Many Faceless Women Contributed to India's Freedom

[Guest guest]

New Delhi (Feb. 23, 2006): When it comes to the role of women in the

Indian National Movement, it is the names of Sarojini Naidu,

Vijaylakshmi Pandit, Sucheta Kriplani and Aruna Asaf Ali that come to

the mind. But equally forceful was the participation of hundreds of

women at the local level - out in the streets as well as inside their

homes, according to a new book.

 

Raj Kumari Gupta of Kanpur played a key role in the Kakori dacoity

case. On being arrested, she was disowned by her inlaws and thrown

out of the house. Basanti Devi, wife of Congress leader C R Das

involved women in picketing cloth shops and selling khadi on the

streets in defiance of the government ban on political activities and

demonstrations.

 

Latika Ghosh formed the Mahila Rashtriya Sangh, which looked as its

goal, independence and women's emancipation. In Madras, S Ambujammal

and Krishna Rau formed the Desh Sevika Sangh, which preached the true

value of Swadeshi. The list is endless.

 

"Women used their traditional responsibilities to politicise their

own domestic spaces. The domestic sphere, for these women, was to

emerge as an important site of political activity and women's roles

and activities facilitated its steady political action," according to

the book "Women in the Indian National Movement: Unseen Faces and

Unheard Voices, 1930-42" by Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert.

 

"Women's participation in the nationalist movement in the Hindi belt

was initiated by the Nehru household, who articulated a particular

nationalist discourse to middle-class women, a discourse that

facilitated the nationalist movement but sidelined the more pressing

women's issues," says the book.

 

Though the participation of thousands of women may not have led to an

autonomous women's movement in the Hindi-speaking heartland or bring

immediate changes for purdah-bound women, it did generate an enhanced

sense of evaluation among women of their own strength, it says.

 

They maintained traditional roles and virtues like purdah, but

stepped out in the streets and carved a political space for

themselves within the male dominated public domain, says Thapar-

Bjorkert.

 

"Also, there were women, who broke the 'new' boundaries established

by the feminised public politics and engaged in violence. Analysts

have ambiguously referred to them as 'revolutionaries'

or 'terrorists'.

 

"They differed in the means and process of achieving their political

goals and challenged the effectiveness of non-violence as a strategy

for political liberation," she says.

 

A significant aspect of women's public participation was to court

arrest and be imprisoned. Women performed clandestine activities such

as writing an smuggling literature in and out of prison, as they did

within the domestic sphere.

 

In fact, Thapar-Bjorkert says, "the success of the nationalist

activities was not only due to women's political activities but also

because of the politisation of domestic sphere. During the anti-

colonial movement, home was not only only a site of nationalist

reform but also a site of political resisitance."

 

"Women used the discourse of the 'familial' to carve out a political

niche inside the domestic domain," she says.

 

However, some women who took part in the nationalist movement later

discontinued their activities and concentrated on their domestic

responsibilities.

 

"For these women, to bring up a new generation that was more

articulate, more politically aware and more conscious of their rights

as women - that was their biggest nationalist act," says the book.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK: "Women in the Indian National Movement: Unseen Faces

and Unheard Voices, 1930-42"; by Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert. Published

by Sage publications; Price Rs 375

 

SOURCE: The Deccan Herald

URL:

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/feb232006/update73312006223.a

sp