India is a courtyard where different cultures, ethnicities, religions and school of thoughts emerged and established themselves. Indian society, mostly, was open towards different ideas and opinions despite that Indian society, like any other society has been mostly patriarchal and misogynistic in its approach.The feminist movement in India saw its rise in mid 19th century. Several women stood up for their rights and started actively participating in activities for betterment of women. Savitribai Phule, Tarabai Shinde, Kamini Roy, Ishmat Chugtai, Begum Rokeya and many other women came out and started advocating for equal rights for women and joined in fight to ensure the basic fundamental rights for women they deserved as human beings. Some of their male counterparts who were working for social reforms and for the rights of marginalized communities lended their support to the movement.
Support from other social reformers and activists
Raja Rammohan Roy,who is considered as 'Father of Bengal Renaissance' by many historians, was a social activist and worked for women and child rights, had a huge role in making 'Sati Pratha' a criminal offence.
Sati Pratha was an inhumane practice where a widowed woman was forced to immolate herself on her husband's pyre after her husband's death. Raja Rammohan Roy also advocated for remarriage of widow woman, which was a huge change back then. He also raised his voice against child marriage, seclusion of women and Purdah System and also voiced his support for education for women.
Fight for the right of education
In Bombay Province, Savitribai Phule along with her husband Mahatma Jyotirao Phule played vital role in improving condition of women in India. Savitribai Phule with her husband opened first school in Pune where girls belonging to every caste and religion were given opportunity to study which in itself was a huge step due to domination of upper caste people in the education system who denied people from low caste any access to education.
Feminist Writers and Literature
During the ongoing feminist movements in India many women started writing against the suppression of women. Ishmat Chugtai, Begum Rokeya, Kamini Roy, Amrita Pritam are few names of feminist writers. Ishmat Chugtai through her work 'Lihaaf' discovered women's sexuality which faced huge backlash from conservative muslim society and she was targeted by muslim clerics but Chugtai stood firm and continued her writing. Begum Rokeya,a bengali Feminist writer, fought for the rights of muslim women for education and job opportunities by founding 'Muslim Women's Association'. There are many educational institutions both in India and Bangladesh named after Begum Rokeya honouring her contribution towards education for women.
After a long history of unequal treatment and oppression, these women still inspire the new generation to fight for their rights and feminist movements still draw inspiration from their works. The hard work of these brave women is finally paying off and conversations around inclusion of women in different sectors are happening. There is still more needed to be done and whenever there will be talks around women's rights these women will be remembered for their contribution and struggles for the betterment of women.
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