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. …