Gender and Nationalism in India

1. Gender and Nationalism in India International Perspectives on Gender Week 11

2. Structure of lecture • 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

3. Introduction • 3 million square kms • 1.15 billion people (2010) • 1947 - independence • Biggest ever colony • 1947: Partition: India and Pakistan • 1971: independence for Bangladesh

4. 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.

5. Brief history: from trade to colony • 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

6. 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

7. Rise of Nationalism and Women’sMovement • 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

8. 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

9. What was Satyagraha? • 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’

10. Ongoing Struggles • 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

11. 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

12. Independence & Partition • 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

13. Nehru and Mountbatten at Indian independence, 1947 Mass Migration Celebrating Indian Independence Day

14. Partition: Before and After British India India following Partition and independence of Bangladesh

15. Colonialism, Nationalism and the ‘Woman Question’ British Policies on Gender Equality • 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

16. Indian Policies on Gender Equality • 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

17. Women’s Participation in Indian Nationalism • 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

18. Women in the Quit India Movement

19. Conclusions • British influence began with East India Company in the 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?