Model Question and Answers for APSC | The women’s questions arose in modern India as a part of the 19th-century social reform movement. What were the major issues and debates concerning women in that period?

Ans: Social reformists of the 19th century like Raja Rammohun Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar understood the women’s questions through their own family experiences, acquired knowledge and inherent personal convictions about differentiating right from wrong. They studied the socio-religious, economic and political factors that gave impetus to cruel practices like the sati and the harsh rules of widowhood. For instance, Roy is said to have been shattered when he witnessed his sister-in-law burn herself alive on the funeral pyre of her husband. This experience made him realise the adverse impacts of such practices on society, particularly women, in the long run.

The major issues and debates:

• Purdah system
• The general insecurity and lawlessness which prevailed at that time made their seclusion This seclusion deprived them of any opportunity to educational institutions.
• Infanticide: The killing of female children was not common in all the It was, however, a normal feature of the Kshatriyas and it was practised secretly. The British Resident at   Benares, Jonathan reported this practice among the Rajkumars of Benares.

• Polygamy by men particularly in the higher class especially among the Kulin Brahmins
• Practice of sati
• Eternal widowhood coupled with early marriage
• Lack of education opportunities for women

By the late 19th century, some sections of Indian women had indeed benefited from the legal reforms and modern education that were projected both by Indian nationalists and the British colonial rulers as the cornerstones of women’s emancipation. Ever since, our ‘general knowledge’ has highlighted a particular set of issues—banning sati, legalizing widow remarriage, raising the ‘age of consent and opposing child marriage—and we have celebrated men, like Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and M.G. Ranade, who championed the reform of socially and morally retrograde Hindu religious practices.