Attitudes Toward Womanhood in Bengal, 1792-1854

University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1977 The lotus and the violet : attitudes toward womanhood in Bengal, 1792-1854. Mary Lou Ratte University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Ratte, Mary Lou, "The lotus and the violet : attitudes toward womanhood in Bengal, 1792-1854." (1977). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 1354. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/1354 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE LOTUS AND THE VIOLET: ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMANHOOD IN BENGAL, 1792-1854 A Dissertation Presented By MARY LOU RATTE Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY January 1977 Department of History Q Mary Lou Ratte 1977 All Rights Reserved iii THE LOTUS AND THE VIOLET: ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMANHOOD IN BENGAL, 1792-1854 A Dissertation Presented By MARY LOU RATTE Approved as to style and content by: Department Head Department of History iv ABSTRACT The Lotus and the Violet: Attitudes toward Womanhood in Bengal, 1792-1854 January 1977 Mary Lou Ratte, B.A. , Wellesley College M.A., University of Massachusetts Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Directed by: Professor Franklin Wickwire Some years ago Eric Stokes hypothesized that British activity in India in the early nineteenth century can be best understood if one recog- nizes that activities at home motivated and directed reform in India. The hypothesis has not been tested with regard to the prevalence of concern for women in the Reform Movement. The last years of the eighteenth century witnessed the opening up of the woman question in Britain: perhaps concern for redefining woman's status at home is an explanation. In Bri- tain, however, the debate was initiated by women and the same is not true in Bengal. British feminists and Bengali women did not participate, but Stokes' hypothesis holds to the extent that male-held cultural assumptions were operative. The introduction of the woman question in Bengal arose from deeper roots, extending back into the eighteenth century. The interest of the had philosophes in including the whole of society in their speculations advanced assured women a position in cultural surveys and when the British they also adopted Into India they carried this habit with them. Initially Eastern woman as the the eighteenth-century paradigm which categorized the victim of despotism. British intent in v/riting cultural surveys v;as not, however, comparative, as the philosophes' intent had been, but was rather aimed at encouraging action. With the despotic paradigm in mind, British sur- vey writers conjured up an image of the Hindu woman as victim of an unjust, backward, and cruel society, for which the British were now responsible As the victim image took hold, the victim became symbolized in the figure of the immolated widow and in 1828 the government in India under- took to legislate against sati. Interference in Hindu custom, however, challenged British understanding of their role in India, and before the legislation was passed, the official community went through a laborious process of disentangling custom from legal prescription and in this they were aided by Bengali reformers who responded to the victim image but used it to prove that pure Hinduism could be separated from current practice. When legislation was passed, however, it revealed that the real intent was not to begin to alter the status of women, but rather to insure that all Bengalis would live under a just legal system. Both before and after the sati debates, British of many persuasions had broadened the image of victim to include consideration of woman's larger role, and had projected a new image, drawn from their own society, was of the moral heroine, capable of regenerating society. The heroine but educable, indeed only education would fit her to play her new role, of educational efforts failed for a variety of reasons, not the least could conceive of which was the fact that neither missionary nor official of Christian education for women without seeing it as the imparting and would not cooperate morality. Bengali reformers recognized the intent, vl by sending their daughters. The official community gave up the intent in 1835, when they decided to concentrate efforts on the training of male elites. Radical members of the Bengali community kept the issue alive, however, and with the projection of a new image, produced jointly by Bengali and British, of v/oman as the educated companion to the educated male, the path was clear for Bengali women to enter school. On the British side the imagery grew out of deeply held cultural attitudes toward women and their place in society. It was conservative in intent and the writings of British women who lived in India reveal that It was meant to control their lives as much as to provide models for Hindus to follow. Why Bengalis concurred in it has usually been explained by .describing Bengali reformers as reactors to British initiative. A deeper look at Bengali culture, however, reveals that far from being revolutionary, the Imagery accorded very closely with Bengali perceptions of womanhood. In accepting it, Bengalis intuitively grasped its conservative character. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter p^g^ Introduction I ]_ The Eighteenth 11 Century Observes the Eastern Woman. 15 ijl Eighteenth Century Imagery Is Applied to the Hindu Woman 41 IV The Conservative Government Acts on Behalf of the Hindu Woman 80 V The Official Community Grapples with the Question of Women's Education 105 VI The Missionaries Attempt to Educate the Hindu Woman 129 VII The Bengali and Official British Community Agree on the Nature of Women's Education 153 VIII The Imagery Considered 176 IX The Problem Reconsidered 201 Bibliography 226 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The movement to reform India in the early nineteenth century was § PPPperative venture among Bengalis and British which drew upon, and in |yri> generated, a complex body of ideas with roots deep in the past and fhe tentacles stretching into the future. The movement enlisted the energies of all segments of British society, including participants in Britain as well as in Bengal. Indian participation was largely limited |o the group of Bengali intellectuals who were most in touch with Euro- pean learning, including those in favor of reforming India along British lines and those who hoped for an internal regeneration. On the British side, the conservative tradition represented by Edmund Burke predominated. In its applicability to India, British conservatism held to the belief that all societies develop and follow their own inner logic and ought to be allowed to do so. In Bengal this doctrine never extended to complete toleration, but was manifested in an official policy of non-interference in Indian institutions and customs. The logic of this stance was incompatible with continued British presence in India and to conservatism were added other aspects of British thinking. British liberal thought contributed the belief in the equal- the per- ity of individuals, respect for the human personality, belief in fectibility of man and in the improvement of the world, and belief in problems. the applicability of reason to the solution of social Utilitarian thinking added the belief in the reformability of society through pedagogy, in the separation of morality from religious precept, in the attainment of happiness through the use of reason, in the effi- cacy of good government and good legislation, and in the assertion that societies progressed through recognizable stages toward perfection. To this body of secular doctrine Evangelical thought contributed the belief that Christianity elevates people, that religion is non-doctrinal, and that education prepares one for the reception of grace. Common to this whole way of thinking was the assumption, inher- ited from the eighteenth century, that human nature was basically good or at least, in the language of the Evangelicals, redeemable, but that it could be corrupted by institutions. The British, whatever their level or degree of involvement in India, generally agreed that the India which they confronted was corrupted by bad government, evil laws, limiting institutions , and a superstitious religion. Common also was the reliance by all the British— from the most aristocratic of officials to the humblest of missionaries—on analytical thinking as a means for arriving at truth. While the missionaries tended to limit their analyses to their sinful selves and their relationship with God, high officials exhibited the same tendency in their approach to institutions. On the Indian side, Bengalis interested in reform had no compa- rable body of thought to draw upon and were forced, in the face of a government intent upon exposing the darkest secrets of their culture in under fire. an effort to help them, to assimilate European thinking toward analysis, Indian thinking was not without its own inherent tendency 3 nor did Indian history lack an indigenous reform tradition, but at the time when the British were most active, Bengali elites were not masters of their own tradition and had not selected from its multiple strands those aspects of the tradition which would prove most useful. Thus, in spite of various attempts by Indian historians to assert the primacy of Indian initiative in the reform movement, it seems undeniable that Brit- ish ideas provided the impetus for a new type of social and political analysis. British conservatism, in its bold adherence to the doctrine of non-intervention, appealed to the Bengalis least of all , as it came to appeal least to militant British reformers.

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