Dr (Mrs) Vishiesh Verma
In ancient India, women were given equal rights with men in all walks of life. Ladies have been quoted as authors of some of the Samhitas of Regveda. We find that women had the freedom to remain single as well as freedom to choose their life partners. But as the conditions changed, the girls started to lose the privileges of education. They lost their equality, come to be considered as mere possessions of men. During the middle ages, “Pardah” was added to the existing subordinate status of women and in the course of time they became completely illiterate and entirely dependent on men-father, husband and son, economically, socially and culturally.
In the early part of 19th century whether a female child would be allowed to live at all depended on the region and the community in which she was born. Female infanticide was rampant in the Country, particularly in the North in the 18th Century and in the early part of the 19th century. If a girl was allowed to live and grow up, she was married and packed off to her husband’s house even before she outgrew her childhood. Child widows, if they were not forced to become satis as in Bengal, Rajasthan and some other parts of the country were made to live a life of degradation. Predictably there was opposition to the move to open up schools for girls. When Ananta Shastri of Maharashtra began to teach Sanskrit to his wife Luxmibai, the villagers boycotted the couple. The couple had to build a house in the forest where their daughter Ramabai was born and grew up, to become a champion of women’s education. She attended the 1889 congress in Mumbai along with nine other ladies. The Women delegates were not allowed to speak or vote on resolutions in this session. In 1890 two friends Kashibai Kanitkar and Anandibai Joshi stepped out of their homes wearing shoes and carrying umbrellas. Stones were pelted on them, within a decade Kashibai started writing novels in Marathi and Anandibai qualified as a doctor in America. In Bengal to shed the Purdah, a group of Brahmo women took the lead by walking through the streets of Calcutta with their faces uncovered and singing loudly. The first woman activist in Bengal was Sarla Devi Ghosal, neice of Poet Rabinder Nath Tagore. After graduation at the age of 23, Sarla Devi left home in 1894 and took job as Assistant Superindent at a girls school in Maysore. Later she became the editor of ‘Bharthi’ a monthly journal.
In 1904, she trained a group to sing Vande-matram as a National call, thus preparing the ground for women to participate in struggle for freedom. In the 19th century the industrial revolution brought many changes in social status of women and opened the ways for their political and individual emancipation. By 1920’s a second generation of revolutionary feminist’s was growing up several of them were influenced by their nationalist mothers. The revolutionary movement encouraged many women revolutionaries; Pritilata Wadikar died fighting, Kalpana Dutt Joshi was given a life sentence, Beena Dass took every body by surprise in1932 when she fired at the Governor while receiving her degree at the Calcutta University Convocation. Durgawati and Susheela Devi were two figures who played a vital role in revolutionary movement of Bhagat Sing era in 1928.
In Allahabad, Chander shekhar Azad fought pitched battle with police in Alfred Park and with his last bullet he shot himself. Kamla Nehru got his body released and arranged for the funeral. Kamla Nehru, in spite of her detorating health and multifarious domestic duties participated in Indian National movement and went to jail. Emergence of Gandhiji on Indian Political Scene encouraged Women’s participation in Indian National Movement. Gandhiji acknowledged women power long before women’s movement. He often said, ”British rule in India could end in minutes if Indian women wanted and understood it”. They came out of their homes in thousands to join the freedom struggle, Kasturba Gandhi’s role in Gandhian renaissance was by no means was restricted to home management, it was Kasturba who dictated the terms, it was she who proved to be the guiding force behind the Ashrams, the leader of Ashrams all over the country whether it was Sewagram or Sabarmati. She also remained convicted at Borsad in Gujrat in 1939. She volunteered to join the Rajkot Struggle as she felt a kind of personal call to return to her home town on active service. She was 70 years then, very weak and was kept in solitary imprisonment till in 1942 at Aga Khan Palace, where she died. It was the testament to a career of political resistance to foreign rule in which she never faltered the bravest in the struggle. Almost all the women who participated in freedom struggle under Gandhiji’s guidance had non-violent agenda of: Use Swadeshi made things, burn foreign cloth, boycott liquor shops and British goods etc.
The illustrious daughter of Swami Shardanand, Satyawati had only one passion that was “India’s freedom” ,of the 37 years she lived, 12 were spent in prison. Once she was in jail with a new born baby in her arms. She served 11 jail terms and died two years before Independence of India.
Mrs. Usha Mehta wife of a Bombay’s business man, exceptionally brilliant scholar, had rare courage. During the Quit India Movement, she started a secret radio service and called it,” Voice of Freedom”. She kept the torch of freedom alive with freedom radio.
A Second generation revolutionary feminist Lakshmi Swaminathan daughter of A.V. Ammukutty a social worker and freedom fighter of Kerala, prepared Rani Jhansi Regiment at Singapore. As head of Rani Jhansi Regiment of Indian National Army (INA) she was one of the most trusted and loyal aides of Netaji, When Netaji formed a provisional Govt of free India and re named Andaman and Nicobar as “Shaheed and Swaraj” Islands, she was made the minister in INA cabinet. Part played by Indian Women in INA will remain a shining chapter of our freedom struggle.
A princess of erstwhile Kapurthala state, Rajkumari Amrit Kour was Gandhiji’s Secretary for sixteen years and free India’s first health minister. Imprisoned a number of times and Lathi charged on several occasions Amrit Kour was drawn towards Gandhiji during the days of martial law in Punjab. She decided to forsake the princely pomp and joined Gandhiji’s Ashram.
Aruna Asif Ali, the Heroine of 1942 movement, Originally a Gandhian she changed her views on non-violent methods. She remained underground for number of years, hoisted the national flag in Bombay, and became mayor of Delhi.
These women of Indian showed their compatriots that fighting for Independence was not the exclusive presence of men.
The writer is a former Reader Coordinator of University of Jammu.
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