NATION , REFORM AND RESISTANCE Indian Women Writings in the pre-Independence era

Abstract

Indo -Anglican literature began as a byproduct of an interesting encounter between an enterprising Britain and a stagnant and chaotic India.The ruled hapless subjects of the British Raj attempted producing English writings with native strain which conditioned their artistic endeavour.Gradually the foreign tongue became nativised and inevitably began to offer the Indian flavour in the hands of the Indian authors.Though the Indian literary firmament of the 19th century was predominantly twinkled by some brightest male authors, women contributors were not too far away.From Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu to the youngest Indian women writers, the continuous absorption of the spirit of nationalism, the freedom struggle, the Gandhian whirlwind,and finally the partition produced a sizable and significant school of women writers.The 1890s saw two literary interventions in English authored by Indian women-- one by Shevantibai Nikambe and the other one by Krupabai Satthianadhan .Both being Christian converts,were almost obsessed to show the real position of Indian women of the then society.They highly spoke about gender disparity, caste , ethnicity and cultural identity.The thrust in early Indian women writers was on the questions pertaining to conversion, colonialism, female subjectivities,etc. Later on they focussed amply on the national reforms and their texts threw light on the contradictions within the native female social position and how they were influenced by the dominant discourse of the time. The reform movement in the different parts of the country was really an offshoot of English education and thus revealed how in spite of being thought of as an entirely male project, there were still a few educated women who established a parallel discourse through their works. Early Indian women writers incorporated in their works the recurring female experiences, the unexplored female psyche which had no male accessibility. They often raised a voice of protest against the actual condition of the disadvantaged section of the society in the mid 19th century and demanded action against social hegemonies through their pen . In this paper the author has tried to show the bulk of women writings of the pre-independent India as the point of reference to explain the discourse of education and hegemony that influenced colonial modernity as it proved to be a significant factor in the nationalist movement of India.