Engendering Education and Organisation: The Women’s Reform Movement in India

The ‘woman question’ of the late nineteenth century India developed regarding the contestation of two primary actors. The British government advocated for their aim to ‘save’ the native women from their own barbaric society, as an extension of their ideal of their ‘civilising mission.’ The consequent emergence of the Indian middle class, comprised of both reform minded men and conservationists, who concerned themselves with differential aspects of the status of women in the colonial custom. Unsurprisingly, both these outlooks were voiced by, and reflected the indigenous and foreign men’s views of the Indian woman. The trajectory of the women’s reform movement in witnessing the active participation of women, is one that then holds immense significance to understand the cause of change, from the real recipients of the movement. This article elaborates upon the ‘educational experiment’ of the late nineteenth century in India, that paved way for a generation of women to subsequently organise themselves into becoming the leading voices of the movement. The attempt to place the baton of change in the hands of women, is one that deviates from nationalist and oriental historiography that excluded them of rightful claims based on conservatisms of different, but overlapping kinds.