Mapping the Indian Women Movement from Colonial to Post-Colonial Period: An Overview

Kivitoli Swu

Affiliations:

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Zunheboto Government College, Zunheboto, Nagaland, INDIA

The women’s movement in India has been traced back from the colonial days where the western educated Indian men led reforms for women who were rigidly bounded by the cultural and religious practices based on traditional norms that was oppressive and discriminatory towards women in response to the charges of backwardness of the country based on the position and status of women by the British. Indian women soon began to participate along with their men responding to the call of Mahatma Gandhi with the symbolic expression of women as being the mother of the nation. With the independence from the foreign domination the quietude in the women’s movement was observed however very soon with the published report on the critical findings of the ‘Towards Equality Report’ in 1974, it became a watershed moment for the Indian women post independence to assert their identity through the revival of autonomous women’s movement across the socio-economic and political divides against the varied forms of exploitation towards women and the search for redressal through prompt responses and policy formulations for the ensuring equality and justice both in the theory and practice led to the efforts for the women’s development.

Keywords:
Women Empowerment, Colonial Period, Patriarchy, Equality

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