Lesser Known Indian Women Educators and Reformers

India can presently be called a leading nation while considering the field of women education. But the scenario was not always the same. Women had to struggle to reach this summit. The path was not easy and smooth. Interestingly enough, eminent women themselves played a crucial role in not only establishing themselves, but also in promoting women’s education, health, shelter homes, care for the orphans etc. They established schools and other institutes to promote education to not only the women but also to the weaker section of the society and fight against the injustice. This paper is an attempt to remember few of these eminent women, like Tarabai Modak, Durgabai Deshmukh, Anutai Wagh, Pandita Ramabai, Pandita Brahmacharini Chandbai, Nawab Begum Sultan Kaikhusrau Jahan, who were path breakers in their attempt to transcend the homely domain and set a new milestone. This paper also attempts to credit these noteworthy women for their extraordinary contribution to social services. Keywords: Women Educators, Women Reformers, Female Education, Indian Women.

Baptising Pandita Ramabai: Faith and religiosity in the nineteenth-century social reform movements of colonial India

This essay aims to understand the role of religion in the social work of Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922). By focusing on a twenty-five-year period commencing with her conversion to Christianity in 1883, we argue that religion constructed a political framework for her work in Sharada Sadan and Mukti Mission. There is a lacuna in the conventional scholarship that underplays the nuances of religion in Ramabai’s reform efforts, which we try to fill by conceptualising faith and religiosity as two distinct signifiers of her private and public religious presentations respectively. Drawing on her published letters, the annual reports of the Ramabai Association in America, and a number of evangelical periodicals published during her lifetime, we analyse how she explored Christianity not just as a personal faith but also as a conduit for funds. The conversion enabled her access to American supporters, concomitantly consolidating their claim over her social work. Her peculiar religious identity—a conflation of Hinduism and Christianity—provoked strong protests from the Hindu orthodoxy while leading to a fall-out with the evangelists at the same time. Ramabai shaped the public portrayal of her religiosity to maximise support from American patrons, the colonial state, and liberal Indians, resisting the orthodoxy’s oppositions with these material exploits. Rather than surrendering to patriarchal cynicism, she capitalised on the socio-political volatilities of colonial India to further the nascent women’s movement.

Women Writers in India: Tracing Feminism

From pre-Independence period to the contemporary times, women’s voice is gradually being heard and gaining momentum. It is hoped as well as expected that women would soon become a prominent voice making a mark in the society. Their point of view along with their decision making authority will have a definite and constructive impact on the society. This can be inferred from the literature by various Indian women writers such as Pandita Ramabai, Ismat Chughtai, Kamala Das and Shashi Deshpande. As we move from one decade to another entering the 21st century, we observe how women have been able to break the cocoon of domesticity, marking their presence in various socio-political spheres which have been usually dominated by men. Women have sought their space for expression and voicing opinion through literature. Depicting the oppression and discrimination faced in the patriarchal setup of Indian society, the women writers have pointed at the need for equality in practice as well as representation. The article will provide a discussion regarding Feminism in India, analysing each period or phase along with a women writer.

Retrieving the History of Women Biblical Interpreters

Since the early 2000s, scholars have begun to retrieve the history of women biblical interpreters. They have identified hundreds of writings by Jewish and Christian women who worked prior to the twentieth century, some of whom offered protofeminist or early feminist perspectives on scripture. This essay provides a survey of recent scholarship on the topic, as well as a historical overview of women interpreters active in late antiquity, the Middle Ages, the early modern period, and the nineteenth century. Since most of these women interpreters are from Western Europe and the United States, consisting mainly of Roman Catholics and Protestants, future directions should include a more global, inclusive account of women’s contributions. Diverse voices discussed include Rivkah bat Meir of Prague, Ethiopian Orthodox nun Walatta Petros, Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Afro-Peruvian mystic Ursula de Jesús, and Indian scholar Pandita Ramabai.

Nationalist Thought in Modern India: Exploration of the Idea of Freedom

Modern Indian nationalist thought has dealt with political ideas such as freedom, equality, liberty, democracy, so on and so forth. The idea of freedom received enough attention on the part of most of the modern Indian political thinkers. However, the idea of freedom as envisaged by the nationalist thinkers did not receive positive response from the other stream of modern Indian thought. Dalit-Bahujan political thinkers questioned the narration of freedom as propagated by the nationalist thinkers. Nationalist thinkers aspired for universal values and at the same time reaffirmed ancient religious principles. Such effort was questioned and doubted by the other thinkers of modern India. Thus, one can find different narrations of freedom, such as social, economic and political. The social categories such as caste, class and gender became bases for their narration on the idea of freedom. The ideas and arguments of B. G. Tilak, M. K. Gandhi, Pandita Ramabai, Jyotiba Phule, B. R. Ambedkar E. M. S. Namboodripad and others would help in larger understanding of the idea of freedom.

Upper-Caste Conversions (1500–1900)

After tracing the early Christian presence in India and discussing the nature of the caste system, this chapter profiles individuals—well-known upper-caste nineteenth-century converts from Hinduism. As in China, the missionary presence in India was a necessary but not sufficient factor in Christianity’s spread. Missionaries initiated the first conversions, but within a generation or two, Indian Christians became the primary instruments for the spread of the gospel. Communication never flowed in one direction, from missionary to Indians. Increasingly, Indians converted on their own terms and adapted Christianity to meet their own particular concerns and to indigenize their faith by separating Christ from the trappings of Western, colonial Christianity. Converts discussed include Krishna Mohan Banerjea, Baba Padmanjee, Krishna Pillai, Narayan Vaman Tilak, Pandita Ramabai, and Brahmabandhab Upadhyay.

Albert B. Norton and the Mukti Revival

Albert Benjamin Norton (1847–1923) is an obscure but important figure in the history of Pentecostalism in India. As a Holiness faith missionary who arrived in India at the calling of Bishop William Taylor, Norton worked in Central India before returning to the United States. He and his wife returned to India at the request of Pandita Ramabai to help build the Mukti Mission and later the accompanying Dhond home for boys. It was Norton who first introduced the speaking of tongues at the Mukti Mission in The Apostolic Faith in 1907, and he remained a friend of Ramabai’s throughout her life. Norton moved from the holiness position to Pentecostalism but maintained his position as an independent faith-based missionary throughout his ministry. This article demonstrates Norton’s connections to the Holiness Movement through Taylor and the first Free Methodist missionaries and argues for his influence on Ramabai as a partner in mission.