Condition of Bengali Women Around the 2nd Half of the 19th Century

Table of contents :
1. The patterns of normal Domestic Life
2. Women Outside the Home
3. Education for Women
4. Christian Missions at Work
5. Glimpses of Economic Life
6. Sidelights into Organised Activity
7. A Gallery of Women

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CONDITION OF BENGALI WOMEN AROUND TBI 2ad HALF OF THE 19' CEITORY

Dr. (Mrs.) Usha Cbakraborty M.A. (Cal.), Ph.D.(Jadav.)

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CALCUTTA July 1963

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The literature on Bengal in the 19th oentury is indeed volumnious, and yet there are many aspects of Bengali life which have not yet been 1rormal Domeatic Life (i) Life before Marriage (ii) Married Women (iii) Kulin Polygamy (iv) Brahmo Marriages (v) Muslim Marriages (vi) Lowerclass H indu Marriages (vii) Marriage amongst the Aboriginals (viii) Princely Marriage• (i:a:) Some Unusual Marriages (x) Uppercaste Hindu Widows (xi) Widow Marriage (xii) Other Widows

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Cbapt.r D : Women Out.aide the Home (i) Prostitution (il) An Attemt at Rehabilitation (iii) Beggars (ix) Social Delinq uenciee (v) Suicides

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Cbapterm: Educaiion for Women (i) Home Education (ii) . Formal General Education (iii) Technical Education (Medical) (iv) Teachers' Training (v) Vocational Training

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Chapter IV : Chri1tian Mi88iODI at Work

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Glimpeee of Eeonomic Life

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Chapter VI : Sidel ights into Organised Activity ( i l Social Act ivitie s (ii) Polit ical Work Claa ptu

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A Gallery of Women (i) Bhai rabi Jogeswari (ii) Maha rani Swama moye e (iii) Bama sund ari (iv) Drab amoy ee (v) Manorama Maju mder (vi) Toru Datt a/Dat t (vii) Aghorell:amini Roy (viii) Swar naku mari Debi (ix) Mank umar i Basu (x) Lilab ati Mitra (xi) Ka.mini Roy (xii) Binodini (xiii) Sara.la Debi (xiv) Nage ndrab ala Mustafi (xv) Begam Rokea Sakh awat B osain (xvi) Barojini Naid u

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I . Books by Bengali Women (alph abeti cally arran ged) 147 II, Bengali Women in J ourna lilm ... 184

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List of periodicals, with dates of commencement, with which Bengali women came to be connected editorially (chronologically arranged) •••

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List with dates of women-editora (alphabetically arranged)

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III. Other Journals for Bengali Women (A) Liat of other periodicals, with de.tee of commencement, eerving the cause of women (chronologically arranged)

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List with dates of editors in the cause of women (alphabetically arranged)

IV. Bengali Women Graduates (A) M.A.'S (B) B.A.'S

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Note1 For Chapter I.

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CBAPI'ER I

THE PATl'ERNS OF NORMAL DOMESTIC LIFE During the Be-Oond half of the 19th century, the birth of a girl-ohild was still considered to be a mishap by many families in Bengal, specially e.mong the higher caste Hindus. The pregnant wife would continuously pray to the Almighty for the birth of a me.le ohild as the.t would enbe.nce her standing in family e.nd sooie.1 circles. The life of a Bengali girl might thus begin very often under a shadow of reproaoh. From childhood e. girl might very well be brought up in relative negleot, She would pick up however from her mother the ve.rious brataa or feminine methods of propitie.· ting deities and to eome extent e.lso the household work. 1 Only a ·few had th"e chance of attending any schools, and in most oases even such education would be ended by early me.rriage.2 For the higher-caste girls the marriage e.ge might be e.s low as ten and this was called Gaundan, or giving in marriage in emule.tion or' the legendary Gau~, and dowries had to be pe.id as e. rule.3 It was possibly this heavy eoonomio burden whioh made the birth of a daughter a matter of such regret and concern to so many pe.rents. The minor wife in her husband's home was not infrequently almost a piece of property. She had· ·hardly any individual rights in the modem sense till, in courso of time, she might by che.nce become the 'commanding mother' of the joint family,' A girl-wife might be roundly abused. for her domestic ineffioiency, eometimes even for the inadequate gifts she had brought from her parental roof. 6 But often enough such stormy days wo1Jld pass e.nd the married woman eettled down to a contented life, gathering round her the trust and affeotion of her husband and the love and respect of the children. In the normal life or a Bengali woman, 1hadowa alternated with sunshine and

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it would be illogio&l to insist on the darker side too much. On the whole, the range was l imited in comparison with modern standards and the chance of free development stunted. But whether the 19th oentury Bengali woman was more unhappy or happier thau her descendant of to-day is of course an imponderable, falling outside the scope of historical study. (i)

Life before Marriage The period of unmarried life for a higher.caste Bengali Hindu girl would usually cover her firat decade. ° For the first few years girls were brought up on the same lines as the boys ; their special recreation however would be playing with dolls, 1 Charaoteristic responsibilities oame The mother when they passed the fifth year of life. s would then begin to teach a girl in her own way various tasks to make her fit in well in a Hindu Bengali home : the arts of cookery, sewing, alpana or floor-decorations ; the maintenance of oleanliness and orderly arrangements in a household ; and worship of family gods.9 A large part of a girl's time was spent however in the performance of various brataa which were mainly aimed at earning divine favour for the coming days. The girls were trained to have full faith in the efficacy of these brala8 and would vow to live the rest of their lives according to the speoi.6ed ideals. The various bralaa were regarded as the means of achieving ideal womanhood, following the footsteps of the legendary 'good women' of ancient Hindu lore ; of winning a good husband with long life, well-disposed parents-in-law and kindly relations ; of attaining salvation of one's own soul and bliss for family members. A typioal brata was the DaaapuUalilca in the Bengali month of Bai8akh. Ten figures were drawn on the ground and prayers were offered to ea.oh of them in turnembodying an appropriate wish ; to have a husband like

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LIFE BEFORE MARRIAGE

Ramchandra, a father-in-law like Da.aaratha, a debar or husband's junior brother like Lakshmana, a mother-in-law like Kausalya ; to attain ohastity like Sita, efficienoy in cooking like Draupadi ; to be blessed with ohildren like Kunti, i o true womanhood like the goddeea Darga, tranquility like the river Ganga, and forbeara.noe like the Mother Earth. 11 Attending school was no longer considered to be prejudicial, unlike at the beginning of ihe 19th century. Still only a few .could or would attend aohoola. Even suoh formal education as noted above was in most caeee t.erminated by early marria.ge. Some of those that stayed unmarried would sometimes venture into the higher forms of formal education with the remodelling of the Bethune &nd a few other higher schools in the last quarter of the 19th century. Such women married late; they would sometimes pursue theit· study at home or in sohools and colleges. A few became aa prominent as the men,lll But the proportion wa.s insignificant, as few guardians would permit such departures from the normal. In 1881 only '87 per oent of women attended formal schools. '!'he figure was I ·61 %in 1891, 1·8% in 1901and4'3% in 1910. 13 On the other hand the poorer class of lower oaate women were married usually a bit later in life. Here in moat oases there wa1 no demand for dowry16 and so the birth of a girl·ohild was not a matter of suok regret in the poorer homes. Few poor girls could attend the sohools ; nor would they undertake the brataa for imaginary good luck in future. 'fhey ha.d to learn to face hard life with oourage and toil. They aocompanied their parents to the fields to share in the work there. The training that they got helped them in life afier mll'l'iage to stand beside their husbands in their labour and not beoome parasites on them.11 But of course all was not well with the poor women -0f Bengal. The e0oia.l order was such in t.ho1e days that the toiler ha.d no surplu1 for the future and periodical

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CHAP1ER I

drought or flood and famine forced hungry parents sometimes· even to sell their unmarried daughters. 16 Stealthily such unfortunate girls paBSed into the hands of evil men and ended up as prostitutes. I 7 A few came to the custody of Christian missionaries who no doubt indoctrinated them with Christianity but gave them at. least a fairly honourable exietenoe.1 s · · Like the Hindus, Muslim girls led usually a secluded -life. They would neither attend schools,· nor perform the idolatrous brataa. They had however certain legal rights on parental or their own property which their Hindu sisters did · not possess. •

(ii)

Married Women. During the second half of the 19th century marriage fu Bengali society was naturally different in form in different -sections of the people. With the Hindu upper classes marriage was not often considered as primarily an union between two partners to raise up a new family, but as a social institution to serve the ·whole household of the bridegroom.19 The bride in such cases was almost a piece of property passing from one family to another. The relation between a young couple in . such cases was forced into the background. '.Marriage assumed the character ·of family alliances rather than individual partnerships.20 Girls · were · married mostly juijt above the age of ten after the passing of the 'Age of Consent Act of 1860' which prescribed a minimum age of ten for the marriage of a girl, and twelve after the amendment of the Act in 1892,il Mothers-in-law became real guardians 0£ child-wives and in very many cases they had very little 11ympathy for the new-comers. The minor girl could hardly realise what marriage was. The Sorwpraka8h narrates a case where the

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MARRIED WOMEN

school master had to appear in the arena with his school cane to force a fidgety child to be married,22 There waa of course no divorce permitted under the traditional Hindu law and marriage was a life-long affair. The partlah system in upperolass society made the woman's position worse as they had little opportunity to .see the the outer world to broaden their minds. Custom forbade a 'respectable' married lady to take a walk even for a short distance out of the house, or to talk even to a relative from her father's family in the absence of her new guardians, as it would lower her husband's prestige. Upper class women were of course trained from their very childhood to submit to their elders and not to question their authority.2s Traditional thinking could thus be easily perpetuated and constant emphasis laid on the ideals of the golden past. . · The list of daily duties for a young housewife makes interesting reading. In the morning she wonld rise earlier than the other members . of the family. After taking the dust of her hneband's feet, she waited for the orders of the inother-in-law. She wonld. sweep the house, scour the dishes~ prepare food for the two major . meals and take care of her children.2"' · She must not, even when hungry, take any meal before the males of the household bad been fed. She went to sleep last of all in the household. H the family was poor, she had also to attend to the cows, prepare cowdung cakes for firing,12~ make nettings for hanging articles and Kanlhaa or coverlets for the winter, draw alpaniu on the floor and wooden seats, and attend to the fire places of the house.2 9 If rich, the wife would be spared heavy toil, but sometimea rich husbands indulged in illicit amours with complete immu· nity.2.7 Indeed, the life of women in the inner apart· menl& ( anda.r, anlahpur) constituted for the upperolaas women a world of its own, sharply distinct from the outer world of the menfolk.

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In orthodox Hindu homeJ, the voice or foot-etepe of the husband would urge a wife even in daytime to move In many cases, a wife away to the inner apartmenta.2s would be scolded for ihe smallest fault, by her husband, mother-in-law or other eldere.ll9 A young wife would sometimes not be allowed to go at will to her paternal home. There were oaaes on the other hand when wivea were sent back to their people for the failure to fulfil the financial undertakings promised to the bridegroom's family at the time of the wedding. so The child wife was in many cases neglected by the hnsband or mother-in-laws 1 even in cases of illness. The death rate between the age of 13 and 21 was greater in the case of women than with the menfolk and the exce88 mortality mostly affected the younger women in the prime of their married lives. s 2 The strict pardah system, the insanitary condition of the house, the early motherhood, repeated child birth, s s non-nutritious diet, the selection of the worst room for confinement-all culminated in the prevalence of anaemia and respiratory diseases, particularly tuberouloais. s• Many children would be born unhealthy 8 ~ and the child-mother could take little care of her offspring. Thie increased the rate of infant mortality and morbidity. Young wives were sometimes denied, fish or milk, the common source of vitamin in the Bengali diet, as it was considered unseemly to devote much attention to the question of proper food for them. That such conditions did not min our women's health must have been due to the sin:iple largely rural life of our people in a more or less healthy atmosphere. . It was not rare to find harasement by the mother-in.Jaw and other elders if the newly-marred bride could not bear a child in a reasonable period of time. The fault was always the wife's. The mother-in-law might even argue that if her BOD did not have a male descendant, the family would terminate and there, would be difficulty in attending periodically

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MARRIED · WOMEN

to the departed ancestral spirits, as custom demanded. The way out then woultl be the re-marriage of the eon of the house. The argument was inescapable aocording to the traditional reasoning that wives were meant to bear children, especially sons who alone by their performance of the requisite rites could save the father from perdition after death. Wives might even be compared to the crabs who usually die after an iasue. In case of euch second marriages, the position of the first wife became of course even more deplorable. When a wife was permitted to visit her own people, her joy knew no bounds. The emotions of such returns are enshrined in the spirit or the chief annual religious festival of the Bengali Hind•1s.se B11t s11ch happiness would not last long and quite soon wives had to go back to the haebands' home. The ht'avy heart which the young wife would carry back with her has bt"en a favourite theme in our literature.37 The picture drawn above is grim and perhaps over-drawn. It is based on contemporary writing which v.. as touched of course by the new reetleee thoughts of incoming modernism. Even then we find recorded instancee where the newly married wife was cared for by her mother-in-law more than anybody else.. Rashsundari Debi indeed noted in her r.utobiogrophy ( the first of ite kind in Bengal ) that 11he went to her husband's house at the age of twelve and wa's brought up on her mother-in-law's lap with utmoet care and sympathy. She rarely could distinguish her mother-in-law from her natural mother in terms of love and affect.ion.as There were others who after passing their struggling early life got fall honour and position in the hasband's house when they became in turn the 'commanding mother' of the big family. s 9 In the Tagore household of Jorasanko, the wife had some opportunity and an .bonoured position like the male members. Wives in such families had tutors, would take meals along with others, and one or two even then could go for a walk or ride out.• 0 Amongst the protestant Brahmo community, the

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equality of women with men wa.s admitted at least theoretically ; · this was proclaimed for instance ~n one of the famous hymns eung i11 the streets ( in nagar-aan.lcirta~ ) by the young Brahmos in the sixties of the 19th century. Some women again became prominent in Bengal's cultural life in later 19th century-proving thereby that the average intell·. ~ctua.l difference between Beng.i.li brothers and sisters was only man-made.•1

( iii ) Kulio ·Polygamy Yet the · gloomy picture in so many lives cannot be dismissed as totally unreal as the propagandists of the traditional golden past try to ma.ke it out. There were also other features in the lives of our women in the period. Polygamy in upperclass society was perhaps increasing, according to some· in alarming proportions. The highest of the upper caste Hindus, the kulin. Brahmins, were indeed notorious for it.•2 Economic change ·was in this period going on in Bengali society•s and the Brahmins as a whole suffered much as they were supposed not to work in any productive occupation. The /cul-in. Brahmins therefore used their high social position as an effeetive means of livelihood. I~ 1871 · it was found that 33 kulin. Brahmins of Hooghli District were married to 2151 women.•• These ~!in Brahmius did not of course live with their wives, nor did they maintain them.•~ On the contrary they used to visit their wives in turn ·jn search of gifts and money. They · sometimes lived ·in the house of the particular wife whose father was rich enough to eettle land and house on the son-in-law. The fathers of the poor :w.ives had to invite the son-in-law on promise of giving some money even if it meant much hardship. Most of these 'wives' got· neither love nor any sufficient right to the husbands' property. Very

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KULIN POLYGAMY

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many of them lived on with their paternal . relatives even after their fathers' death and they of course had a. raw Qea.l. !lia.ny such uofortuoa.te wives were driven by the pressure of circumstances or their unsatisfied inclinations to prosti. tution, abortion or suicide. The Chief Magistrate of Calcutta. reported in 1853 that in the metropolis of 4 ·lacs there were ~bout 10,000 Hindu prostitutes including several kulin Brahmin wives. The knlin practices affected adversely the older liberal marriage forms. Kulin girls were not allowed to marry in lower ranking non-kulin families . Yet custom demanded ~arriage . at about IO years. To give in marriage a kulin daughter was thus a difficult problem in these days, There was a great demand for a proper kulin bridegroom. The kulin Brahmins exploited this advantage and asked for higher dowries. The poorer fathers pre88ed hard by social tradition gave daughters in marriage perforce to kulin Brahmins who were already married, as such bridegrooms demanded On very rare oocMions a kulin Brahmin less money. 4 8 might live with more than one wife, but in . that case life itself became intolerable through the jealousy of the co.wives and the helplessness of the husba.nd.47 After the widow Marriage Act XV of 1856,48 a large scale movement was started to stop the practice of polygamy a.s we~I. A monster. petition of 25,000 was sent to the Gevernment. to prevent polygamy. On 19 March 1866 another appeal was made through Sir Cecil Bea.don, a good friend of Bengali society, · to the Government. These appeals could not . succeed as polygamy was still supported by very many people, though the Sambad Prabhakar, a contemporary news·paper, reported as early as 1856 that three or four kulin wives themselves had sent proteet petitions to the Governor•General'e Executive Council against this practice.4.9 Failing to secure a legal prohibition, one of the leaders

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of the protest, Rashbehari Mukhopadbyay, tried to introduce a new form of marriage within the same sectional group of castes, instead of sticking strictly to one's apeoifio caste. In 1282 B. S. (1875) he gave hie daughter io marriage and in 1284 (:S. S. 1!;j77) his son, and next another daughter, by breaking through the tradition of marriage customs in Bengali kuZin society. 60 But this experiment failed to win favour in the upper caste Hindu society. However, the agitation had brought some good to kulin. wives. The Bamabodliini Patnka of 1277 B.S. (1870) narrates a case in which n, kulin wife sued her husband in court and got a maintenance decree of Ra. 15/ • a month. 6 1 The husband could not pay it and went to prison in exchange. A turning point was approaching when polygamy would begin to be disgraced in Bengali social opinion. By the turn of the century, the practice was teginning to pass away, not through legislation but through the pressure of the changing social climate. (iv) Br1hmo Marriages

In 1861, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, father of Rabindranath, introduced a form of simplified marriage, excluding definitely the idolatrous portion in the orthodox Hindu rites. He gave in marriage his daughter only after she had reached 14 (contrary to the usual age of IO to 12).6 2 Such marriages became readily popular io his Brahma Samaj, aud this simple non-idolatrous from of marriage (eschewing the traditional symbols of aalgram atone or sacred fire ) is followt>d even to·day by the handful of adi or origiaal Brahmos and is popularly called the Vaidik form of marriage. The progressive younger Brahmos went further in arrang· ing an intercaste marriage within the Brahmofold. In 1864 Parbaticharan Das, a Brahmo, married an accomplishei

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BllAHMO MARRIAGES

widowed girl of a different Hindu caste by folllilwing the new simplHied procedure introduced by Debendranath, But this bold step by the younger group with Keahab chandra Sen aa its leader created a cleavage among the Brahmos• . The older group was headed by Debendrar1ath and the younger group led by Keshabohandra Sen. The yonnger group persisted in their ohosen path and their marriages began to approach the western model. They introduced mutual marriage vows instead of aamprodan (or giving away of the bride by her guardian) and prayers and hymn.singing in the vernacular in course of a marriage. In December 1866, Prasannakumar Sen, a Brahmo, married Rajlakshmi Mitra by exchange of mutual vows. Thus was evolved the standard Brahmo form of marriage service still in practice with . Brahmos of the Nababidhan and the Badharan varieties. In 1868 the Brahmo Samaj of India felt doubtful about the legal validity of this form in intercaste marriages. Keshabohandra, thereupon, succeeded in introducing a bill in the viceregal council to legalise indirectly the new form of marriage. It was called the Native Marriage Bill and provided a civil form of marriage applicable to non· Christiana. This civil ceremony, supplementing the religious form, was to safeguard the validity of unorthodox marriages. The orthodox Hindus opposed the bill vehemently and succeeded in holding it up for two years at the select committee stage of consideration. The orthodox argu&Dent was that Hindu marriage being a sacrament, the State has no right to interfere with it through a registration which was a 'godleSB' civil ceremony. In the meantime the new non-idolatrous form of marriage first introduced by the Brahrnoa in Bengal spread to other parts of India like Bombay, Lucknow and Madras. In 1871, th& Law Member, James Stephen, in view of the great

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opposition from orthodox · Hindus, ·modified the · ~ative Marriage Bill to apply to the Brahmos only in · the name of Brahmo Marriage Bill. l\iany Bra.hmos who had so long been claiming themselves to be Hindus felt this new move as a danger since it would separate them frm the rest of the pa.rent Jµndu community. Therefore Debendranath;· tbe leader of the. . older Brahmos (Adi group), resisted· the new Bill. It had to be renamed as the Special ·Marriage Biil and it was passed in 1872 as Act III of the year. Under the Act, t.he parties had to admit during marriage, which ·.was to be monogamous with the bride having reached · 14 years at least, that they professed no particular established Indian religion. Thus ostensibly the new law would not apply only to Brahmos, but would remain open to all who were willing to renounce the orthodox religions. The reformers were at last victorious, at least to the extent of securing a. legal marriage form free from the baneful practices of early marriage and polygamy, and permitting intercaste marriage as well. The liberal Brahmos also felt ~o compunction in renouncing the orthodox religion of Hindu society in view of the advantages Their standard westernised secured by new la.w~~ s marriage service was now inya.riably eupplemented by ·the civil 'registration' under Act III. This : 'double' marriage has become the ·norm in the Brabmo community ever since. Act III of 1872 came also to be conveniently applied Pandit lswarchandra to subsequent widow marriages. Vidyasagar, the real author of the Widow Marriage .Act of· 1856, freely admitted the : advantages of Act Ill of 1872 in guaranteeing monogamous and A.dolt marriage. 6' Yet the 'no-religion' declaration obligatory under the Special Marriage Act of 1812 did tend to separate the progressive Bra.hmo community, which availed itself of this form, from Hindu society, as Maharshi Debendranath had feared.

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MUSLIM MARRIAGES

:The separation which marked off . the Brahmos from the parent body ·did perheps contribute . towards the slowing up of the process of reformation -within the life of the major religion of India. It also stimulated. the Hindu 'revivalism' in the last quarter of the 19th century, as an offensive against heterodoxy.

( .v ) Muslim Marriages The Muhammodan marriage was a purely civil contract between a man and a woman to become partnere.~ 6 There was in Bengal little polygamy within the Muslim community, as indicated by a statistical relationship of as many as 1000 men to 10_33 women. Widow re-marriage was common with the Mu_sli.J;ns. 5 0 There was no dowry demanded from the bride's father. 6 7 Early marriage was Iese common than among the Hindus. 6 8 On attainment of puberty, the minor Muslim wife had a choice of accepting her husband or not and .her guardian was supposed to have no right to interfere, in l!harp contradistinction to the upper caste Bindu women who :were denied by a persistent tradition the right of chooaing husbands. In Mohammedan Law, the man was never the master of his wife but only a protector, bound to show her every fairness. The wife had her rights and more respect was paid to her position. Divorce was permissible and the husband had to compensate if the move came from his side. Muslim women had some right to parental property as well as to the personal property assigned to them. The widow might even . be remarried at her first husband's expense, We see therefore a striking contrast between Muslim and Hindu widows ; the Hindu widow unlike her Muslim sisters was virtually: a pauper, even if her father or husband was wealthy. 5 9 It ill indeed a sociological problem of some interest as to how· the Hindu and Muslim forms of marriage could co-exist· so long within the same population in the couotry. But

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the difference must have contributed to the increase in numbers of the Muslims in Bengal, for the Muslim women were entitled, at least in theory, to the democratic right of equality with men. (vi)

Lo-rdau Hindu Marriages The labouring claas women among the Beogali Hindus married at an age later than ten years to a much larger extent than amongst the upper castes. The father of an unmarried girl above ten was not usually socially censured as in the upper strata of society, so where tradition ruled that if the unmarried girl would start her periods under the parental roof, the father would incur the sin equivalent to killing a Brah min, on account of non-utilisation of the girl's fertility.el There was with the poor no obligatory dowry from the girls's father ; sometimes it was man who had to pay something to have a wife. Widow re-marriage also was not unknown and there was hardly any polygamy. But amongst the Goal&& of Bihar there was a system of infant marriage when the bride was only three years of age. There was also the system of bakdan. or betrothal among the Goal&&, contracted even before birth. On the other hand, among the poorer people of Orissa, if a man emiirated and did not return to his wife for several years, the wife oould marry a second man as if she was a widow. (vii)

Maniqe unonpt the Aborisiaa11

Early marriage was more common among the Hinduised than among the non-Hinduised aboriginals of Bengal Polygamy was rare but polyandry was oooaeionally present, while a Santai wife could divorce her husband if he secured a second wife without her permission. Often the husband's brother would keep the widow as hie wife or one of the oo-wives. There was no dowry system.

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PRINCELY MARRIAG!S

One of the forms of tribal marriage was 'marriage by .111ervice', where the bridegroom had to. render free service for a period to the _bride's father. This was common among ·the Santals, Moondas, Oraons, Rajbansis and Haris. •Marriage by throwing each other's blood• was a system of engage· ment in the Bari tribes of Bengal in llhich the bride and the bridegroom would bring out blood from their fingers ·b y pricking with tboros and would smear it on the oth~r's body. 'Marriage by throwing vermilion' on the bride's head was practised among the Santals of Bengal and was probably reminiscent of marriage by blood smearing, 'Marriage by capture' wal! a common practice among the aboriginal tribes of Chota Nagpur and the Bhuiyas of the Orissa states. The bridegroom and his followers would raid the bride's house and take her away by fighting from the custody of her father, for marriage. 'Marriage by sprinkliug water' on the bride was yet another form of engagement by the poorer Rajbansis of Purnea District, In this, a pair could live as hasband and wife and beget children, but such 'companionate' 11llions had to be subsequently regularised when money was costly social ceremony of formal available for the marriage. e 2 (viii )

Princely Marriages

In some princely families, there was the custom that the prince could marry and keep as many women as he liked-married, unmarried or widows, of any caste or creed. ·Only one of them could however become the main wife or Patrani. Mabaraja Narendranarayan Bhup of Cooch Behar had 1200 wives. His big battalion of wives often helped him to manage his eatate, courts or other offices.es Amongst -the chiefs of Orisea states, concubinage went so far that the bride's father would even present his son-in.law with a handful of maiden servant girls for bis pleasure and uae. e..

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(is) Some Unusual Marriqea

Some notable marriages~ not conforming to the usual standards, may be worth mentioning during this period, Rev. Krishn&mohan Banerjea, the Indian Christian leader, gave his eledest daughter Kamalmani in marriage to Gnanendranath Tagore, only son of Prosannakumar Tagore . of the famous aristocratic Tagore family of Jorasanko. Gnanendranath embraced Christiantity in view of this marriage and lost hie ancestral property rights. Michael Madhusudan Datta, also a Christian, married Rebecca and latef Henrietta, who were of European descent. Mr. Shell, Mr. Wheeler, and Mr. Stuart married Daibaki, Manomohini, and Milly, daughters of Krishnamohan Banerjea. Such marriages of girls with persons of non-Bengali descent were extremely rare. Incidentally, marriages of Benglis with European girls also seem to have begun in this period, with the increase in the number of persons going abroad. Sarojini, daughter of Aghornath Chatterjee, married Dr. Gobindrajulu Naidu, an inhabitant of a different province, Hyderabad. Sara.la, of the Jorasanko Tagore family and a daughter of Janakinath Ghosal, was married to Rambhuj Datta Choudhury of the Panjab. These were among the early interprovincial marriages. Two princely marriages in our period acquired a special importance. When Keshabchandra Sen gave his eldest daugher Suniti in marriage to the Mahar&ja · of Cooch Behar, .he ignored the provisions of the Act III of 1872, his own creation. Many of his shocked followers revolted and this led to the Brahmo split of 1878. In the early years of the 20th century, a son of this marriage married princess Indira of Baroda and this was hail~d by a Bengali poet as the union of the two advanced peoples of India, the Bengali and the Marathas.

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Upperc:aate Ri""a W-idowa !n the beginning of the 19th century, chools. 4 0 But soon the members differed among themselves, however, on the question of educating girls in part by male teachers in girls' schools and t he plan failed. 41 In 1819 the Baptist .Pt!ission started a girls' school at Gouribare near Calcutta. The Secretary. of the Calcutta Sch?l Society helped them. In 1824 there were four girls' schools under Baptist l'tfission's management. Miss Cooke arrived in Calcutta in November 1821 when she found the Calcutt.a School Society members still differing among themselves and she therefore decided to join another society by the name of the Church Mission Society and within one year started three girls' schools in Bengal. I n 1824 her schools rose to twenty one and in 1826 to thirty.•2 Thlly used to employ both men and women teachenl,43 .Superstition in Bengali society regarding the Western form · of education for women and education by male teachers was so great in those days that very many Bengali girls were not allowed to join these schools 44 ; again many of the enlightened upper class girls who were allowed t.o join these mission schools were withdrawn when it was found that instruction in the Christian scriptures was compulsory. As a matter of fact these schools practically .became schools for poor girls only who in most cases joined in expectation of prizes or monetary help from the missionaries. 4 5 Uptil 1847 only mission schools functioned in Bengal to educate Bengali girls. Then ca.me a school for Hindu girls at Bara.sat ( near Calcutta. ) with the support of the local gentlemen, and particularly Pearychara.n Sarkar, the H ead Master of the local Government School foi: boys. In 1849 Drinkwater Bethune started another girls' school· in Ca.Jutta. for the 'r:e.spectable' girls of Bengal on a secular

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basis, and this was called Calcutta Fema1e School, now the Bethune School.• 6 Just at the beginning the response -to secular education for girls was fairly prompt, hut after a few days as many as 16 out of the original 23 pupils withdrew their names from the school. When the first shock subsided more girls joined however and by the end of the year the number rose to 31 to 34.• 7 This type of secular education in formal school was the beginning of the modem system of women's education in Bengal.•S The knowledge of Bengali books and some training in industrial work were imparted here ; English became an optional subject. A fortnight or so .after the inauguration of Bethune's venture, Raja Ra.dhakanta Deb started another school for Bengali girls at Sobhabazat in Calcutta,• 9 where English a.nd Bengali were taught to the pupils. The origins.I girls' school of Bara.sat was next remodelled on a secular basisOO under however very great opposition in the locality, so much so that the reactionaries manhandled the committee members, used foulest language against them and caused other forms of annoyance. The reactionaries went so far that one morning a wide and deep ditch was found dug in front of the house of one of t he unfortunate supporters of the scheme. But inspite of opposition and harassment the enlightened section of the public continued to send their girls to the Bate.sat secular school. 01. After a time reaction subsided and in some other places, e. g. Neebudhia, Sook Sagar and Uttarpara, similar secular formal schools were set up. 6 2 · The Government grant-in-aid to the private girls' schools started after the Wood Education Despatch of 1854.58 In 1856 Government took ditect charge of the Calcutta Female School-now known as the Bethune School, through its Secretary, Cecil Bee.don, with a committee of influential Hindu gentlemen-to make the venture popular in Hindu sooiety,6• No fee was charged, books were given free and carriages or Paliiu were provided to those who lived . at a distance and could not bear the expense of conveyance. 5 o

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In 1857, Govmment appointed lswarchandra Vidyasagar a. a special inspector for girls' schools for the distric.t a of Hoogly, Burdwan and Midnapore and promised aid to such schools through him verbally. The construction of the school buildings was undertaken with local donationa and within one year 35 girls' schools wit!) 150 studenta were thus started. 5e lswarchandra Vidyasagar in his inspection report noted and acknowledged the merits of girl students as having better memories and being Jess selfish than the boys. The Mutiny of 1857 brought however financial stringency to the Government and it failed to keep its promise of · financial help to these schools.~ 7 l swarchandra Vidyasagar resigned the Government post of spe1;ial school inspector in protest and started a campaign of self-help for the embarassed schools from local resources. These efforts to establish girls' schools in the country-side helped to Jessen the long standing prejudice against formal education in school for girls.~ 8 After the Mutiny, the controlling authority for India passed from the East India Company to the British Crown. A new despatch of Lord Stanley was sent out in 1859 which reaffirmed the principles of the Wood Despatch of 1854 and a liberal grant-in.aid was at last given to the private girls' schools. The Report on Public ln8truclian in Bengal for 1862-63 noted the progress of women's education for the ·first time. There were 15 schools with 530 girls. The number of girls during the next year were 1183 in 35 aided schools. The initiative for women's education for the upper classes came mainly under the direct patronage of the educated Bengali gentlemen while that for the lower classes proceeded from Christian missionaries. Government only encouraged such private persons to start girls' schools by grants·in·&id.59 The circular of Lawrence in 1868 said "unleea female schools are really and materially supported by voluntary aid, they had better not be established at all'>8o. This negative circular did not check the progress of the movement and gradually the number increased. In 1869, there were 2351 girls in

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aided schools in Bengal. In I870-7I the number of girls in aided schools was 5910 p.nd the number of such sohools reached 274. 6 1 Public instruction so long w&s only under the charge of the Central Governrnent of India., but its supervision was transferred in 1871 to the provinci&l governments which could then add their own educational contributions. In the same year school fees of rupees two were fixed for girl students. 6 2 But the education given to the girls in the formal schools was low in standard ; even in 1873 the senior students of Bethune School could not write even a few lines correctly in Bengali. 6 3 It may be mentioned here th&t on the contrary, as early as 1863, students of the Home Education Scheme of Keshabchaodra Sen and his contemporaries could write correct Bengali, and their quality of expression in writing was also good. 6 4 So long the girls' schools were for the younger age-group only. 6 5 The education of grown-up women in separate formal schools was still lacking in Bengal. Keshabchandra Sen started a school for grown-up women on 2 November 1871, under the patronage of the Bharat Sanskar Sabha on secular lines. 6 6 A former Heagle

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CHAPTER IV

CHRISTIAN MISSION AT WORK The main object of tbe 1nissionaries was to spread the Gosµel of Christ among the non-Christians and to convert them to their faith , in the firm belief that purity of l1uman heart would be attained through their faith and this would make people useful in service to the greater good of mankind. I o their work in Bengal they gave relief to the helpless, educated t.hem and tried to uiake them better citizens. Their first successful work among Bengali woweri in the 19th century started on 12 February 1801, when Joymoni became a. convert and set an example to other Bengali wonien. Within the next few yea.rs Ramal (wife of Gokul}, Rasmoni, Annada. and Draupadi followed suit. This created a great sensation fn Bengali homes and the new Christians were woefully oppressed by their Hindu relatives. But the Christian missionaries gave them shelter, educated them and used them for furt.her progress of Christianity. Thus the number of converts increased year by year. Still, the Christian missionaries in this period were opposed not only by the Hindus and Muslims but even by the Ea.st Indiii, Company in tL eir work. 1 The Company roost have fel~ nervous that convt-rsions might imperil its hold on a newly-conquered peop!e, and adversely affect the extraction of a suitable return for its investment. The effort of the missionaries to ~nlighten the minds of their new otation . industries in the J>hr.ce of traditional agriculture bring about happy and healthy ppnditiona of life. It is possible to glean a few facts about tpe lot of women driven into the working cl&88ea by the changes .#1 the later I 9tn century. · Indigo plants were grown in different parts of Bengal o~ an extensive basis at tbe initative of the foreigners. Local peasants, men and women, were forced to work on them and ~eY earned very little money in exchange of their hard labour.• In the off season they got no retention allowane,e. G Whep a ,crisis came at about I860 due partly to the general rise in prices, the indigo planter1J paid as little a.s before .but made the peasants work harder even by applying force. The M;agistrate of Barisal, Ashley Eden ( later appoin~ .a s Lt. Governor of Bengal ) realised this and he succeeded in infio.encing the Lt. Governor to paes orders that unwilling '1/olB could not thenceforth be compelled to grow indigo µiat indigo planting may thus be made optional. The oultivato,rs

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took the clue, organised themselves and stopped working in the indigo estates of Jeeeore, Na.Ji.a, Pa.boa and Ra.jshahi. The Planters' Association in Calcutta raised a cry that their indigo business was about to be ruined thereby, Soon, they got the better of their Government and on 31 March 1860 the Indigo Contracts Act XI was paseed which divided the indigo workers into oonLract and non-contract groups. The former were to be criminally punishable for breach of contract. 11 In actual practioe the order was also misused ; a reign of terror burst on the unwilling ryol8, contract or no·oontract, and they were beaten, insulted, bound down, starved and imprisoned, Their villages were ~umt, men carried off, women outraged and storee of graiu destroyed. 1 The miseries of the ry°'8 and their oppression reached snch a stage that L'>rd Canning remarked "the Indigo crisis of 1860 caused him more 'a nxiety than he had felt since the fall oC Delhi." Sir John P. Grant who was Lt. Governor ( 1859· 1862 ) of Bengal whil~ returning from Dacca by steamer waa moved by the mass demonstration of indigo workers along his water route. They formed long processions with women on the river side "both banks of the river for .a distance of70 or 80 miles, were lined by thousand' of people who were rullDing along to keep with the steamer, the women sitting by the water edge, the inhabitants of different villages pouring out and taking up the race from village to village, all the time vociforously beseeching him to grant them justice." After 1860 however the severity of the oppression died out gradually owing to changed conditions. The experimental eucoese of tea plantation in Assam in 1851 and the discovery of new sites in Cachar in 1854 enoourag· ed the English tea planters t-0 invest more money in it. The need for labourers, men and women, increa.sed more and more. s The tea gardens of Assam were unpopular with the poor Bengali labourers from the very beginning, due to low wages, hard work and unhygienic conditions.II The Workman's Breach of Contract Act (Act XIII) of 1859 brought an opportunity

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to the tea planters as well.lo They appointed agents on very favourable tel'DlB to recruit men and women for tea gardens labour. Such agents studied the eoonomio diBtreBll 'of the village community, took advantage of .t he local droughts and famine, and persuaded illiterate people to put thumb impr888ions on oontraots on a small advance of a few rupeea ' for service in the tea gardens.11 Women agents went into the distreeaed villages with heavy gold ornaments and paraded to the village women the supposed earnings from tea garden work. The agents also in the garb of shopkeepers and ht.wkere advanced articlea on loan to thoae willing to go to the plantt.tion.e. Sometimea women were contacted and induced to yisit religious places but t.ctually they were taken to the tea ·gardens. 19 The custom of recruiting labour through Sirdars was undoubtedly one of the moat important causes of the oppression and exploitation of indnatrial workere.1 3 East and North Jessore, South Pt.boa, Mymeneingh, Dacca and other districts of East Bengal were mostly affected. The contract bond was for 5 years labour in the tea gardens.•• Contracts being signed, the ·recruits were shut up on boats where they were illtreated and under-nourished-a large number dying before reaching the deetination.1 ~ Sometimes norcotic drugs were given to the unwilling mixed with pan or drink and they were carried off to the boats while under such influence. In the gardens the coolies had to live in rooms of 6' by q' with no windows. The height touched the head and the floor was earthen and dampy. Women coolifs were uaually appointed on a pay of Rs. 4 a month but actually would not get more than two pice a day by working hard for at least 10 to 12 hours, owing to the contract form of work involved. As a result they had to buy rice on loans which they hardly could pay off and so they could not return home. Some planters were alleged to have treated the women cooliea like animals, beaten several of them, sometimes to the point of causing death. The good-looking girls were

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exposed to outrage in the bunglows of the plantert1 where no help could come to them. Diseases like mala.ria, kal&-azar and ankylostomiasis were rampa.nt in the tea ga.rdens and the mortality was high. Even those who completed the contract period could not always escape and return home u they required for a safe exit the handchil or passes signed by the planter. Even non.act c9olies, trying to run aw.ay without the handchil, could be caught and imprisoned or tortured. The neighbouring planters had of course a unity amongst themselves to keep down the labourers, l 0 Poverty, unemployment and 1088 of hereditary means of subsistence in the villages forced the women of the working c1888 of Bengal to .come to work in the coal mines also, The Barui women were the. first to be employed 'to turn the w~od engines' . to raise coal from the pits by means of iron chains, and to do other kinds of surface work. They ea.med from 15 to 18 pices a day. But the irregula.rity of the women labour due to child birth and emigration, their inferior working capa.city due to physical weakness, did not encourage the coal miner to give them sufficient employment in coal fields in the early part of the 19th century. Santala from Bengal and Chota. Nagpur came to work in coal fields from about ISM. Wit~ them came the Santai women in search of employment.1 7 The underground work in coal field8 was usually performed at a. fixed price per tub of coal, by gangs of men in the early days of the induetry, 1 8 Santa.ls for the first time allowed their women to work underground in such gangs loading coal into tubs. 1 9 From a.bout the middle of the 19th century the demand for la.bour wa.s increa.sing with the expa.nsion of various industries. The wages of the men labourers tended to rise. Thia was an opportunity to employ where possible women workers on lesser wagea.20 Women were now employed in underground work where there were grave risks to life and health. No compensation however waa given even for Jogs of life. In 1901 the Indian Mines Act was passed. It was a.mended

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GLIMPSES OF ECONOMIC LIF.E .

in 1923 and the Workmen's Compenaation Act was also passed

then. But legislation did not prohibit even the em~loyment of women underground. The workers were discontented and the matter was referred to a select committee which left the question to be decided by local Governments within 5 years. Still the question remained unsolved for a long time,21 and it was only in October i937 that women were prohibited from worl;ting underground. 22 In 1903 there were 14,7'4 women working underground in eoal·fields and 18,231 above ground 2a The underground workers who worked at a fixed price per tub earned fairly well as compared to the women labourers who worked on a non-contract baais. Their pay was poor. It was annas 3 in 1900 for women workers rising to annas 4 to 5 a day in 1910 This rise waa due to increased demand for labour, general increase in prices and the rising market for coaJ.2• Jute as a staple fibre was extensively' used since about 1832 and it gradually became more popular when it .ared women to. sit in the Prayer Hall withou' a oov&Ting curtain but in a special separate block of seats.' Appearance of 'l'espeetable' women ln euoh publio funotiona started aleo in Bhagalpur, Barisal and Daoca.8 All these were strongholds of the Btahmo rebet. "flaiwlt °"'hQdoxy • . who were tbe pioneere in the ema.ooipatio.n of w®ien U\ nonchristianiaed . 'respeo\able' ( bhadralok) sooieiy in Bengal.. It waa a~ Barisal tut Muoramr. Debi, wife of Qiria.chandra Majumder and mother-in-law of Dr. Niiratan Sarkar, oauae4 a sensation by preaching publioly.· from the pulpit in a Brahmo Prayer Hall. The initial shyne11& on the part of women had begun to wear off. On 14 April 1871 an association by · the name of Bama. Hitaishini Sabha was formed with Keshabchu.dra a1 its Presiden,' and Radharani Lab,iri, the neioe of the . saintly ~mtanu Lahiri, as Secretary. This was not based on a. religioqs fraternity like the Brahmika Samaj, ~e ~ember­ ehip being open to all women. Many of the pupils of theNative Female Normal Adult School joined thia Sabha and even their male teachers.II The Sabha held its meeting on !!Very alternate Friday when women oould have a free talj among· themselves on their problems and intereet.e in the. preaenoe of men. This Sabha lasted till 1879, elosing down then on e.coount of confilctin~ ideologies among its members,. chie!'ly on the question of giving the w ·e stera type higher education to women. The Brahmo Samaj of India which. was the spearhead. of women's emancipation in Bengal had split in 1878. On&

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'Witlg= tile Na611bictlall \tith ·K~bellllbdr& Sen aa it.a ·h ead uow organised the Arya Natl S.m•j trying to foster the !&btdent Blndu 't raditions witAill it.ti fold. Thie society did ttt>t t.tt•~te

higher fofm&I W•~tti education f far were naturally located in Bengal and almost exclusively in the great giant metropolis ; but wit h the ipread of h igher education and even ao111e interprovinoial marriagea, lib that of Sarala Devi, ·the activity tended to pus Oil to the all-India plane. An All India Ladiee Conference was held ill connection with the Congrees eeaalon at Allahabad in December 1910. At that conference it W&a d ecided to aprew women'a education and to open women's orpniaationa in every province. It was intended to raiae money and engage women teaohera to apread li&eraoy among the eeoluded women in different part• of India.. They would alao spread handicrafts t.raining to women and would arrange for medical or.re to them.1 s Barr.la Debi, dallgbtlBI' of Swarnr.kumari Debi, organiled the work in Lahore 1 9 and Krishnabbabini Dae (who laad lived M Cambridge with her husband for 1• yeani) in Bengal. They not only did do a lo' epread li'9raoy amoag WOD191l but alao t.lped aome of thea 6nanoiaUy while in W.nm. Tll.e Bqa1 BnD.oh, a1ao or.lied the B~ · Stree

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MWmri«nda1, ~ twt> plays, 8dl mtai Vlampa 'and lV~omiro, in Cahmtta to nd11e fonds for th& ol'gariisatlt>n.!.lo

(ii)

Political Werk The oppreuion by 'the European indigo ar tea pl&ntel'I 'Was resisted firrt by the poor workers, both men and women, who wanted justice. We have already noticed the mammoth auti-indigo demooatration with a mass prooesaion when women .,;t lining the '10 milee water-edge of the river to ventilate their itievances to the villiting Lt. Governor Grant. 21 They did not know or oourse the roots of their miaeries nor the way to solve them. The educated Bengali visualised the situation lllore olsarly and deoranded the abolitioll of racial privileges of the 'lll'hitea in the courts of Jaw. · Around 1~7, the nationalist spirit among the Bengalis took the form of supporting ostentatiously indigenous cottage industrial products. They began to discriminate against foreign imports. In 1867 was organised a 'fair by the ·name of Hindu Mela where Indian products were exhibited fol' l!ale. The artistrf work from women had a 1eparate section in this fair which was held year after year. . Prizes were distributed to the beet performers, many of whom were women. 211 Surendranath Banerjea was dismissed from the Indian Civil Service in 1875 and turned to a political career. He fired the OO'lln:try with a palpitating desire for political mnan&rtition. They vowed in the meeting to uee only the indigenous 'iwaduhi' product&. National songa were sung in the lneeting and the women made fiery epeechea. aa Mote than live hnndred women of the village Jemokandi in the district of' Murahidabad asaembled in the house of Acharya Ramendra• -•undar Tribedi and heal'd his Banga Lahhmi; BratahtlMI and ·later 'Vowed together to use only the Indian made goods. 3 • &rala Debi mobilised about 500 Bengali youths of l.ahl"e and .held protest meetings there. s 1 At every meeting women were asked to use Indian goods, to stand on their own leg11 and tt> :jjght British imperialiim. The British Government prohibited the slogan Bande• naiWram (Hail Motherland) but the Bengali •omen did not loee heart. They began to defy the ol'der and many were fined for ·that. Sarojini Br.su in protest took oft' bet gold bangle from her right hand and gave it to the cause of Swadeshi movement • .She was later honoured with the title of Ban.ga .Labhml.88 Hiranmoyee Debi, the elder sister of Sanda Debi, oontributed ·to con.lltrnctive awadeahi by atarting a cottage iilduatrial centre fbr secluded women by the name of Art BoulJ'& and later know'n .aa Bidhaba Silpaaram, Calcutta, s• aa noted eletl•here. Oil 29 December 1906, 1">men oalled a meeting in the ,premilea of BethUl'le O>llege and School -with the Maharani t>f .:Bltrada u pteaident. She 'Wu llnp~es-1 b1 the 'tvotk at the

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ia tke ,,,.._, JIM)Yemeat and IM hnkl1

deelued ~ ''I know how· tu. ladi11 of Beagal have helped ud mpporied ibe 1.•1:1ir-hi :moveaeot wliich apreadiDt t"ala ove11 ~rikem India ud ~a hniab. o.Ter ~at. and ill• o."8r M.-.., M'y•fft and Tlav.a.oore. everywhere. Q~ . _ oont.iMa\:' ~. JWY, 1~1 whe11 ~h11PQdraA&tb Du11a. 1.0WIP' \rothe1> ei Swami Vinkananc16, waa i•priawd fQr V.ki"8 part in tM. natioael moV>em8Di, ~ Bengali 'll!Qlllen - . moved se m•oh that aboot !00 of them under- the lea.denhip of LilaYati Miwa,. wi.fe of the Brahmo leader Kriahnakomar Mitra, 6-m.bled in iha. hotJ11o9 of Dr. ~\an Sarkar, in Calontta., and ihey pwted a. felicit.e.tion addreu to tile. mother of . Bhupeadt&aaih Daita. for her aon's achievement.40 Nor can. one pus over the d.arillg of Kumudini Bose, the daugliter of Krishna.kuma.r Mit1°8< wao was deported for sedition, and of L,Ua.va.ti MiJ.-.. w.h~ jQQr:QBJ $•P'aMal siruck a fiery trail of agita.iion at the •eight of the swadesbi movement. And ever the atoNQ,y, aoene in the &et d11cade of the present oentury \irooded tbe 1pirit of Margaret Noble tS1ster Nivedita>, who· had lndian.ieed h.el'll81f, and w.aa intent on atabilising the messase of the Maaeer, Vivekananda., w.hich inspired o.n theone hand the cult of aooia.l aervioe of the Ra.mbishna Mieaion and on ihe other ga,ve a stimulus to the revolutionary. move.· ment of Bengali 1e>Wih. In. the moath of Noftmber 1908, a m¥& m&Ming of women, oalled by· the name of Mahila Maha. Bami•i, waa. held in Ca.loutta. where. ladies from dilerent provinces came thans by her death. The judge, the magist rate and the professors left their court or college and ran panting to reach there early. As the crowd aesembled, the cry of the poor and the laments of the public began to be echoed from the other bank of the river Bhagirathi ..." The periodical further described her in the following terms : "One who had kindnes1 at every step of her life, one who was always eager to help others, one who was an apoetle of mercy-such a one is now in Heaven." S Her reputation in Bengal was so great in life and even after death that some books written by Bengalia in that period were dedicat ed to her.4. A journal named Kuaumaupaliar always contained poems of felicitation addreaed to her. 5 A list of Swarnamoyee's chief donations is given below. This is evidence of her catholicity of mind and the range of her humanism. In 1871- 1872: -Rs. 3,000 to the Chittagong Sailora' Home. -Ra. 1,000 to the Midnapore High School. -Ra. 1,000 to the Calcutta Chandni Hospital -Rs. . 1,000 to the improvement of the river Bhairab in JeBSore. -Rs. I ,000 to the relief of the distre888d people of Murshidabad. -Rs. 1,500 to the Bethune School. -Rs. 500 to the Bogra Institution. -Rs. 8,000 to the New Native Hospital or Mayo Hospital. -R3. 1,500 to the treatment of malaria patients. -Rs. 1,000 to the construction of the Baharamgunge Road. (n 1874 : -Rs. 1,10,000 to t he famine striken people. In 1875; -Rs. 10,000 to the Berhampur College ; later on all ita expelll08 (about Rs. 1,250 a month) were borne b7 her -Rs. IS,000 to the Rajshahi Madraasa.

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CHAPTIIt ·VII

-Rs. 2,000 to the Cuttack College. -Re. 500 to the Garo Hill Diapeneary. -Re. 5,000 io the Hospital of Garopahar. In 1876-1877: -Rs. 8,000 to the Association for Famine Relief work in Calcutta. - R-s. 3,000 to the sufferers in Bakhargunge cyclone. -Rs. '11,000 or 11,121' for warm clothes to the poor. -Rs. 10,000 for Madras famine. - Ra. 500 to the Jangipur Dispensary. -Rs. 1,000 to the Temple Native Asylum. -Rs. 500 to the Howrah Dispensary. -Rs. 3,000 to Calcutta Oriental Seminary. -Rs. 1,000 to the Protestant Home in Calcutta. -Rs. I,000 to the sufferers from fire whieh 0ccurred in Nadia and Bankura districts. - Rs. 500 to the Calcutta. District Charitable S0ciety. -Rs. 1,000 to Mrs Fendal's I nstitution for fallen women. -Re. 1,000 to Mao Donald Indian Association. Rs, 200 to the authorities of Bamabodhini Patrika torevive it. -Rs. 10,000 to Miss Millman's Women's School in Calcutta. -Rs. 8,000 to the Rangpur High School. -Rs. I,000 to Aligil.rh College. -Rs. 14,000 to the Zoological Gardens. Later on she made big donations of Rs. 2,60,000 for :Baharampur Water Supply; Rs. 100,000 to the Medical College for a women's hostel in its compound; and Rs. 10,000 to the Campbell School for the construction of the Elliot Hostel for girls. 0

( iii ) Bamuundari. ( 1838-1888 ) B~maaundari· was born in 1838 in ihe village Mulgha.r on the bank of the river Bhairab in East Bengal. Her father

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BAMASUNDAR.l .

died while she wu five years old and lhe waa brolliht up by her mother Harasunda.ri. Ba.ruand&ri wae a typiaal «>nservative lady of those days. She was adverse to women's edueation and had a fixed belief that education brings on for ihem early widowhood. She trained Bama in all household work and taught her to obey her elders. The girl had a great love for learning and from an early age picked up the ar$ of reading Benga.li and S!!.ntkrit books from her uncle, !tiding her attainments from her mother. Ber memory wae extra.ordinary and she could ea.sily remember everything she read. Writing was considered to be unueoeesary for women in her circle yet Bama learned to write. B'lr craving for writing found expreuion even in drawings which were Clmidered to be skilfol. Once she painted a marriage seat me> nioely that people were utoniahed. She was married ali the age of eight. As a wife Bam• followed implicitly all the tnditional Hinda valuee. She never diaagreed with othera, obeyed the elders and was said to have pleued everybody in her husband'• houae by her ae111- serrioe. Benelf deprived, ahe felt a strong desire to deYelop her love for education in her children, o[ whom ahe took a devoted care and from whom 1he reoei Yed all love and obedience. She bad a great faith in God which remaiud unshaken even when one of her aone died of dro"1ling. . Bile had the ideal Hindu wife'• love and regard for her huabmd and she implicitly believed in the wifely duties incoloated in ortJiodo:i 11ooiety. She wu kind hevted and wae oaoe f~d -earrying the h•"Y load of water of an old woman all the way from the river. She had a great loYe for bird and beast from early life. Servante and maidservants loved her deeply as she never treated them differently from the members of the household. She died at the age of 50 and even at the time of her death she urged all her relatiYes to live in harmony and maintain the higli ideals of the old joint family, 80 clifticult to live 'Gp to in praotioe inlpite of tirelels emorta*bm ci BjNI• llJlOeltnl wildolll.'

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CHAPTER VII

Bamaaundari lived an almost idyllic life in the light or ol'thodox Hindu traditional ideals, according to all testimony. lllSpite of the appearance of a little unreality to the incredulous, her life, as recorded by others, is a charming picture of the old values which might not have been so rare in a byegone age, but much of which certainly has pssaed away from modern life in Bengal, for better or for worse.I

( iv ) Drabamoyee. ( Born 1847 ) Drabamoyee was born in the village Berubari near Khanakul, Krishnanagar, around 18ol7. Her father waa Chandicharan Tarkala.nkar, a Brahman Sanskrit scholar. Drabamoyee was married in her early life but soon became a widow. She then came back to her father's house where she learnt Sanskrit from her father. She became a competent Sanskrit scholar at the early age of 14 and her reputation inoreased steadily. Her father ran a Tol or school of Sanskrit learning where many students ca.me from far and near. Drabamoyee took charge of her father's school when the latter became old. She used to sit in her seat in the Tol-a bit away from the students but would never nee the veil, unlike the standard custom of higher clll88 ladies in those days. She could fiuently speak in Sanskrit, could explain the difficult Sanskrit texts to the students and became a favourite teacher with them. H ere waa a remarkable instance of intellectual achievement by a Bengali woman who bad been given a chance, I

(.] •

Manor•ma Majumder• ( 1848 1-1936 )

lranorama was the daughter of Kriahnamongal Roy of 'rillr.ge Bahar in the district of Daocia.. She we.a married to

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MAN.ORAMA Mus, truthful and helpful to others. She told him that sbe was due to meet her eternal mother very eoon and added 'don't lament for me, my dear lad'. At a condolence meeting held at her achool with Guruprasad Sen in the Chair, Bengalis, Hindusthanis, "Europe&Jl81 young and old &SBembled to pay their tribute to the departed soul. The president called her a gode1111 to her neighbours. Debendranath Sen, principal of the Bihar National College described her life ae dedicated to the good of others. Godadhar Prasad, .an eminent Hindusthani gentleman, praised her by saying that "one who shows respect tG such a great lady only honours oneself by such act••. Mr. James, who later became the principal of Presidency College, Calcutta, demanded that "the memory of such a noble lady should be preserved by the nation. She has brought glory to the nation by her noble activities. India's honour depends much on the women's education which. was started by Aghorekamioi". Dr. J. N. Ghosh declared that Aghorekamini had much faith in God and all her activities ·succeeded as they were dictations from above. ll Protapchandra Majumder has described her as a Maitreyee, the great learned lady of ancient times. Her husband in her biography described her as a 'Grihastha Bairagini,' one who dedicated herself to the cause of humanity inspite of living in a family of her own. · Aghorekamini left at Bankipur a band of younger women inspired by her ideals. They came in numbers to volunteer for her cause-today they wGuld demand a Railway waiting room for women at the Bankipur Station ; next day they would appeal to the Government and protest against the sufferings of women ; on other occasions they would conduct religious or cultural meetings for women. e Dr Bimanbehari Majumder concluded in the ..4.nandabazar Prtrika on 11 Pa1U 1344 B. 8. that the emancipation of Bihari-women was largely due to the efforta of Aghorekamini, a Bengali.

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SWARNAIWMARI D&Vl

( '9iii ) Swamakumari Deri. ( 1856-1932 ) Swarnakumari was born on 28 August 1856. She was . the fourth daughter of Maharsbi Debendranath Tagore and WM brought up amidst the culture of the House of Tagore which moulded her to become a gifted author and a celebrated social worker for the uplift of the women in Bengal. Swarnakumari was educated at home by learned tutnrs.l . At the age of thirteen she ~a married to Janakinath Ghoeal under the Brahmo marriage rites introduced by Debendranath. She had some knowledge in Bengali and a little of Sanskrit at that time,2 but even then she need to write poems. 3 At her husband's house she continued her education and became well versed in Bengali and English literature.~ Her first publication in Bengali, Dup Nirban, based on the story of the fall of King It was Prithiraj came out when she was only eighteen. 6 quite a good Bengali novel for those days. She was one of the board of editors for the BharaJi from 1877 and became its chief editor from 1884. She edited this journal for about 18 years with much credit and rising reputation. She wrote about 25 books on a variety of subjects : historical novels, short stories, poems, dramas, text;. books, eto. all in Bengali. Her historical novel Phv.ur Mala (1896) was translated into English as The Fatal Garland in 1910 having 172 pages by A Christina Albers. This novel is based on the events of Indian history of the 14th century. Another Bengali novel Chinnamukul (1879) was tranelated into English-An Unfiniahd. Song (1913) with E. M. Long's introduction. Thie book is practically her autobiography with a vivid inner picture of Bengali society. Her books were appreciated even in the European circles, 6 Most of her own books were donated to the Sumati Samiti Library. 7

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Though fortunate in life · he111elf, a good aoholar and an established writer, her heart always cried for her fellow women of Bengal who were under so m1,1ony handicaps in those days. She herself organi1ed societies and fairs for the women which attempted at removing some of their social disabllitiee. It is really difllc.olt to viaoaliae to-day how difficult a task it . was then to bring the secluded women out or their homes and to utilise them for the country's cause.a In 1882 she founded the Ladies Theosophical Society (theosophy in the late 19th century, by its etre88 on oriental ancient wisdom, was a powerful stimulant to Indian national sentiment), but due to want of enough women with theosophical leanings she had to cloee it down in 1886.11 In the same year however, she started an organisation called the Sakhi Samiti where women oould freely mix with each other and excbange their ideas in order to uplift tbemselves. Thie Sakhi Samiti held its annual fair called the Mahila Silpamela, where cottage products from women of different parts of India were exhibited and marketed amongst the women who alone were participants. The sale proceeds went for the education of women who again could be engaged in spreading home education among the women whoee social position did not permit them to go outside their z~nana apartments. The Samiti also protected orphans and helped widows with money and even with legal advice if needed. Some of them were educated in Bethune School while others were provided shelter at the Uttarpara Widow3 Home. S"amakumari represented the Bengali women at the Congress Se6sion of 1890, being one of the first two women deligatea elected from Bengal. 1o Her broadneee of mind and daring spirit to break the age--old social bar against Bengali womenhood· was fully transmitted to her worthy daughtersBiranmoyee, who spent her whole life for the cause of widows, and Sarala who was a noted political worker. She even wlshed that Sarala ahoold not marry and should utilise her life for social work-u entirely distinctive idea for a mother of the 19th oentury.1 1 Many of her own writings ref!~ her

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MANKUMAlll BASU

idea of the emanoipation of women which earned her the· honour of the award of the Jagattarini Gold Medal from the Calcutta University in 1927. In 1336 B. S. (1929) ahe was given the distinction of the presidentship of the Bangiya Bahitya Sanmelan-which had been originally aaeigned ·to her world-famous brother Rabindranatb. She died in 1932 and to the last she kept up her active aasooiation, along with her daughter, in the Hiranmoyee Widows Industrial Home. 11

( is ) Manlrumari Bua. ( 1863-1943 ) Mankumari Basu, neice of Micha.el Madhusudan Datta, wsi born on 23 January 1863 in the district of Jeeeore (Bengal). She was the youngest daughter of Radhamohan Datta Chou• dhury. H er mother Santimoni lost two daughters and so when Mankumari waa born, the whole family was very glad-· an unusual event for a girl baby in those days. Radhamohan was a ip.an of spiritual habits. and used to teach his beloved daughter lessons on morality. At the age of five she began to learn the Bengali first book, finished the second book in 2 months and then joined the schqol, located in the outer apartments of her own house. Her interest in verse writing came when she read the BamabodAini Palrilca to which her father was a subscriber. She used to write poems from her early life. She was of a very shy temper and would conceal all her writings. But her father onee saw her manuscript and was astonished at her capacity. He encouraged her to write more. At the age of ten ahe was married. Her husband as soon 88 he came to know that she was a good writer began to encourage her. He also made arrangement for her study at home. He waa a doctor and, having p888ed the L. M. S. examination, practised his profession in their home town of Satkhira. However he died suddenly when Mankumari wu only IS! year 9 01g1tizea by

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CHAPTER VII

old. .Mankumari's literary habits were well known by that time. At the instance of her husband her poem, Purandarer prati Initubala, in blank verse was published in Sambad Prabhalear, a leading periodical of t hat time. She wrote it while she was only 14 years old. On her husband's death she wrote Priyo Pra&anga which was later published as a book (1884). As a widow she did not want like so many others to spend her whole life in the round of domest ic duties and decided to go in f or social and literary work. ?tiankumari became a regular writer in journals like Sal&ha .and Bamabodhini. She got · many prizes of merit for her literary work from editors, The novel Bano-baaini., on the idea.ls of Hindu widowhood, was printed in the jubilee n umber of Bamal>odhini Patri.ka. Here she sketched with literary skill the old tale of the duties of Hindu widows ; faith in God, loyalty t o the idea.ls of the dead husband, uplift of fellow widows, devotion to the task of carefully rearing the children, nursing the ill, helping the poot. When the D~am was established in Calcutta for the benefit of widows, the editor of Bamabodhini wrote her a letter of congratulation proclaiming the Dasasram as the practical application of the ideals of he;i novel Banobasini. • Later l'tfankumari wrote social prose pieces in the Bama.bodhini Patrika on subjects like self-tutor for Bengali homes, on duties of married women, on morals of Bengali women etc. Mankumari also wrote articles in the Nabyabharat. In 1296 B.S. (1889) she was given a prize by Brojamohan Datta for her llO'U8ehold Dutie.s of Bengali Women, She obtained the first prize from Mra. B. De, a silver medal for writing-Duties of Married Women, for the Je88ore.Khulna Sanmilani. She also wrote on the-Duties of Modest Women to their Relativu and Lives of'Greatmen for the same Sanmilani sessions in succeed· • ing years and was again honoured with the top prizes. Mankumari learnt English and Sa.nskrit at home. Many of her poems were published in books entitled : Kabyak'U8tlmanjali.

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LILABATI MITRA

KaTUJkanjali, Priyoproaanga and Birl:umar Backwardn888 .of our womenfolk was due .to the inactivity of our men : •'They &Te backward because they hav.e not .the lamps .to .light, not a flame to kindle because .you will not gt"ve them what is called the .daily oil-the opportunity that brings that flame to the lamp." She started her political ce.reer under the aegis of the Indian Nationa.l Congress and made her first public speech at Lucknow for Hindu-Muslim unity. We find her in 1916 speaking in ·favour of Swaraj in the .L'llolmow CongreBB sesaion. · She devoted ·her later life with.great energy to .the independence struggle under- tlae:leadership ofllabat.ma Gandhi rising· to the president.nip of the CoJ:IPll itself. After independence ,she . became the Governor of Otkr Pradeah aiili died inil9'9:l51

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BOOKS BY BENGALI WOMEN An attempt has been made here to preaent an Aut Ac>r I ndex of Bengali women who wrote and p\lbliahed boQb daring the yeare from 1856 to 1910. The list tries to in\)lude all auoll books which have been mentioned in library catalogues. ~ettea, contemporary newspapers, periodicals or other publications. Moat of the books are of courae written in Bengali ; there are however a few iu other lang~ges, English mainly a.IMI -even one or two in French. We also find oooaaional translations into Bengali from Sanskrit, Engliah and French again. Jn most of the caaea the year of publication c0l1-ld be indicated {the English year being approximately calo~ated by adding .693 to the Bengali year) as well as the aize of the book and the nature of the subject matter. But beoa.1188 of a lack or biographical details, it remains a little uncertain whet her the .entries under a name are all actually by the same person. '.l'he index is arranged alphabetically on the basis of t he ;personal name of the writer and not the surname, which with wome.n changes with marriag~. while many Bengali women .Prefer to uae the blanket term Debi or Dasi which covers all -distinctions. Under each author, the books have been listed wherever possible cbronolo0>ically. Where dates are not .available, the books concerned have been placed at the end or the list under the particular author in alphabetical order. Abreviation u sed are : A. D. for Anurupa Debi's Sr (mentioned in the \\riter's Bhaba O:Bhakti.)

( 3 ) -ANJndamoyee Debi : 1. Prarthana (56 pp., 1907)-on religion (C. G.) ( 4 )

-Anang.mohini Debi (Rajlnunari of Tripura) : 1. Kanika (51 pp., 1901)-short poems on miscellaneous subjects ., s. P.) 2.. Sokgatha (illust rated, 87 pp., 19( 6/-poem.a lamenting the death of Gopikriehna Devavarma of Tripura, husband of the authoress (N. L.)

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3 . Priti (66 pp., 1910)- oollection of misoellaneom lyrios (S. P.) ( 5 )

-Almadanndari Dasi : J.

Abala Bilap (37 pp., 1871)-poems (8. P.)

( 6 ) -Aaonymou1 1 1. Kabilamala (72 pp , 1865) -poeme (S, P.) 2.

3. 4. 5.

6.

7. .S.

9. •

10. 1.1. 12. 13. 14.

15. 16.

Bangabala (30 pp., 1868)-poems on the unh\l.ppy oondition of .H indu women (A. D .) Pa'lya Ohatullaya (12 pp., 1868)-four poems (C. G.) .Muanu.vu Be.gum or poetry by a Bigum (Patna, 144 pp,, 3rd ed. 1868)-mieoellaneoue vereee in Persian (C. G.) f Banaphu.Z (Vol. 1)-on the li£e history of mythological Sita, Sabitri, Behula and others in pro1e '.B:1m:i~clhini Pa!riJ:a, 1277 B. S., No. 82). Nil Nalini Natak-(Bamabodhini Patrika, 1277 B . S ., No. 92). Manallama-:Barnabodhini Pa~rika, 1277 B . S., No. 92. ) Padya Mala (58 pp, 1870)-poema (S. P .) Ekajana Dukhinir Vilap (9 pp., 1871)-the lam,ntations for ~be intemp~rate habits of h'r h'18bS'ld in proJe and poems (I. 0.) KU8Urna Malika .. (5' pp, 187l)-poems with an introdaotion by Jogendranath Banerjea (I. 0,) Bama Raclaanabali (Vol, I, 237 pp., 1872)-wom,n's writings published in B:imabodhini Palrika (S.P .) Kabitohar (39 pp., 1873)-poems (I. 0,) MOMrama (18 pp., 1873)-poems (I. 0 .) Taralxdi (114 pp., 1873)-a lege:idary tale by the wife of Haraltamar Tagore (N. L.) Kamini 0 Mrinm:1yi (12~ pp., 1878)-s tale of two homBI (I. 0.) • B:1nap\u.l (Vol. 1) -mythological figures in poem (B~,.. bodAini Patrika, PAalgu.n 1286 B. 8 .)

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/JPPSN'D IX I

17. Non OAoril (ISO pp,,. 2nd ed. 1889, hit ed; in 1879)- in pr(\86 and poetry, with her son's brief life history by Srimati U. of Simulia. near Calcutta (3. P.) 18. Matri Sntha 0 Iavoratuti (23 pp., 1879)-poelllS on Goulchagatha (11!0 pp., l906J- several true anonymous love letters which describe how the married life of a woman was spoiled by her parents in not giving her in marriage to the man of her faney (N. L.) Kabitabali (220 pp., 1906).:..poems (8. P.) Bilap Lahari (111 pp., 1908)-poem in lamentation of a deceased husband and relatives (C. G. ) [Late) Na:inibala NQIJ (1908)-life history and events of paasing away of Nalini in prose and poetry. Nalini was t he daughter of Anandamohan Bose (Bamabodhini Patrika, July 1908). Maner Basana (113 pp.. 1909)-songs (N. L .) Bidhaba Ramani (24 pp.)-by Sreemati .. ,Dasi (S. P.) Premamala (46 pp. l-i;oems by the author of Bhaktimala

35.

36.

37. 38.

311.

40. 41.

-

4 ·) .

43 . 44. 45.

(S. P.)

46.

T·uktuke Bai -juvenile literature (Bamabodhini Patrika, 1900 May.)

(7 ) -A1ama1unclari Sinha : I.

Affllmala (3 pp., 1907)-poems le. G.)

(8 )

- Bamuwadari Debi : 1.

An Euay on. the auperatili0118, the removal of which can give

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APPENotX I

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'·

proaperily lo our society (Pabna, 20 pp., 1876)-ln proee (S. P.) but in B. B. the year is 1861. ( 9 )

-Baulata Debi : 1. Banoja-(A. D.)

. l.

( 10 ) - Bauphulabaaini Debi : Sribataya.Upalchyan (164 pp., 1901)-a mythological story (C. G.) ( 11 l

-Bauntakumari/Buu : 1. 2.

Naba Simanlini-(Bamabodhini Patri1ca, 1892, No. 327.) Upaaanar Grantha-on meditation (A. D.) ( 12 )

-Basantakumari Debi: 1, Manjari (1901} (A. D.)

. ( 13 )

- Bauntakumari/Roy/Roy Choudhury/Cboth/Dui : 1. 2 3.

4.

Kabita Manjari-{author's Rogalura) Rogatura (16 pp., 1872)-verses (S. P ,) J01hidvijnana (Barisal, 6S pp., 1875)-on social and domeati~ duties of women (S. P.J Bali1ca Binode (Jibank08h-Bharaliya Ailihaailc, Vol. V, by Prithichandra Biewasingha,)

5. Baaandhila (Ibid.) 6. Baaantalcumari (Ibid.) ( 14 )

- Benoykumari Basu/Dhar : 1. Naba Mulcul (90 pp., 188i)-poems (B.B.) 2. Nirjhara 1102 pp., 2nd ed. 1891, lst edition in 1888)poeme (.J. G.) ( 15 ) - Bbubanmohini Daai : I. Padyalciahore-poems (Bamabodhini Palrilca, 1277 B. S., No. 92.)

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BOOXS BY BENG ... Ll WOMl!:N

( I~ )

.

-Bhabanmol:iini Debi/SarbaW..mn• (BeurM): I. 8wapnadar1ane Abhijnana Kabya (85 pp., 1878)-philosophical poems (S. P.) ( 17 ) -Bbubamundui Dui : I. Bil.ap Lalaari (25 pp,, 1875)-poems on sorrow (I. O.) ( 18 ) -Bibbabati Sea : I Kanak Kuaum (239 pp., 1903)-poems (S. P.) ( I l )

- Bibbubala : 1. 8ukanya-(Bamabodhini Patrika, 1906, No. 518). ( 20 ) - Bidpbati Ariyar S.ra1wati : (Editor) 1. Griha Dharma (174 pp., 2nd ed. 1910}--a book on the methods of home treatments of various di.eeases including child diseases, female diseases, etc. It deals also with pharmacology of indigenous drugs and child care (!S. L.) ( 21 ) -Bijoabal•: 1. Devikatha Lahari (120 pp.)-tales on the worship of the goddess of weal'h etc. mostly in prose (S. P.) ( 22 )

-BimaI. Dai Gupta: l,

I.

Malal>ii:agnimitra (121 pp., 1910)- translation from the Sanskrit drama of Kalidas in verse (S. P.)

( 23 ) -Biupaai Debi: Mala (illustrated, 48, pp., 11106)-religious poems (C. G.)

( 24 ) -Binduba1iai Dali : 1. Rukmini (14 pp., 1906)-a mythological poem giving an acoount of the life of Rukmini and her abduction by Sri Krishna (C. G.)

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APPENDIX I

2.

I.

Bari Prem (44 pp, 1900)-a. collection of religious songs (C. G;)

( 25 ) • od'•n•• Dau' 1 - B11!' Kanal:a 0 Nalini (45 pp., 1905)-poem by an actresa dedicated to her dead girl who died on 27 Phalgun 131()

B. S. (S. P.) 2.

Kuaum Guchcha (35 pp., 1910)-miscellaneous poems (C.G.)

( 26 ) - Binoclinj Debi :

I . Budliamoyee (36 pp., 1894)-poems (S. P.) 2. Nihar Mala (24 pp., 1897)-poems (S. P.) 3, Bol:a Bindhu (1S6 pp., l910)-poems lamenting her son's dea.th \C. G.)

1.

( 27 ) -Biooclioi Sen Gupta : Ramanir Karyakhetra-(A. D.) ( 28 )

- Birajmohioi Dali 1 l. Nalini Mohana (102 pp., 1873)-a. love story (I, O.) 2. Kabilaliar (65 pp., 1876 )-a. collection of 13 poems (S. P.) ( 29 )

- Bireadrabela Sinha : 1.

Aarui:atha-poems in the Heritage of India. series

(J. G. )

( 30 )

- Brajabala Dasi/Sinha : 1.

Palibrata (1903)-etoriea on cha.ate women. The ea.le proceeds were donated to the Ba.idyana.th leper aaylum (Bamabodhini Patrii:a, 1904, No. 495.)

( 31 )

-Brojeadramohioi Dali : 1. ·Kabitamala (69 pp., 1890)-a collection of poems dedioa.ted to her friend Kriehna.soha.gini Da.ei (S. P.) ·

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BOO~S

BY SiNGALI WOMEN

( 32 )

,Ghotb :

-a..ulata ...... 1.

Olldru KUIWl!dnjali-poems (Banga BhaaM.r LekW by Harimohan Mukerjea). ( 33 )

-Cbaruaila Debi : 1.

Bluuha 8ilca1ia (Vol. I , 17 pp., 1903)-on language and

2.

literatnre (A. D.) Bhy Jogeehchan d.ra Bagal (1958), p. 107. . . Tattobodiift.i, .AaMlr 1339 B. S .; BaAitra Bq.ihal: Cftari!Mala: ~W!ll'Mkiim!Vi, by Bwjendre.n .ath Bqerj~. pp. 26, 25, 23.

(is) Mubmar i Ba •BafllJU MaAila Kcabi : Man.nil.an Buw, by Jogencln.nath ·Gupta (1360 B . S.) pp. 116·177; 8~ in the preeen' work, p. 115, 193.

.

'

··

(z) IJW.ti.M itra-

'l . .Lilabati Mitra· autobiograpla11. by Lilabaw Mitra (2JJd ed. 1924), pp. 2·4 . .:2. Braddlw.njali, by &ohi.ndNp rw._d Buu,(1924},pp. 3!-3S; Ltlabali Milra- a~y (2nd ed. ), pp. 2 -15, 19-28' ; BamabocW1" Patrik, 1811, No. 511 ; eee ill tile preeent work, pp. 20, 109, 187. · ·s. .LilabaU Jl._ulobi ograplg '(2nd ed) pp. 2'1-IS, 9, 10, 12-16, 19, 63-66. 0

~

(:d) IC••ini Roy'l. Biawal>Aarati Patraa, JlagA~At;iilra 13G9 B. B. P. 189; ~ MaAtlakabi, by Jogendranatli ~u~; ~,_ 8o41ioli; Olaorit-za 1 Kamim, by Brojendran athBanerjea ; Su a1ao in the preeerit work, pp. 92, 103, 108, 196, and Jiban.il:oa1a BMlranr (Hil~rioal) Vol 2, l>,J' Suibhusan Vidyalankar.

(m")

B·~. dllUlll'I"

l . Bff&odini 0 TaranMar i, by Upendraoa th Vidyabhw • (1919), pp. 2, 4, '1, ·8, lO. 11. ~.. _d,_. Katlta, by Binodini (1912), pp. 26, 28, 36, M, 4', 4.11, m, 1W, 02, 93. ' l6 .

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NOTES

3. Bi11odini 0 Tar1UUftdori. pp. 82, 127, 83 ; Su in '11&.p resent work pp. 32·4, 16'. 4. Amar Katha, pp. 6',52, (Introduction). (xiii)

Sarala Debi

1. Tattabodhini, .4slrar 1339 B. S. 2. Ste in the preeenl work, pp. 127. 3. Jibaner Jharapata, by Sarala Debi, compiled and ·e dited by Jogeshcbandra Bagal (1958), pp. 213, 95, 78, 79, 104-106, 17, 109, 108, 123, 124, 4. Bee in the preeent work. p. 188. 5. Jibaner Jharapata.. pp. 116-129, 140, 141 ; A~ lo the Calcutta Ga%etU, 12 July 1911. 6. Bee in the present work, p. 107·8. · 7. Jibaner Jharapata, pp. 179, 196, 197, 94, 195, 98, 128, . 129, 152, 206. Bhaqini Nivedila, by prabrajika Mukti.prana (1959), p. 339. · . ..

lm•) Nqea4rabala Maltafi1. . .4•iyagalha, by Nagendrabala Saraswati (1902), pp. I, 8~ 2'. Bamabodhini Patrilta, October 1906, pp. 184, 182. 3. .dmiyagatha, p. 3. 4. Bam~bodhim Patrilca, October 1900, p. 247, February-. March 1901, p. 374, October 1906, pp. 182-184. 6. Purnima, .4shar 1306 B~ S., p. 117. 6. .Ami¥agalha, pp. 21 l-2t3. 7. Purnima, .4shar 1306 B. S., p. 117. _8 . Bamabodhini Patrika, October, 1906, p. 184, FebraaryMarch 1901, p. 374. 9. .4miyagatha. pp. 211-223. 10. Bamabodhini Patrika, October 1906, p. 247, February... March 1901, p. 374, May 1905, p. 179. (:u)

Beram Rokea Sakhawal Hosain -

I. Banger Mahil,a Kabi, by Jogendranath Gupta (2nd ed. 1360 B. S.) pp. 389-393; Charilra Sangraha: RoUa. Jibani (extracted from Bangl,a Jiban Charit 0 Almacharil), by Sunitikumar Cbat topadhyay (1940), pp, 223-235• •

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Zl1

NOTIS (:ni)

Saro.Pai Naidu-

!. Matri Mandir, Bltadra 1330 B. S., No. 3. :2. Spuche.s an-:i Writi.ng1 of Sarojini Naidu, Published by G. A. Nateson & Co., Madras, (1925), p. vii. 3. Mahiya8i. Mahila, by Nripendrakishna Chatterjea (1931).

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

pp. 154, 156. Matri Mandir, Bltadra 1330 B. S, No., 3. Mahtyasi Mahil4, p. 166. Matri Mandir, Bhadra 1330 B. S., No. 3. The Golden Tlreshold, by Sarojini Naidu (1920).; p. 13. Sr>eeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu, pp. iii-i1:. · Matri Mandir, Bhadra 1330 B. S., No. 3 ; Tht Go'lden Threshold, pp. 15, 17. The Bird of Time, by Sarojini Naidu (1914), pp. 1, 4-6; 2 ; .~fatri Mandir, Bltadra 1330 B. S. No. 3. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu; p. ix: (Introduction). MahiyasiMahil4, p. 159; Speeches and Writing• of Sarojini llaidu, pp. 5·7, 51, 54, 55, 131 42.

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Calcutta ' . ,p1oe 1869

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.\

INDEX .AbalaDae,M Abduction, rt, 31, 36 Abnormal women, 24 .Abortion, 9 Act age coment,' cantonment, 30 oonta@'eoua djee1e, 26, 29..0 'Z3 factory, 90 leper, 76 minea, 88 MIA, 17, 70 lpl marriage, 12,16,20-1, 132 widow marriage, 9, 12, 20 workman contract, 86 Aghorekamini, 122 .Agriculture crouded, 85 ..iflp.lfta, 2, li, 38, 117 American society, 40, 84, 67-8 'i6 .dtllalapur, 5, 98 Mriaili:lia, 41 Army & proetitutes, 26, 29-0 Ashley Eden, 85, 170 Ba.iahnabie, 27, ali-6 57 140 Balrlan, 14 ' ' Bamabodhini. Patrib , 41 , 189 Bamaeundar1, 116 Banerjea Nilkanta, 19 Saebipada, 21, 59, 75, 93 Burendra N, 105-6 Bangamahila Vidyalaya 48-9 133 , Baruat Girls School, 39,45-6 :e..u Ananda M, 103, 151 J. C. Sir, 21, M

Beg.rs, 35 Bengal J>'rtition, 108, 132 :Besant Annie, 110 Bethune College. 50, 53, 103, 106, 195

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School, 39, 45·6, 48-0, 80;.. 103, 106, 133-4 Normal, 58, 58, 66 Bhairabi Jogeinrari, 111 Bill Dbert, 105-6, 13' marriage native, 11-2 special, 11, 12 Binodini, 135 in theatre, 32-3 Bird Mary, 78, 80-1 Birth girlchild, 1, 3, 129 Bolton Mr, 124 Booka by Bengali women,81,14'l" Christians, 78-9, 80 Borklia horror, 143 Brahmo Adi, 10, 12 Na.babidhan, 11, 191 protestant, 7, 8, 31, 75 Sadharan, 11 split, 11, 16, 100 BrattU, 1-4, 18, 107-8, 138 British jail, 110 society, 40, 44-5, 59-1, 64-0 74-6, 77, 193 Brothel keepers, 28, 30, 35 Calcutta Univ, 49-1, 53-4, 129,.. 135, 194 Carey William, 64 Carpenter M, 42, 56, 66, 99, 108, 163 Case by kulin wife, 10 Census on beggars, 35 deformities, 35 education, 39, 51 occupation, 92-7 prostitution, 2g teachers, 93 widows. 22 Central Gathering Scheme, 43-4. 69 Chandramukhi, 50, 92, 194

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Charity by proetitutee, :U East India Company, 17, 63-4 Chutity only Yirtue, 19 78, 114 CAarlee DowdHng Rev, 72-3 Economic life, 25, 27, 33-4, 1$ Chatterjea Bankim, 33, 103, Bden Female School, 49 Edaoatiou, 38 136, IM Chooeing husband, 4, 13, 151 at home, 2, 5, 38-9, 117 central Govt, 48 Christian mi111ionarie1, 4, 30, 39-5, 47, 50, 53, 55-6 provincial Govt, 48·9,51 Elcad