows. In his last book, published 1872, Phulu wrote against the stereotypical sexist language, eg., instead of “all men are created equal”, he wrote “each and every man and woman”.¹⁵

Why Is This Important

The early feminist movement in India serves as a powerful example of decolonial feminism, of how pre-colonial history and the movement against colonization spark women’s liberation movements. Because the two movements were historically entwined, the feminism of India doesn’t set up women’s liberation into narrow binaries.

As for the feminist activists and advocates of India, and those of the global majority, India’s early feminism can spark inspiration and creativity. The women and men of these movements showed great resilience in the face of adversity, courageously defied tradition, and spoke up and wrote for what they believed in. Their stories aren’t history to be forgotten; they are guides to show us what is possible.

Thank you for reading unknown canon. I write about and advocate for intersectional feminist♀️and lesbian ⚢ literature, history, and analysis; and directly with survivors of assault.

I would appreciate it if you could please support by liking and sharing this or other posts. If you have the means, please consider becoming a paid subscriber ♥️

1. Jawaharlal Nehru, speech at Allahabad, March 31, 1928. From:

Jayawardena, Kumari. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. (Kali for Women, 1986, republished by Verso Books 2016). p 73.

2. “Righteous actions”, or dharma, are the basis of the dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, etc.). One is born into one’s caste, caste duties are taught within the family — so if a society is casteist, it is necessarily very oriented around the idea of family.

Jayawardena, Kumari. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. (Kali for Women, 1986, republished by Verso Books 2016). p 74.

3. Lal, Ruby. Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan. (New York: WW Norton & Company, 2018).

4. Naaz, Hira. The Caged Bird Who Sang: The Life and Writing of Rassundari Devi | #IndianWomenInHistory. Feminism in India. March 23, 2017. https://feminisminindia.com/2017/03/23/rassundari-devi-essay/

5. Kosambi, Meera. Pandita Ramabai’s American Encounter: The Making of a Modern Hindu Woman. 2003.

6. Jayawardena, Kumari. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. (Kali for Women, 1986, republished by Verso Books 2016). p 90.

7. Celarent, Barbara. The High Caste Hindu Woman by Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati Pandita Ramabai’s America: Conditions of Life in the United States. American Journal of Sociology 117, no. 1 (2011): 353–60. https://doi.org/10.1086/660901.

8. Ibid, p 90 - 91. Pandita’s parents and sister passed away. She and her brother survived.

9. Ibid, p 91.

10. Celarent, Barbara. The High Caste Hindu Woman by Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati Pandita Ramabai’s America: Conditions of Life in the United States. American Journal of Sociology 117, no. 1 (2011): 353–60. https://doi.org/10.1086/660901.

11. Kosambi, Meera. Pandita Ramabai’s American Encounter: The Making of a Modern Hindu Woman. 2003. p 169.

From: https://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2006/09/pandita-ramabais-book-on-america-1889.html

12. Jayawardena, Kumari. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. (Kali for Women, 1986, republished by Verso Books 2016). p 83.

13. Ibid, p 87.

14. Ibid, p 85.

15. Ibid, p. 84.