Gender Mainstreaming | Evolving landscape of feminism in India

India is a diverse country and so is the history of feminism in India. Globally, feminism as an ideological and political thought emerged as a challenge to existing hierarchical social structures. Initially, advocacy for civil and political rights formed the base of the first wave of feminist movements across the world. It is only in the later phases that economic, social and cultural rights became important. But in the Indian context, the demand for social reforms preceded political rights. 

Let’s explore the Indian feminist or the women’s movement in India. 

The four phases of feminist struggles 

The Indian feminist or the women’s movement has historically been heterogeneous. This is because gender as an identity does not exist in isolation. It intersects with religion, caste, class, region and ethnicity. Therefore, an understanding of the history of the feminist movement in India requires an understanding of its different phases. Broadly, there are four key phases or waves of the Indian feminist movement, each focusing on key issues centered around gender. 

The first phase of the women’s movement included social reform movements of the 19th century as well as the promotion of women’s political participation in the 20th century. The 19th century social reform movements focused on promoting women’s education and eradicating social evils like sati, dowry, child marriage, restrictions on widow remarriage, etc. Interestingly, most of these movements were led by upper-caste men like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. While the women’s question was central to these reform movements, social institutions like the family and marriage remained largely unquestioned. 

The first phase of feminism in India included social reform movements of the 19th century and the promotion of women’s political participation in the 20th century. Over time, questions about the home and the family as inviolable spaces were also raised.

It is also important to note that most of the 19th century social reforms focussed on improving the lives of upper-caste women, while lower-caste and other marginalised women were largely invisible. However, reformers like Jyotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh advocated the cause of education for women belonging to marginalised social groups. Amidst these developments, the sharp articulation of women’s question laid the foundation for the emergence of women’s voices and writings. At the same time, one can see that the women’s movement was diverse and shaped by intersectional concerns.

Women’s rights in nationalist discourse

Moreover, the image of women was also linked to that of the nation-state. The Indian nation-state was imagined as mother India (Bharat mata) which meant that women were expected to be sophisticated, domesticated beings who would birth and nurture children who could contribute to India’s growing tryst with modernity. Women’s education was seen as a necessary means to achieve this end. Additionally, women, especially upper caste women, were unnecessarily pressurised to be bearers of Indian traditions and caste purity. Thus, the nation’s cultural identity was intertwined with that of the women’s. 

The early 20th century saw a rise in women’s political participation in the public sphere. This was facilitated by the growth of women’s organisations like the All India Women’s Conference (AIWC), the All-India Muslim Ladies’ Conference, the National Council of Women in India (NCWI) and the Women’s India Association (WIA). These organisations focused on increasing women’s political participation, especially in the Indian nationalist movement against the British colonial rulers. 

However, both the 19th century social reform movements and the early 20th century political participation were rooted in traditional Indian notions of womanhood. But they played significant roles in opening up hitherto restricted spaces like education and public sphere for women. This phase is largely considered the first wave of the feminist movement in India.

Interestingly, the question of universal voting rights or suffrage was not an issue in this wave in India unlike in the west. Here the fight was against colonialism and hence, seeking equal voting rights for both genders was taken for granted. But an effort was on to create a homogeneous idea of Indian women. 

Post-independence shift

After India attained independence in 1947, there was a shift in the nature of the women’s movement. For some time, the women’s question receded from public discourse. Now women’s groups had to negotiate with the Indian state instead of the British colonisers. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, largely coinciding with the second wave of the feminist movement in the west, the women’s question once again became central in public discourse.

In the 1990s or what can be roughly called the third phase, mobilisation occurred around more intersectional issues. In the ongoing fourth phase, digital technology helps bring otherwise neglected issues like intimate partner violence, marital rape, and queer rights to the centre stage.

As per the recommendations of the United Nations, the government set up the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) in 1971 to review the status of women. In 1974, the CSWI published a report, Towards Equality, which revealed that women face inequality in every aspect of life.

Violence against women also emerged as a critical issue and legal interventions were sought against different forms of abuse like dowry, divorce and rape. The Mathura rape case of 1972 became pivotal to this second wave of feminism, which is also seen as the beginning of the contemporary women’s movement in India. Mathura, a teenage tribal woman, was raped by two policemen. However, the Supreme Court acquitted the policemen on the grounds of Mathura being already sexually experienced. 

The verdict outraged women’s groups and sparked protests demanding amendments to the existing rape laws. Gradually, questions about the home and the family as inviolable spaces were also raised. The women’s movements sought state and legal interventions in cases such as dowry and domestic violence. It marked a shift in feminist discourse, where the personal became political, and the dichotomy between the public and the private was questioned. 

Intersectionality and digital turn

In the 1990s – or what can be roughly called the third phase of the feminist movement in India – mobilisation occurred around more intersectional issues. Interlinkages between gender and caste, class, region and religion become crucial for women’s groups. This phase of the feminist movement in India should be understood as one that is led by various groups with different interests centered around gender. 

For instance, the Vishaka judgement of 1997 became a landmark case in which the Supreme Court directed the state to take measures to promote workplace safety, especially in preventing sexual harassment. The ruling came in the wake of a lower caste social worker, Bhanwari Devi, being brutally gang-raped by upper caste men for stopping a child marriage in her village Bhateri in Rajasthan.

The Bhanwari Devi rape case became a significant point for the women’s movement in India as it brought to the fore the challenges that women faced in rural settings. This is particularly important as all three waves of feminism in India have been largely centred around upper-caste, urban and middle-class issues. 

In the ongoing fourth phase of the feminist movement, one can see the digital sphere becoming an important space for advocacy. Digital technology is seen as promoting accessibility and offering the potential to challenge the dominance of the upper-caste in the Indian feminist movement. It is also helpful in bringing a wide variety of otherwise neglected issues into the center stage like intimate partner violence, marital rape, and issues faced by queer groups. However, the online space has also given rise to new forms of violence against women like cybercrime and digital harassment. 

Thus, the feminist movement in India has experienced significant shifts across different historical phases. The first and second waves primarily focused on the concerns of upper-caste women. This was challenged in the third wave, while the digital era has further made the resistance to mainstream ideas of gender more dominant. Today, the movement has become more inclusive, with the scope of feminism expanding to address concerns of queer people and other marginalised groups.

Post Read Questions

How has the feminist movement in India evolved to include marginalised communities?

How did the first and second waves of Indian feminism primarily focus on upper-caste women’s concerns? What key challenges did the third wave of Indian feminism pose to the earlier waves?

What role has intersectionality played in reshaping feminist discourse in India?

In what ways has social media reshaped the conversation around gender and feminism in India?

What steps can be taken to ensure Indian feminism continues to be more inclusive and diverse?

(Rituparna Patgiri is an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati.)

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