Two hundred years ago, things were quite regressive for women. Child marriage was allowed. Both Hindu and Muslim men could marry more than one wife. In some parts of the country, the practice of sati (meaning virtuous women) was praised. It was believed that if a woman was educated, she would become a widow. Thus, they had  no access to education. Women’s rights to property were also restricted. 

Working Towards Change

Printing Revolution: In the early 19th century, social customs and practices took on a new character. 

• It was because for the first time, books, newspapers, magazines, leaflets and pamphlets were printed. 

• Accessibility: These were cheaper, more accessible for common people than the manuscripts and many of them could also write and express their ideas in their own languages. 
• Emergence of Public Discourse: All kinds of social, political, economic and religious  issues could now be debated and discussed by men and sometimes by women as well. 
• Catalysts for Change: The discussions and debates were often initiated by Indian reformers and reform groups could now reach out to a wider public, and could become linked to movements for social change.
• Raja Ram Mohan Roy: One such reformer was Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) who founded the Brahmo Sabha (later known as the Brahmo Samaj) in Calcutta. 
• Towards Equality: He was keen to spread the Western education in the country and bring about greater freedom and equality for women. 

Changing the Lives of Widows

• Abolition of Sati: Rammohan Roy was particularly moved by the problems of widows and began a campaign against the practice of sati. 

• Knows Various Languages: He was well versed in Sanskrit, Persian and several other Indian and European languages, and tried to show through his writings that the practice of sati had no sanction in ancient texts. 
• Support From Britishers: By the early 19th century, many British officials had also begun to criticize Indian traditions and customs and supported Rammohan by banning sati in 1829. 

Widow Remarriage

• Reinterpretation of Sacred Texts: Whenever reformers wished to challenge a harmful practice they tried to find a verse or sentence in the ancient sacred texts that supported their point of view.
• Advocacy for Widow Remarriage: Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, used the ancient texts to suggest that widows could remarry and British officials in 1856 passed a law permitting widow remarriage. 
• Opposition and Boycotts: Those who were against the remarriage of widows opposed him, and even boycotted him. 
• Widening Support: But by the second half of the 19th century, in the Telugu-speaking areas of the Madras Presidency, Veerasalingam Pantulu formed an association favoring widow remarriage. 
• Implementing Social Reform: Young intellectuals and reformers in Bombay pledged themselves to work for the same cause. In the north, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, who founded Arya Samaj, also supported widow remarriage. 
• Acceptability: Yet, the number of widows remarried remained low and were not easily accepted in society. 

Girls Began Going to School

• Establishment of Girls’ Schools: In order to improve the condition of women, education for girls was necessary. 
  • School in Bombay: Therefore, Vidyasagar in Calcutta and many other reformers in Bombay set up schools for girls. 

• Resistance to Female Education: The very first schools were opened in the mid 19th century, but many people were afraid that schools would take girls away from home, preventing them from doing their domestic duties. 
• Fear: They feared that in order to reach school girls had to travel through public places which would have a corrupting influence on them. 
• Home Education by Liberal Supporters: Therefore, throughout the 19th century, most educated women were taught at home by liberal fathers or husbands and sometimes women taught themselves. 
  • Example: Rashsundari Debi secretly learned to read and write in the flickering light of candles at night. 
• Girls’ Education Initiatives: In the latter part of the century, Arya Samaj in Punjab, and Jyotirao Phule in Maharashtra established schools for girls. 
• Women’s Education in Muslim Households: In aristocratic Muslim households in North India, women learnt to read the Koran in Arabic by women who came home to teach. 
• Reformist Interpretations of Religious Texts: Mumtaz Ali, a reformist reinterpreted verses from the Koran to argue for women’s education. 
• Emergence of Urdu Novels for Female Readership: The first Urdu novels began to be written from the late 19th century meant to encourage women to read about religion and domestic management in their own language.

Women Write About Women

• Promoters of Women’s Education: From the early 20th century, the Begums of Bhopal promoted education among women by founding a primary school for girls at Aligarh. 
• Champion of Women’s Rights: A fearless critic of conservative ideas, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain started schools for Muslim girls in Patna and Calcutta. 
  • She argued that religious leaders of every faith accorded an inferior place to women. 
• Emerging Women in Higher Education: By the 1880s, Indian women began to enter universities and some of them trained to be doctors, or became teachers. 
• Women’s Voices in Literature and Advocacy: Many began to write and publish their critical views on the place of women in society such as Tarabai Shinde, a woman educated at home at Poona, published a book, Stripurushtulna, (A Comparison between Women and Men), criticising the social differences between men and women.
• Advocate for Widows’ Rights: Pandita Ramabai, a great scholar of Sanskrit, wrote a book about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women. 
  • Widows’ Home at Poona: She also founded a widows’ home at Poona to provide shelter to widows who had been treated badly by their husbands’ relatives. 
  • Here women were trained so that they could support themselves economically. 
• Reactionary Views and Concerns: Many Hindu nationalists felt that Hindu women were adopting Western ways and that this would corrupt Hindu culture and erode family values. 
  • Orthodox Muslims were also worried about the impact of these changes. 
• Women as Agents of Reform: By the end of the 19th century, women themselves were actively working for reform. 
• They wrote books, edited magazines, founded schools and training centers, and set up women’s associations. 
• Women’s Political Mobilization: From the early 20th century, they also formed political pressure groups to push through laws for female suffrage and better health care and education for women. 
  • Some of them joined various kinds of nationalist and socialist movements. 
• Support from Nationalist Leaders: Leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose lent their support to demands for greater equality and freedom for women. 
• Promise of Suffrage and Equality: Nationalist leaders promised that there would be full suffrage for all men and women after Independence.

Conclusion

Despite societal resistance, the 19th century saw strides in women’s rights. Reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar championed widow remarriage and girls’ education. By the 20th century, women themselves were agents of change, writing, organizing, and demanding equality.