Throughout recorded history, women the world over have been held to different standards than men. They have been consistently oppressed in nearly all aspects of life, from political to personal, public to private. In the 20th century, great strides have been taken to end this oppression and level the playing field. In India however, a number of deeply rooted traditions have made this effort particularly difficult, and as a result, women's triumphs over oppression in India are all the more intriguing. To understand the position women found themselves in at the dawn of the 20th century, one must have a general understanding of the numerous historical women's conflicts unique to the Subcontinent. It took the overwhelming success of Gandhi's nonviolent revolution to unite women politically and create the an atmosphere whereby women, empowered by the times, could take a stand for their equality.

The 1970's saw the beginning of a highly organized modern women's movement in India. Violence against women was one of the main focuses of the movement. Harassment, wife-beating, rape, and "dowry deaths" were all too common, and police enforcement was ineffective as were most attempts at

The eventual partition and independence of India was seen as a tremendous success for passive resistance and the Gandhian way. In the decades to come a number of political movements would emerge that would utilize various forms of civil disobedience as their main form of protest. There was intense and organized women's participation in these movements, as a result of their participation in the independence movement there was a clear precedent for this.

Although these women mobilized formally in the name of nationalism, it was this extensive political activity that would become a catalyst for future self conscious feminism (a school of thought that was looked upon with great caution and fear). In 1917 the congress demanded that women be able to vote on the same basis as men, but these efforts to were for the progress of nationalism rather than exclusively for the improvement of women's rights.

Sati is another story. Early British rule in India was careful to stay out of the traditions and private lives of the natives. They ruled indirectly, typically demanding monetary tribute from local leaders in exchange for allowing them to rule as they pleased. This philosophy changed dramatically under the governor-generalship of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck which began in 1828. He began a much more interventionist policy that included the an increase in transportation facilities, industrialized cloth production (which displaced the ancient commercial structure) and he abolished the ancient tradition of sati (female infanticide was also outlawed by the British). The last of which caused a great rift in India's intellectuals and businessmen. Sati is an ancient Hindu tradition whereby a widow is burned in the cremation fire of her departed husband. This practice was abhorred by British missionaries and businessmen. However, to many of India's intellectuals it was an!

Bose, Sugata and Jalal, Ayesha. Modern South Asia, London, Routledge, 1997.

In response a number of movements emerged. Within these movements (such as the Marxist, the Farmers, and the Environmental movements) unified groups of women emerged and took on unprecedented responsibility. They actively and enthusiastically sought after redistribution of land and wages. The first group to cross over and actively seek out women's liberation was an organization of "new Marxists" called Magowa.

>From an unanswerable and most often unaddressed problem in the 1800's, to a hotly contested issue on the cutting edge of politics in modern times, the conflict over women's rights in India has come full circle in one century.

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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)