Women of India: Colonial and Post-colonial Periods (History of Science, Philosophy, and Culture in Indian Civilization, Part 3)

674 Pages·2005·5.44 MB·English

by  Bharati Ray

Women of India:
Colonial and Post-Colonial Periods
Publications in PHISPC—CONSSAVY Series
HISTORY OF SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE IN INDIAN CIVILIZATION
General Editor & Project Director: D.P. Chattopadhyaya
Conceptual Volumes
* Part 1 Science, Philosophy and Culture: Multi-disciplinary D.P. Chattopadhyaya &
Explorations Ravinder Kumar (ed.)
* Part 2 Science, Philosophy and Culture: Multi-disciplinary D.P. Chattopadhyaya &
Explorations Ravinder Kumar (ed.)
VOLUME I The Dawn and Development of Indian Civilization
* Part 1 The Dawn of Indian Civilization (up to c. 600 BC) G.C. Pande (ed.)
* Part 2 Life, Thought and Culture in India (from c. 600 BC to c. AD 300) G.C. Pande (ed.)
† Part 3 India’s Interaction with Southeast Asia G.C. Pande (ed.)
† Part 4 A Golden Chain of Civilizations: Indian, Iranian, Semitic and Hellenic G.C. Pande (ed.)
† Part 5 Puranas, History and Itihasa Vidya Niwas Misra (ed.)
VOLUME II Life, Thought and Culture in India (AD 300–1100)
* Part 1 Life, Thought and Culture in India (AD 300–1000) K. Satchidananda Murty (ed.)
* Part 2 Advaita Vedanta R. Balasubramanian (ed.)
* Part 3 Theistic Vedanta R. Balasubramanian (ed.)
* Part 4 Origin and Development of the Vai‹e¶ika System Anantalal Thakur
† Part 5 A Social History of India in the First Millennium AD B.D. Chattopadhyaya (ed.)
† Part 6 Pµurvamimåmså from an Interdisciplinary Point of View K.T. Pandurangi (ed.)
VOLUME III Development of Philosophy, Science and Technology in India and Neighbouring Civilizations
* Part 1 History of Indian Science, Technology and Culture (AD 1000–1800) A. Rahman (ed.)
* Part 2 India’s Interaction with China, Central and West Asia A. Rahman (ed.)
* Part 3 Development of Nyåya Philosophy and its Social Context Sibajiban Bhattacharyya (ed.)
† Parts 4 & 5 Philosophical Concepts Relevant to Science in Indian Tradition Pranab Kumar Sen (ed.)
* Part 6 India and China: Twenty Centuries of Civilizational Interaction and Vibrations Tan Chung & Geng Yinzeng
† Part 7 The Trading World of the Indian Ocean, AD 1500-1800 Om Prakash (ed.)
VOLUME IV Fundamental Indian Ideas of Physics, Chemistry, Life Sciences and Medicine
* Part 1 Chemistry and Chemical Techniques in India B.V. Subbarayappa (ed.)
* Part 2 Medicine and Life Sciences in India B.V. Subbarayappa (ed.)
* Part 3 Indian Perspectives on the Physical World B.V. Subbarayappa
† Part 4 History of Indian Astronomy and Mathematics B.V. Subbarayappa
VOLUME V Agriculture in India
‡ Parts 1 & 2 A History of Agriculture in India Lallanji Gopal & V.C. Srivastava (ed.)
VOLUME VI Culture, Language, Literature and Arts
† Part 1 Aesthetic Theories and Forms in Indian Tradition S.S. Barlingay, D.P. Chattopadhyaya and
Kapila Vatsyayan (ed.)
† Part 2 Architecture in India M.A. Dhaky (ed.)
* Part 3 Indian Art: Forms, Concerns and Development in Historical Perspective B.N. Goswamy (ed.)
† Part 4 Language, Grammar and Linguistics in Indian Tradition V.N. Jha (ed.)
‡ Parts 5-10 PHISPC in Regional Languages and Literatures
VOLUME VII The Rise of New Polity and Life in Villages and Towns
* Part 1 The State and Society in Medieval India J.S. Grewal (ed.)
† Part 2 Religious Movements and Institutions in Medieval India J.S. Grewal (ed.)
† Parts 3, 4 & 5 Religious Systems of India S.R. Saha , N.S.S. Raman,
M. Rafique and others (ed.)
VOLUME VIII Economic History of India
† Part 1 Economic History of India from Thirteenth to Seventeenth Century Irfan Habib (ed.)
† Parts 2 & 3 Economic History of India from Eighteenth to Twentieth Century B.B. Chaudhuri (ed.)
VOLUME IX Colonial Period
* Part 1 Medicine in India: Modern Period O.P. Jaggi
† Part 2 Women in India: Ancient and Medieval Period Bhuvan Chandel (ed.)
† Part 3 Women of India: Colonial and Post-colonial Periods Bharati Ray (ed.)
VOLUME X Towards Independence
* Part 1 Development of Indian Philosophy from Eighteenth Century Onwards Daya Krishna
† Part 2 Colonial Development, Education and Social Awareness up to 2000 S. Gopal, Ravinder Kumar &
S. Bhattacharya (ed.)
* Part 3 Historical Perspectives of Warfare in India: S.N. Prasad (ed.)
Some Morale and Material Determinants
† Part 4 Cultural Foundations of Mathematics: The Nature of Mathematical Proof and C.K. Raju
the Transmission of the Infinitesimal Calculus from India to Europe in the 16th c. CE
*Already Published
†In the Process of Publication
‡Under Plan
History of Science, Philosophy and Culture
in Indian Civilization
General Editor: D.P. Chattopadhyaya
Volume IX Part 3
Women of India:
Colonial and Post-Colonial Periods
edited by
Bharati Ray
Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture
CENTRE FOR STUDIES IN CIVILIZATIONS
©2005 CENTRE FOR STUDIES IN CIVILIZATIONS
Publication of this Volume and much of the research it represents have been made possible by continuing grants
with full financial assistance from the Department of Secondary and Higher Education,
Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, which has supported multidisciplinary
exploration of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by any means,
without written permission of the publisher.
First published in 2005
by Professor Bhuvan Chandel, Member Secretary
CSC, 36 Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110062
ISBN: 81-87586-00-0
Typeset in Baskerville, 11.5/14 pts.
Views expressed in the PHISPC publications are entirely of the
concerned author/authors and do not represent the views of the
Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture.
Typeset by Nikita Overseas, New Delhi 110 019
Printed at Pauls Press, New Delhi 110 020
C S C
ENTRE FOR TUDIES IN IVILIZATIONS
Governing Board
Professor D.P. Chattopadhyaya Member, Chairman
Professor G.C. Pande Member
Professor Daya Krishna Member
Professor Arjun Sengupta Member
Professor Yash Pal Member
Professor J.V. Narlikar Member
Professor Kireet Joshi Member
Shri T.N. Chaturvedi Member
Professor V.R. Mehta Member
Professor Bhuvan Chandel Member, Member-Secretary

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Contributors xi
General Introduction xvii
D.P. Chattopadhyaya
Introduction xxvii
Bharati Ray
SECTION ONE: FAMILY/LAW
1 Politicization of Personal Laws: A Study of Colonial India 3
Flavia Agnes
2 Legislating the Family in Post-Independence India 26
Patricia Uberoi
3 Reviewing Muslim Women and Marriage: A Preliminary Analysis 53
of Survey Finding
Zoya Hasan and Ritu Menon
4 Understanding the Dalit Feminist Identity 82
Gopal Guru
SECTION TWO: BODY/SEXUALITY
5 Women, Health and Demography: Deficit of Women in India 97
Leela Visaria
6 Imagined Lovers: Ideology, Practice and Social Hierarchies 110
Prem Chowdhry
7 Friends and Lovers: Towards a Social History of Emotions in 139
19th and 20th Century Kerala
G. Arunima
8 Violent Acts: Cultures, Structures and Retraditionalisation 159
Kumkum Sangari
SECTION THREE: KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM
9 A Century and a Half’s Journey: Women’s Education in 183
India, 1850s to 2000
Aparna Basu
viii Contents
10 Women and Formal and Informal Science 208
Anil K. Gupta and R.A. Mashelkar
11 Women and Environment 236
Jayshree Vencatesan, R.J. Ranjit Daniels and Madhav Gadgil
SECTION FOUR: WORK
12 Gendering Agrarian Issues: The Uttar Pradesh Experience 259
Smita Tewari Jassal
13 Some Dimensions of Female Employment in India 283
Sudha Deshpande
14 Women Workers and Industrial Restructuring in Two Industries 320
in Mumbai
Nandita Gandhi and Nandita Shah
15 Women and Water: Relationships, Experiences, Approaches 351
K.J. Joy and Suhas Paranjape
16 Women, Hunger, and Famine: Bengal, 1350/1943 392
Parama Roy
SECTION FIVE: CREATIVITY/VOICES
17 A Voice of Protest: The Writings of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880–1932) 427
Bharati Ray
18 Women and Music: The Case of North India 454
Amlan Das Gupta
19 Reassembling the Modern: An Indian Theatre Map since Independence 485
Anuradha Kapur
20 Women Artists of Rural India 501
Jyotindra Jain
21 Women Patrons of Art and Architecture: The Case of Stepwells of Gujarat 524
Jutta Jain-Neubauer
SECTION SIX: POLITICS
22 Political Women: An Overview of Modern Indian Developments 541
Tanika Sarkar
23 Citizenship and its Discontents: A Political History of Women in Andhra 564
Vasanth Kannabiran and Kalpana Kannabiran
24 Is the Women’s Movement on the Move? 584
Gabriele Dietrich
Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to record the many kindnesses I received during the preparation of this
volume. My first thanks go to the Centre for Studies in Civilizations, Delhi, for sponsoring
this volume under their Project of the History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture.
I am particularly indebted to Professor D.P. Chattopadhyaya, the General Editor of the
series, for giving me absolute editorial freedom to take decisions in every respect.
Freedom is such a valuable and rare commodity that one can only be grateful for this
gift. I am thankful to my contributors. All of them, eminent scholars in their own fields,
readily agreed to send contributions and, despite their numerous prior commitments,
complied with my unreasonable demands for quick submission. It is their vast scholarship
and valuable research that make this volume worth reading. I am indebted to Pronoti
Deb, Raka Ray, Isha Ray, Anjum Katyal, Supriya Chaudhury, Amlan Das Gupta, Mukul
Mukherjee, Tapati Guha Thakurta, Gautam Bhadra, Malabika Sarkar, Krishna Sen and
Lakshmi Subramaniyan, for their generous editorial assistance to me. They did so out
of genuine scholarly interest and also out of friendship, which I cherish. Assistance in
different ways came from Suranjan Das, Basudev Chattopadhyay, Bhaskar Chakrabarty,
Hari Vasudevan, Arun Bandopadhyay, Jayanta Kumar Ray, Sekhar Bandopadhyay,
Uma Das Gupta, Krishna Sen, Debjani Sen Gupta, Anjali Ghosh, Sujata Sen, Samita Sen,
Ishita Mukhopadhyay and Jayoti Gupta. The staff of the various libraries where I worked,
i.e. the National Library, Kolkata, the Sahitya Parishad Library, Kolkata, the Brahmo
Samaj Library, Kolkata, the Bangladesh High Commission Library, Kolkata, and the
Library of Parliament of India, New Delhi, have me under their debt for their ungrudging
cooperation. The Department of Economics, Calcutta University, competently organized
a seminar for me. The Women’s Studies Research Centre, Calcutta University, which
I founded several years ago, provided me with library and staff assistance. Lastly, it
remains to express my gratitude to my colleagues, the professors and the staff in the
Department of History, Calcutta University, for hosting two large seminars for discussions
on this volume, and for always being there to extend any help I ever wanted. Mere words
of thanks are utterly inadequate for the debt I owe them.
Kolkata Bharati Ray
31 December 2002