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Chitra Nair
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Chitra Nair

Chitra Nair

Prof. Patrick French and TCA Raghavan

The Historical Moment

25th November, 2018

The Impact Of British Rule On The Socio Economic Conditions Of

Indian Women

In the short fifteen years of her life, Binodini had never been in such an excruciating position
before – something which she didn’t believe would have happened before since her life hadn’t
been exactly pleasant

Since her birth, she was always the burden that no one wanted to bear. Her entire family
thought she was the worst misfortune that fell upon them and made it very clear to her every
single day of her life.

Then, at the tender age of nine, she got married off to a man as old as her own father. By the
time she came of age at thirteen, Binodini was packed off and sent to her new home.

Her husband, who was much older, was cold and unwelcoming. His family was even worse –
they constantly reprimanded her for not bearing them a grandson.

Yet, when she actually became pregnant, her husband fell ill in the grievous of ways. No matter
how hard she nursed him in her weakened state, his condition worsened with time… until last
night…

When he breathed his last.

All hell broke loose. The women in the household wailed for the son they’d lost and viciously
attacked her and her unborn baby for being cursed. The men gathered together, anxiously
discussing who’d get the bigger share of her dead husband’s property.

And there were so many people rushing in and out, relishing the pandemonium and softly
whispering in Binodini’s ears that instead of subjecting herself to a traumatic widowhood, it
was better…
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To join her husband in death.

Now, as Binodini came out of the shadows and arrived as the funeral pyre was being lit near
the bank, she took a deep breath.

She had decided – she was going to going to join her husband in death.

Binodini wasn’t the only one. A lot of Indian women went through such inner turmoil during
the 17th and the 18th century.

This is what India had now reduced to in the 19th Century. From an ancient civilization that
prided in its equality of genders and allowed both genders to flourish, India had now become
a fragmented array of kingdoms, where women were left to being subordinate human beings
with no rights of their own.

Unlike the men, women were never educated. Their consent was never asked for marriage.
Once married off, they had no vested rights in properties of their birth families nor that of their
husband’s. If they had children, they were expected to bear sons or bear the loss of their
daughters due to the rampant female infanticide prevalent in those times. If their husband died,
they only had two options – either to commit Sati or live a life of an excruciating widowhood.

However, when the British arrived and started establishing their rule, things started changing
for them. The British, though often criticized in the history for destroying India’s wealth and
society for their private gains, did put forth a lot of reforms which changed the lives of the
women for better.

In my term paper, I will analyse how the British Imperial Rule in India affected the socio-
economic conditions of women positively through key acts such as the Bengal Sati
Regulation Act, Widow Remarriage Act and Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act in
India during the early 20th Century up to the Independence period.

Through this term paper, I will go in depth with the aforementioned Acts and how they had a
socio-economic impact on the women in the society of those times. I will also highlight the
importance of the various reformers such as Rammohan Roy and Vidyasagar, who strived to
change the system due to the Western ideologies that they were inspired by.

ABOLITION OF SATI
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One of the most cardinal ideologies of colonization and the Imperial rule was to improve the
standards of living of the barbaric colonies under them and make them appreciate the refined
British way of life.

The British Empire achieved that by making a series of reforms, one of which was to abolish
the practice of Sati, the act of self-immolation by a woman after the death of her husband.

Although act of Sati was banned first in 1798 in Calcutta, it continued to happen throughout
the early 19th century. In fact, by 1803, there were 438 reported cases of Sati within the 30
mile radius of Calcutta. By 1818, the incidences of Sati had shot up to 839.

But it wasn’t until the year 1828, when a stringent ban on Sati was made by Lord William
Bentinck. This move was made possible due to the strong campaigns by the “First Liberal of
India” Rammohan Roy.

He read all the Indian scriptures to prove that Sati wasn’t a compulsion. Throughout his
campaign, he fought with various Hindu groups who were in support of Sati and wrote
extensively about the evil side of it. In his work, “A Conference Between An Advocate for and
an Opponent of the Practice of Burning Widows Alive”, he strongly condemned the practice
of Sati and lamented the fact that “women were dependent and exposed to every misery but
you (that is, the reader), feel for them no compassion that might exempt them from being tied
down and burnt to death.”

Then, by December 4th, 1829, Lord Bentinck imposed the Bengal Sati Regulation. This soon
trickled down to Madras and Bombay Presidencies. Following this, from 1840 onwards, the
princely states started banning the practice. Finally, by 1861, Sati was banned all over the
country by Queen Victoria.

WIDOW REMARRIAGE

The alternative to Sati, in 18th and 19th Century India, was debilitating widowhood.

After the death of their husbands, widows were touted to be bad omens and were held
responsible for their husbands’ deaths. They were forced to have their heads shaven and live
in widow houses, where they’d spend the rest of their lives in prayers and ascetism. If one was
widowed at childhood, she was brought back to her house and forced to undertake some
strenuous amount of labour. Moreover, they had no rights to property, because of which, they
had to depend on their relatives. (Verma, 2005)
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Because of this pitiful scenario, a lot of young widows ended up in prostitution, where they
enjoyed some amount of autonomy.

However, this changed when the reformer, Vidyasagar came into the fray.

Moved by the plight of his friend’s young daughter, who was widowed at a young age,
Vidyasagar too started crusading for the rights of the widows. He, like Roy, read the scriptures
and strongly made the case to the Government that widow remarriage was not a crime.

As a result of this, on 26th July, 1856, Widow Remarriage Act was passed.

This move raised a lot of furore and strong opposition, but with time, there was a slow rise in
the remarriages of widows. By 1928, close to 18,051 widows, across communities, remarried.
(Mazumdar, 1950)

WOMEN’S RIGHT TO PROPERTY

In spite of women, especially widowed women, having the rights to remarry and women started
getting educated, their condition was still pitiable. They were still subjected to a lot of stigma
and worse, a lot of women were still dependent on their male relatives for their properties.

This was why, when the Hindu Women’s Right To Property Act came in the year 1937, it was
a welcome change.

This act allowed women, especially widowed women to the properties of their spouses. For
widowed women, it went to three kinds of widows: 1) The intestate man’s widow 2) the
predeceased son’s widow and 3) the predeceased grandson’s widow.

The Act was a landmark one because it finally gave women property rights which had never
happened before.

THE OTHER SIDE

On a general parlance, the three aforementioned Acts have been lauded by many as key
movements which have helped better the lives of women, which had hit an all-time low during
the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet, there have been criticisms for the three Acts.

For the abolition of Sati, in spite of the 1829’s Act and the successive Penal Code ban in 1860,
there have been cases reported. Between the years 1943 and 1987, around 30 cases of Sati had
been reported. In 1987, there was the horrifying case of Roop Kanwar, the 18-year-old widow
who jumped into her husband’s funeral pyre.
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Because of this, critics then began to question if the reforms enforced by the British were truly
effective or not.

However, I would like to counter that by saying that immediately after Roop Kanwar’s
incident, the Government enforced the Commission of Sati Prevention Act, 1987, which also
contributed significantly to the reduction of Sati.

In the recent past, there have been very few cases of Sati and the attempted Satis have been
stopped by the locals who witnessed it. This goes to show that the government reforms (even
the ones of the past), have been (and continue to) be majorly successful in eradicating a social
evil that had been prevalent since the medieval period.

Moving on to the plight of widows. Though there have been significant changes in the lives of
widows due to the advent of education and modernization and the Acts enforced, the stigma of
widowhood hadn’t left as yet.

According to “Gender and Imperialism in British India” by Liddle and Joshi (1985), the
British’s encouragement of prostitution worked against their drive for the Widow Remarriage
Act because many widows, especially from the upper castes, were a part of prostitution.

However, to this, I would like to counter by saying, this was much before the other laws, such
as the Right to Property Laws had been enforced and this was much before active steps were
taken to educate women and they started fighting for their rights.

Moving on to rights, even the Hindu Women’s Right To Property Act (1937) came with its set
of flaws. For one, it was stated in the law that after the widow, the property would go back to
a male relative from her deceased spouse’s side and not to her side of the family. Moreover,
there was also the issue that it didn’t take agricultural land into consideration.

But, for these, I would like to point out that the Hindu Succession Act (1956) and its successive
amendments worked on those loopholes and now, women enjoy their rights to properties across
the country.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I would like to reinforce my thesis that the British Rule in India did have a
positive impact on the socio-economic conditions of women. As a result of this, women ended
up accomplishing great things.
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During the Independence period, there were many women who stood up and protested hard to
make a difference. After Independence, there were women who ended up taking important
leadership roles, started their own businesses and made a difference with the work that they
did. And today, the Indian women and girls are leading lives that are far better than those in
the medieval past.

Yes, I agree that the reforms mentioned above have had their fallacies and also to the fact that
there are still a lot of reforms to be done, but one can’t ignore the impact on the socio-economic
conditions that has been created due to the reforms undertaken in the British rule. There is still
a long way to go, but whatever we, as a society, have accomplished with regards to gender is
commendable indeed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Roy, Rammohan, “A Conference Between An Advocate for and an Opponent of the

Practice of Burning Widows Alive”, 1818
2. Guha, Ramachandran. Makers of Modern India. New Delhi: Penguin India. Print
3. Sen, Asok. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and His Elusive Milestones. New Delhi:
Permanent Black in Association with Ashoka University. Print
4. Mill, John Stuart. “ The Subjugation of Women”, 1869
5. Bayly, C.A. “Rammohan Roy and the Advent of Constitutional Liberalism in India,
1800-30” Vol 4. PP. 25-41
6. Kadam, Surabhi. “Social Condition of Women During 18TH Century India” History
Discussion. Web. 24 Nov. 2018 <http://www.historydiscussion.net/history-of-
india/social-condition-of-women-during-eighteenth-century-in-india/6043>
7. Tharakan M Sophie, Tharakan, Michael. “Status of Women in India: A Historical
Perspective” Vol. 4, No. 4/5, Special Number on Women (Nov. - Dec., 1975), pp. 115-
123 (9 pages), Web. 25 Nov. 2018, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516124?read-
now=1&seq=8#page_scan_tab_contents>
8. “Sati (practice)”, Wikipedia, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)>
9. “Indian Women Still Commit Ritual Suicides”, https://www.rt.com/news/india-ritual-
suicide-sati/, Web. 25 Nov. 2018
10. Hatcher, Brian. “Remembering Rammohan: An Essay on the (Re‐)emergence of
Modern Hinduism”, Vol. 46, No. 1 (August 2006), pp. 50-80 (31 pages), Web. 25
Nov. 2018,
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<https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/507928?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&se
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12. Haldar, Debarati. Jaishankar, K. “Property Rights Of Hindu Women: A Feminist
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and Political Weekly, Vol. 20, No. 43 (Oct. 26, 1985), pp. WS72-WS78 (7 pages),
Web. 25th November, 2018
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Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&refreqid=search
%3Abeda84900f6d1330d2a7950e0ada6997&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents>

Laws Referred To Across Various Websites:

1. Bengal Sati Regulation Act, 1829

2. Widow Remarriage Act, 1856
3. Hindu Women’s Right To Property Act came in the year 1937

Link to creative poem on the topic:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/14sdFn0pDPpqOy9NbaWrq3emRWyGpcV_A