DSE-GENDER HISTORY 1500-1950

Some points to frame your thoughts around after reading the prescribed material on
Unit 3 (c) Literature, Popular Culture and Gender:

A. Important points to make note of and substantiate when reading Francisca Orsini,
“Women and the Hindi Public Sphere”

1. The crux of Orsini’s argument about the varied assertions of women’s roles as reflected in
Hindi literature of the 1920s and 1930s is on p. 244 and pp. 304 (bottom) to 308.

2. The chapter from Orsini’s book shows us that we need to look at the literature produced in
the Hindi belt during the 1920s and 1930s to get a sense of the fact that by then women were
not mere objects of the ‘woman’s question’ or of patriarchal recasting. By this period, the
various genres of writing in Hindi (particularly those reflected in journals like Chamd) reveal how
some women who had been granted some access to education, the public media, and had also
developed a share in public life (as facilitated by mass nationalism of the period), took up the
task of questioning prescribed roles for women, the double-standards of men in married life, the
larger norms of society, etc.

3. Women’s voices may not automatically represent autonomy from dominant values. The
tensions of negotiating with these values are evident in the writings that appeared in women’s
journals and in women’s sections of general journals. [FOR DETAILS, SEE pp. 306-07 – Chamd
journal being an exception in the 1920s; pp. 261- 2 (stri-upyogi literature), pp. 290 (Gandhian
brand of nationalism and images of women)].

However, while expressing dominant values to a certain extent, male and female voices on
women’s issues did differ. [FOR DETAILS, SEE p. 305 (different approaches between men and
women with respect to the question of women’s education), pp. 288-89 (critique of Hindu family
in social romance genre used in women’s journals)].

4. Peculiarities of early twentieth century Hindi journals edited by women (e.g. Grahlaksmi,
pp.261-62) vis-à-vis other journals in circulation are worth noting. There were also differences
between the various emerging women’s journals (for e.g. the differences in the focus of issues
that the Grahlaksmi journal reflected and the weightage to certain issues given by the journal
Stri-darpan and later the journal Chamd, pp.264-70).

5. The strengths of the journal Chamd in comparison to other journals is well discussed on pp.
272-75 (general critiques launched against the category of stri-upyogi – the assertion of the
right to feel and need to renegotiate norms concerning the family and women’s roles ),
and pp. 284-89 (the story of Kamla). Also pay attention to the changes that seep into the journal
Chamd once the editor, Ramrakh Sahgal left – how the journal became solidly middl-class in
nature, thereby excluding a wider audience of women and their issues.
6. The nationalist trope and women’s writings in Hindi with the 1930s marking a watershed in
such writings. Before 1930 (Civil Disobedience), the nationalist propaganda was more fleeting
and restricted to the between the lines. This changed in the 1930s and a popular image around
which writings emerged was that of the ‘svyamsevika’. [PAY ATTENTION TO THE STORY OF
KESAR, pp. 297-99 – the thing to note in this story is how gender and caste oppression are
resolved through empowerment that comes with the woman protagonist joining the nationalist
movement].