From Stree Purush Tulana 1882…Who are these women you give such names to? Whose womb did you take your birth in? Who carried the killing burden of you for nine months? Who was the saint who made you the light in her eye, …How would you feel if someone said about your mother, “That old chap’s mother, you know, she’s a gateway to hell’. Or your sister, “That so-and so-s’ sister, she’s a real storehouse of deceit’. …Would you just sit and listen to their bad words?… …Then you get blessed with a bit of education and promoted to some important new office- and you start feeling ashamed of your first wife. Money works its influence on n you and you begin to say to yourself, what does a wife matter after all? Don’t we just give them a few rupees a month and keep them at home like any other servant, to do the cooking and look after the house? You begin to think of her like some female slave you’ve paid for….If one of your horses died it wouldn’t take long to replace it, and there’s no great labour needed to get another wife either. ..The problem is Yama hasn’t got time to carry off wives fast enough or you’d probably get through several different ones in one day!

a) Were social reform movements fought only by males? Give reasons for your answer.

b) Name any two women’s organisations.

a)

No, it is not true that social reform movements were only fought by men. Several examples which prove that women also participated in the social reform movements which were as follows:

• The above-mentioned paragraph titled “Stree Purush Tulana 1882” (comparison of men and women) was written by Tarabai Shinde who was the Maharashtrian housewife. She wrote it as a protest against the male-dominated society. When a young Brahmin widow punished for killing her newborn baby as it was legitimate but no action was taken against the men who fathered the baby. So when Stree Purush Tulana was published it swirled up the situation more.

• Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, born in a Bengali-Muslim family was lucky enough to have a husband with a liberal perspective who encouraged her to study further, first in Urdu, then in Bengali and English. To test her skill of writing in English, she wrote-Sultana’s dream. It was the earliest example of a short story written by a woman author. In this short story, the role of men and women had exchanged which is opposite to today.

• Apart from this, in the early 20th century, many women’s organisation arises at local levels and in India. This led to the participation of women in the nationalist movement. It is this involvement which resulted in the declaration of the women’s rights.

b)

The two women’s organisations are –

1. All India Federation of Women Lawyers - All India Federation of Women Lawyers was established in 2007. It is a federation of Indian women lawyers. There are various aims of this federation mentioned related to the rights and support for the women and children also.

2. Centre for Women’s development studies - Centre for Women’s development studies was founded by a group of scholars and activists in 1980 . They wanted to make changes in the accepted norms related to the gender-related research and actions related to social sciences. Their main focus is on women and gender.