Discussing the shaping of Women’s Education in the presence of colonial, nationalist and community patriarchy

In the initial days of colonial rule when the rulers themselves were anxious about their competence in colonizing India and sustaining it; gaining the support of the native elite became a necessity. Funding educational aspirations of the native elites was one of the means through which they tried to establish their goodwill among the elites. This led to the establishment of colleges for studies in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic. Over the time colonizers tried to modify the manner in which these studies were carried out and taught in the these colleges so that it will aid them in better understanding of the indigenous culture which was badly needed for the administrative decision making. This led to the suspicion of the intentions of colonizers and conflict of ego among the elite natives. Increasing costs of governing the vast and diverse stretch of the colony by importing manpower from England motivated the colonizers to educate the handful of natives in the English culture. Those educated in the English were to act as intermediaries between the rulers and the ruled. This acculturation of natives with inherent expectation of loyalty from the colonizers changed the way the native culture was looked upon. Earlier the native culture which was explored with lot of curiosity and interest and held in awe by the European Orientalist’s gradually tilted towards the views of the Utilitarian’s and evangelist’s who labeled it as decadent and superstitious culture.

One of the arguments that were consistently used to establish the superiority of the culture of colonizers to that of the natives is the status of the women in native culture. Child marriage, practice of sati system, lack of girl’s education were all the issues that were constantly leveled against the rebellious natives with high self esteem to induce the inferiority among them and hence the loyalty to the colonizers. The strategy of the colonizers to legitimize their rule and hide their pecuniary motives behind humanitarian mask acted as a trigger among the natives to contemplate the ills of their own culture. The natives who eagerly took to the English education mainly did so because of the job opportunities in the colonial government rather than being completely convinced of the cultural superiority of the colonizers. Suspicion, disregard for the foreign culture and their motives stayed alive.

The issue of the girl’s education became just a psychological weapon in the hands of the colonizers to demean the native culture rather than initiating any sincere efforts towards improving the status of the women through education. The funding for the girl’s education remained abysmally low when compared to that of boy’s education all through the 18th century. Even among that private endowments from the natives contributed more than 50% of the funding for the girl’s education. This squarely questions the validity of British rhetoric of being solely responsible for the girl’s education in India. Till 1911 nowhere in the colonized India the percentage of the females accessing education went beyond the 1% of the total female population. The excuse for the meager spending on the girl’s education by British was the low enrollment rate and hence high cost per girl child to establish exclusive girl’s schools. There was hardly any assertive effort from the British to include both girls and boys in the same school which would have brought down the cost significantly and increased the accessibility to the female population. Colonizers were very conscious and anxious about disturbing the status quo in the indigenous society and mostly ambivalent in all their policies to keep their business and trading interests intact in the colony. Initially British gave in to the outcry of the native elites not to interfere in the domestic affairs of the family life and strongly opposed any move by British with regard to the girl’s education. British non interference in the education of female population continued in terms of the curriculum too. Within the natives there were again diverse opinions regarding female education. The one against female education though was most powerful initially gradually gave into the reformers like Jyothiroa Phule, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Bhaba Khem Singh etc who demanded the colonial government for the increased provision of girl’s schools and questioned the government’s lack of willingness in implementing its policies. Interestingly after the government of India act 1919 when some of the legislative powers were given to the natives the government’s share of spending on girl’s education increased. Further it was mostly as response to the increasing demand from the natives for the girl’s education.

Though the genuineness of the government efforts to promote female education is questionable it did help raise a debate on the issue among natives. All the groups were unanimous in their opinion regarding the need for female education by early 19th century. While the need for female education was well recognized by then there were diverse opinions regarding the type of education to be given to females. Indigenous society reaching this stage of just acknowledging the fact that females too need education itself is a very arduous achievement. Native culture was rife with superstitions like wife attaining widowhood if educated. In a patriarchal society with customs like sati where widowhood would literally mean disastrous for women’s life superstitions like this was a formidable deterrence for any attempt to educate the girls. Even very few like Rasundari devi who took personal interest to learning did so very secretively and had to constantly justify her interest in the name of God to help not to feel guilty. The social stigma like equating the educated girls to that of courtesans who entertained kings and officials in the court by singing, dancing etc was widely prevalent. Native culture too had its share of utilitarians who reasoned vehemently that to be a good wife, mother or sister there was not any need for education and everything that had to be learnt for domestic life could easily be learnt naturally without the help of any formal education system. And also education in colonial times was seen mostly as a gateway to government services with simmering suspicion and disregard for the alien culture. Scope for employment of women in government services during those times were beyond the imagination. Even colonizers themselves hardly had any British females in the governmental service who could have acted as role models for the native women. Girl’s education which had no foreseeable incentives had no way to become fruitful without the generous funding by the government itself. Practices like child marriage completely hindered any educational effort directed towards girls. In enrollment data, number of girls from primary to secondary education drop significantly. Early marriages curb the female education right at the beginning. Girl’s upbringing in the native culture is closely linked to the general expectations of suiting the needs of the families of prospective spouse. Superstitions together with the prevailing social norms made the female education a herculean task in the Indian context during colonial rule.

Among the factors that led to the gradual change in the attitude favorably towards girl’s education was the expectation of the natives in government services for understandable companionship. Uneducated wife would bring in significant difference and conflict in the life at home and life at work for English educated men. There was also changing perceptions towards rigid roles of gender with the acquaintance of English values. The emergence of print media during the colonial rule also aided the access to both European and native literature more frequently within their homes. The print material was no longer the luxurious possession of very few. Women and girls in house now encountered print material more often than earlier. The vibrant print media in native vernaculars becoming the vehicle of nationalistic feelings and Gandhi’s initiative to include women in the freedom struggle all helped the masses to drive themselves out of the inertia of thought. Nationalists who staunchly argued for the preservation of the indigenous culture also realized the need to reform wherever needed. Issue of status of women brought to the fore by British as an instrument of cultural hegemony made the nationalists to place themselves in a position to defend their place. This led to the wide spread deliberations on the nature of women’s education and the sponsor of girl’s schools even without the government aid. Christian missionaries took the advantage of social inequalities and succeeded in wooing the depressed castes to religious conversion through education for both boys and girls. Christian missionaries also lobbied hard for the education and equal rights of untouchables and lower castes. While the natives still discussed the curriculum for women’s education that would make them better mothers, wives and sisters few of them like Pandita Ramabhai worked towards the education of the girls and widows. Though she was accused of converting the High caste widows into Christianity and many did withdraw from her shelter the complete disregard for the widows in the society especially among upper caste held her initiative formidable. Several movements similar to this were carried forth by organizations like Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj etc. Gradually it came to be accepted educated widows working as teachers and practicing medicine. The conflict of caste as it bothered the education of the depressed castes with boy’s education continued the same in the case of women or girl’s education irrespective of the castes. There were instances of threatening the girls who attended the school with boys and out-casting them.

During the same time the nationalist’s major concern was to have agency of Indian participants in the matters of the education not exclusively females or matters related to female education. While some where struggling to fit the women’s education within the ambit of religious scriptures others came up with ideas of female education which were conservative. Female education for the latter meant teaching about religious ideals of respective religions, about the indigenous culture, about child rearing, domestic nursing, cooking, sewing etc. Females were seen as alternatives to preserve the culture which was mostly lost because of the English educated men. And also as men moved to the political sphere women were expected to take up the role of social reform. In the nationalistic fervor no matter how crudely the women’s education was visualized with complete disregard for the women’s equal rights on par with the men it did set the stage for later transformation. Many colleges that were established with these ideals later on became affiliated to the universities and started offering professional courses on par with that of men.

With regard to girl’s education of lower castes neither dominant castes nor the government did give enough thought. Lower caste’s girls mostly owed their education to the Christian missionaries and organizations like theological society and few people like Jyothiroa Phule. The usual of excuse of majority of higher castes pupil abandoning the school became a reason for the exclusion of daughters of prostitutes and other outcastes led government to constantly ignore the girl’s education of lower castes. Government also endorsed the exclusion of pupils of lower castes whose admission might affect the progress of the school for social reasons. Very high Christian presence in the female schools is said to be still evident in this regard.

Religion played a significant role in the issue of female education, in some cases positively and in other negatively. The 1901-1902 estimates of Indian government’s education departments say that the percentage of school-going girls to that of girls of school going age was just 1.9% among Hindus, 1.23% among Muslims while in the case of Christians it was 50% and Parsis nearly cent percent. Educational backwardness of the Muslim women did not come to be recognized among the members of the community until the late 19th century. The views of the community members were similar to that of early Hindu nationalists. It was observed that even rate of education among the males in the community itself was very low. Opinions like this among the community members “unless the large number of muhammedan males received the sound education educating the females among the community would be disastrous” was not of much help to the cause of education of both male and female. Instances like Muhammedan educational conference and Bombay presidency League’s demand to promote girl’s education among muslims are very few. Demands for separate schools for muslim boys and girls and observance of purdah system in secondary schools show the communities deep unwillingness to readily accept the colonial education even at the time of early 20th century.

By and large even at the time of independence women’s education was still not free from the traditional views. The focus remained on education of girls and boys separately. The debate on women’s rights and equality lost was silenced to some extent in the cry for independence. The girl’s education of lower castes too remained on the back bench hidden behind the emergent backward class political movement. The colonial government did stir up the issue of status of women in India though till the last moment it was only eager to play smart and safe with the education of girls. Caste, class and religion continue to wield their influence with regard to girl’s education slowing down the process of transformation towards equitable society with regard to gender.