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Ramabai - Notes
Indian Political Thought-II (6.2)
University of Delhi
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Introduction to Modern Indian Political Thought Dr. Mithilesh Kumar Jha Department of Humanities & Social Sciences Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati Lecture - 25 Pandita Ramabai: Introduction
Hello and welcome friends to this lecture on Pandita Ramabai and through Ramabai, we will try to understand the question of Caste and Gender in Modern Indian Political Thought. And Ramabai is someone who is really very fascinating in terms of understanding this question of gender and caste, which for long have been the male (Refer Time: 01:01) only. So, we have discussion and public debate over the question of women’s education, abolition of sati or say widow remarriage or abolition of child marriage and so many other social reforms that is about women and women’s reforms movement.
But, for a very long time it was male dominated and upper caste led Social Reforms Movement. Pandit Ramabai comes as a surprise as a new development in the in such women’s reforms movement or social reforms movement, in the initial decades of our Indian renaissance. And, she has actually transcended that women reforms movement, which was aiming merely for educating the women or preserving the prevailing women’s role or maintaining such roles and just to do that in a better way, they were trying to promote modern education and a lot such things.
Ramabai was trying to theorize or articulate women’s role much beyond this kind of approach or conservative approach towards the reforms movement or women education to maintain the household or the a gender demarcated role within the Hindu household or the caste Hindu household.
So, in such kind of debate Ramabai’s intervention was radical and revolutionaries in so many ways. And, her own personal life from a Brahmin, Sanskrit conservative family to her religious conversion and then his her support for a women’s empowerment and women’s emancipation, had generated a polarized debate about the acceptance or the role of Ramabai.
So, internationally when with her work she was admired and supported in England, in US, Japan or in Australia, back home she was also divided was also opinion, where on the one hand many people admired and acknowledged her role, but in larger main stream public, political, debate or what social history her works remain largely unexplored or largely suppressed for a century. And, this is the intriguing or surprising thing when we talk about modern Indian political thought or modern Indian political thinking, largely the contributions made by thinkers like Pandita Ramabai is remain somewhat marginalized suppressed in the mainstream political.
But, it is no longer see and from many for many contemporary feminist scholars or in many progressive discuss the works and contribution are of Ramabai is retrieved and she is also projected as a first Indian Feminist thinker who fought against the patriarchy of Hindu or orthodoxy. So, around Ramabai and her legacy also there is a kind of controversy surrounding around her conversion to Christianity on the one hand and also to see her as the first feminist thinker in India.
But, Ramabai has again the overall role or articulation about various aspects of individual and collective life including, certainly her focus was on the issue of caste and gender and how also the role of religion in constructing a good society or a good community. So, there is also a kind of controversy for a very long time about the role and contribution of Pandita Ramabai and that we will see more when we proceed with this lecture.
Now, her personal life certainly was embodiment of a lot of confrontations a lot of binaries that was prevailing in her time. So, her period was from 1858 to 1921 and this period was in many ways a phase of transition from one mode of thinking, one mode of governing to a different mode of thinking and governing. And, response to that there were also various kind of response including from Hindu orthodoxy or those championing the cause of Sanskrit and Hinduism as the basis of Hindu regeneration and so on to those who were arguing about more liberal and secular kind of India.
So, there was a kind of transition from one mode of thinking or response to other modes of thinking and response. And, in such phase Ramabai’s her life her personal life and her contribution is really remarkable or unique.
religious hierarchy or the hierarchy of the church is surrounded by the larger confrontation between Indian ness and the western culture. So, among many social religious reformer of that time, the embodiment of Hindu ness or Indianness is also something which is seen or projected. As a kind of response to the domination of the west and therefore, the opposition to the western culture or western dress and a lot of things.
So, you will find many scholars or reformers were trying to embody, what the conceived as the Indianness or in opposition to the western culture or domination of the west.
So, besides such encounters she was also confronting or or facing. The controversy or confrontation regarding the Indian nation the western culture, feminism and patriarchy, in it is multiple guises. So, there are different sites of such patriarchy or the encounters between hin[du]- indianness or the western culture, feminism or patriarchy, rationalism or dogmas, Hinduism or Christianity. So, such encounters were taking place at different sites in multiple disguise.
So, Ramabai personal life or her social contribution is in a way embodiment of such encounters. And, that is the uniqueness of Ramabai and through her life one can unravel. Such encounters, such fogginess, or such confrontation, between different traditions, different kinds of issues or concerns that our reformers or the activists were grappling with, in this historical period of transition from one mode of thinking to another mode of thinking.
So, in both her personal and public life and also through her writings Ramabai led a very influential and remarkable life. She was deeply engaged with the questions of gender and caste which we will discuss in more specifically in the next lecture. In this lecture we are going to focus more on her personal life, her social reforms, her views on religion and how she was seen or her contribution was seen by many of her contemporaries.
So, in the next class we will focus more on her views on gender and caste and caste hierarchy in modern India. However, her words and thought as I was saying or relatively less explored when it comes to theorize or to write about the modern Indian thinkers.
She devoted her entire life for the empowerment of women. So, that remains her lifelong mission or objective to empower to emancipate the women from the separation of all
kind. And, there the separation and oppressions of women and through her life, which is about a lot of journey from one place to the other place and she has seen the condition of women. From the upper caste to the excluded to child to the the adult to the aged women, their conditions deeply influenced and moved her emotional and intellectual commitment, to the social cause and this empowerment or self-reliance of women. And not just access to education or a of course, that was the basis for such self-reliance, but Ramabai was arguing much beyond the then held aims or objectives for the women as promoted by the male counterparts in their social reforms.
So, Ramabai has a kind of revolutionary or radical approach to women reforms and this reminds her lifelong mission or projects. Although, primarily concerned with the plight of upper caste Hindu women in initial stages of her reforms. So, in the initial decades or initial stages of her engagement with the condition of women, she exclusively talked about the upper caste Hindu a Hindu women. Ramabai; however, equally emphasized upon the multiple sites of exploitations and oppressions of women, such as patriarchy, religion, caste, nationalism and even internationalism and the biases that was inherently prevailing in these multiple sites of such exploitations and oppressions.
So, Ramabai has a wide ranging interest and involvement in the reform movement of society, of religion, of caste, or thinking about nation or international developments as well. So, Ramabai is not only praised for her reforms movement and shelters home for the subjugated women. She is also admired for her unique life history her personal life was a glaring example of women’s liberation and emancipation or in some way the assertion of women agency is very reflective in her personal life. So, she was born into a orthodox Brahmin family, married someone who is from other caste he was a Kayastha which Ramabai referred to as a Shudra from Bengal.
She travelled different parts of the country and also went to England or America, which is not very conducive even for the Hindu male or even prohibited by the Shastras and the orthodoxy to across the sea. And, she converted to Christianity, but also criticize many elements and practices of church. And, enter into a field which was male dominated upper caste led reforms movement.
So, her personal life her own personal life was a glaring example of the assertion of women agency and also the example of women liberation and emancipation. And that
controversy, in their native in their native land and certainly the this progressive attitude of Ramabais parent enabled her to learn Sanskrit and not only learn, but also master it is literature and all just prohibit was not to read Vedas.
So, Ramabai in many ways inherited a lot of progressive ideas from her parents certainly her father. And, also from her association, from her journey and her encounters with many reformist, many religion, many culture or the intellectual tradition. So, she was born into a orthodox Chitpavan Marathi Brahman family of Mangalore. So, this Marathi family is migrated few generations ago from Maratha to Karnataka. And, she was born in the surrounding Gangamul which is the origin of the sacred river Tunga in south Karnataka on April 23rd 1858. Ramabai was allowed to access, which was forbidden or prohibited for the women and also learn Sanskrit literature. And, this is something very radical in those days, but her progressive parents going against the prevailing social norms of restricting girl child from education, made Ramabai well acquainted with the worst literature of Sanskrit except Vedas.
The Vedas she began to learn when she came into contact with reformist organizations such as Brahmo Samaj and it is leader Keshab Chandra Sen, but from the childhood itself she was allowed to access or learn Sanskrit literature by her progressive or reform oriented parents. In her childhood which was filled with pilgrimages or family pilgrimages with her parents to different places. Ramabai learned many languages or also she worked as a Puranik. So, locally in some temples, preaching and (Refer Time: 20:10) to the common masses. And, that allowed her enabled her to learn many languages including Marathi, Hindustani, Kannada and in her adulthood when she settle in Bengal or Calcutta see learned a Bengali as well.
So, the learning of these languages certainly helped her to see multiple sites or the experiences of women or oppressions of women in different parts of the country and to develop her outlook. About the condition of women in different parts of the world and different parts of the country certainly in India. And, to respond to such challenges by expressing or by asserting or by fighting for their self-reliance and not just by literating them or giving them access to education.
So, the question of taking decision, which affects their life, should be also given to the women which were not being taught what in the reforms movement that was happening.
So, her wide ranging travels pilgrimages and also the learning of different languages enabled her to develop her outlook about the question of women, question of religion and the unnecessity or ineffectiveness of ritualistic or performative side of any religion so, for this developed in her later career.
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She was left alone with her younger brothers Srinivasan when her parents died in famine of 1874. And, wandering from place to place they practice all religious rituals in the hope of ending their sufferings, but nothing helped much and they faced in their personal life in their childhood a lot of trials a lot of sufferings. And, through ritual performance and all they were trying to overcome such, but nothing helped much and this lead to their loss of faith in the performative side of religion.
So, after travelling to different parts of country or Himalayas they finally, settled in Calcutta and there she got acquainted with Brahmo Samaj and many reformers. And, for the first time she began to read Vedas on the advice of Keshav Chandra Sen the leader of Brahmo Samaj. It was in Calcutta that Ramabai came in close proximity with the Christianity or the church or their bible.
So, she was gifted the bible in one Christian gathering to which she was not initially interested, but never got parted with since then. So, initially when a bible was gifted to her in a gathering, she was not very interested not very convinced and the Brahminical, Sanskrit teaching had or the norms and the values had strong influence on her character
So, Ramabai in many ways was a great Sanskrit scholar and her mastery over Sanskrit, enabled her to think about lot of social and political issue in her own unique way. And, through that she carved out her own space her own judgment, from the prevailing dogmas and practices or performativities in different religion including Hinduism and Christianity. So, it allows her to connect to her on concerns and develop for judgment on the basis of her own concerns and not guided by any external text or influences.
So, Calcutta in many ways played a crucial role her personal, political and as well as in intellectual life. Her husband died 2 years after their marriage and Ramabai was left alone with her only child Manorama, to take care of. And after that began the dreadful trial in her life as an upper caste Hindu widowed women which she overcome with a strong will and inherent quest for journey and ability to learn from the other tradition.
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After, the death of her husband she went to Maharashtra and there she greatly admired the works of Parthana Samaj. She was the follower of or believer in Brahmo Samaj and it is teachings and when she came back to Maharashtra and her um popularity reached different parts of the country, because of her works her public talks on lecturers and certainly after the award of University of Calcutta, Pandita and Saraswati to Ramabai.
So, when she reached Maharashtra she involved in many reforms work there and greatly admired by the work of Prathana Samaj, but the inherent quest for learning and visiting different places and transcending the bond reset by the orthodoxy allowed her to go to
England in 1833. And, there she taught Sanskrit and in turn studied natural science, mathematics, English, literature and Greek in Cheltenham female college in England. Ramabai was in a constant search of learning new or scientific or from other tradition, or culture, or religion to develop her own ways of articulating the social or the political challenges in India.
Now, during her stay in England she converted to Christianity and that created a lot of furore in Maharashtra or back home and the impact of such conversion we will discuss in the following section. So, from England she went to us in 1886, after staying nearly 3 years in England. And, through her public lectures and participation in reforms movement, because now she has imbibed or she has converted to Christianity which made her participation in different reforms movement in us more accessible. So, through this public lectures and participation in different reforms movement in us she garnered the support for her social especially women’s reforms back in India.
This is also a time if you remember Vivekananda was in us for the world religion conference. So, she was also trying to garner the support for the women’s reforms work that she was intended to carry when she will be back in India. So, she also published a text the high caste Hindu women. And, this text instantly become a great hit or a wildly admired and acknowledged and surprised many a scholars around the world and also people back in a scholars back in back in India that this was something a unique attempt to understand or to express the condition of women the exploitative status or the oppressive structure of domination of a women within the cast society written by a Hindu women.
And, this she published in 1887 in which she described the deplorable condition of upper caste Hindu women, this we will discuss in the following lecture of what she described and how she explain the conditions of upper caste Hindu women and how caste and gender come together to subjugate or to exploit the women.
So, publication of this book instantly iconized her life and works and she received wide admiration and financial supports for her works from USA, Japan, or specially Australia. She return to India in 1888 and immersed herself into women empowerment and emancipation. So, when she came back to India after her religious conversion to Christianity and also publication of this book the high caste Hindu women. She now
So, Ramabai while championing the cause of women transcended the limits of gender reforms set by the male reformers. So, she envisioned far beyond the mere goal of uplifting women through reforms in social tradition or education.
So, the male reformers were trying to reform tradition or trying to make a education accessible to the women to reform their life. Ramabai transcended such objectives to include the self-reliance of women as the major objective of reforms movement, the question of taking decision that affects their life, about marriage, about divorce, about property and so on and so forth.
So, this is something which is the contribution of Ramabai. And, Ramabai also opened 2 shelter homes Sharada Sadan and Mukti Sadan for the destitute women. In these homes, she offered emotional and physical support to such oppressed and marginalized women. And through vocational training, she also taught them the self-reliance.
So, the role of education or vocational training, in self reliance is something Ramabai began to inculcate or to impart in the destitute to women and their lives.
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So, she tried to create an awareness among the women about the need for self- improvements through education or through vocational training. And to reach out to the women from various backgrounds and orientation, she gave lectures on different topics including religious scriptures, morality and gender conduct. Ramabai also founded one
Arya Mahila Samaj in 1882 and this Samaj and the objective of this Samaj she mentioned as protesting against child marriage that is the one objective.
The second was preventing man remarrying while the first wife is alive. So, that is the second objective to prevent the man from marrying when the first so, polygamy or the unmatched marriage was something which was widely prevalent and she was focusing on this preventing man to marry when the first wife is alive and third helping the destitute women as the major objective of. So, the Arya Mahila Samaj was a kind of women organization to achieve these 3 objectives, which she identify for the Samaj and through Arya Mahila Samaj Ramabai also developed a kind of tactical or unique way of organizing or mobilizing the woman.
So, the reason for such tactical or unique ways of reaching out to the woman was her awareness, her personal understanding of the prohibition or the restraining restrictions that was there on the women in their participation in the public life. So, the socially the role of women was confined to the household. And, in the public political life her entry was prohibited or seen with suspicion with lots of character and other kind of assassination.
So, you may also think that even in contemporary time such a stigma or such prohibition is being practiced in many part many parts of the country and their participation their assertion in the public life is not seen with a kind of respect or with dignity, but it is seen as a kind of transcending the limits or the boundary of the rules.
She was aware of such prohibition or restrictions on women’s enter into public space to overcome this be able to access women. Ramabai made it compulsory for men to bring along with them at least one female member from their family if they wanted to lis10 to her lecture. So, this was a kind of tactical way to reach out to the women or to invite women in the works and the philosophy that she was arguing for.
the stage, she also then the find the meaning of what she calls the true religion and the role of true religion in individuals life and salvation.
So, this understanding of true religion remains there even when she converted to Christianity and that allow her to critique many of the practices by the church as well. So, Ramabai offered a detailed account of her understanding of a true religion in this text is Stri Dharma Niti the morals for women.
So, for Ramabai religion did not mean any particular religious doctrine such as Hinduism or Christianity for her the true religion is conduct in accordance with conscience. So, the role of conscience or the conduct that is guided by conscience is something which she defines as the religion.
So, in this sense all the doctrines have similar or same message. And, that message is about the supremacy or the religious conduct, or how the individual can attain, a spiritual heights by following once conscience. And this kind of understanding of religion we have seen in many thinkers as well certainly in Gandhi Tagore also in Aurbhindo Ghosh or Vivekananda. So, the message, the essential message in all the religion is more or less same it is a similar.
So, Ramabai for her the understanding of true religion is something which is very similar to this kind of conception of religious message, which we have seen through Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Aurobhindo Ghosh, Vivekananda and also Gandhi.
So, she referred to 10 characteristic of a true religion. And, these 10 characteristics are courage, forgiveness, control over mind, abstaining from stealing purity, control over the senses, intelligence, knowledge, truth and the absence of anger. So, the moral or the ethical conduct of life is should be based on certain principles. And, that principles she characterized as 10 such characteristics or principles, which is the basis of a true religion for her and not the narrowly limited conception of doctrinaire religion as it is there in Hinduism or a or in Christianity.
So, practicing this true religion according to Ramabai’s is the primary duty of man and women. And it is for 2 regions. Firstly, religion is the basis of all things. As nothing can stand without the foundation, a man and women without religion cannot manage his her life any desired way. So, in her thought in her articulation the role of religion and
religion the conception she had is a true religion and not the doctrinaire religion of Hinduism or Christianity. So, that provides the foundation for individual life to have a meaningful or a kind of desired objective or a kind of achievement in the life.
So, therefore, the role of religion is a very necessary or essential in the individual life. Second, it is the good conduct or true religion which accompanies man women till his her death and also beyond her death. And therefore, religion for her is a source of salvation. And, moreover only a true religion in her opinion can protect this world and ensure it is welfare.
So, the role of religion is not just for the individual life and for the attainment of salvation in the individual life. And, also give individual life a particular direction or desired way of leading a good life or good conduct in individual life, but also for the welfare of the humanity or the world is also lies in the religion that she has argued for.
And, again one needs to point her the religion for her is not a doctrinaire religion, but a religion which is based on certain characteristics which she has identified.
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So, in the light of her views on religion one can infer the reason for her conversion. So, she was in search of a spiritual comfort and one can argue that she might have thought that Christian doctrines might provide her such comfort, from the emotional or the spiritual urge she was having in her encounter with in alien or a foreign religion and she
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So, however the churches tried to restrict her liberty of conscience or using her conscience, which allowed 1 2 have independent and autonomous thinking about certain or issues of society of one’s life and have one’s own judgment. On the basis of conscience and they church tried to restrict search liberty of conscience. Ramabai always adhered to the call of the conscience or her conscience as the basis of her judgment and used her inherent skepticism to have her own judgment about social as well as religious practices. And she writes I have a conscience and mind and a judgment of my own. I must myself think and do everything which god has given me the power of doing.
I have just with great effort freed myself from the yoke of the Indian priestly tribe. So, I am not at present willing to place myself under another similar yoke of accepting everything which comes from the priests has authorized command of the most high. So, this is her views on religion. So, it is a similar to a kind of Raja Ram Mohan Roy response to the congratulatory message from a Christian missionaries about his religious conversion which he never did, but her his response is very similar to what Ramabai or vice versa.
So, Ramabais response to the organized or the ritualistic performative side of religion of whether it is Christianity or Hinduism is very similar to this reformist or rational approach to religion where the role of god or the religion is acknowledged, but many practices or the rituals are criticized and Ramabai also developed such approach to the
organized religion or the practices, which she considered as a kind of obstruction in the life of individual to connect to it is on conscience and develops one judgement and moral conduct according to their on concerns. So, the role of god and religion is necessary acknowledged, but the approach to the god and religion is more scientific more personal intimate than through the priestly class of one kind or for the other.
So, apart from the authoritarianism Ramabai also experience the colonial biases in activities of many churches. So, when Ramabai was asked to teach the native languages religion and philosophy of India to the English population, the Bishops in India responded very negatively. And, they considered themselves as having better understanding of Indian culture and philosophy and they stated how Ramabai being the female teacher could offend her Indian counterparts. To this Ramabai responded that she knew the culture and philosophy of India better than any foreigners and bishops no matter how long they have stayed in India.
So, she was also very critical of this negative approach about the authority of knowledge on the part of many Christian missionaries especially those who are living in India. So, their objections their biasness also allowed Ramabai to develop a kind of critical outlook or critical approach to the many practices of church and Christianity as well.
So, now, if you look at Ramabai and many of her contemporaries and as we are saying that the role and contribution of Ramabai lead to a kind of polarization where many admire her work and accepted her contributions, or respected her words and intellectual engagement with the question of caste and gender.
On the other hand a number of people also look at her words with contempt or demonized her legacies and contribution. So, that happens with many of her contemporary as well and that also lead to a kind of admiration of her words outside and condemnation of her work in the country and for a very long time. For this reason her work and her contributions are not sufficiently explored or examined in India.
Ramabai - Notes
Course: Indian Political Thought-II (6.2)
University: University of Delhi
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