WOMEN IN INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (1921–1931)

Despite the compilation of a vast corpus of literature on the multiple dimensions of India’s struggle for freedom, women’s role in the national endeavour for independence remains a much neglected subject.
The present study attempts to record and analyse women’s role in the period (1920-1934) which marked the emergence of Mahatma Gandhi on the Indian political stage; saw the launching of major mass movements across the Indian subcontinent; and witnessed women’s emergence on the ‘public space’. This study also explores how Gandhi’s vision of women inspired them to be closely associated with nationalist exertions and delineates the increasing involvement of women with the Congress movement. Not only did women vitally strengthen the Satyagraha Movement but their participation went a long way to the demolition of a colonial hegemony that sought to deny India’s ‘fitness’ for Swaraj by sighting the ‘miserable status’ of its women.
In cumulation, the study establishes that from the tentative and relatively modest participation in the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat years, to the vigorous and dynamic contribution during the Civil Disobedience era, Indian women traversed through a momentous period that constitutes not merely a stirring chapter in the country’s saga of ‘Freedom from Bondage’ but also represents a path-breaking epoch for the women’s movement in India.
In sum, the book seeks to establish that this crucial period witnessed a remarkable mutual reinforcement between the Congress and Indian women: while women’s participation enlarged the popular base of the former and enriched the qualitative aspects of Indian nationalism, the Congress facilitated and furthered the cause of women’s emancipation in Indian society.