Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T11:25:06.701Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Reform in the nineteenth century: efforts to modernize women's roles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Geraldine Forbes
Geraldine Forbes
Affiliation:
State University College, Oswego, New York
Get access

Summary

Rammohun Roy's (1772–1833) name is usually listed first among those of nineteenth-century reformers concerned with improving women's status. Historians have called him the ‘father of modern India,’ a ‘champion of women's rights,’ and a feminist. But his personal relationships with women were far from ideal. He was married three times, at age nine, ten, and twenty-one years. His first wife died soon after the marriage, another died in 1826 and one outlived him. There is no evidence that he looked to his wives for companionship; in fact, there were rumors that his adopted son, Rajaram, was the child of his Muslim mistress. After Rammohun's father's death he argued with his mother, Tarini Devi, and in anger left the family home with his wives and children. The relationship deteriorated even further when Tarini Devi encouraged a nephew to challenge Rammohun's right to ancestral property. The suit began in 1817. Among the court records is an unused document showing that Rammohun was prepared to argue, in front of a judge, that his mother hated him, desired his worldly ruin, and would have even ‘welcomed his death.’ Rammohun had developed a set of questions to be asked of his mother if she were called as a witness. He planned to ask if she was so angry at him for refusing to worship her idols that she would lie under oath to destroy him. Rammohun admitted he admired his mother's strength and independence yet he was willing to publicly humiliate her. Examined from this perspective Rammohun seems less than an ideal champion of women's rights. Where were women's voices?

Type
Chapter
Information
Women in Modern India , pp. 10 - 31
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asthana, Pratima, Women's Movement in India (Delhi, Vikas, 1974).Google Scholar
Borthwick, Meredith, The Changing Role of Women in Bengal, 1849–1905 (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1985), chapter 5.Google Scholar
Bose, S. K., Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar (New Delhi, National Book Trust, 1969).Google Scholar
Carroll, Lucy, “Law, Custom and Statutory Social Reform: The Hindu Widow's Remarriage Act of 1856,” Women in Colonial India: Essays on Survival, Work, and the State, ed. Krishnamurthy, J. (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
Chowdhry, Prem, “Popular Perceptions of Widow-remarriage in Haryana: Past and Present,” From the Seams of History, ed. Roy, Bharati (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1995).Google Scholar
Deb, Mahesh Chundra, “A Sketch of the Conditions of the Hindoo Women” [1839], Awakening in the Early Nineteenth Century, ed. Chattopadhyay, Goutam (Calcutta, Progressive Publishers, 1965).Google Scholar
Desai, Neera, Woman in Modern India, 2nd edn. (Bombay, Vora and Co., 1967).Google Scholar
Haider, M. K., Renaissance and Reaction in Nineteenth Century Bengal: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Columbia, Mo., South Asia Books, 1977).Google Scholar
Haldar, M. K., Renaissance and Reaction in Nineteenth Century Bengal: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Columbia, Mo., South Asia Books, 1977).Google Scholar
Heimsath, Charles H., Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchins, Francis G., The Illusion of Permanence: British Imperialism in India (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Julia, Leslie I., The Perfect Wife: The Orthodox Hindu Woman according to the Stridharmapaddhati of Tryamhakayajvan (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
Karlekar, Malavika, Voices From Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1991).Google Scholar
Karve, Dhondo Keshav, Looking Back (Poona, Hingne Stree-Shikshan Samstha, 1936).Google Scholar
Kaviraj, Sudipta, “On the Construction of Colonial Power: Structure, Discourse, Hegemony,” Contesting Colonial Hegemony, ed. Engels, Dagmar and Marks, Shula (London, German Historical Institute London, 1994).Google Scholar
Kopf, David, The Brabmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1979).Google Scholar
Leonard, Karen I. and Leonard, John, “Social Reform and Women's Participation in Political Culture: Andhra and Madras,” The Extended Family, ed. Minault, Gail (Columbus, Mo., South Asia Books, 1981).Google Scholar
Mani, Lata, “Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India,” Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, ed. Sangari, Kumkum and Vaid, Sudesh (Delhi, Kali for Women, 1989).Google Scholar
Mazumdar, Shudha, Memoirs of an Indian Woman, ed. Forbes, Geraldine (New York, M. E. Sharpe, 1989).Google Scholar
Mazumdar, Vina, “Comment on Suttee,” Signs, 4, no. 2 (winter, 1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazumdar, Vina, “The Social Reform Movement in India - From Ranade to Nehru,” Indian Women: From Purdah to Modernity, ed. Nanda, B. R. (New Delhi, Vikas Publishing, 1976).Google Scholar
Mill, James, The History of British India, 2 vols. (New York, Chelsea House, 1968).Google Scholar
Mukherjee, S. N., “Raja Rammohun Roy and the Status of Women in Bengal in the Nineteenth Century,” Women in India and Nepal, ed. Allen, Michael and Mukherjee, S. N. (Canberra, Australian National University, 1982).Google Scholar
Murshid, Ghulam, Reluctant Debutante (Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Rajshahi University, 1983).Google Scholar
Nair, Janaki, “Reconstructing and Reinterpreting the History of Women in India,” Journal of Women's History, 3, no. 1 (spring, 1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nath De, Brajendra, “Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service,” The Calcutta Review, 127 (1953); 128 (1953); 129 (1953); 130 (1954); 131 (1954); 132 (1954); 136 (1955).Google Scholar
O',Hanlon, Rosalind, “Issues of Widowhood: Gender and Resistance in Colonial Western India,” Contesting Power: Resistance and Everyday Social Relations in South Asia, ed. Haynes, Douglas and Prakash, Gyan (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1991).Google Scholar
Oldenburg, Veena, “Lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesan of Lucknow, India,” Feminist Studies, 16, no. 2 (summer, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prasad, Chanda Rama and Majumdar, Jatindra Kumar“On the Part and Behalf of the Defendant Above Named, ”Raja Rammohun Roy Letters and Documents, ed. (Delhi, Anmol Publications, 1987).Google Scholar
Ranade, Ramabai, Himself, The Autobiography of a Hindu Lady (New York, Longman, Green and Co., 1938).Google Scholar
Ray, Rajat K., “Man, Woman and the Novel: The Rise of a New Consciousness in Bengal (1858–1947),” Indian Economic and Social History Review, 16, no. 1 (March, 1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raychaudhuri, Tapan, Europe Reconsidered (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1988).Google Scholar
Risley, Herbert Hope Sir, The People of India, 2nd edn., ed. Crooke, W. (Delhi, Oriental Books Reprint Corp., 1969).Google Scholar
Sarkar, Sumit, “The ‘Women's Question’ in Nineteenth Century Bengal,” Women and Culture, ed. Sangari, Kumkum and Vaid, Sudesh (Bombay, Research Center for Women's Studies, 1994).Google Scholar
Sarkar, Tanika, “A Book of Her Own. A Life of Her Own: Autobiography of a Nineteenth-Century Woman,” History Workshop Journal, 36, (autumn, 1993).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarkar, Tanika, “The Hindu Wife and Hindu Nation: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal,” Studies in History, 8, no. 2 (1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Asok, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar and his Elusive Milestones (Calcutta, Riddlu-India, 1977).Google Scholar
Susie, Tharu and Lalita, K. “Rassundari Devi,” Women Writing in India 600 bc to the Present, 2 vols., vol. 1, 600 bc to the Early Twentieth Century, (New York, The Feminist Press, 1991).Google Scholar
Vidyasagar, Isvarachandra, Marriage of Hindu Widows (Calcutta, K. P. Bagchi and Co., 1976).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×