Women’s Srudies hr. Forum, Vol. 12, No. 4. pp. 425-437, 1989 0277.5395/89 $3.00 + .w Printed in the USA. 0 1989 Maxwil Pergamon Macmillan plc

THE LIMITS OF GENDER IDEOLOGY: BENGALI WOMEN, THE COLONIAL STATE, AND THE PRIVATE SPHERE, 1890-1930

DAGMAR ENGELS German Historical Institute London, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London WClA 2LP, U.K.

Synopsis-Colonial as well as Indian nationalist concern for so-called female issues was to a certain extent due to the significance of the “female discourse” within the colonial conflict which was primarily articulated by men. Women’s interests clearly came second. Here the concept of the “private sphere” is singled out in order to investigate the development of gender stereotypes in a changing historical context. The British and Bengali discourse on gender was marked by culturally specific notions of femininity and masculinity. Despite these differences, women’s identification with the domestic sphere allowed British and Bengali men to acknowledge the situation of women when it suited their wider political aims, but to banish women- figuratively speaking-to their zennna when legislative innovations or female activism threatened to clash with male political or patriarchal prerogatives.

Purdah, the set of social practices most com- tion with it in the context of colonial domi- monly associated with the seclusion of wom- nation and Indian opposition? To what ex- en, was often criticised by Western observers tent did colonial authorities respect the of Indian social conditions as the cause of domestic sphere as out of bounds to their poor health and arrested intellectual develop- representatives? Were Bengali men ready to ment amongst women (Girl’s Own Paper, accept the erosion of women’s identification 1892; Urquhart, 1926; Weitbrecht, 1875). with the domestic sphere once they became They saw female seclusion, which was in fact involved in the wider world? rigidly practised only by a minority of wom- In Bengali and British middle-class cul- en, as the dominant social custom regulating ture the concept of the “private sphere” was the relations between men and women be- linked with a strict code of conduct for wom- cause it fitted in with late-Victorian sex roles en. In Britain the affect-controlled lady was which firmly located women in the private the ideal. In Bengal, as the notion of sphere of the household. Yet Bengali gender might suggest, spatial aspects were equally ideology and social practices were very dif- important. Family and home were referred to ferent to those of their colonial rulers, and it as bari, that is, “house.” While men spoke of is an analysis of those differences that con- amar bari, my house, home, family, married cerns us here. What was the significance of women differentiated between baper bari the private sphere and of women’s identifica- and sasur bari, that is father’s house and in- ’ house. If they said amar bari they were most likely referring to their fathers’ houses where they felt more at ease because there 1 am grateful to Kenneth Ballhatchet, Geraldine purdah-related values were less strictly Forbes, Rob Turrell, Julie Wheelwright, and Deborah enforced. Gaitskell for their comments on earlier drafts of the Legislative regulation of the domestic paper. Earlier drafts were presented at the Seventh Berk- shire Conference on the History of Women, Wellesley sphere occurred in connection with virtually College, MA, 1987, to the Modern South Asian History all social reform. Legislation, such as the ab- Seminar, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and the Women olition of sati in 1828, the Widow Remar- and Colonialism Seminar, Institute of Commonwealth riage Act of 1856, the Age of Consent Act of Studies, London. I am grateful for all comments made on these occasions. I also wish to thank the School of 1891 and the Restraint (Sar- Oriental and African Studies London for funding my da) Act of 1929 reached into the private research in . sphere and attempted to redefine women’s 425 426 DAGMARENGELS

position therein. All but the abolition of sati ferent from the Hindu equivalents which pre- had little positive impact on women’s lives. vents social historians from any summarising Those laws which fixed the age of marriage analysis of the two groups. Similar reasons or consent were useless as long as birth regis- can be given for the omission of peasants tration was not obligatory. In fact, what little and the working class. But in this context it is concern there was over age was limited to the important to note that while middle-class private sphere of middle-class families. Muslims and Hindus shared some values re- In the early 1920s women in the national- garding the status of women such as purdah ist movement actively sought to escape from and purity for instance, the majority of the private sphere. The colonial political Bengalis did not. This study is thus clearly strategy of reinforcing gender segregation class-specific. was challenged and its patriarchal bias be- came an issue of contention. Indian men INDIAN PATRIARCHAL RIGHTS AND faced the challenge of women leaving their COLONIAL NONINTERFERENCE homes for the first time in significant num- bers and confronted or defended a tradition- Until the early 1920s representatives of the al Hindu ideology which cast secluded Raj did not attempt to implement colonial Bengali women in the role of guardians of policies when this meant interfering with In- Bengali culture. dian middle-class women who were in theory, During the nineteenth and early twentieth if not in practice, restricted to the domestic centuries the colonial discourse on social re- sphere. This became particularly obvious form and gender issues in India often centred when social legislation for the protection of on conditions in Bengal, in particular when women, such as the Age of Consent and Sar- gender relations within marriage and inside da Act, was passed after lengthy and excited the domestic sphere were at stake. The con- debates in the Legislative Council and As- temporary discourse suggested that social sembly. The Indian Government warned lo- conditions in Bengal were worse than else- cal Governments and police authorities that where and thus in need of special attention implementing these laws might be politically (Age of Consent Report, 1929). But it is unwise and should, if possible, be avoided. more plausible to suggest that Bengal’s ex- Despite such concerns for political feasi- posed position at the forefront of, first, bility, the Age of Consent and the Sarda Act colonial co-operation and, later, nationalist were passed because they were a matter of opposition, moved the province’s social principle to colonial administrators. The acts problems, that is, female issues and condi- embodied the idea of individual legal protec- tions in the so-called private sphere, into the tion of women, as opposed to the traditional centre of colonial discourse. To highlight the Indian concept of female protection by the political relevance of the “private sphere” in social system, that is, the joint family. There, colonial India it is thus useful to pay particu- according to Hindu gender ideology, the fa- lar attention to the pattern of events in ther and husband acted as the sole guardian Bengal. of a woman. When the Age of Consent Bill Here two qualifications must be added. was introduced into the Legislative Council This paper deals with Bengali Hindu middle- in 1891, the Legal Member, Sir A. Scoble, class culture alone omitting references to the supported his Government’s initiative to raise Muslim as well as peasant and working class the age of consent from ten to twelve with the population. These omissions follow the pat- argument that “giving effectual legal protec- tern of the colonial discourse on gender and tion to these poor little girls” (India Office sexuality. As Bengali Hindus, not Muslim, Library and Records [IOLR], P/3951, App. were singled out by the Raj as their most D) was the duty of the colonial state. In con- articulate and dangerous opponents, British trast, a petition to the Viceroy by “the inhab- officials focused their attention on the for- itants of Bhowanipur, Kalighat and the mers’ sexual practices because only these neighbouring places in the suburbs of were relevant in the political discourses. In Calcutta,” insisted that male family members addition, Bengali Muslim culture and social could look after women properly because response to colonial rule were distinctly dif- “the dishonour of their women is worse than The Limits of Gender Ideology 427

death itself” (IOLR, P/3951, App. W). context of modern industrialised societies in Nonetheless, the Bill became because the which civil servants including the police had traditional (male) honour-based concept of internalised the social values on which the female protection in the joint family had to “rule of law” depended. This was not the make way for the modern concept of individ- case in colonial India. Most policemen used ual safety and legal protection (Heimsath, their power more like “oriental despots” than 1962). like guardians of the law. But they were the In practice, however, the Age of Consent representatives of the state with whom villag- Act became a dead letter because British ad- ers were most likely to come into contact. ministrators were reluctant to interfere in the The passing of the Age of Consent Act enti- Indian domestic sphere other than through tled them to extend their authority into Indi- ideological means. Indian patriarchal power an bedrooms (Arnold, 1985; Foucault, 1979; which was based on the ideological and actu- Stedman Jones, 1983). al restriction of women in the private sphere However, before the police could step into was not curtailed by colonial interference. action Government issued new regulations Indian opponents of the Age of Consent Act which in fact put an end to any implementa- argued that the Act implied a threat to fe- tion of the law. Five days after the Act was male honour because a false accusation passed Lansdowne, the Governor-General, could lead to the loss of reputation, to a girl arranged for a circular to be sent to all local being dragged off to a medical examination, Governments admonishing them to apply the or being forced to give evidence in court Act “with the utmost care and discrimina- (IOLR, P/3951, App. U, A16). What Indian tion.” Enquiries should only be held by Na- opponents of the Act feared most-and what tive Magistrates, it stated, but if there were made the decisive impact on Government de- any doubts, prosecution should be post- cision making-was an uncontrolled power poned (IOLR, P/3889; IOLR, MSS.Eur. to enter the zenana. D558/20). The role of the police in the implementa- It was little wonder that there were very tion of the new law was at the basis of Indian few prosecutions under the Act. Between opposition. In February 1891 a Government 1891 and 1893 there was an average of two or Pleader in Hooghly district expressed these three cases a year per province which, howev- reservations to the Bengal Government: er, were either dropped because of false evi- “ . . . it is a regrettable thing to have to bear dence or ended with a one or two-year prison in mind, that, despite the efforts made from sentence if violence and cruelty were in- time to time to reform the police, the Bengal volved. In 1893 the Indian Government Police is notoriously bad” (IOLR, P/3951, asked the local Governments to discontinue App. U). Social legislation which required the submission of annual reports on the the regulation of intimate aspects of life in working of the Age of Consent Act, because Bengal depended either on a well-trained and it had turned into an empty bureaucratic ex- reliable police force to enforce the law or it ercise (IOLR, P/4351). For the following opened the door to legal abuse and bribery thirty years the memory of the failure in the placing “a mighty engine of oppression” in 1890s was sufficient to stop any legislative the hands of bad men and unscrupulous offi- initiatives suggesting further changes of the cers as the inhabitants of Bhowanipur in- age of consent or of marriage. formed the Viceroy (IOLR, P/3951, App. During the 1920s -in a changed political W). climate-new legislation on the age of con- In legislation on social issues had sent and of marriage was passed, but ended brought about notorious police practices, with similar results. After the passing of the but in a society where citizens and the mem- Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1930 Gov- bers of the police force had only fairly re- ernment warned officials to administer the cently become acquainted with the western Act with utmost care and, as a consequence, administrative system, widespread abuse was there were only a few prosecutions under the feared. The whole notion of sexual regula- Act (National Archives of India [NAI], tion-that is, interference with the private Home/Judicial [H/J], 181/l/1930; 357/1931; sphere-via legislation stemmed from the 523/1931). Government shared the view 428 DAGMARENGELS

which was taken by an Assistant Secretary to cording to Hindu religion, no divorce in In- the Bengal Government in 1924 that effective dia (Max Mtiller, 1975). interference with private matters like the age In 1793, the restitution of conjugal rights, of consent would only be possible “by ag- based on the Christian ecclesiastical law, was gressively enforcing the provisions” and thus first introduced into Indian legal practice in causing “domestic tragedies” (NAI, H/J, 416/ the Bengal Presidency. In 1859 it became 1924). Police interference would almost cer- part of the Civil Procedure Code which ap- tainly lead to “domestic tragedies” because, plied to the whole of British India, but it was as the Secretary of the Marwari Association unclear how the decree should be enforced in Calcutta saw it: (Macpherson, 1850; McCarthy, 1986). A new act was passed to cover this difficulty. Act The rigorous enforcement of the law and XV of 1877 recognised two classes of suits by conviction and punishment of the hus- a husband for the purpose of obtaining the band will not only mean disgrace and society of his wife: first, for the recovery of a trouble in many ways to the families of the wife who was being held by somebody else, husband and the wife but will also spell and, secondly, for the restitution of conjugal utter ruin to the wife for life. (NAI, H/J, rights (IOLR, P/2962). If the wife refused to 416/1924) obey, the decree was to be enforced by im- prisonment or attachment of property. In Adopting the Indian definition of a woman’s England, however, the Matrimonial Clauses honour and happiness as suggested by Indian Act of 1884 put an end to imprisonment and men, British administrators capitulated be- confiscation of property as a means of en- fore the task of implementing social legisla- forcing a decree of restitution of conjugal tion which was intended to protect women’s rights against a wife (IOLR, P/6125). Soon health inside the domestic sphere. afterwards, British and Indian reformers However, in those cases in which Indian started lobbying for legal change in India as gender ideology was less favourable to patri- well. archal power in the family than western legal The new Indian law clearly limited the tra- concepts, Indian men welcomed colonial in- ditional freedom of a Hindu wife, even trusions into the domestic sphere in order to though the law provided for the maintenance shift the balance of gender power. The de- of an abandoned wife when her husband re- bates concerning the restitution of conjugal fused to live with her. As a wife rarely had rights highlight this point. The restitution of property which could be attached, imprison- conjugal rights was a colonial innovation ment was the remaining method of enforcing and alien to Indian social practices. It ena- her return to her husband (IOLR, P/3662). bled a husband to file a case against his wife These regulations, which could work out as if she refused to fulfil her marital duties. drastic interferences with domestic privacy, When social reformers and British adminis- were only applied if somebody bothered to trators suggested the removal of the act from argue the case, which was only likely to hap- the statute book, Indian orthodox men pro- pen among wealthier people. In the majority tested- this time against the colonial state’s of cases women simply returned to their par- withdrawal from the Indian domestic ents’ homes. Others either supported them- sphere. selves or chose to live with other men. Be- In pre-British times, an Indian Hindu sides, village men would seldom ask for the woman who refused to join her husband- help of an urban court for the return of ab- her legal guardian-was considered fallen, sent wives. But for educated and wealthy and had to stay at her parental home. This people the restitution of conjugal rights in informal way of handling an unwanted hus- colonial law increased the control of men band was challenged by the restitution of over “unruly” women in the private sphere. conjugal rights in English law. Seen within It was the case of a traditional husband, the context of child marriage, a refusal to Dadaji Bhihaji, versus an educated, and join her husband was the only way a Hindu therefore unorthodox, wife, Rukhmabai, wife could object to the spouse whom her that the law was first put into practice. In family had chosen for her. There was, ac- 1875, they got married when the bride was The Limits of Gender Ideology 429

nine years old. After their wedding the young the state’s interference in the domestic sphere wife stayed at her father’s home to attend when it increased rather than curtailed patri- middle and high school and to pass her ma- archal power. Hindu conservatives, particu- triculation. But then her husband insisted on larly in Madras and Bengal, strongly op- her company and she joined him, albeit posed any change in the law, and the idea of against her wishes. When her new family divorce in particular. Whereas Bengali Mus- turned out to be hostile towards her intellec- lims supported the amendment -they saw tual accomplishments, denying her access to their own law as sufficient -Bengali Hindu any books, Rukhmabai returned to her fa- notables almost unanimously objected to any ther’s house and in 1885 her husband sued change of the law. Maharaja Jatindra Mohan her in Bombay for restitution of conjugal Tagore, for instance, endorsed ac- rights. The British codification of Hindu law cording to which the husband was the legal had followed the male-dominated Brahmani- guardian of his wife and required her to live cal interpretation of the law and pictured the in his house. But if the wife refused to do so ideal wife to be submissive, in this case to a for immoral reasons, imprisonment was, he Christian principle. Accordingly, Rukhma- believed, the best possible punishment. Di- bai was found guilty and was sentenced in vorce, however, could not be in women’s in- the first and second instance to prison with terest because it would, he thought, drive manual labour. While she was in gaol her them either to prostitution or beggary. Raja final appeal went to Queen Victoria who in Peary Mohan Mukherjee, later to become a an unprecedented manner set aside her post- leader in the opposition to the Age of Con- Mutiny declaration of religious non-interfer- sent Act, argued that divorce could not be ence and released Rukhmabai from her mar- introduced because marriage in Hindu soci- riage. Set free, Rukhmabai made use of her ety was so very different from marriage in intellectual potential. She studied medicine England. The ritual importance of Hindu and became head of a Hindu hospital in marriage made it a union for life. He recom- Poona where Hindu girls were trained as mended the existing law of imprisonment nurses. Despite her “happy end,” the case (IOLR, P/3662). The arguments of Bengali demonstrated clearly that the enshrinement men in favour of the existing law showed a of Christian norms in Indian law on mar- male fear of mischievous female intentions riage, discriminated against women (IOLR, and of losing their own control. In order to P/2962; Woodsmall 1916-1917). keep women at bay, they were even ready to In 1887, motivated by the Bombay case overcome their disapproval of social legisla- and by the recent change in the British law, tion by the colonial authorities. “Judicial the Bombay Government suggested an separation with alimony,” suggested for in- amendment to Act XV of 1877, so as to pre- stance P. M. Mukherjee, Secretary to the vent further imprisonment of unwilling British Indian Association, “would be a pre- wives. The Government proposed to intro- mium on immorality.” The ultimate male duce judicial separation and, if a husband fear was to have to pay for a promiscuous was guilty of adultery, alimony was to be wife. “The hardship, relatively considered,” paid to the wife or, if the application was wrote P. M. Mukherjee, made by the husband, her property was to be paid or settled for the benefit of her husband is much greater in a polygamous country and her children. Once the colonial Govern- on the side of the husband than on the ment had become involved in regulating con- side of the wife; the more so, as the wife jugal partnership they could not sound the does not forfeit her right to maintenance unconditional retreat. Thus, instead of drop- by contempt of the order of the Court in a ping the Act, the ultimate punishment of di- suit for the restitution of conjugal rights. vorce was raised, a proposition which was (IOLR, P/3662) even more alien to Hindu, although not Mus- lim, society than the imprisonment of an un- He saw imprisonment as a means of keeping willing wife (IOLR, P/2962). wives in check or paying them back because Indian men, by arguing against divorce, otherwise “the husband would have no reme- could barely hide how much they appreciated dy whatever for the wrong done to him” 430 DAGMARENCELS

(IOLR, P/3662). Indian opposition against lived with “free” women, whereas in Bengal any changes regarding the restitution of con- only “coolie women” in tea plantations had jugal rights was so effective that only Act been at their disposal (Dacca Prakash, 6 Jan- XXIX of 1923 did away with imprisonment uary 1895; Engels, 1983). as the last resort of enforcing a decree for the The Bengali opposition thwarted the restitution of conjugal rights (McCarthy, British attempt to “liberate’‘-as they imag- 1986; NAI, H/J, 478/1922). Already in 1901, ined - women from traditional bonds however, the Indian Government had in- through the introduction of divorce in case structed judges to abstain as far as possible of marital alienation. The Bengali refusal to from passing prison sentences. Although In- participate in the debate on the “status of dian men were reluctant to renounce the law’s women” can be seen as part of the strategy of assistance for the punishment of “unruly Hindu Revivalism. It was the first step in a wives” Government officials were equally new direction, where women were perceived aware of the public outcry which might fol- as active subjects-rather than as sole ob- low a prison sentence in a restitution case jects of male will-albeit still restricted to the (IOLR, P/6125). private sphere. Encouraged by the discovery of “the glo- ries of ancient Aryan? by scholars like Max THE POLITICISATION OF THE Mtiller, promoters of Hindu Revivalism re- PRIVATE SPHERE interpreted the Hindu past as an ideological basis for future nation building (S. Sarkar, Until the early 1890s the British, supported 1973, 1984). Within this approach an essen- by Indian male social reformers, had domi- tialist image of women focusing on mother- nated the discourse on social reform and on hood became the incarnation of India’s hope the position of women. Orthodox male Indi- for an independent future. In Bankim Chan- ans were used to reacting, clarifying and just- dra Chatterjee’s novel, Anandamath (1882), ifying the issues chosen by the reformers. In the long-standing tradition of Shaktism - the the mid-1890s, however, an interesting worship of female power in Bengal- was change took place. By questioning British transformed into a political message. Bankim intentions behind reform rather than just equated the incarnations of female power, discussing the issues-most of them con- the goddesses Durga and Kali, with India, cerning “female subordination”- the Bengali the mother-land. As every woman possessed opposition to Western-style social reform sakti, every woman became the symbol of began to politicise the private sphere and to the motherland. Respect for women meant render the British impotent on the discursive respect for India. level. By equating India with the Mother, Comparing the arguments of the Bengali Bankim created a strong emotional basis for opposition to further legislation on the resti- the nationalist movement because he allured tution of conjugal rights in the late 1880s to “the most compelling and widespread reli- and in the mid-1890s, we can trace how dis- gious idea among the Hindu people and cursive strategy on women in the private . . the strongest and most profound emo- sphere changed. In 1887 Bengali male fear of tional tie in their social relationships” as Van “mischievous” women was deep-seated and Meter (Baumer) put it in her thesis on divorce was rejected with orthodox argu- Bankim Chandra (Van Meter, 1964). In his ments. In 1894, however, the newspapers at- novels Anandamath and Sitaram Bankim tacked British male jealousy, emulating the popularised the worship of the Mother, as last phase of the age of consent controversy. well as female duties and power, thus laying Instead of writing about the nature and puri- the foundation for women’s active participa- ty of Bengali women, male journalists at- tion in the nationalist movement in years to tacked the British for harbouring lascivious come. But in his own novels he stopped well intentions behind the law. They argued that ahead of recommending female political ac- the white sahibs were concerned about fe- tivities. In fact, he propagated the socially- male liberties only to profit from them as conservative ideal of the Bengali Hindu girl they did in Burma. There, European officials who was to be in Van Meter’s words: The Limits of Gender Ideology 431

Basically educated, deeply religious, mar- ing one’s blood flow for country and free- ried at an early age, modest in behaviour, dom, the bliss of union in death with the showing deep respect and devotion for her fathers of the race. The feeling of almost husband in the traditional Hindu ways, physical delight in the touch of the moth- and ready to sacrifice her own life when- er-soil, of the winds that blow from Indi- ever the domestic situation demanded it. an seas, of the rivers that stream from In- (Van Meter, 1964) dian hills, in the familiar sights, sounds, habits, dress, manners of our Indian life, Accordingly, in his novels a high number of this is the physical root of that love. The women committed suicide. Not socially-con- pride in our past, the pain in our present, structive participation, but self-destruction the passion for the future are its trunk and was to be in Bankim’s view the result of fe- branches. Self-sacrifice and self-forgetful- male heroism. Moreover, women outside of ness, great service, high endurance for the male control by fathers or husbands, that is country are its fruit. And the sap which widows, were normally too weak to comply keeps it alive is the realization of the with the high standards he set for female vir- Motherhood of God in the country, tue. They were bound to succumb to the the vision of the Mother, the perpetual temptations of the flesh, Bankim saw their contemplation, adoration and service of failure partly as a consequence of loosening the Mother. (Mukherjee & Mukherjee, morals and female emancipation from pur- 1958) dah traditions: in Debi Chaudhurani Bankim “mourned the good old days” when women Aurobindo’s invocation of the Mother was respected the rules of strict purdah and ex- clearly action-oriented, not just defensive in celled in fulfilling their wifely duties without the manner of former political campaigns. being distracted by other activities (Van Me- Love for the Mother was to inspire national- ter, 1964). ist activities. Nevertheless woman was only In this context, the difference between or- referred to as the Mother who stood for the thodox or revivalist protagonists of the 1880s great Goddess and for the mother country, and 1890s and the nationalists of the turn of not as a living and active person. The essence the century can be clarified. Hindu ortho- of womanhood, that is reproduction and doxy in Bengal saw women in the private nurture, which connected women with their sphere as symbols of tradition which needed biological nature rather than with achieve- to be protected against reformist efforts. ment or performance, attracted the attention Bankim as a Hindu Revivalist was, like his of the revivalists. orthodox contemporaries, socially conserva- Swami Vivekananda, the disciple of Ra- tive with regard to female issues. But by iden- makrishna (the worshipper of the Divine tifying the Mother with India he surrounded Mother and the founder of the “mother cult” female symbols with a political aura. To in nineteenth-century Bengal), was the first Bankim as well as to Sri Aurobindo, Bengali to connect female symbols with female activ- revivalist and radical political activist, the ity and to outline the path the nationalist glorification of motherhood was, despite its movement was going to follow in the twenti- Hindu roots, less a cultural defense mecha- eth century. He spoke of a mother’s love- nism, than the articulation of a future politi- not love for the mother-when he asked his cal programme. Sri Aurobindo evoked the Indian followers to work for India’s future. “vision of the Mother” in order to inspire his “Liberty is the first condition of growth,” he fellow countrymen to struggle for India’s said in his lecture on “Vedanta and Indian independence: life.” He continued:

Love has a place in politics, but it is the It is wrong, a thousand times wrong, if love of one’s country, for one’s country- any of you dares to say, ‘I will work out men, for the glory, greatness and happi- the salvation of this woman or child’. I am ness of the race, the divine ananda of self- asked again and again, what I think of the immolation for one’s fellows, the ecstasy widow problem and what I think of the of relieving their sufferings, the joy of see- woman question. Let me answer once for 432 DAGMARENGELS

all-am I a widow that you ask me that family networks and the notion of home nonsense? Am I woman that you ask me (Sarkar, 1973). that question again and again? Who are The activities in which women predomi- you to solve women’s problems? Are you nantly participated were ideologically and the Lord God that you should rule over spatially linked to the private sphere of mid- every widow and every woman? Hands dle-class women. Few exceptions apart, off. They will solve their own problems. women from lower strata of society hardly (Majumdar, 1966) participated: the Hindu middle-class bias in the Swadeshi movement excluded them just Vivekananda questioned the reformers when as much as their husbands. For middle-class they became obsessed with reorganising the women, however, traditional domestic activi- private sphere. But he did not support ortho- ties were politically reinterpreted. Their mo- doxy and its conservative approach towards bilisation for the Swadeshi cause was based gender relations. Instead he suggested that on the essentialist notion of women as spirit- women themselves should become actively ual and fertile beings and as incarnations of involved in the country’s social and political the Mother, that is, India. Accordingly, reli- life (Majumdar, 1966). gion was the ideal medium of drawing wom- en into the movement. Women’s domestic re- WOMEN’S ACTIVISM: FROM ligious rituals, bratas, and customary rites CONFIRMATION TO CONFRONTATION from within the family provided a pattern for women’s political involvement (Forbes, Women’s involvement in the nationalist 1977b, 1985; Sarkar, 1973). This strategy was movement developed within the parameter extremely successful for drawing women into which was outlined by traditional gender ide- the nationalist movement-without in the ology and colonial concepts of legality both least challenging traditional stereotypes re- identifying respectable women with privacy garding women’s restriction to the private and domesticity (Sarkar, 1987). By the 192Os, sphere. however, mass demonstrations, shop and During Swadeshi and boycott agitation court picketing by women challenged Indian women who broke with gender stereotypes or and colonial gender stereotypes. While the colonial law were few. Some of them, like revivalist change of discursive strategy in the Sarala Debi Chaudhurani, were glorified as 1890s limited the British discursive domi- individual incarnations of the motherland. nance, in the twentieth century women’s po- Her elite background, style and leadership litical participation challenged British politi- qualities made her the probably most popu- cal authority in practice, that is in the lar Bengali woman during the first decades countryside and in the streets of towns and of the twentieth century (Sarkar, 1973). cities. The British safeguarded colonial law But others were less fortunate. Those who and order and their political dominance. But neither conformed with the British image of by clearing protesting women off the streets a lady nor the Bengali ideal of a heroic wom- they had to give up their image of being sup- an were singled out and harshly punished by porters of social progress and of the women’s colonial authorities as well as Bengali soci- cause. ety. Nanibala Devi for instance, born in 1888 During the period of Swadeshi agitation, in Bali, Howrah district, supported the revo- following the partition of Bengal in 1905, for lutionary movement in an unassuming way. the first time women took part in politics on Married at the age of eleven, Nanibala be- other than an individual and elitist level. The came a widow at 16 and was then inspired by issue, namely the division of the “beloved her brother to support the Swadeshi move- motherland,” was particularly suitable for ment. But as a widow her family expected awakening female compassion. Whereas po- her nevertheless to obey the ritual restrictions litical and economic rights were abstract val- connected with her status, to live and dress ues to many purdah women, the unity of the simply, to work in the house and to fast regu- province was universally felt not least be- larly. Instead she posed as the wife of revolu- cause migration of educated males to the cit- tionaries in order to rent accommodation for ies of Calcutta and Dhaka spatially extended them or, once they were arrested, smuggled The Limits of Gender Ideology 433

messages in and out of prison. After her ar- women satyagrahis because their activities rest Nanibala Devi spent several years in pris- ran contrary to what they regarded as fit for on where she was treated harshly. Her revolu- English or Bengali women. Changes in the tionary connections as well as her social image of Bengali women, which glorified background did not qualify her for the spe- them as saviours of the nation, could not be cial considerations British officials reserved integrated into the Weitbild of police officers for respectable middle-class women freedom and district magistrates. Helpless, they tried fighters. On her release in 1919 her family to remind women activists of traditional fe- refused to take her back because her conduct male conduct. In 1922 P. Sen, a high-ranking was seen as dishonourable for herself and for Calcutta police officer, was still “hoping to her family. Being a widow, but having posed get them round and to create a feeling that as a wife was an unpardonable sin for a these processions are not proper and should Bengali woman (Das Gupta, 1963). be abandoned altogether” (West Bengal State By then, however, Indian society was on Archives [WBSA], Political/Political [Poll/ the brink of a new era in women’s political Poll], 4811922). When these hopes proved fu- involvement. Non-cooperation in 1920/2 1 tile, P. Sen used his contacts with moderate and Civil Disobedience in 1930 drew women politicians such as S. N. Bannerjea and lead- out of the private sphere and into mass ers of the Brahmo Samaj, a Hindu reform movements. Bengali gender ideology which sect, in the hope of putting pressure on wom- marked women as incarnations of the moth- en to stay at home. The dominant impression erland, now had to adapt to women as being among officials was that women activists had among the protagonists of the movement. To temporarily lost their reason or had been in- British officials the gradual and, later, wide- stigated into their unruly behaviour by men. spread participation of Indian women in the The dogma of noninterference with the pri- struggle for freedom was a forceful reminder vate sphere where women used to belong was of the importance of gender issues and Indi- challenged by women who came out. an womanhood in nationalist ideology. Non- Active women threatened male authority cooperation and Civil Disobedience apart, in a more complex way than male freedom women protested alongside men in various fighters (Theweleit, 1977). Political involve- Satyagraha campaigns, in numerous rural ment and struggle was natural for men, but protests and in revolutionary activities where when women demonstrated the ideological they excelled in individual courage and will- cosmos of British officials fell into disarray. power (Bhattacharyya, 1977; Forbes, 1980; In 1930, for instance, the District Magistrate Interview with Santa Deb, 1985; Report of of Noakhali feared the emergence of “forces the Contai Enquiry Committee, 1930; T. which I may be unable to cope with with Sarkar, 1984). barely a hundred constables” in case it came Among the male leaders, Subash Chandra to violent scenes between “unarmed peaceful (Netaji) Bose, in particular, supported fe- women volunteers” and the police (WBSA, male activism, however, with an ideological Poll/Poll, 599/1930, Notes, App. B). Large twist which showed to what extent he still numbers of men could be lathi-charged and identified women with the domestic sphere. arrested. But what could be done with “re- While Gandhi often restricted women to sup- spectable” women while the urban public was portive tasks, Bose argued in favour of equal watching? Against peasant women involved participation. For this purpose, he classified in the no-chowkidari tax movement in re- women into two groups, namely sisters and mote villages police did not hesitate to use mothers, who were to fight and to support lathis and even guns (T. Sarkar, 1984). respectively. Significantly, he chose classifi- The presence of women activists created cations which did not carry sexual connota- disciplinary problems in the Calcutta police tions. Netaji, then living in celibacy, was force. “Any attempt made by them to assert unable to accept sexually-active women - authority has been questioned” wrote the wives -as equals and fellow-fighters (Forbes, Commissioner of the Calcutta police in 1984; Gandhi, 1942; Kishwar, 1985). 1922, and he wondered when they would lose British and Bengali officials of the Raj their tempers which “has been stretched to found it exceedingly difficult to cope with breaking-points” (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 48/ 434 DAGMAR ENGELS

1922, Notes No 3). A decade later, police in barred in the early phase of the Civil Disobe- the mufassal faced the same problems. “1 be- dience campaign from asserting their author- lieve our difficulties are unique,” wrote the ity against women by force, recouped them- District Magistrate of Tippera, and his col- selves by asserting their moral superiority league in Bakarganj informed the Bengal over male sutyagrahis. It was taken for grant- Government, “These encounters are apt to be ed that women had no independent political demoralising for the police” (WBSA, Poll/ minds. They were either keen to escape male Poll, 59911930, S no 3 and Notes, App. C). domination, “jumping at the chance offered The helplessness of the police stemmed of coming out of purdah” or the victim of from a strategy which aimed at avoiding male “mean tactics.” In both cases, men were women’s arrests. In 1921-22, when only 30 to the active culprits, women passive innocent 60 women regularly participated in street victims. Bengali men were described as ac- demonstrations and shop picketing in tive when putting “their womenfolk on Calcutta, the official policy was not to arrest the streets,” but deserving of little respect any women “unless in case of absolute nec- (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 599/1930, S.No 3 and 4). essity, e.g., if they are causing a hopeless The Bakarganj District Magistrate wrote: obstruction” (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 48/1922, “ . . . they have literally thrown their wives Notes, No 1). This policy did not express a and daughters into the streets with the cow- special concern for women, but fear of the ardly satisfaction that they can thus cause consequences of female arrests. In December annoyance and save their own skin” (WBSA, 1921, the arrest of Basanti Devi, C. R. Das’ Poll/Poll, 599/1930, Notes, S.No 4). The wife, and two other women had had the clear commissioner of the Chittagong division effect of strengthening the movement. In ad- drew his own conclusion from this and simi- dition, women jails in Bengal were in such a lar incidents. “If they do not consider this a state that a respectable woman would have most unchivalrous act,” he wrote to his Gov- suffered a severe loss of status in such condi- ernment, “I do not see how they can have any tions and company (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 481 reason to resent any action taken against 1922, Notes, No 1). This, however, would their women” (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 599/1930, have led to a wave of nationalist protest S.No 6). which Government was anxious to avoid. When it was impossible to deny that wom- At the beginning of 1930 police violence en became politically involved on their own against women in Contai had resulted in a initiative, their respectability and femininity Congress Enquiry Committee and much was questioned. After an encounter with res- publicity in the press (Interview with Dr. M. olute women satyagrahis, the District Magis- Basu; Report of the Contai Enquiry Com- trate of Bakarganj consoled his men and mittee May 1930; WBSA, Poll/Poll, 5991 himself with the thought “that we were not 1930, Notes, App. A). Consequently, the the husbands of any of them. If they could Deputy Superintendent of the Bengal police perform like this in public they must be instructed “all officers dealing with lady sa- dreadful in their own homes.” Women who tyagrahis . . . to be very polite in their man- could not be controlled did not deserve his ners and to use the minimum of force if pos- respect. “They are not ashamed,” he conclud- sible” (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 599/1930, Notes, ed, “to prostitute themselves in this way to App. E). After Gandhi’s Salt March in April draw a crowd” (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 59911930, women participated in numerous Civil Dis- S.No 4). obedience campaigns in district towns all As long as police were confronted with over East and Central Bengal and created women-only groups they could handle them confusion among the local police forces. with “gentlemanly” tactics-carefully avoid- Women’s activities were particularly success- ing any physical contact-such as cutting off ful when they interrupted local government the water supply to their picket line in the hot by picketing law courts and other gov- sun or by cordoning them off for hours until ernment buildings in many district towns they were bored and hungry. During the (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 599/1930, Notes, App. G; Calcutta Civil Obedience campaign, howev- Poll/Poll, Confidential Files, 1930-31). er, Jyotirmoyi Ganguli and Urmila Devi, the Police officers and district magistrates, organisers of women’s demonstrations, coor- The Limits of Gender Ideology 435

dinated their actions with male leaders to op- Across political lines, patriarchal gender ide- timise the effect. To the surprise of the po- ology seemed to unite many Bengali families lice, men mixed with on-going women’s pro- and the colonial authorities in their efforts to cessions. The event was shocking to officials keep women in their subordinate positions- and the Police Commissioner gave an ac- regardless of the essential contribution by count: “ . . . the ladies and these youths then Bengali women during India’s struggle for grew violent, encircled the police officers, freedom. fell down before them, clutched their legs and seized the reins of the mounted police horses. “Men and women united presented “a CONCLUSION very difficult problems for the police.” They could not violently break up the procession The ideological construct of the “private without injuring women. More importantly sphere” confirmed patriarchal power across their ideological stereotypes of cowardly men politically and racially dividing lines. During and manipulated women failed to explain the the Age of Consent debate Bengali men situation. The police needed more efficient linked the preservation of the private sphere means of control and the Commissioner sug- with the protection of their cultural identity. gested “applying for summons against Urmi- While the restitution of conjugal rights was la Devi and Jyotirmoyi Ganguli and any oth- discussed, it became clear that cultural tradi- er ladies whose identity can be established tions ranked secondary to male domination. who took a prominent part in the proces- Colonial authorities in Bengal forgot sion.” Two months later, in September 1930, about noninterference in the domestic Bengal of all provinces had the highest num- sphere, Indian cultural values and female ho- ber of women prisoners (All quotes in this nour once British rule was at stake rather paragraph, WBSA, Poll/Poll, 59911930, than women’s welfare. They also forgot their S.No 12; also Women Satyagrahis, 1930). maxims of gentlemanliness when the women For the average female satyagrahi, howev- concerned were not the equivalent of English er, such drastic measures were exaggerated. ladies, but came from the peasantry or work- Instead, the traditional institutions for the ing class. domestication of women were appealed to, This suggests that an ideological term like namely religion and the family. A high-rank- “private sphere,” which implied male control ing police official suggested “gentle persua- of female sexuality within its boundary, was sion” and “most polite and courteous lan- highly negotiable and its meaning obviously guage” in order to convince members of the depended on changing political circum- gentler sex of their true vocation: stances, on the class background of men and women involved and, in particular, on activi- ties by women. We can thus question the ar- They should also be told that it had been gument of some recent publications, for in- laid down in all religions that the women stance Ronald Hyam’s “Empire and Sexual should be at their respective homes and Opportunity” (1986) and Mrinalini Sinha’s look after the welfare of their family “The Age of Consent Act: The Ideal of Mas- members and children and if they neglect culinity and Colonial Ideology in Late 19th to do it they would fail in their sacred du- Century Bengal” (1986) who assumed male ties and God would take revenge for their sexuality and sexual domination to be driv- culpable negligence and their family ing forces behind colonial expansion and would be ruined. (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 5991 rule. In particular M. Sinha argued that 1930, Notes, App. E) there was “a connection between imperialism and the ideal of manliness” and that “coloni- Police were confident that such appeals al politics was mediated through a set of gen- would find the support of many Bengali mid- der relations and gender identities.” While dle-class families who “would really welcome this can be argued regarding virtually any action which would keep their womenfolk form of political rule, it might nevertheless from participating in such public matters” be dubious to emphasize sexuality as a driv- (WBSA, Poll/Poll, 599/1930, App. C). ing force. As we have seen, there were no two 436 DAGMARENGELS

blocks of clearly defined male sexual identity through religion: Bengal 1905-1947. competing with each other. Unpublished paper presented at “Conversation in the Discipline: Women in Religious Traditions,” If gender ideology had any clear-cut SUNY College, Cortland, 14-15 October 1977. meaning this was connected with male power Forbes, Geraldine. (1980). Goddesses or rebels? The over women, less so in the sphere of male women revolutionaries of Bengal. The Oracle, 2, I- political competition. When women started 15. Forbes, Geraldine. (1984). Mothers and sisters: Femi- to participate in the nationalist movement nism and nationalism in the thought of Subhas they did not dare to break simultaneously Chandra Bose. Asian Studies, 2, 23-32. with social conventions, but became active Forbes, Geraldine. (1985). The politics of respectability: within the boundaries of the household. Indian women and the INC. 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