Journal for Social Science Archives

Since its inception, the contemporary women’s movement has had a contentious relationship with religion. This was demonstrated most clearly in the debates around the cases of Shah Bano and Roop Kanwar during the 1980s, which sparked a period of reflection within the women’s movement over the question of representation. Since then, the movement has evolved considerably, becoming increasingly institutionalised at one level, and at the same time experiencing fragmentation and diversification. This article looks at the emergence of two networks advocating Muslim women’s rights, the Muslim Women’s Rights Network (MWRN) and the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), and contextualises their emergence within the wider context of the women’s movement and the evolution of feminism in India. MWRN and BMMA are indicative of the growing assertion of ‘minority feminisms’ in India and aim to represent women’s multiple identities, including their religious identities, while also struggling for gender justice. Both networks differ in the way they approach religion ideologically and strategically as well as in the way they position themselves vis-à-vis the women’s movement. However, their appearance marks an important shift both within the women’s movement as well as in the formulation of community identities in India, with ‘Muslim women’ being positively reformulated by these networks as a category that asserts political agency rather than passivity and victimhood.

This article explores the tensions within the nineteenth-century discourse of reform and change among Muslims of South Asia. Contrary to a commonly held view that within this discourse women were mostly invisible, this article documents a deep concern of women not only for their degraded position but also for the ill fate of their community. As most dominant historiographies of social change in South Asia have effaced Muslim women's independent activism, this article uses purdah to examine how women negotiated their identities within the context of public space. This interesting negotiation literally took place in 1884 from behind the purdah when women chose an effective strategy to act as their own advocates by documenting their voices. This historic event took place in 1884 when Sir Syed Ahmed Khan toured the Punjab, India. The article is testimony to nineteenth-century South Asian Muslim women's feminist consciousness and the contested nature of Muslim identity.

Space and Culture, India, 2020

The grand narratives of Mother India posit women’s emancipation as the central concern, insisting on her public participation in the educational and economic sectors. The relegation of the archetypal motherhood to the national periphery is strictly rooted in the Hindu traditional culture. The schisms of caste, class, and religion in contemporary society are normalised whilst the gendered undercurrents of domestic violence, chauvinism and religious sensibilities are ignored. Such polished idealisms are, in fact, far from the living reality of most women and girls across all spheres in the country. By reviewing notable texts from past and present, this research problematises the position of Muslim women in India, specifically during the nationalistic discourse and post-independent era. The national freedom struggle movement assured a democratic constitution, which primed Mother India as the figurative Indian woman encrypting ideologies from socio-religious discourses. The grand narrat...

Abstract For the longest time the Indian Muslim woman had evaded the collective imagination of male reformists in Colonial India. She had remained absent from the political consciousness of a people enthusiastically aspiring to redefine itself as a nation in the wake of a deep sense of cultural anxiety. The obsessive preoccupation with the construction of the ‘motherland’ was fundamentally a desire to generate the figure of a Hindu Motherland. In the mindscape of colonial India, struggling to be free, both politically and culturally, the Muslim woman was consigned the space of the ‘other’, forever silent and obscure. This paper critically examines the experiences of Indian Muslim women and their negotiation with ideas of Indian womanhood against the backdrop of the Bengal Renaissance. The paper is divided into two sections. Section one historically contextualizes the generation of the model of the New Indian (Hindu) Woman in nineteenth century colonial Bengal. Section two records the plight of the Muslim woman as she struggled to plant herself firmly within the political present of a nation that persistently relegated her to the background. In order to aid a detailed understanding of the sam

Reading different historical accounts can provide the changing views of the past, proving that the historical truths can be unreliable at times. Reviewing the prevailing history of South Indian Muslim community, we attempt to explicate the visibility of Muslim women in the socio-cultural and political discourses. Their contribution to the growth and propagation of Islam during its commencement in South India is not evidently recorded by historians. There are studies that delineate the matrilineal heritage of ancestral Islam in South India. But they fail to discuss the role of women in the cultural assimilation of Islam into a traditionally variant culture. The legal implications of Shariah and constitutional laws are still in dispute. The inconsistency in the existing jurisdiction often fails to provide her lawful rights. The participation of Muslim women in the social reform movements are largely unexplored. The literary history also does not attribute reasonable space for Muslim women writers. Our attempt is to bring in these disparities in the existing history, where Muslim women is posited invisible in the social, religious and literary discourses. We invite future studies in this area, which can explicate the visibility of Muslim women in the social and religious discourses of South India, marking her struggles at different junctures of socio-religious and literary history.

Madhya Bharti -Humanities and Social Sciences UGC Care Group I Journal (मध्यभारती, 2024

This study explores the significant and multifaceted role of women in India's nationalist struggles during the colonial period, emphasizing their contributions to political, social, and cultural change. While mainstream historiography has often marginalized women's involvement, their participation was critical in shaping both the independence movement and the future trajectory of women's rights in India. Women were active in various spheres, including social reform, literacy campaigns, and political activism, and were pivotal in challenging British colonial rule. The late 19th and early 20th centuries, marked by the rise of modern nationalist movements like the Indian National Congress (INC), provided women with a platform to assert their rights and challenge traditional gender norms. Figures such as Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay exemplified the spirit of resistance, engaging in civil disobedience, boycotting foreign goods, and advocating for constitutional reforms. Women were key participants in significant movements like the Non-Cooperation Movement, Salt Satyagraha, and Quit India Movement, where they not only led protests but also organized grassroots campaigns. Their involvement in these movements was transformative, as it not only contributed to the nationalist struggle but also challenged the prevailing societal perceptions of women. Despite facing repression and violence from colonial authorities, women continued to fight for their rights and social justice. This study highlights the often-overlooked contributions of women in the freedom struggle, underscoring their essential role in shaping India's path to independence and laying the foundation for future battles for gender equality and justice.

Sattrachee, 2022

"The communalisation of Indian society has… come to pervade all aspects of life, particularly areas which are the most sensitive, such as education, the media, the forces of law and order and even contemporary culture in all its facets", so says the historian Romila Thapar. The recent Hijab ban in the Indian state of Karnataka has raised some fundamental questions on the nature of majoritarian politics in India today. One could say, it may even be against the constitutional ideas of choice and the freedom to practice of one's religion, primarily so because it only seems to target the Muslim minority. One also fears that this section of the Muslim minority might see a dwindling of young girls seeking formal education, as has also been the case with girls below 21 years of age being married off in a haste as a response to the bill proposing to raise the marriageable age for women to 21. In the light of these questions and apprehensions, the paper attempts to look at select literary writings which image and imagine Indian Muslim women characters delineating similar representational politics ensuing from the majority. It shall look at how these characters are challenged to and against exercising their agency as free individuals. This conflict between religious identity, stereotypes, self-image, and its impact on the overall cultural identity of this free individual elicits a close study. The primary texts for this study shall include texts like Zeenuth Futehally's novel in English, Zohra (1951) and Qurratualain Hyder's novel in Urdu, Aag ka Darya (1959). The paper attempts to question the use of terror and structural violence by state apparatuses towards socio-politico-cultural deprivation conditioned by an essentialised idea of the Indian Muslim woman.

2015

Education was denied to the Muslim women in Bengal. They were to receive some elementary education at home and their movement was restricted within the four walls of the house. A few Muslim women who have learnt to write with the help of some of their family members or received modern education had penned down some of their ideas in their writings. This paper wants to highlight the works of Begum Rokeya• Sakhawat Hossain, Begum Shainsunnahar Mahmud, Begum Sufia Kamal and Fajiltunessa who 'had taken the courage to overcome the hurdles of the society and had taken a step towards emancipation. ft wants to highlight their concept of education, spaces and rights for women and the politics.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HISTORY, 2022

Indian women played a vital role in India's struggle for independence.