History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Breaking Barriers: The Women's Movement and Writings from Late Colonial Bengal

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

In colonial India, the women’s movement became a public arena in which questions related to tradition and modernity came to the forefront. In Bengal, the women’s movement and organized politics for their rights started in Calcutta in the nineteenth century. By evaluating women’s writings in various periodicals published from Calcutta in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this essay shows how women broke the image of being accommodating and self-sacrificing and took an important step towards gender equality. Fight for equality was expressed through demand for education, marriage equality, participation in the freedom movement, and working outside the home. In other words, by exploring women’s voices, this essay provides a deeper insight into how women were able to overcome the binaries of public and private spheres and take responsibility for their future.

The study starts by analysing women’s writings that demanded education and marriage equality. Following their demand for education, women also expressed their desire to participate in the national movement and work outside the home, which further secured their position in the governance of the country. Finally, women themselves became editors of journals and newspapers that published writings by women. These writings reflected how women transcended the identity of a “new woman” who was no more than a reformed companion to the bhadraloks (well-educated men).

Comments

©2024 Nilanjana Paul. Original published version available at

http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003495512-7

Publication Title

Urbanisation in Bengal

DOI

http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003495512-7

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS