We the women of India are indeed fortunate in having outstanding men such as Ram Mohan Roy, Vidyasagar, Mahatma Gandhi, my father and Maharshi Karve to espouse our cause. After Independence, the great liberal mind of Nehru moulded and gave direction to social change, bringing women into the economic and cultural front. It is my belief that it was not out of mere sentimentality but as a recognition of the worth and work of Indian women. The women of India have not indulged in any movements against menfolk. They have always stood shoulder to shoulder with them in support of common causes. About women’s role in our freedom struggle, my father has this to say:
“Most of us menfolk were in prison. Then a remarkable thing happened. Our women came to the front and took charge of the struggle. There was an avalanche of them which took not only the British Government, but their own menfolk by surprise.”
It was my privilege to have witnessed and taken part in this upsurge. I still recall my mother’s passionate desire and ceaseless work for the liberation of Indian women, for giving them greater opportunities of living fuller and more useful lives. It was no easy task at that time and in those circumstances to storm the citadel of reaction. From there to the Hindu Code was a logical development. My father attached great importance to the adoption of the Hindu Code which, in a way, was a real charter of emancipation. He regarded this work as important as that of building up parliamentary institutions and of building, through planning, an egalitarian society cured of acquisitive tendencies.
Thus, the rights of Indian women were won not as a result of the fight of a rebellious, assertive, suffragist womanhood against an entrenched male privilege, as it happened in the Western countries. In India, the rights which the old oppressed groups, such as women, the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, the illiterate and the landless, won under that great charter of freedom and fraternity, our Constitution, were the outcome of a century-and-a-half of social revolution which spanned Rammohun Roy and Jawaharlal Nehru. Our political freedom itself was a part of this great social revolution, the mainspring of which was the urge towards social equality. Hence, our economic and social battles have stressed not class conflict but reconciliation.
In few countries do women hold higher position in politics and public life than in India. But this should not lead us to think that the old inequalities and disabilities from which the women of India suffered have all ended. Ours is a country in which oppositions and contradictions thrive, and nowhere is this more so than as regards women. If we have women who are among the most progressive in the world, we also have women who are among the most backward. In law, all discrimination between man and woman has been abolished. Yet, we all know the social and economic hardships which our women suffer in addition to the general hardships which any individual suffers in a society so poor and still so largely medieval as ours.
In the countries where women had to fight for their rights, it had been easier for men to finally accept the fact of women’s emancipation. In India, in spite of the fact that the emancipation of women has released powerful social forces, non-acceptance of equality of women on the part of men is a great hurdle. Another hurdle is the old ideal of a silently suffering Sita which remains at the back of the mind of even a liberated Indian woman.
Our laws have changed. This change has come about with tremendous speed. We have compressed several centuries of evolution into just a couple of generations. The danger here is that social laws are far ahead of social practice. There is a lag between the legislation for women’s rights and the social sanctions required to make these rights a reality.
A major task for the educated Indian women today is to make reality catch up with the opportunity created by law. Indian women have won their political, economic and social rights. But what have we done to translate these rights into realities? The work in assemblies, in Parliament, in committees and commissions does not take us far. What is needed is proper organisation and door-to-door work, for bringing about a community of interest between the educated women and the not-so-educated women of India, so that they can act together in the national interest.
Women’s education in India has made spectacular progress. Fifty years ago, Dr Karve started this university with just seven students. In 1916, there could not be more than a dozen women graduates in each of our States, except perhaps Bombay, Bengal or Madras. Last year, we had 300,000 girls in colleges. Until two decades ago, teaching, nursing and medicine were the only professions open to educated women. Today, women can be found among research scientists, engineers and district magistrates. I am told that one-fourth of the total research staff of the Tata Cancer Research Institute consists of women. The working girl has come into her own.
This is an appropriate occasion to talk about family planning not only because Maharshi Karve’s son was one of the pioneers of the birth control movement in India, but because I think that educated women should regard family planning as their own problem. Women’s organisations should take up the task of door-to-door and village-to-village canvassing for family planning. The movement now requires the same intense zeal and dedication that Vidyasagar, Deodhar and Karve brought to the upliftment of widows and the education of girls.
The idea of this university came to Dr. Karve on reading a booklet on a Japanese women’s university. There is another idea which we can usefully borrow from Japan. They have a nation-wide Housewives’ Association which is an important force in maintaining price levels. This association was established soon after the war in times of acute scarcity and hardship. It now permeates all spheres of Japanese life, conducts negotiations with Government on behalf of consumers, keeps an eye on distribution channels and exercises the right of inspection of commodities. The motto of this association is, “Good traders are brought up by intelligent consumers.” This can be applied to India also. In the wake of devaluation, we have assigned a special role to co-operative and State-run shops in the matter of ensuring supplies and holding prices. Here is a field in which educated housewives can be and must be active. They will earn the country’s gratitude.
University women cannot ignore the big gap which exists between the educated women and others not so lucky. To share knowledge and skills with the less-privileged women, to explain new ideas to them, to combat superstition and to safeguard their interests should be the duty of the educated. As Dr. Karve said, “We are a free nation today, but there is still a gap in our freedom. We have not yet found one thing without which we shall never be able to enjoy the sweetness of freedom. It is social equality.”
This is part of ThePrint’s Great Speeches series. It features speeches and debates that shaped modern India.