Role of Women in Freedom Struggle | GS PAPER 1 | IMPORTANT

The condition of women started improving when issues related to them began to be raised by the socio-religious reform movements from the first quarter of the nineteenth century. It laid the foundation for their inclusion in the process of reforms pertaining to gender justice as well as a freedom struggle. By the twentieth century, women became important participants in the freedom struggle. Their participation in the massive popular struggles during the course of the national movement created new possibilities that socio-religious reform movements could not. 

The women who were recipients of justice in the nineteenth century became companions of nationalist men from the early twentieth century onwards. They participated in all streams of the national movement, be it Gandhian, Socialist, Communist, or revolutionary nationalism. They also contributed to the tribal and peasant movements as well as trade union struggles. They came from different backgrounds like educated and liberal families, urban and rural areas, and from various castes, religions, and communities. 

The rapid entry of women into mass struggle and politics during the Gandhian phase was an amazing development in the history of modern India. It was an altogether new phenomenon in the entire history of India. In one blow, the Indian women broke away from various restrictions and got out of their traditional home-oriented roles and responsibilities. They had shown that given an opportunity they could make a great contribution in any field of human activity, whether social, educational, political, or administrative. Some of them like Sarojini Naidu, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Vijayalaxmi pundit, Sucheta Kripalani, and Indira Gandhi emerged as the leaders of international repute. They became members of local boards and municipalities and even worked as Ministers and officeholders in Congress ministries that were formed in 1936. 

The First Stage (1857 and Before) 

Broadly, we can divide India’s struggle for independence into two stages. The first stage constitutes the revolt of 1857 and before. Many women fought against the company rule in the nineteenth century. Bhima Bai Holkar fought bravely against British colonel Malcolm and defeated him in guerrilla warfare in 1817. Rani Chinnamma of Kittur rose up in rebellion in 1824 when the British refused to recognize the adopted heir as the successor, after the death of her husband, and took over the administration. The Kittur rebels killed the collector of Dharwar and declared independence but the rebellion was crushed by the British. The role of women is equally admirable during the revolt of 1857. The revolt of 1857 was a watershed in the colonial history of India. It was fundamentally different from earlier sepoy mutinies and uprisings of the peasants and tribes. Unlike these rebellions, it was much larger in scale and spread. A good number of women stood shoulder to shoulder with men in the revolt. Some of them aided men while others directly participated in the fighting. There were Dalit viranganas, bhatiyarins or innkeepers, and courtesans who played an important role in hatching the plots and passing information. Some of them even provided financial help. Others like Lakshmibai and Hazrat Mahal stood against the might of the British East India Company. Perhaps, Manikarnika or Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi is the most prominent among them all. She raised the banner of revolt after the annexation of Jhansi, by Lord Dalhousie, in 1854 through the application of the controversial doctrine of lapse. She became famous not only for her bravery in combating the British forces but also for capturing the Gwalior fort. She died fighting on 17 June, 1858 during the battle for Gwalior and became an iconic figure. Jhalkari Bai played an important role as a member of the Durga Dal (women’s brigade of Jhansi). She dressed up like Rani Lakshmibai, led the troops in the battle and misguided the British. Another key participant was Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadh. Awadh was annexed in 1856 on the false premise of maladministration. She fought back on behalf of her minor son Birjis Qadir. She gave the longest resistance and commanded the largest army of rebels. She rejected three offers of peace and continued to fight for complete independence but got defeated by the British. Finally, she escaped to Nepal and stayed there till her death in 1879. We come to know about Uda Devi Pasi through legend. She killed more than half a dozen British troops in the battle of Sikandar Bagh in Lucknow in November 1857. There were many more women who fought valiantly in the revolt of 1857 but didn’t get enough credit. Rani Avantibai Lodhi of Ramgarh raised 4000 troops to fight against the British when they took over her husband’s kingdom after his death. When defeat became imminent she killed herself with her own sword. Punjab was annexed by the British in 1849. It is said that Rani Jindan Kaur kept on resisting British rule in subtle ways. She went in exile in Nepal and urged the Maharaja of Kashmir to participate in the revolt of 1857. She also came up with a strategy of two-pronged attack but her plan never succeeded as her coded letters were intercepted by the British. She was sent to England with her son Dalip Singh where she died in 1863. In Kanpur, the House of Azizun Bai, a courtesan became a meeting point for the rebel sepoys. It was also used as the headquarters to collect and distribute the arms and ammunition to the soldiers. She entered the battle in male attire. Western Uttar Pradesh saw considerable participation of women during the revolt of 1857. Some of the names known through personal accounts and legends are Ashgari Begum, Habiba, Bakhtavari, Jamila Khan, Rahimi, Umda, Asha Devi, Bhagwati Devi, Shobha Devi, Indra Kaur, Man Kaur and Raj Kaur. Most of them were captured and executed. They fought at a time when women were recognized only as mothers, daughters and wives. 

The Second Stage (Post-1857 Revolt) 

During this stage the process of organized political activity picked up pace. This period experienced a consistent rise and growth of national consciousness. The most important development was formation of the Indian National Congress. The Congress emerged as the most important platform to express the nationalist sentiments and passed through three important phases – Moderate, Extremist and Gandhian. Some other parallel ideologies and trends also emerged in the form of revolutionary nationalism, socialism, trade unionism and Kisan Sabha Movement. Women participated in varying degrees in almost all these phases. The Munda Rebellion (1899 – 1900) was the first local uprising in which women actively participated against the British. As far as the mainstream population is concerned, it was the Swadeshi movement, where the housewives from urban middle class families came out of their homes for the first time ever in the history of India. They actively participated in the processions and played a key role in boycott and picketing of foreign goods like textiles, utensils, bangles and salt. From here onwards, the women from different backgrounds would start making significant contribution in the national movement. Annie Besant was the first prominent personality that emerged as an active participant in the Indian social and political life in the early twentieth century. She was an Irish lady who arrived in India in 1893 as a member of Theosophical Society. Besant made India her home and initially devoted herself to education and revival of Indian culture and religion. She inculcated a sense of pride among Indians and thus strengthened the case of Indian nationalism. 

In 1898, she founded the Central Hindu College which became the Banaras Hindu University in 1916. She also worked for women’s rights, caste equality, and the rejuvenation of Panchayats. She entered politics in 1913 and started using her papers Commonweal and New India to spread her ideas regarding social and political reforms. She also used them to launch a campaign for self-government in India during the Home Rule movement in 1916-17. She worked with Lokmanya Tilak towards readmission of the extremists in the Congress and Lucknow pact between the Congress and the Muslim League. Both of them were realized during the Lucknow Session of 1916. Annie Besant also became the first woman to become the Congress president in 1917. Her growing differences with Congress and Mahatma Gandhi relegated her to the background in politics. Most of the influential women became visible in the twentieth century. They emerged during the Gandhian phase. Kasturba Gandhi always remained a source of moral support to her husband. She became a political activist and fought for civil rights against the British, both in South Africa and India. In India, she participated in all the political programs initiated by Gandhi. She was imprisoned in 1942 for her involvement in the Quit India Movement (QIM) and died, two years later, at the Agha Khan Palace in Poona. 

Large-scale participation of women began during the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in the 1930s. Sarojini Naidu led the satyagrahis at Dharsana Saltworks on the Bombay coast. Among the 2050 participants, 359 were women, who faced the lathis of the police with other participants with great confidence. By 1932, more than 2000 women had courted arrest during the Civil Disobedience Movement. Sarojini Naidu became the first Indian woman to preside Congress in 1925. She remained a member of the Congress Working Committee for many years. She represented women during the Second Round Table Conference in 1932. She was imprisoned in 1932 as well as in 1942 as a participant in the CDM and QIM. The women participants in CDM came from different backgrounds and a significant number among them came from socially conservative professional, business or peasant families. They were motivated by Gandhi’s saintly image and his principles of non-violence and truth. 

Durgabai Deshmukh organized Salt Satyagraha in 1930 in Madras presidency with two prominent leaders A. K. Prakasam and D. Nageswara Rao. She also set up the Andhra Mahila Sabha in 1941 for the welfare of women. Women also participated, in substantial numbers, in revolutionary activities. Madam Bhikaji Cama, the mother of Indian revolution worked from Paris along with Shyamji Krishna Varma and Sardar Singh Rana. She created propaganda in central Europe against the misdeeds of the colonial government in India. She has the unique honor of designing the first Indian tricolor. She unfurled it at the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart, Germany in 1907. Madam Cama encouraged the Indian youth to fight for the cause of their nation. She organized the Free India Society and published the journal Bande Mataram to spread her revolutionary thoughts. 

Some other women who participated in revolutionary activities were Nanibala Devi, Razia Khatun, Pritilata Waddedar, Bina Das, Kalpana Dutta, Shanti Ghosh, and Suniti Chaudhuri. Nanibala joined Jugantar, and Razia was associated with secret societies like Jugantar and Anushilan Samiti. Pritilata, Bina and Kalpana were members of the Indian Republican Army founded by Surya Sen. They were also involved in the Chittagong Armoury Raid (1930). After this raid revolutionary activity increased manifold in Bengal and the two schoolgirls, Shanti and Suniti assassinated Stevens, the District Magistrate of Comilla. Rani Gaidinliu led the Naga movement in 1931-32 against the British and supported the CDM. During the Quit India Movement of 1942, the participation of women was not as high as in the Civil Disobedience Movement. 

But the lack of numbers was compensated by their valuable contribution. When the movement went underground due to increased repression by the colonial government, lot of work was done under the leadership of women like Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kripalani and Usha Mehta. Aruna went to prison in 1930, 1932 and 1940 during the Civil Disobedience Movement and Individual Satyagraha. She edited the journal ‘Inquilab’ which aimed at mass mobilization. She also hoisted the tricolor at Gowalia Tank Ground in Bombay after the arrest of Congress president Maulana Azad in 1942. Sucheta worked with J. B. Kripalani in 1934 during the Bihar earthquake. She was appointed the secretary of the women’s wing of the AICC (All India Congress Committee) in 1939. She also worked at Noakhali in East Bengal when Communal riots broke out after the Muslim League’s call of Direct Action on 16 August 1946. 

Usha Mehta acted as the announcer of ‘Voice of freedom’, the underground Congress radio operated from different locations in Bombay. In Singapore, Subhash Chandra Bose created the Rani Jhansi regiment. It was an All-Women Regiment of the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army), led by Captain Lakshmi Sehgal. She was also appointed the Minister of Women’s Affairs in the Azad Hind Government. There were many more women who participated in the freedom struggle and four of them belonged to the Nehru family. They were Swarup Rani, Kamala Nehru, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, and Indira Gandhi. Swarup was Jawaharlal Nehru’s mother and Kamala was his wife. 

Kamala got involved in organizing women for protests against the British government. For this, she was arrested few times. Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Nehru’s sister actively participated in the CDM and Individual Satyagraha and got arrested. His daughter Indira was pulled into the freedom struggle from a very young age. She organized ‘Vanar sena’ and ‘Manjari sena’ for the young boys and girls. She was also arrested during the QIM. Margaret Elizabeth Noble or Sister Nivedita joined the Ramakrishna mission and worked for female education. She also promoted national consciousness and criticized the British racial policies. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur of the Kapurthala royal family of Punjab was impressed by Gandhi. 

She got involved in the activities of the Congress and participated in the CDM. She was imprisoned during the QIM. She was also a founder member of the All India Women’s Conference (AIWC) which first met at Pune in 1927. Rehana Tyabjee became an enthusiastic follower of Gandhi and actively participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement, CDM, and QIM. She also became the president of the Youth League of the congress. Jyotirmoyee Ganguly resigned from the government service in response to Gandhi’s call for civil disobedience and participated in an agitation organized by the Forward Bloc in 1945 against the imprisonment of the INA soldiers. 

She died protesting against British suppression. Madeleine Slade or Mira Behn joined the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad and engaged in the promotion of Khadi and Satyagraha. She wrote more than a thousand articles for various papers like Young India, Harijan, The Statesman, The Times of India , and The Hindustan Times. She also participated in the Quit India Movement. Matangini Hajra was born in a typical peasant family. She participated in the Dandi March in 1930 and agitations against chowkidari tax during the CDM. She was hit by a bullet and died while hoisting the national flag during the QIM.

So it is clear that women played an indispensable role in India’s Freedom struggle. All kinds of women ranging from a common person to highly accomplished ladies participated in it. In the background of a conservative society and several limitations, their contribution is immensely commendable. The list of such women is endless who dared to fight for India’s freedom with undaunted courage. There was another category of women who might not have directly participated in the freedom struggle but they contributed to the emancipation of their own kind. 

Some of the prominent examples in this category are Gangabai or Maharani Tapaswini, Subbalakshmi, Pandita Ramabai, Sarla Devi Chaudhurani, Mehribai Tata and Muthulakshmi Reddy. They aimed at developing female education, improvement in the condition of child widows and women’s status in the family, prohibition of child marriage and purdah, and enfranchising women.