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Ramabai: Gender and Caste

Madhu Jha

Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922) has not only been acknowledged as an eminent social reformer and a scholar but also perhaps as one of the first feminists in the modern Indian history who struggled for the emancipation of Indian women. Her life and thought is instructive to all those who yearn for the dignity and equality of women in Indian society. Her critique of patriarchy and demand for civil rights and gender justice reflects her political thought.

Life and Times

Ramabai was born to Ananta Shastri, a liberal Brahmin Pandit, in 1858. As a child, Ramabai lived the life of a Brahmin pilgrim and travelled the Indian subcontinent with her parents and two older siblings. Her father had withdrawn to a forest area to run a residential school for Brahmin boys and to teach Sanskrit to his young wife. This was especially remarkable considering the fact that in those times women were denied even the basic right to get literate. Her unconventional upbringing facilitated the rejection of a rigid gender-specific role unlike other girls who were forced into wifehood and motherhood at an early age, denied education and made to restrict their lives within the private domain of a joint family. After the death of her parents and sister in the mid 1870s, Ramabai along with her brother travelled throughout India until they reached Calcutta (now Kolkata). A formal invitation was given to her to lecture in that city before a few learned Pandits. Ramabai’s remarkable scholarship and especially her in-depth knowledge of the Sanskrit scriptures created a great impact on the audience. They called a public assembly in the Town Hall of Calcutta and conferred upon her the highest title possible in India for a woman, that of ‘Saraswati’, meaning ‘Goddess of Wisdom’. In Calcutta, Keshab Chandra Sen, the supporter of Brahmo Samaj, suggested to Ramabai that she read the Vedas and Upanishads. This was the beginning of a new phase in her life, a period in which she grappled with several contradictions in her life that later fructified into liberal feminism.

In her personal life, Ramabai ignored caste restrictions and married a man of shudra varna (lower caste), Bepin Bihari Medhavi, an active member of the Brahmo Samaj. However, after 19 months of a happily married life, her husband died leaving her with a little daughter, Manorama. Ramabai decided to return to her native land Poona to embark upon the journey of learning from the social reformers of that time. She was readily welcomed by the leaders there.

Feminist Discourse

Ramabai founded the Arya Mahila Sabha in 1881. This may be termed as the first feminist organization of India. However, Ramabai, entered the feminist discourse of those times through her first Marathi book, Stri Dharma-Niti¹ (Morals for Women), which was published in 1882. With no support coming towards a widows’ institution that she wanted to establish and as a reaction against the Pune’s conservative society, Ramabai decided to go to England to seek British support for her widows’ home. After reaching England, Ramabai sought a meeting with Sir Bartle Frere, the former Governor of the Bombay Presidency, and followed it up with an appeal for help, written originally in Marathi, titled The Cry of Indian Women.² This book contained details of Indian women’s oppression through early marriage, marital harassment, desertion by the husband and widowhood; she also made an appeal on behalf of the Arya Mahila Sabha for a ‘widow home’ in India.

At the same time, the disillusionment with elite liberalism and Brahminic tradition began to lead her away from Hinduism. In England, she drew closer to Christianity.³ On 25 September 1883, Ramabai converted to Christianity and began signing her name as Mary Rama, a symbol of dual identity, affirming the old along with new Her daughter Manorama also was converted into Christianity. Finding not much of support from the imperialist England, Ramabai went to the Untied States in 1886 on an invitation by Dr Rachel Bodley, dean of the women’s medical college of Pennsylvania, to attend the graduation ceremony of Anandibai Joshi, a cousin of Ramabai and the first Indian woman to travel to the United States to become a doctor.

Ramabai got acquainted with the feminist and other reformist circles in Philadelphia and Boston. She soon contacted various church groups and women’s welfare groups in a fund raising campaign for her long-lived dream of a womens’ home in India. America clearly inspired her with notions of freedom and liberty. In 1887, she published The High Caste Hindu Women, India’s first feminist manifesto with an agenda for women’s emancipation and empowerment. Published in 1887⁴ with the help of Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the book turned out to be the most popular of all Ramabai’s educationist ventures. The content of this book offers a feminist critique of the Indian women’s condition, where she analysed how women were treated as an unwanted and inferior being, through childhood, married life and widowhood, with the sanction of the Hindu scriptures. During these years, Ramabai also worked on a Marathi book, United Stateschi Lokesthiti ani Pravasvritta (The People of United States) which was published in Bombay in December 1889,⁵ a few months after her return to India. Through this book, Ramabai tried to highlight the importance of social movements and civil society in changing the society for better. Citing United States as a model of modern and advanced nation, Ramabai made an appeal to the Indian audience about the importance of following the pattern of American society in overthrowing the colonial rule in India. Pandita Ramabai’s associations in the United States resulted in the formation of the Ramabai Association in Boston in December 1887. It pledged financial support, for ten years, for her proposed secular school for high-caste widows in India.

In February 1889, Ramabai returned to India and in March she opened a secular residential school for high-caste widows, the Sharada Sadan, in Bombay. It is important to point out here that the social reformers gave support to Ramabai, in spite of her conversion since she had not discarded her patriotism. Her cultural assertiveness led her to insist that the crucifix worn by the Indian converts should bear an inscription not in Latin but in Sanskrit.⁶ In 1908, Ramabai embarked on her ambitious task of translating the Bible into the Marathi language so that the Maharashtrian audience could understand the teachings of Christianity. During her last days, Ramabai’s newsletter titled, Mukti Prayer Bell, contained writings showing increasing frustration and resentment. The opening years of the 20th century found Ramabai’s Sharada Sadan marginalized and the Mukti Sandan facing serious problems with funds.

Meanwhile, in 1919, the British government awarded to Pandita Ramabai, the Kaiser-i-Hind medal for her distinguished service to the Indian education system. The social benefit of transforming the lives of widows, from being considered a burden on society to an empowered individual who could make economic contributions to the society was also acknowledged. Ramabai’s daughter Manorama accepted the award on her mother’s behalf, as Ramabai was not keeping good health then. However, her own health collapsed soon after, leading to her death in 1921 at the age of 40. Pandita Ramabai survived this sorrow for a year after which she too collapsed to death due to ill health.

Critique of Patriarchy

The reform movements of those times focused on the caste and gender issues. Gender issues had become the preoccupation of the upper castes, whose women were the most oppressed. In Poona, Ramabai, working towards the aim of gender reform, formed the Arya Mahila Sabha in 1882,⁷ and established branches throughout the Mumbai region. The object of this institution was to promote education among native women and discouragement of child marriage. Ramabai urged women to free themselves from the tyranny of Hinduisim. She made use of lectures and writing as a medium to bring about change in the lives of women in India. The earliest available text from her literary output was her Sanskrit poem ‘Lamentation of Divine Language’, submitted to the Oriental Conference at Berlin in 1881, highlighting the violence of colonialism.⁸

Ramabai’s role as a spokesperson for the glory of the Vedic age created dilemmas. The more she read and reflected on her experiences, the more she was exposed to the subtle patriarchal structure of society. It was during these young days that Ramabai’s political thoughts started getting firmly grounded and expressed. She connected the teachings of the ancient literature with the inferior status of women in society. The caste system that was prevalent in the society during those times did not have any impact on the progressive thinking of Ramabai. She firmly believed that in ancient times people were assigned to the four castes according to their work and merit and not on the basis of their birth. It was much later that caste system became identified with birth and turned discriminatory. These caste-based differences coupled with gender-based differences deeply affected the Indian women. Ramabai understood that the patriarchal ideology of the society placed women within the domestic sphere as a wife/mother/housewife according to her sexual, reproductive and home-making roles. In this caste-ridden, patriarchal society, the highest status for a woman was that of a saubhagyavati (or blessed woman whose husband was alive) and a mother of sons, rather than daughters. A woman only with daughters or one without children had a lower status and lived under the fear of being deserted by her husband. A widow had the lowest status, especially a child widow or one without children. A widow had to wear a plain borderless sari, no ornaments and had to shave her head which had to be carefully covered. A widow was expected to sleep on floor, spend time in ritual acts and eat little food.

Ramabai’s study of Upanishads, Manusmriti and the Vedas made her realize how the caste system, the Hindu shastras, society and social customs helped patriarchy to not only thrive but to grow larger. She thought that the low account of women’s nature and character depicted in Manusmriti was, to a large extent, responsible for their seclusion and suppression. Manu’s laws deprived women of the house of all their freedom. Ramabai soon realized that all sacred books in Sanskrit literature shared hateful sentiments about women. Child marriage, polygamy and enforced widowhood thus turned out to be the great social evils in India which were responsible for the pathetic condition of Indian women and which needed to be changed. It was in this context that Ramabai also shared her views on religion which according to her had two distinct natures in the Hindu law: the masculine and the feminine. Both these kinds had their own peculiar duties, privileges and honours. For women, it was believed to be her duty to look upon her husband as God, to always obey him and seek salvation only through him.

Pandita’s most popular academic venture The High Caste Hindu Women contained a critical account of miseries that were faced by girls and women in the domain of a high-caste Hindu Joint family system. Daughters were taught to do all household works right at the tender age of 9–10 so that they get well trained to adjust to the lives of young married women. They get married off without getting a chance to express their opinions. Women in these families were not permitted to read the sacred scriptures and were found fit only for housekeeping works. As a class, women were never to be trusted. Through this book, Ramabai tried to become the voice of these millions of women. She has particularly drawn the attention of people towards what she considers the biggest curse for a Hindu woman—her becoming a widow, especially a child widow. The hardships that a Hindu widow had to face have all been highlighted and an appeal made to help them to become independent identities. Plight of a Hindu widow is such that even families of lower castes will not have them as a servant. She is left with no option of making an honest living. Pandita Ramabai considered women of lower castes to be much better off in terms of self-reliance and freedom since they are obliged to depend upon themselves. As a suggestion to improve the condition of these widows, Pandita suggested three areas where focus had to be made: self-reliance, education and native women teachers.

Gender Justice and Civil Rights

It will not be wrong to say that Ramabai entered the feminist discourse through her book Stri Dharma Niti. This book turned out to be a guide of morality for women, asking illiterate, ignorant women to recast themselves in a more cultural mould through self-reliance and through self-education. Through this book, Ramabai advises the women of India on how to prepare for marriage by choice, be a companion to her husband who is worthy of trust, achieve ideal motherhood by nurturing sons who would free India and attain spiritual welfare. It needs to be understood here that Ramabai’s feminist consciousness itself began to be questioned through this book. Her endorsement of Sita—Savitri model of feminity could be easily debated within the gender discourse of India. However, by advocating late marriages for women and marriages by choice, Ramabai turns out to be a radical nevertheless.

Her next academic venture Cry of Indian Women more explicitly reflected her feminist thinking and her desire to seek gender justice.⁹ The change in the approach between Stri Dharma Niti and the Cry of India Women in June 1883 was a result of many factors. Her close proximity with early feminists like Tarabai Shinde, Anandibai Joshee and Rakhmabai is clearly visible in Ramabai’s new book. Another influence that brought an impact on Ramabai’s feminist consciousness was her exposure to the more progressive and less asymmetrical gender relations in America and England. Imparting education to women was thought to be the best remedy of the problems. Pandita’s hope was that women’s education would lead to the rejection of Brahminism and realize the deception of sacred literature. But Ramabai was aware of the mindset of the Indian society which was skeptical of educating women. The few schools that were available as options were often run by missionaries and, as a rule, a high-caste Hindu women would prefer death than go to such schools where there was fear of losing their caste. In her testimony before the Education Commission set up in 1882, Ramabai demanded women teachers for girls and schools. She noted that ‘women being one half of the people of this country are oppressed and cruelly treated by the other half’. She also asked for training women as medical doctors to save women who could not consult male physicians. Later, Dr Hunter was invited by Ramabai and the Samaj to attend its special meeting attended by about 280 native ladies, all stressing the need for women doctors.

Within this context, Ramabai raised the issues of the oppressed Indian women—widows, deserted wives and sexually exploited women. Her main contribution was her desire to protect the upper-caste widow, who was the symbol of Hindu patriarchal oppression. In this regard, she played an important role in the congress convention demanding civil rights for these women.

The first meeting of the national Congress in Bombay in 1889 consisted of around two thousand delegates, of which three were women, largely because of the Pandita’s influence.¹⁰ The purpose of this meet was the need of unity among different races in India and to catch the attention of the British government to the existing grievances and the needed reforms. Ramabai spoke largely on two resolutions: one relating to marriage and the other to the shaving of the head of the widow She brought to notice the injustice meted to the widows by depriving her of property if she married again. Both the resolutions were passed by a large majority and the request that the members of the conference pledge themselves not to allow marriage until the girl had completed her fourteenth year was also supported by a large majority. Ramabai’s functioning during the conference made her a popular national image and she received many invitations to lecture on education and problems faced by child widows. By this time, Ramabai had made her efforts towards the achievement of gender equality loud and clear.

Liberation Praxis

It needs to be understood that Ramabai’s lecturing and fundraising had only one motive—seeking salvation and liberation for Indian women specially the high caste Hindu widows. Her design of a widow’s home was meant for providing a shelter and a community of living for these widows. After collecting funds for such a salvation house from America Ramabai built her’ Sharda Sadan’ in Poona and got into disputes with the reformist elites in India. In the meanwhile, the Indian Christian Community began objecting to the Sharada Sadan’s policy of religious neutrality. Ultimately, conversions began taking place in good numbers. Hindu widows began reading the Bible, and this led to great criticism of Ramabai’s women home. Social reformers slowly dissociated themselves and those few who were the members of the governing body of this house, left by their own choice. Press began calling Sadan, a ‘Widows mission house’¹¹.

In the midst of all this, bubonic plague epidemic of the late 1890s in Western India made Ramabai to shift her Sharada Sadan from Pune to Kedgaon. Over two thousand women took shelter in this newly constituted, Mukti Mission. It began consisting of not only Hindu widows but also famine victims, sexually assaulted women,blind and the old women all kept in separate sections. This section came to be known as the Kripa such as (Home of Mercy). In this Mukti Sadan, girls did every thing in it—from weaving, dairy farming, cooking, gardening, and farming to running a printing press¹². The social and economic value of being independent was no doubt the most important of all values to be taught to the Indian women. In Pune in 1879, she came into conflict with the British over their management of famine relief. Her letter to the Bombay Guardian criticizing the plague measures tells us that she had no good opinion of British rule, though she attacked it openly only in terms of her feminist concerns.

Mukti Sadan, rejected both caste distinction and gender discrimination by training women in all the areas of subsistence and profitable production. No doubt, Mukti Mission was the feminist revolution that Ramabai had for long struggled to start. Though when compared to Karve’s ‘Hindu Widows Home’, Ramabai’s institution remained marginal to the mainstream society of India. Yet its value lied in showing to the Indian society an alternative way to salvation and liberation of women in need.

Internationalism/Nationalism

All the writings of Ramabai reveal her liking for all non imperialistic western world in general and for United States in particular. For her, America was a nation of progress, equality, opportunity and of citizen’s rights-a liberal country that suited to be followed by a colonial country like India as an example to gain political freedom and social reform. Few people however realized that all her praise for America was specially highlighted in support of her nationalist and anti colonial ideas-that of building a modern India. This model for emulation was however resisted by the traditional Indian Nationalists like Tilak who refused to recognize her as an icon of progressive Indian womanhood.

In America Ramabai was largely impressed by women’s entry into the public sphere in the realm of all kinds of jobs and organizations founded with the aim of social reform. All women’s societies and clubs in the United States were inclined towards charity, promoting education, helping the destitute and so on. Such kind of organizations also existed in Britain, Germany, France, Norway, etc. According to Ramabai the reason for the existence of these organizations was that women recognized their own worth and strength and realized that enormous tasks could be accomplished if many undertook an enterprise with a single aim.

It is also important to note that the role that Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony played in mobilizing American women around the issue of political rights of women had a deep impact on Ramabai. She stressed on the need of a homogeneous society for any kind of successful movement-anti colonial one in the case of India. America truly made her realize the importance of having a civil and educated society. She also wished that Indian women could learn the value of being educated. For her American model of liberal democracy was the real model that needed to be followed-socially, politically and economically. The traditional nationalists as a result began questioning her patriotism and nationalism. As it is, in India, her religious conversion had created furor everywhere. Both the conservatives and the liberal were critical and suspicious of this deed. At personal level, Ramabai faced both social and religious reservations as far as Christianity was concerned. The social issue was over her teaching men. The Wantage authorities were against this idea since it was against the Hindu concept of women’s social and religious place. On the religious front, Ramabai questioned the Christian doctrines of Trinity. Though, she was in full support of the Bible, she often identified the notion of incarnation with the Hindu doctrine of avatars.

Ramabai’s open letters accusing the British government of helping in enforcing Brahmanic regulations and their lack of efficient management during the famines also helps us to see the nationalist side of Ramabai. She openly condemned the Britisher’s non interference in heinous crimes like sati and polygamy in the name of religion as mere excuses. It is however true that her conversion to Christianity perhaps restricted her involvement in the anti colonial movement to some extent. The little space that the patriarchal nationalist leadership provided to a social rebel in those times was well utilized by Ramabai. The beauty of her thinking lies in acknowledging the goodness of the west and realizing the shortcoming of our society. Ramabai was a nationalist thinker with an international outlook.

An Assessment of a Liberal Feminist

The story of Ramabai no doubt reveals that by integrating widows into mainstream, she was re-conceptualizing widowhood and womanhood in a way that no male reformers could ever think of. However, at times Ramabai’s personality emerges as an anti-thesis of the ideal woman—an ambitious, careerist and irresponsible mother¹³. Yet it needs to be stressed here that despite everything she strove relentlessly to achieve her goal—the emancipation of the Indian women. If Ramabai appeared confused and disturbed at places, it is only because she was a human being. Given the limitations of family support, fund and social acceptance, Ramabai did what best she could have in those circumstances. The kind of sorrows which she had to face right from her childhood, no doubt made her appear as a rigid, tough but a practical person for whom emotions had little meaning.

As far as her role of a social reformer is concerned, Ramabai triumphs as a leader who had a futuristic and modern outlook that was much ahead of the times. The issue of her religious conversion, her not being active in national struggle, all have come up from within the Hindu patriarchal society which could not easily grasp, a woman riding high on the success ladder not only nationally but also internationally. How much power and space would a male dominated nationalist struggle provided to a single widowed woman can well be anticipated. Ramabai’s love for liberalism and feminism thus rules over all her other political thoughts and establishes her as India’s one of the earliest liberal feminists—liberal because she loved and supported the notions of freedom and equality and feminist because she was all for women’s rights on the same terms as that of men.

To understand the life story of Ramabai is to understand the history of the first wave of feminism in western India¹⁴. A high caste Hindu herself, who challenged patriarchy both through her personal life and the causes she adopted for her struggle—self improvement and women’s participation in public. Her personal independence, her marriage of her own choice to a man of different caste and her conversion to Christianity truly marks her out as a liberal feminist with a secular outlook.

The life of sketch of Ramabai needs to be analysed keeping in mind the conventional Indian society of those times which had yet to understand the meaning of ‘freedom’, ‘liberty’, ‘individualism’ and ‘justice’. Liberalism followed by feminism had brightened the western world right in the 16^th and 17^th century but it had yet to gain acceptance and recognition in the class/ caste ridden Indian feudal society. Hence the actions and preachings of Ramabai need to be seen within this context. Ramabai was politically far ahead of her time in the importance she attached to individuals in general and women in particular, the indignation she displayed on their exploitation and her desire for the country to get the benefit of western notion of democracy and freedom. By subscribing to the notions of individualism, pluralistic democracy and absolute freedom Ramabai becomes one of the earliest liberals of her times and by supplementing them with her belief in equal rights for women, she also becomes one of the earliest feminists in India. The feminist and liberal ideas she propounded were revolutionary for India of her times and had tremendous influence on subsequent political thinking in India.