Gender and Nationalism in
India
International Perspectives on Gender
Week 11
Structure of lecture
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Introduction and Context
History: From Trade to Colony to
Nationalism to Independence
Colonialism, Nationalism and the
‘Woman Question’
Women’s Participation in Indian
Nationalism
Conclusions
Introduction
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3 million square kms
1.15 billion people
(2010)
1947 - independence
Biggest ever colony
1947: Partition: India
and Pakistan
1971: independence
for Bangladesh
Context
Multi-faith society
 Hinduism >50%
 Hindu caste system: a
form of social stratification
with castes hierarchically
organized and separated
from each other by rules
of ritual
purity.
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Brief history: from trade to colony
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Concentrate on colonial and post-colonial periods
How did India become a British colony?
How did Indians organise for independence?
How did Indian women’s legal status change
How did Indian women’s movement emerge?
1600 Elizabeth I granted Charter to East India Company
1700s Company bribing Indian Princes to secure trading
Mid 1700s: militarization begins
Late 1700s: Influence transformed into territory
Cross-cultural mixing common
1773 First Governor-General appointed by Britain
1813: 78% duty imposed on Indian
muslins imported into Britain (against 3.5%)
 1829: Abolition of sati following
campaign led by Indian Raja Ram Mohan
Roy (1774-1833)
 1856: Act permitting Hindu widows to remarry
 1857: Anglo-Indian War – large and unsuccessful rising
against British. End of inter-cultural mixing.
 1858: India became British Crown Colony
 De-industrialization, famine, disease
(1850: 55% depend on agriculture, 1921:73%)
 1877: Queen Victoria: Empress of India
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Rise of Nationalism and Women’s
Movement
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1885: Indian National Congress founded
1891: Age of Consent Bill
1904: First Indian Women’s Conference
1906: Muslim League founded
1907: Mass picketing, boycotts
1914-1918: First World War – 47,000 Indians
killed in service, 65,000 wounded
1915 Mahatma Gandhi entered Indian politics
1916: First Women’s University established
1917: Women’s Indian Association founded
1919: Government of India Act implemented very limited
reforms: 3% of Indian adults given voting rights for
Provincial Assembly
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1919: Amritsar Massacre – 1,500 demonstrators shot
dead by British troops
1920-22: Non-cooperation campaign led by Ghandi
1922: Ghandi suspended campaign. Tried that same
year and sentenced to 6 years in prison by British
1925: National Council of Women in India founded
1927: Simon Commission on ‘reforms’ boycotted by
Congress
1928: Congress publishes report on self-government
1930-1935: Satyagraha campaign, Salt March, Gandhi
arrested again
1931: Ghandi released and suspended campaign to
attend 2nd Round Table Conference to discuss dominion
status
What was Satyagraha?
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Campaign of non-violent civil disobedience
Boycotting of imported goods
Self-reliance: hand-weaving cloth
Khadi a symbol of nationalism
Non-payment of taxes
Marches and demonstrations
Translates as ‘Truth-Force’
Ongoing Struggles
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1932: Civil disobedience resumed
1934: All India Women’s Conference demanded reform of
Hindu personal law
1935: Government of India Act condemned by Congress
and women’s organisations
1939-1945: Second World War, 2.5 million Indians fought,
24,000 killed
Ghandhi split with Nehru
and led 3rd non-violence
campaign
Towards Religious Divide
1940: Muslim League under Jinnah
calls for separate Muslim state in
Lahore Resolution
P from Punjab
A from Afghania
K from Kashmir
I
S from Sind
Tan from Baluchistan (plus Bengal & Assam)
A
N
Independence & Partition
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1942: India offered, and refuses, dominion status
‘Quit India’ movement
1946: New Labour Government in Britain starts
preparing India for independence
1946-7: Increasing inter-religious violence
1947: Mountbatten appointed as last Viceroy,
independence planned for June 1948
Independence brought forward to August 1947
37 days to decide line of partition
7.5 million Muslims moved from India to Pakistan
5.5 million Hindus moved from Pakistan to India
Nehru and Mountbatten at
Indian independence, 1947
Mass Migration
Celebrating Indian
Independence Day
Partition: Before and After
British India
India following Partition and
independence of Bangladesh
Colonialism, Nationalism and the
‘Woman Question’
British Policies on Gender Equality
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Emphasise Indian women’s subordination to portray India
as backward and unfit for self-rule
Present British rule as essential to save Indian women
Actual British record suggests full gender equality never
envisaged – matrilineal family undermined; judicial system
sought to impose moral constraints of upper-caste women
on all Indian women
Highlighting gender inequality was about legitimating
continued colonial rule more than about helping women
Indian Policies on Gender Equality
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Only when India governed itself could women’s position be
improved
Problem was state structures, not male power
Early campaigns for women led by Indian men
By early 20th century Indian women organising and linking
cause to nationalism (reduced opposition)
Women’s movement led by MC and took up MC issues – not
representing all Indian women
Supporting women’s suffrage was way for nationalists to
claim moral high ground
Full gender equality in family never envisaged by male
nationalists
Women’s Participation in Indian
Nationalism
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Indian women played important roles in nationalist
movement, both in domestic and public spheres
Nationalist movement constructed women in particular
ways
Nurturers of nation: raising patriotic children, doing
without men, weaving cloth, representing the ‘new
woman’ but focussed on home and family, some hiding
weapons and pamphlets
Saviours of nation: Stepping into men’s shoes,
demonstrating, boycotting, guerilla warfare for a few
Many women entered the public sphere for the first
time
Women in the Quit India
Movement
Conclusions
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British influence began with East India Company in 1600s
and shifted from trade to direct colonial rule
Colonization brought under-development and resistance
British response was to concede as little as possible and
try to crush resistance
The ‘Woman Question’ was central: notwithstanding well
established Indian women’s movement from 19th century
British claimed only they could save Indian women;
nationalists claimed only independence would help but
didn’t envisage full equality for ‘New Woman’
Women were central to Gandhi’s Satyagraha campaign,
domestic sphere was politicized and some accessed
public sphere, but often with limits
Independence in 1947 brought Partition – what did it bring
for Indian women?