Hyderabad: With non-violence and satyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi, the half-naked seditious fakir received accolades for his bold, progressive firsts. On his 151st birthday, let us remember his achievements to improve the conditions of women and gender equality.
Gandhi Ji’s aim was to ensure that women were treated as equally as men in the private as well as the public sector of society.
He fought against the practices of sati, child marriage, oppression of widows, ‘pardah’, and fueled emancipation of women. Several women were employed in the salt march and even given the wheel to spin hand made clothing during popular movements of boycotting western clothing.
Gandhi opposed practices which were injurious to women and girls even if such practices had the sanction of Dharma Shasta, law and tradition.
(1) Female infanticide: He was against the practice of female infanticide. He discovered that the birth of a girl was generally unwelcome as she was to be married off and had to live and work in her marital home. Another reason was the custom of dowry which made the girl child liability for her parents.
(2) Female illiteracy: Gandhi believed that lack of education and information was the roots cause of all the evils against women. He believed that education is therefore necessary for women as it is for men. He believed that education is essential for enabling women to assert their natural right, to exercise them wisely and to work for their expansion.
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(3) Child marriage: Gandhi objected to child marriages, for they were devoid of the element of consent on the part of the concerned boy as well as the girl. He believed that both the boy and the girl should be developed physically and mentally at the time of marriage and that they should have a voice in the choice of their life partner.
He also believed that the practice of child marriage came in the way of the progress of women. They were married off and expected to bear and rear children at an age in which they themselves should be in schools. He said women cannot make any progress so long as there are child marriages, as it results in denial of educational opportunities and deprivation of joys of girlhood. He advocated mobilization of strong public opinion and supported agitations by the local people against such happenings. He fully supported the child marriage restraint bill.
(4) Dowry: Gandhi believed that the custom of dowry turned young girls into mere chattels to be bought and sold. He called this custom pernicious as it lowered the status of women; destroyed their sense of equality with men and defiled the institution of marriage. To curb the venomous dowry system he advised every parent to educate their daughters so that they refuse to marry a young man who wanted a price for marrying and would remain, spinster, than to be a party to the degrading terms.
(5) Polygamy and subjugation of wives: To Gandhi wife was not the slave of the husband but his comrade, better half, colleague and friend. The wife is a co-sharer of husband with equal rights and duties.
Their obligation towards each other and towards the world must therefore be the same and reciprocal. He believed that a wife is not bound to be an accomplice in her husband’s crimes and when she holds anything to be wrong she must dare to do the right.
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If a husband is unjust to his wife, she has the right to live separately. Married life, he believed, is intended to promote mutual good here and hereafter. It is meant to serve humanity. When one partner breaks the law of discipline, the right accrues to the other of breaking the bond. The wife or the husband may separate to serve the end for which they had united.
(6) Molestation: He wanted girls to learn the art of protecting themselves against the indecent behaviour of unchivalrous youth. If a woman is assaulted she should not stop to think in terms of ahimsa (non-violence) as her primary duty is self-protection. She is at liberty to employ every method or means that comes to her mind in order to defend herself with all her strength and if need be die in the effort.
- Support to Empowerment of Women
Gandhi did not stop at opposing the practices which were harmful to women but also forcefully advocated in favour of various rights of women.
(1) Education: He believed that education was needed to awaken in the minds of women a consciousness of their present condition. He believed that education will enable women to assert their natural right and to exercise them wisely and to work for their expansion. However he also believed the since home life is entirely the sphere of women, they ought to have knowledge regarding domestic affairs and upbringing of children. Hence courses of instruction should be based on an appreciation of the basic roles of men and women.
(2) Property: Gandhi realised that property laws in British India were against women. However, he felt that married women are co-sharer in their husband’s power and privileges in spite of the law being against them. He also emphasized on character and education as the real property that parents can transmit equally to their children.
(3) Economic independence: He was not against the economic independence of women. Some people feared that the economic independence of women may lead to the spread of immorality among them and disrupt domestic life. To that, his answer was that morality should not depend upon the helplessness of a man or woman. It should be rooted in the purity of hearts. Although he wanted women to take up some work so as to supplement the earning of the family. He recommended work like spinning which will not disturb the home as he regarded their duties at home to be as important as men’s duty to earn. He recommended equal payment to women.
(4) Equal treatment to daughter: He believed that as both men and women are necessary for the world, the parents should treat their sons and daughters as equal and rejoice at the birth of both.
(5) Wives as equal to husband: He wanted every husband to treat his wife as an ‘ardhangini’ and ‘sahdharmini’.
(6) Women as equal to men: He believed that men and women are equal to the same Atma (soul) dwells in the women’s body. Since the soul is sexless men and women are perfectly equal in the eyes of God. He recommended equal remuneration for women. He believed that women have equal mental capacities; have the right to participate in the minutest details of the activities of men, and have the same right to freedom and liberty as men.
(7) Women as individuals: He asked women to cease to consider themselves the object of men’s lust. They should stop adoring themselves to please their husbands and others. He believed it will save women from the subordination of men and wives would be saved from beating by their husbands.
(8) Women in the economic sphere: He believed that the loss of spinning wheel brought about India’s slavery and its voluntary revival will lead to freedom. In his view, women were best suited to take up spinning and the propagation of khadi and swadeshi.
(9) Awareness of rights: As women got educated and participated in public arena they became aware of their own position and rights. As a result, many associations for women came up.
(10) Women as superior to men: Gandhi considered women not only equal to men but in many ways superior to men. To him, bravery lay in dying and not killing. He defined bravery in the highest sense of suffering and sacrifice. Hence to him, the courage of self-sacrificing women was superior to men of brute force.
(11) Women as Shakti: Gandhi believed that women have been gifted by God but their marvellous power has been lying dormant. If they realize their power they can dazzle the world.
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