Reform Movements and the Position of Women

At a Glance

• What it is Reformers’ efforts to improve the status of women
• Laws Sati 1829, Widows’ Remarriage 1856, Native Marriage 1872, Age of Consent 1891, Sarda 1929
• Education Bethune School 1849; Vidyasagar; Wood’s Despatch 1854
• Organisations Bharat Stree Mahamandal 1910, AIWC 1927
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Socio-Religious Reform Movements: General Features

Where Does It Fit?

This is the fourth topic of the category on the general features of socio-religious reform. The previous topic classified the movements and gave the two-point agenda. This topic takes up the first point, women. The next topic takes up the second, caste. Previous topic: Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Aligarh Movement Revivalist…">Two Streams of Reform: Reformist and Revivalist. A related constitutional body is the National Commission for Women (NCW).

What Was the Condition of Women?

The reformers worked against great odds. Women were generally accorded a low status and considered inferior adjuncts to men, with no identity of their own. They had no scope to express their talents, suppressed as they were by purdah, early marriage, the ban on widow marriage and sati. Both Hindu and Muslim women were economically and socially dependent on male relatives, and education was generally denied to them.

Hindu women had no right to inherit property or to end an undesirable marriage. Muslim women could inherit property but only half as much as men, and in divorce there was no equality. Polygamy was prevalent among both Hindus and Muslims. Their glorification as wives and mothers was the only way society recognised their contribution.

The reformers saw the improvement of women’s status as vital, because a radical change in the domestic sphere, where the individual is first socialised and where women play a crucial role, would give reformed homes and reformed men. They held that no country whose women were sunk in ignorance could make significant progress. They appealed to the doctrines of individualism and equality, and argued that true religion did not sanction an inferior status for women. They attacked polygamy, purdah, child marriage and restrictions on widow marriage, worked to set up educational facilities for women, and urged the government to legislate.

How Was Sati Abolished?

Influenced by the frontal attack launched by enlightened Indian reformers, led by Raja Rammohan Roy, the government declared the practice of sati illegal and punishable by criminal courts as culpable homicide. The Regulation of 1829 (Regulation XVII of the Bengal Code) applied first to the Bengal Presidency alone, and was extended in slightly modified form to Madras and Bombay in 1830. The social conditions that gave rise to the demand are in Factors Giving Rise to the Desire for Reform, and the reformer’s work is in Raja Rammohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj.

How Was Female Infanticide Checked?

The murder of female infants immediately after birth was common among upper-class Bengalis and Rajputs, who considered females an economic burden. The Bengal regulations of 1795 and 1804 declared infanticide illegal and equivalent to murder. An Act of 1870 made it compulsory for parents to register the birth of all babies and provided for the verification of female children for some years after birth, particularly in areas where the custom was practised in great secrecy.

How Was Widow Remarriage Promoted?

The Brahmo Samaj had widow remarriage high on its agenda and did much to popularise it. But it was mainly due to the efforts of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-91), principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta, that the Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, 1856, was passed. It legalised the marriage of widows and declared the issue of such marriages legitimate. Vidyasagar cited Vedic texts to prove that Hinduism sanctioned widow remarriage. His life is in Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.

How Was Child Marriage Controlled?

The Native Marriage Act (or Civil Marriage Act) of 1872 was the first legislative action against child marriage, but it had limited impact because it did not apply to Hindus, Muslims and other recognised faiths. The relentless efforts of the Parsi reformer B.M. Malabari were rewarded by the Age of Consent Act (1891), which, in the chapter’s words, forbade the marriage of girls below the age of 12; other books describe it as raising the age of consent to 12. The Sarda Act (passed in 1929, in force from 1930) pushed the marriage age up to 18 for boys and 14 for girls. In free India, the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 1978 raised the age of marriage for girls from 15 to 18 and for boys from 18 to 21.

How Did Women’s Education Grow?

The Christian missionaries were the first to set up the Calcutta Female Juvenile Society in 1819. The Bethune School, founded in 1849 by J.E.D. Bethune, president of the Council of Education in Calcutta, was the first fruit of the powerful movement for women’s education that arose in the 1840s and 1850s. Vidyasagar was associated with no fewer than 35 girls’ schools in Bengal and is considered a pioneer of women’s education.

Charles Wood’s Despatch on Education (1854) laid great stress on the need for female education. In 1914 the Women’s Medical Service did much work in training nurses and midwives. The Indian Women’s University, set up by Professor D.K. Karve in 1916, was one of the outstanding institutions for women. In the same year the Lady Hardinge Medical College was opened in Delhi, and the Dufferin Hospitals opened in the 1880s to provide health facilities for women.

How Did Women Enter Public Life?

Participation in the swadeshi, anti-partition and Home Rule movements in the opening decades of the twentieth century was a major liberating experience for otherwise home-centred women. After 1918 they faced lathis and bullets and were jailed in processions and picketing. They took part in trade union, kisan and revolutionary movements, and voted, stood and were elected to legislatures and local bodies. Sarojini Naidu became president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and later governor of the United Provinces (1947-49). After 1920, aware and self-confident women led a women’s movement.

Sarla Devi believed that the man working for women’s upliftment lived under the shade of Manu. Critics noted that the National Council’s philanthropic style followed that of upper-class English women. The AIWC’s founding members included Maharani Chimnabai Gaekwad, the Rani Sahiba of Sangli, Sarojini Naidu, Kamla Devi Chattopadhyaya and Lady Dorab Tata. Over time it worked for the Sarda Act (1929), Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act (1937), Factory Act (1947), Hindu Marriage and Divorce Act (1954), Special Marriage Act (1954), Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956), Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (1956), Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women Act (1958), Maternity Benefits Act (1961), Dowry Prohibition Act (1961) and Equal Remuneration Act (1958, 1976).

As an analytical point, the pattern across the topic is that reformers first argued from religion and reason, then won laws, then built institutions run by women themselves. The movement of women into the national movement is part of the story told in later categories on the freedom struggle.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Dates and laws Acts of 1829, 1856, 1872, 1891 and 1929 are tested often
• Reformer-to-law matching Rammohan Roy, Vidyasagar, Malabari and Karve are standard matches
• Mains theme Women’s status is the first plank of the reform agenda

What Came Next?

The next topic covers the struggle against caste-based exploitation. Next topic: Struggle Against Caste-Based Exploitation.

Key People and Terms

• Regulation XVII of 1829 The law declaring sati illegal
• Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act The 1856 law legalising widow remarriage
• Age of Consent Act The 1891 law, due to Malabari’s campaign
• Sarda Act The law raising the marriage age to 18 for boys and 14 for girls
• Bethune School The Calcutta school founded in 1849 for girls
• AIWC The All India Women’s Conference, founded in 1927

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask for the contribution of reformers and laws for women. These points add depth.

• Religious and rational arguments Vidyasagar cited Vedic texts; others used reason
• Law and institutions Legislation came with schools and women’s bodies
• Women’s own role Women’s organisations led after 1920