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Indian Political Thought
Indian Political Thought-II (6.2)
University of Delhi
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MARCH 29, 2023
INDIAN POLITICAL
THOUGHT 2
ASSIGNMENT
QUESTION-
Critically analyse the contribution of Pandita Ramabai on gender
issues in 19th century India.
QUESTION-
Discuss Gandhi’s idea of Swaraj. Do you think it is relevant today?
Discuss.
SUBMITTED BY: AYESHA RAHMAN
ROLL NUMBER: 20203813
COURSE: BA POLITICAL SCIENCE (H)
6 TH SEMESTER
SUBMITTED TO: PROF. S. SAJJAN
Q: Critically analyse the contribution of Pandita Ramabai on gender
issues in 19th century India.
Introduction
Pandita Ramabai was the first women feminist of modern India. Her thoughts on gender issues were radical and much ahead of her time. Equally radical was her extraordinary life choices. She lived a very unconventional and modern life breaking the boundaries of both patriarchy and prevailing socio-cultural norms. Her contribution on gender issues were multi-dimensional.
She raised the gender issues and misery of Indian women through lecture tours, debates, publishing pamphlets, essays, articles, books, writing letters, petitions & evidences, etc. In 1882, she gave evidence before the ‘Hunter Commission’ on education. Before the commission she pleaded for women’s education and women as teachers, doctors, and school inspectors. Same year she wrote ‘Stree Dharma Niti’ – suggesting moral development of women. In the book she also linked women’s status to national development. In her most important and influential book ‘The High-Caste Hindu Woman’, she provided the graphic details of women’s misery, their root causes, and offered her solutions.
Not only she spoke and wrote about gender issues, but also founded many societies for realizing her thoughts. First society she founded in 1882 was ‘Arya Mahila Samaj’ which provided a forum for raising women’s issues, such as child marriage, education, enforced widowhood. From the funds raised from her lecture tour to USA, in 1889, she established ‘Sharda Sadan’ to provide shelter, education, vocational training to high caste Hindu widows so that they live with dignity. In 1898, she founded Set up ‘Mukti Mission’ at Kedgaon, near Pune. The mission provided support and education to widows, unmarried women and girls, abandoned wives, and victims of the terrible famine and epidemics like plague.
Her life itself was biggest message for what she stood for. Her life choices and events in her life clearly depicted the gender issues of her time. They also clearly showed how despite all odds Indian women can live an independent, self-reliant, and dignified life. She achieved everything in life without any support from men in her personal life. This she could achieve only because her parents, despite facing social opposition, gave her quality education and vocational training to earn her living.
She married late, by the standard of social norms, by her own choice and to a man of lower caste. She became widow just in two years of marriage. But instead of leading the confined and condemned life of high caste Hindu widow, she marched on her journey of life travelling, writing, lecturing, participating in public affairs, setting up societies, and helping her country women. She even didn’t hesitate to exercise her right to freedom of religion, when she felt that Christianity was
3. Took head on the institution of patriarchy and social dogmas against women in both
Hinduism & Christianity.
- She broke the boundaries of both patriarchy and prevailing socio-cultural norms to live life on her own terms. She did everything which even men of her time would just had dreamt of.
- She didn’t hesitate in criticizing Hindu religious texts for portraying women as bad, evil, denying them rights of ‘Samskars’, and ‘Moksha’(salvation).
- She criticized Patriarchy for considering women just as medium for producing male heirs, and property of her husband. She advocated for property and inheritance rights to women.
- Even after her conversion to Christianity, she fought against racialism, and male hegemony in Anglican Church system.
4. Through her Books, especially ‘the high caste Hindu women’ she raised the gender issues
and offered her solutions. She realized many of her suggestions through multiple societies, which she founded.
5. Helped women, widows, orphan children, single mothers through her organizations:
Arya Mahila Sabha - A forum to make women aware of their rights and fight for them. The Sabha raised gender issues such as child marriage, education, enforced widowhood. - The Sabha gave platform to women to talk about their issues. Women inculcated skills of public speaking, and thereby gained confidence to participate in public affairs. Sharda Sadan - To provide shelter, education, vocational training to high caste Hindu widows to let live them with dignity. - Through the vocational training in teaching, sewing, midwives, nursing, horticulture, and many other skills, the widows were able to become self-reliant.
Mukti Mission
- Provided support and education to widows, unmarried women and girls, abandoned wives, and victims of the terrible famine and plague.
- The Mukti, later on, became the umbrella organization in which all other societies were merged as its units.
How through her writings she raised the gender issues and offered
solutions for improving women’s condition?
She wrote many books to convey her thoughts. But two of them – ‘Stree Dharma Niti’ and ‘The High-Caste Hindu Woman’- were most relevant for raising gender issues. In ‘Stree Dharma Niti’ she suggested moral development of women as per the norms of Hinduism and Patriarchy. This was guarded and conformist views on gender issue. Despite this, she linked the condition of women to national development. She argued that weak and oppressed mother will produce weak next generation. This would de-generate the nation.
In her next book ‘The High-Caste Hindu Woman’, she directly raised the gender issues, their root causes, and offered her solutions.
Following are some her key assertions on gender issues, as contained in her ‘The High-Caste Hindu Woman’:
3 major Gender Issues: child-marriage, the plight of widows, and education for women.
2 major socio-cultural factors behind miserable condition of women:
- Ancient ‘Shastras’/’Smritis’ and legal codes
- Patriarchy
- Plus 3rd factor of policy of non-interference by British colonial rule
3 strategies for improving women’s condition
1. Self-Reliance, Education, and native women teachers, school inspectors, and doctors
(women teaching women, woman treating women; self-help)
2. Self-help: women can liberate other women; no expectation from well educated, liberal
Indian man
3. Women’s subjection degraded Indian nation
- De-based nature of Indian male. By remaining in the company of their uneducated, ignorant, and slave like wives they became lazy, slavery-loving, and dependent.
- Weak/oppressed mother would produce weak next generation
Q: Discuss Gandhi’s idea of Swaraj. Do you think it is relevant today?
Discuss.
Introduction:
Gandhiji’s idea of Swaraj is mainly contained in his book Hind Swaraj (1909), which he wrote on a ship while returning from England to South Africa. Later on, he also explained his idea of Swaraj through his other writings, such as his autobiography, and columns in ‘Young India’, and ‘Harijan’.
Literal meaning of Swaraj is self-rule, self-Government, independence/freedom; but Gandhiji gave a much wider meanings to this word. For him Swaraj has two dimensions; one for individual and other for the community and polity. For individual it denoted self-mastery, self-control, selfrestrain, self-realization, moral goodness & perfectibility. For polity it meant self-governing autonomous community life without any formal coercive (based on force) authority- state. In a limited sense it was political freedom from foreign rule, full rights of individual freedom and civil liberties, and right to civil disobedience against any unjust actions/law of the state/govt.
For political economy it denoted classless economic order, equal honour/dignity for all kinds of labour, self-renunciation (limiting our wants), Sarvodaya- Good of all, Antyodaya- good for the last one, and Trusteeship- capitalist class as trustee of Societal wealth.
For Gandhiji, Swaraj also meant freedom from want, material possession, ego, bondage of so called modern materialistic life- modern large machine, faster transport system, competition/conflict-court/lawyer, modern medical systemdoctors, etc. Swaraj denoted simple natural self-reliant living without being dependent on modern machine and modern materialist way of life.
Finally, it was his vision of an ideal civilisation based on Non-violence, Truth, and moral duty in contrast to western modern civilisation based on violence/force, material possession, and individual rights.
After outlining the essence of the notion of Swaraj as given by Gandhiji, in the next section of the answer, I will try to explain in brief features and other aspects of the concept of Gandian Swaraj. As part of the Conclusion, I will also discuss its relevance in contemporary times.
In his conception of Swaraj, Gandhiji, was Influenced by the following
thoughts/philosophies:
- John Ruskin -his book ‘Unto This Last’- from here he picked the idea of Antyodaya- good for the last one/worst off.
- Gandhiji’s idea of civil disobedience was influenced by writings of Henry Thoreau, an American Philosopher who wrote an essay "Civil Disobedience", an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
- Count Leo Tolstoy- a pacific anarchist of Russia;
- Italy’s Mazzini- his idea of nationalism
- Dada Bhai Naoroji Un-British Rule in India, Gopal Krishna Gokhle- his political Guru.
- Veda, Upanishads, Epics, Geeta, Jain Philosophy- he used to sing poems of Jain poet Narsinh Mehta (Vaishnav jan to tene kahiye je...)
- Also influenced by Plato, and Aristotle
Context of ‘Swaraj’:
- Was written as an response to discourse of Western civilisation, its superiority, in form of modern political organisation (nation-state), liberal democracy, and economy (capitalism, industrialisation).
- It was to negate the notion of ‘civilisation Mission’, that is, the European had the responsibility to civilise the backward people of Asia.
- It was also Gandhiji’s response to discourse on India’s freedom. It was his contribution to the continuing dialogue on notion of Swaraj.
- Tilak claimed that swaraj was our birth right, Home rule movement by Annie Besant and Tilak, militant Nationalism of both left wing and right-wing revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Savarkar, etc. It was Gandhiji’s response to his idea of Swaraj
Features of Gandhian Swaraj:
Gandhian Swaraj was much more than political freedom from foreign rule
It denoted true freedom of both individual and community. For individual it was selfmastery, self-control, self-restrain, self-realization, moral goodness & perfectibility. For community it meant self-governing autonomous community life without any formal coercive authority/state.
It conveyed a kind of Enlightened Anarchy
Self-governing community of morally Enlightened individuals without the coercive power of the state
- Consumerism/consumerism vs self-denial;
- Limiting our wants, requirements.
- Consuming only to that extent where all our countrymen could consume to have dignified life.
- Renouncing our want for our fellow countrymen- true patriotism
- coercive amoral state vs moral, non-violent community
- Modern western state is violent, amoral and soulless political organisation.
- Replacing state/govt with self-reliant, autonomous community of communities- his idea of oceanic circle.
Critical Evaluation of Gandhi’s Swaraj:
Gandhian Swaraj was criticized on many counts, manly for being utopic and having anarchist tendencies. Some of the critiques to Gandhian Swaraj are:
- It was utopic just like Plato’s idea state; not possible to realize in real politics.
- Guided by Anarchic thoughts; it was called Enlightened Anarchism.
- Idea of ‘Trusteeship’ was almost impossible to realize; how the capitalist class will treat their wealth as belonging to masses?
- His criticism of modernity- industrialization, machines, lawyers, doctors, railways, etc seems illogical, reactionary, and traditionalist
- His concept of ‘Charkha’ and ‘Khadi’ were impractical
- He supported ‘Varna’ system; he supported wealth creation by few and resultant economic inequality
- He mixed religion in politics
- Idea of ‘Satyagraha’ with hunger strike boarders adamancy (inflexibility, rigidness, stubbornness).
Relevance of Gandhian Swaraj in contemporary times:
Like Plato's Philosopher, Gandhiji had the vision to see through the perils (negatives) of western civilisation. He wanted to build an alternate new civilisation in India through his idea of Swaraj. His independent India would have been truly free. Both its citizens and the community would have
been self-reliant, autonomous, and independent. The roots of new Indian civilisation would have been its ancient and eternal philosophy as expressed in Vedas, Upanishads, Geeta, and the Epics. It would have taken best elements from all the religions and cultures but would have retained its Indianness.
World is slowly now starting to appreciate his thoughts/vision. Idea of sustainable development, Rawl’s theory of Justice, mechanistic social life in the age of liberal capitalism, greater divide between rural and urban areas, negatives of 3rd world copying western civilisation, pandemic in the age of globalisation and faster transport system, soullessness of modern medical system, etc. are proving Gandhian idea of Swaraj more and more relevant in contemporary times.
Conclusion:
In sum, his idea of Swaraj was multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. It included true freedom of both individuals and communities. It was a vision of alternate new civilisation rooted in Indian ancient and eternal philosophy and wise synthesis of modern philosophies from all over the world. Of course, all its contents may not be practicable today. After all, each political thought has a specific context. But many elements of his idea of Swaraj are still relevant. They transcend the boundary of time and space. World is slowly but surely realizing this.
References:
- P. Ramabai, (2000) ‘Woman’s Place in Religion and Society’, in M. Kosambi (ed.), Pandita Ramabai Through her Own Words: Selected Works
- M. Kosambi, (1988) ‘Women’s Emancipation and Equality: Pandita Ramabai’s Contribution to Women’s Cause’.
- M. Gandhi, (1991) ‘Satyagraha: Transforming Unjust Relationships through the Power of the Soul’, in S. Hay (ed.), Sources of Indian Tradition, Vol. 2 Edition
- A. Parel, (ed.), (2002) ‘Introduction’, in Gandhi, freedom and Self Rule.
Indian Political Thought
Course: Indian Political Thought-II (6.2)
University: University of Delhi
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