The past in the present

Ghosh, D; Goodall, H

The past in the present

Ghosh, D Goodall, H

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Publisher:: Routledge
Publication Type:: Chapter
Citation:: Remembering Social Movements: Memory and Indian women’s politics, 2021, pp. 41-59
Issue Date:: 2021-04-02

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Ghosh, D
dc.contributor.author	Goodall, H https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8643-5624
dc.date.accessioned	2021-12-24T03:54:58Z
dc.date.available	2021-12-24T03:54:58Z
dc.date.issued	2021-04-02
dc.identifier.citation	Remembering Social Movements: Memory and Indian women’s politics, 2021, pp. 41-59
dc.identifier.isbn	9781003087830
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/152515
dc.description.abstract	The usual interpretation among non-Indian historians has been that the high visibility of women in the 1930 Gandhian-led Salt Marches marked the beginning of women’s activism. Yet, although usually very supportive of an end to colonialism, the women’s movements had lent their involvement to the Gandhian campaign often only conditionally and with much caution. The value for women appeared to have been assured soon after in the Karachi Resolutions of Congress in 1931 and then in the later Indian Constitution of 1949. This Constitution was regarded by feminists in other countries as a model to be followed for future equality. Yet in India, the disappointments of such promises to recognize the needs and rights of women had become visible very soon after Independence. The women who came together to form the National Federation of Indian Women in preparatory meetings across India in 1953 were facing the frustrations of this disappointment. They were grappling with difficult strategic and political questions around class, caste, gender, and language. Their deliberations about the form of the new organization, its priorities, and its relation to existing women’s organizations and to the Nehruvian Government were all informed by their memories of the long and active campaigns for women’s rights, which had taken place long before 1930. This chapter will first outline those movements and then suggest how the memories of them contributed to the preparatory meetings for the NFIW in 1953, leading to the inaugural meeting in Calcutta in June 1954 and then the meetings over the next year as the questions around structure and relationships were still being thrashed out.
dc.format.extent	16
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Routledge
dc.relation.ispartof	Remembering Social Movements: Memory and Indian women’s politics
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.4324/9781003087830-3
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in the book: Remembering Social Movements: Memory and Indian women’s politics Published IN 02 Apr 2021 Book Chapter Title: The past in the present Book Chapter available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003087830-3
dc.title	The past in the present
dc.type	Chapter
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CCS - Cosmopolitan Civil Societies
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/FASS Faculty Administration
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	false
dc.date.updated	2021-12-24T03:54:58Z
pubs.place-of-publication	UK
pubs.publication-status	Published
dc.location	UK

Abstract:

The usual interpretation among non-Indian historians has been that the high visibility of women in the 1930 Gandhian-led Salt Marches marked the beginning of women’s activism. Yet, although usually very supportive of an end to colonialism, the women’s movements had lent their involvement to the Gandhian campaign often only conditionally and with much caution. The value for women appeared to have been assured soon after in the Karachi Resolutions of Congress in 1931 and then in the later Indian Constitution of 1949. This Constitution was regarded by feminists in other countries as a model to be followed for future equality. Yet in India, the disappointments of such promises to recognize the needs and rights of women had become visible very soon after Independence. The women who came together to form the National Federation of Indian Women in preparatory meetings across India in 1953 were facing the frustrations of this disappointment. They were grappling with difficult strategic and political questions around class, caste, gender, and language. Their deliberations about the form of the new organization, its priorities, and its relation to existing women’s organizations and to the Nehruvian Government were all informed by their memories of the long and active campaigns for women’s rights, which had taken place long before 1930. This chapter will first outline those movements and then suggest how the memories of them contributed to the preparatory meetings for the NFIW in 1953, leading to the inaugural meeting in Calcutta in June 1954 and then the meetings over the next year as the questions around structure and relationships were still being thrashed out.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/152515