Women Caste and Reform | Class VIII | Civics | Notes

 

Women write about Women:

(i) Muslim women like Begums of Bhopal promoted education among women and founded a primary school for girls at Aligarh.

(ii) Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain started schools for Muslim girls in Patna and Calcutta.

(iii) Indian women began to enter universities by 1880s. Some of them trained to be doctors and teachers.

(iv) Tarabai Shinde got education at home at Poona, published a book, Stripurushtulna (A Comparison between Women & Men), criticising the social differences between men & women.

(v) Pandita Ramabai was a great scholar of Sanskrit, wrote a book about the miserable lives of upper-class Hindu women. She founded a widows’ home at Poona to provide shelter to widows who had been treated badly by their husbands’ relatives.

(vi) Later, women were trained to support themselves economically.

(vii) Orthodox Hindu & Muslim Nationalists were worried as women started adopting western cultures and according to them that could corrupt and erode family values.

(viii) Women started working for reforms. They wrote books, magazines, founded schools & training centres, and set up womens’ associations.

(ix) Women formed political pressure groups to push through laws for female suffrage ( the right to vote).

(x) Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose gave their support to demands for greater equality and freedom for women.

Sati: It means virtuous women. These women chose death by burning themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands.

Untouchable: Untouchables were considered to be the lowest by the upper-caste people. They were denied entry in temples, restaurants, etc.

Gulamgiri: A book written by Jyotirao Phule. It means slavery.

Stripurushtulna: A book published-by Tarabai Shinde. It means a comparison between women and men.

Conservative: Those who want to stick to old traditions and customs and oppose new changes.

Suffrage: The right to vote.

1772-1833 – Raja Rammohun Roy brought a lot reformations in the Indian society during this period.

1829 – Sati was banned.

1856 – A law was passed to permit widow remarriage.

1875 – The Arya Samaj was founded.

1929 – The Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed.

1927-1935 – Ambedkar led three temple entry movements between this period.