Chapter 4 ‘ Mapping the Domestic Domain onstructions of sexuality, educational reform, thrift, child care ig and household management were of grave social concern and scientific investigation in UP in the late-nineceenth and early- cwen- tieth centuries. The reforming endeavour included attempts to forge an ideology bf respectable middle-class and upper-caste Hindu domest- icidy. Recent studies stress that the real bartle for an ideal womanhood dufing colonialism was waged within the home. The domestic do- indin was the inner core of nacional culture, a privareland/sebarate re CSOT Te pOOTE TET The Hc eos pone woe Wh @nd control. This was in contrast with the world outside, the material. “or public world, where the West had proved ts superiority and made the colonised acknowledge it. The Hindu woman was the harbinger of the spiritual essence of the home, which became an essenti of cultural identicy! However, though the domestic sphere was cru- cial for Hindu assertiveness, Hindu publicists do not seem to have “a imagined the ‘separate spheres’ identified by historians. The spheres | appear heterogeneous and internally inconsistent in everyday spatial pe and political practices. The emphasis on a new ideal of womanhood operated atall scales and on all fronts, making such neat divisions un- tenable. Private issues were discussed in public, and publicists ope: rattd in the public domain, intervening in the law, the markerplace, thf railway station, the press and print, attempting, as we have seen, "Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Delhi, 1994), pp. 120-1. :124 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community co reform both the ‘p! ivate’ and the ‘public.'? Whether in the home routside, the discursive management of female bodies was essential tc project a civilised and sectarian Hindu identity and 2 new nation. The defence of Hindu domesticity went hand in hand with control and conflict over the more reified domains of women. Patriarchal oppression took new shapes through reworked models Be eareantot se eae svat wife. Women became symbols for restoring the prestige of the Hindu household, ‘and thereby of the Hindu nation. Arthe same time, the prescriptions of Hindu reform- ers and revivalists were at cimes fragile. The Hindu nationalist effort sre eofeen extremely cease, resulting in unintended consequence, in , contradictory and ambivalent situations. To highlight che endeavours : Sf Hindu publicists in che domescicsphere, I Took st three areas s2%3- > lityyeducation, and health. 1. Unstable Sexualities: The Sexual Politics of the Home Sexual life and conjugality have drawn the attention of several his- torians.3 A discourse of heroic masculinity and controlled sexuality < has been celated to assertions of colonial superiority, in cont with the supposedly ungontsolled sexual desires of the ‘native’. The cult cfdomesticity was an indispensable clement of the impen © “prise. Ir has been claimed that various colonial laws centring around Ted to new pacriarchies and social disciplines.‘ women and marriage Des dificult even co ascerain i Indian hed acknowledged Ween OPE 5 sorry in che public domain and vice vrs the private sphere. To cake another Grample, che public maccer of caste was pre-eminently concerned with private car tly, manage, mennuaion and bovichold T=NSEET Jurgen . tistermas, The Sracaral Transformation of Public Sphere: An‘Inguir into 1 Crear of BanrgssSocey sans. Thomas BeBe (London, 1989) sees his model as specifically Western, deriving > mr vions ofhousehold and family as reflected e dualism and romantic imagination. agement, humanist indivi ® Mary John and Janaki Nar (eds), A Quevion of Silence? The Sexual Ecomarier cial Reform, Sexu- ef Modern India (New Delhi, 1998): Dacia Uberoi (ed.), hig and the State (New Debi. 1996)- Pome MeClincock, Lmperial Leather: Rast. Gender and Sexuality in the Colo~ é ial Consee(New York, 1995), pp- I-A: Aan Laura ‘toler, Raceand the Education from Greek, Roman and then Christian inlaw, government, economic MP- ‘Mapping the Domestic Domain | 125 However, such explanations tend co ignore the fact that the colonial ructure of power compromised with, indeed learnt much from, digedous patriarchy and uppéf-caste norms and practi¢es which, in vein areo of lif, rexained considerable hegemony == Taj various debaces on sexualicy, cBnjuesiey, rmattiage and fami- ly, though thére was a constant tussle beeween Sanaran Dharmists, neo-Brahmanic ideologues and orthodox Hindu revivalists on the aeevand, and Arya Saralists and liberal reformers onthe ohety they seem to reach an ‘uncomfortable compromise by the 1920s. Both fonctioned within a broad nationalist agenda of asserting a middle- class and upper-caste Hindu identity, imbibing new meanings into hierarchies of gender within che home. In face, Arya Samajists and Separan Dhatmists were remarkably similar when if. came 60 he tionship they sougheberween ‘correct gender identity and sexual rela- tionships. In a way they were both in collusion ‘with imperial power coven when they challenged Western knowledge. 11. Conjugality and Desire: The Power of Difference cial and economic in needs and desires were eligious tiefor life. seen as immoral Marriage was seen as the most important s0 tution of the family, within which individual Secondary, Iewas noc merely acivil contract but ar ‘Any attack on the aims and ideals of marriage was and wrong, Love was unstable and temporarys ‘marriage gave it dign- igy. A new ‘civic morality’ within the home gained ascendancy and power. ‘Grhasth Ashram’ was applauded as ic was a practice that fed the others. Marriage formed the family and families formed the future citizens of the nation. Thus marriage was EM ered with & mor vision, providing sustenance fos th pASOTE ETE al movement and = ofDevire Foucait's History of Sexualityand he Colonial Order of Things (Durham, 1995), pp- 1-54. 5 Tanika Sarkar, ‘Rhetoric against Age of Consent: Resisting Colonial Reason and Death of a Child-Wife’, EPW, 28, 36 (4 September 1993), p- 1869. 6 Keshavkumar Thaleut, Vivah aur Prem (Allahabad, 1930, and edn, 2000 copies); Saumendra ‘Nath Kerati, Grhasthashram’ Kurmi. iya Diwakar, 4, 3 (May 1928), pp- 6-8 : |126 I Sexuality, Obscenity, Community for distinct identities. The ideal of monogamous and companionable rrartiage was valoried more than ever.” The family internalized, monitored and institutionalised sex within marriage and saw that it ‘was performed in the correct place and at the proper time ‘The self-disciplining, regulating and monitoring of the sexpal body would influence the nation. In the process, male sexuality cane under considerable strain even as the burden-of control was madelto rest more on the woman. Beliefin the constant, natural and transci~ dent difference berween the bodies and sexual urges of women and ‘men accentuated the power of the husband over the wife, whereby “Ghetan could escape with many ‘wrongs’ but the woman could not. ‘These differences were repeatedly sessed in the didactic literature of therimes. Within an idealised notion lay the roots of oppression. Wo- ‘men were seen as the centre of the family. Justas a state has nvo-major departments, home and Foreign, the business of man is with the world, outside, and that of the woman inside.* The familiarity of the concept Of pativrata, the ideal wife? allowed for its success, though it was redefined and refurbished with new qualities. The work of mian was to proiluce, of the woman to preserve. Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi wrote: ‘If some lay-knowing woman tells her husband—listen, your Tights and mine are equal— am free and so are you: One day I'l egok sae nnclean the house, and one day you. One day I'll take care of ypu, one day you of me. Or suppose she says: refuse ro produce a child— tell me what would such freedom result in?’ Social conditioning was combined with biological arguments «0 7 Yashoda Devi, Damparye Prem aur Ritiriya ke Gupt Rahatye (Allahabad, 1933), p. 510. § Ganga Prasad Upadhyaya (Headmaster, DAV School) Mahila Vyavabar Chandrika (Prayag, 1928), p-3- 9To remind women constantly of the scories were consrand published of Sita, Saviri and the like, See Chandrabali Mishra, Adarth Hinds Nari (Banaras, 1930); Yashoda Devi, Saccha Pati Prem (Allahabad, 1910); Gopal Devi, Disya Devan (Prayage 1926). 18 Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi Rachnavali, Vol. 7,4. and comp. Bharat Yayavar (New Delhi, 1995), p. 145. Alto see Ramnath Seth, ‘Ssrven Mein Ashanei ka Karan’, Seri Darpan, 29,1 uly 1923), p. 328; Purshoregm, Seri, ‘Bhushan (Bana- ras, 1932), p. 351+ ideal Hindu wife, mythical/historical Mapping she Domestic Domain I 127 inaintain hierarchies of gender within the home, where a multipure pose idea of service was stressed!" The deterioration of Man did not aorse much Farm co sociry, but that of Woman Le wo ce cole! of family, community and sociery.!? The-difference was seen some. shar ludicrously even within the sexual act: ‘In che nacural sexual act) of procreation, the responsibilicy ofthe man i for ten minutes, while ret che woman for en months. When nacure itself has kepe cis “difference of ten minutes and ten months, how can anyone SUBBSSt the responsibilities of woman and man are the same?" cn ecentalist argument was also bfought into play, whereby male land female natures were seen as forever different and unchanging. law when ic was seen as strengthening patriarchy. Lakshmi Narayana Co= Vyasa, President, Hindu Samaj, Allahabad, expressed the opinion of ) the Samaj: Under Hindu kings enough power was exercised by individuals for the coercion of disobedient and wayward wives. .. . [Buc] the power of curb- ing the spirit ofa recalcitrant wife is now entirely in the hands of the law 1) Bharat Bandb, 17 February 1888, NNR, 1888, p. 155. Opinions of suc kind were expressed by various individuals and in meetings held in various par of UP. A public meeting was held on 21 July 1887, presided over by Rai Dur Prasad Bahadur, opposing any change. In Agra, Gorakhpur, Basti and Xumaun “opinion favoured leaving the law as ic was. Sheo Narayan, Secretary, Municipal Board, Agra, Magistrates of Meerut, Bulandshahar and Aligath, and many others endorsed the existing provisions, 410-715/May 1890, Judl, A, Home Deptt (NAI). In chis, especially see File 519 for UP, pp. 20, 34-5, 38-9, 41, 54, 66. 22 Ibid., pp. 40-1. 23 Ibid., pp. 52-4. Mapping the Domestic Domain 131 - courts. The people, therefore, expect that the Legislature should vest such penal powers in the hands of the Judges that would keep etring wives in fear of the law and discourage them from defying the Judge's decree. Any relaxation in the rigour of the existing law will only slacken the bonds of sociery.4 Others who opposed imprisonment did so chiefly on avo grounds. Firse, chag the old rules, whereby the woman was bodily handed over co the husband upon his application, should be restored. Second, that imprisonment would not give the anticipated outcome, for no re- spectable Hindu Would ake back ‘an imprisoned woman.?> Impris- onment, however, continued to be a legally permitted method to enforce the restitution of conjugal rights until 1923.7 More important was the debate foregrounding the issue of infant marriage. A series of tragedies occurred in Bengal, including the death of ten-year-old Phulmoni due to injuries sustained during sexual iercourseWith her 35-year-old husband, Hari Mohan Maity. Cam- paigners like Malabari renewed ch&ir efforts to raise the age of con- senc.27 He made a successful tour in UP and addressed meetings at +4 Thid., p. 67. In fact, 3 women were imprisoned to enforce that law in'1892 and2 were jailed in 1893 in UP: Priyam Singh, “Women, Law and Criminal Jus- tice in North India: A Hiscorieal View’, Bulletin of Concerned Arian Scholars, 28, 1 (1996), p. 29. —— 25In Badaun, many Hindus expressed sug*®finions. The Arya Samaj took a slightly different position. A special eas wagheld of the Bareilly'Arya Sama) on 27 and 31 July 1887. Extensively quoting evidence from Vedas and Shastras, the meeting underlined that the husband must be constantly revered. as a god by a virtuous wife and that Hindu law did not igcognise dissolution of marriage. ‘The meeting ultimately resolved that the decrees for restitution of conjugal rights should not be made enforceable for six months and, after that, non-compliance on the part ofa Hindu woman Should be seen as misconduct, leading to no claim. for maintenance or propercy: 519/May 1890, Judl, A, Home Deptt (NAI), pp. 22-7. Nair, Women, p. 75. ; 2 Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowboed in India (Being a Collection of Opinions, For and Against, Received by B.M. Malabari, from Representative Hindu Gentlemen and Official and Other Authorities) (Bombay, 1887). A richly detailed account of thig and related issues over women's rights can be found in Tanika Satkar, Hindw Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion and Cultural Nationalism (New Delhi, 2001). :132 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community Allahabad, Lucknow, Agra, Aligarh, Bareilly, Mathura and Banaras in 188628 In 1891, under pressure frog such reformists, the govern- ment raised the age of consent for a wife co cwelve years. This was accomplish J in the face of desperate resistance, most vociferous in Calcutta, but not leaving UP untouched. Papers like Bharat Jiwan from Banaras took a lead in this campaign. Revivalists constantly attempted to downplay or distract attention from the horrors of infant marriage. Oneargument was that the 1891 ‘Act violated Hindu customs as it interfered with the garbhdan cere- mony. This was tantamount to a sin. They argued that the British had promised no interference in the personal beliefs of Indians.” The Bharat Dharma Mahamandal, the Hindu Samaf of Allahabad, the Vidya Vardhini Sabha and the Dharma Sabha at Farukhabad, the Saraswat-Khatri Unnatti Karni Sabha of Kanpur and the Brahmins poe adopted resolutions to this effecc.*? Public meetings against che Act were held ac Banaras, Agra, Mathura, Khandwa, Vrindaban, Moradabad, Jhansi and Kanpur! Comparisons with the abolition of sati were dismissed, saying that sati was never enjoined by religion, applied in rare cases, and involved the loss of life; whereas the age of consent affected every man and cohabitation rately resulted in in- ipa Several women doctors had exposed the grievous consequences re- sulting from early consummation and the poor health of children 28 ala Baijnath, Social Reform for NWP: Proceeding of Public Meeting, with Twa Papers and a Preface (Bombay, 1886), pp.:1-31 29 Bharat Jiwan, 19 January 1891, p. 3. 7 30 Hindustan, 27 January 1891, NNR, 3 February 1891, pp. 85~G: Prayag. Samachar, 26 January 1891, NNR, 3 February 1891, p. 86; Hindustan, NNR, 10 February 1891, p. 105; Caunpore Gazette, | March 1891, NNR, 10 March 1891, p. 174. § 31 Bharae Jizan, 26 January 1891, p. 3; Nasim-i-Agra,7 February 1891, NNR 10 February 1891, p. 105; Subodh Sindhu 11 February 1891, NVR, 17 February 1891, p. 121; Cawnpore Gacete, 23 February'1891, NNR 3 March 1891, p. 157; Hinduatan, 26 February 1891, NNR, 3 March 1891, p. 157. 3 Tohfeh-i-Hind, 27 January 1891, NVR. 3: February 1891, p, 84: Oude ‘Abhbar, 2 March 1891, NVR, 3 March 1891, pp. 154-51 Tuliei-Hind, 8 Febe ruary 1891, NNR, 3 March 1891, p. 156. Mapping the Domestic Domain | 133 born to child-mothers.>? Such doctors were ridiculed. It was argued“ that if government made laws by heeding the opinion of doctors, it would soon have to interfere with feligious customs'such as bathing” carly in the morning in the cold season at ghats, maineaining long- drawn-out fasts, and s0 on. Further, women doctors had no access to the houses of respectable people, and if the registers of hospitals sometimes showed the death of girls from ill usage by men, those girls were likely to have been prosttutes.*5 By implication, the death of * prosticutes by ill usage was immaterial, if noc an altogether good thing. The age of consent had been customarily agreed for unmarried girls because it would protect them from immature prostitution and rape by strangers.® It was also argued that the criminal statistics for England showed there were forry cases ofassaulton women ina poptc lation of 35 million, while only ewo cases had occurred in India with a population of 260 million. This showed that Indians treated their women much better than did the English.” fimatic and ‘rational’ arguments were advanced to counter eu geficise contentions on weak progeny and death due to early mare fiages. Ie was argued that a 16-year-old Hindu woman who had al- ready given birth to two séns and had only cone meal a day was stronger than any 25-year-old European unmarried woman. And if deaths were so common from the effects of cohabitation at an early age, hew could India boast a population of 260 million. Could the Sikh, the Rohilla and the Gurkha soldiers, all offspring of so-called child-mothers, be considered weak and degenerate? There could be ro declared uniform age for puberty; India was proud of its ins- tances of nine-year-old girls delivering children." Another Hindu 33 155-9/February 1891, Judl, Home Deptt (NAI)- 1M Alora Akhbar, 19 January 1891, NNR, 27 January 1891, p- 54. 35 Bharat Jiwan, 9 February 1891, p. 3- 6 Bharat fiwan, 26 January 1891, p. 3s Bharat Jiwan, 23 March 1891, 8-9; Nyaye Sudha, 28 January, 1891, NNR, 3 February 1891, p. 84. 57 Bharat Jiwan, 9 February 1891, p- 3. p. 45. pJiwan; 16 March 1891,| 1 134 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Communigy. imale assereed: ‘India is a hot country. Our girls enter the period of youth early. Western countries are cold. Their girls mature late. To bring thetustoms of cold countries ico hot onesis absolutely against intelligence, experience and vision. ... To keep girls unmarted till they teach their youth in India would increase fears of their mental impurity.'4! Ironically, when it came to sexual life after marriage it was often argued that men had uncontrollable urges and it was the woman's responsibilicy to control these. Regarding the age of consent, Precisely the opposite argument was given—that women had greater sexual urges and therefore it was imperative to have them caatiad as soon as they started menstruating. Women were stated to be better off with the present system, warmly appreciated as the gender which bestowed love and securiy. The Bill was said to harm those very people whom it proposed to Protect. Young brides had more time to adjust to the joint Family. Laws would hamper the sexual desire of a married woman, and the age limit would prevent her ftom expressing it? Arguments about shame and honour were put forward: no respectable woman would agree to be medically examined to determine sexual penetration, ‘Women would be dragged into making ‘shameful’ statements during tials over the age of consent, leading to public disgrace for themselves and their families: women would rather die. Wives would live in deplorable conditions if their husbands had co spend a long term in jail, and they would be worse than widows, being denied the pleasures of married life in spite of having a husband. It would be difficult co Abbvbar, 21 February 1891, NNR, 24 February 1891, p. 137; Bharat Jitvan, 23 February 1891, pp. 4-5. “'Kannomal, Mahila pp. 1516, Also see Pagal, Grhini, p. 2. "2 Oudl Punch, 19 February 1891, NNR, 24 February 1891, p. 135; Bharat Jiwan, 9 March 1891, p. 4 ° Bharat Jiwan, 19 January 1891, p. 3; Najmu-l-Akhbar, 24 January 1891, NNR, 3 February 1891, p. 80; Nairang 2 February 1891, NNR, 10 Febrdary 1891, p. 102; Bharat Band, 6 February 1891, NNR, 10 February 1891, p. 104; Bharat fiwan, 2 February 1891, pp. 3-4; Hindustan, 7 February 1891, NNR 10 February 1891, p. 104. | | Mapping the Domestic Domain | 135 preserve their chastity for so long.* In relation to the restoration of conjugal rights, the very same forces upheld imprisonment for women; when it came co the man being jailed for a conjugal offence, the the- toric was turned upside down. A woman refusing to go to her hus- band had to be jailed:to bring order to society; a husband jailed for raping his child-wife would disrupt that order. ii The reformist argument was more defensive, the revivalists having set the terns of thesdebate. Bur there were loopholes even in the re- Formist logic. They stressed thar, if certain changes were needed, they had to come from within: that angoffending huiband should be liable co a charge smaller than rape, and to less rigorous imprison ment. Their arguments were connected to notions biological, physi- cal, bodily and eugenicist, and, unlike those of their opponents, rarély referred to the needs and desires of women, Even after the passing of the Bill, girls’ familicsewereafratc° In 1921 Bakshi Schan Lal bropefie forward another bill ro raise the age of consent from 12 to IAC" Ie was defeated on its second hear- ing. H. S. Golrrevivetitin 1923.5 The number of cases of convic-, tions for rape on girls between the ages of 10 and 12 years during ~ 1921-3 in UP was 128, far exceeding any other province. Bombay « came second with 63 cases, Punjab chird with 57 cases.5 There was a strong humanitarian streak in bringing forward chese bills, though arguments in their support centred on eugenics and strong progeny. Again, though most agreed that in non-marital cases and in those of rape by a stranger the age of consent should be raised, in the case of marital relations it was a different matter. One of the UP judges was of the opinion thacit was monstrous and repugnant to Indian notions to treat the husband and the stranger alike in cases of rape. Orga- nisations like Sri Bharat Dharma Mahamandal continued to cam- paign against such bills.°* The government too was not very eager about major amendments, However, such arguments were, chis timen, confronted by a more vocal and organised group of women. To som&, 8 extent, advances in education and the women's movement also 1 brought about a change in practice.** OF Fresh ground was broken in his debate by Hiarbilas Sarda in 1927, 4 = wh pointed out that the consent ofthe child-wife was nox enough: © & he proposed the fixing of 2 minimum age for mariage. Months of yq O eS S91bid., pp. 5-6, 8, 12-13, 15, 26-7, 34. netics $1 672/1922, Judl, A, Home Deptt (NA). ivy = 3 2416/1924, Judh, Home Depee (NAD. 2 3 3 Ibid. o 4 Ibid. i 55 Ie was an all-India Association representing the orthodox community of Hindus, with 700 branches and affiliated institutions in India and abroad and swith its headquarters at Banaras, 601/1926; Public, Home Deptt (NAI). 56 This has been extensively covered. Specialy see Ramusack, ‘Women's + Organizations’. Mapping the Domestic Domain | 137 debace in che legislative assembly followed, with various disagree ments.>7 Madan Mohan Malaviya led the campaign against the pro- posal, voicing the opinion of Hindu orthodoxy. An Age of Consent ‘Commircee was sec up on behalfof the Indian legislature. It submitted its voluminous report and evidence from various provinces, rurining to ten volumes.** This was landmark enquiry, though it had cercain limitations such as the fact that most female witnesses came from ‘edudated sections. and that no purdah parties were sent to UP. The repqcc admitted that there were more cases of infringement of the law of chnsenc in marital cases than those that came before the courts. he Bill was ultimately passed in 1929, fixing the minimum age of marriage at fourteen. There was opposition and tracts were pub- lished against i, suggesting ways to overcome or break this aw S! But this time the support was more organised, and the AIWC took alead in gathering support.® Simultaneously, the government was ex- tremely cautious. A ‘very secret’ lecter written by the chief secretary co the government of UP, on the eve of the enforcementof the Act, stated: Diserice Magistrates should be warned to deal very cautiously with com- plaints filed under the Aet, and to follow the preliminary procedurelaid down without undue haste. They [Government of India] are of the opi- nion thacas a general proposition until experience has been gained tovthe ~ gffecr-of the Act, only nominal sentences should be impoted in cases of nvietion and that, if possible, sentence of imprisonment should be avel- ed : Ic if ironic chac the Bill actually precipitated a large number of early 5 Legetive Asembly Debates, Official Report, IV, 62 (15 Septamber 1927). 58 Content Report and Age of Content Joshi) Committee, 1928-28, Evidence, Vol. IX (Calcutea, 1929). Out of his, Vols VIII and IX contained oral evid- ‘ence and wfitten statements frorn UP. 39 Consent, Report. p. 3. ® Ibid., p. 17. 61 Chewram Tripathi, Sarda Kanoon Aur Sanatan Dharma (Kashi, 1929); Munnilal Sahu Vaishya, Bal Vivah Nishedh Kanoon (Banaras, 1929); Indumati ‘Sarda Bill’, Arya Mahila, 12, 9 (December 1929), pp. 690-3. patna Basu and Bharati Ray, Women's Straggle: A Hinory ofthe AIWC, 1927-90 (Delhi, 1990), pp. 42-6. ; fa: 29, Box 209, Judl (Civil) Depre (UPSA).138 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community marriages throughout the province,“ and the Act remained a ted lecter in practical eerms. A summary of reports received from commis- sioners and district officers of UP on the working of the Act revealed that most were not aware of it or thought it could be disregarded. sill, passing ic was a victory for che women's movement, | Another controversial legislation was the Special Marriage Act, The Speci iage Act of 1872 was fairly radical because iy ruled our casts religious barriets to af rohibited polygamy and legalised divorce. However, its jurisdiction was limited to those who did not profess any of the recognised religions of India. In 1911, Bhupendra Nath Basu proposed to extend the provisions of the Act _ toll Hindus. The proposal shook the very foundations of Hindu religious and.commusity identity. It represented new forms of judi cial intervention based on individual as opposed to social or commu icy ‘rights’, However, rulings relating ta inter-caste marriages ofte showed a counter-tendency—of creating moze defined communite by delendingtheirprimordial’ customs. There was thus the case o » Padam Kumari vz, Suraj Kumari, in which the UP High Goust at Allahabad held: ‘Whatever may have'been the case in ancient times, and whatever may be the law in other parts of India, at the. present day a marriage beeween a Brahman and a Chhattri is nota lawful mar- riage in chese Provinces, and the issue of such a marrlage is nor legi- nese Rroviness, Sees noe timate Siete pripcsal give scope for such marriages to happen; under ordinary circumstances, such a marriage would have ‘resulted in the couples’ being outcaste, their marriage being disregarded, und their - children being illegitimare. Given the strong caste and communi ties, a very small minority would benefit by it, but even its mere p sing was seen as a threat, Arguments were given in opposition to t Ibid. % 29611930, Box 213, Judl (Cipil) Depee (UPSA). “Charles H. Heimsach, Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform (Princeton, 1964), pp. 91~4; Nair, Women, pp. 184-5, © \/February 1911, Judl, Deposit, Home Deptt (NAI). & Padam Kumari vs. Suraj Kumari, Indian Law Reporu, Allababad, Vol, 28 Allahabad, 1906), p. 458. 12411911, Box 45, Judl (Civil) Depee (UPSA). Mapping the Domestic Domain | 159 Bill—that it was detrimental co the sacramental character ef ig Hindu lion and mariage ceremony; chasis would eae problems for inheritance and succession.”® Meetipgs were held and resolutio Bere earl passed to endorse such views. es However, at the core of che opposition were fears of inter-caste /sharriages polluting the ‘pure blood’ of upper-caste Hindus,” and o} inter-religious marriages challenging the cohesiveness 0 mun” Kirti Sah Bahadur, Raja of Garhwal ae “The second objection appears far more forrpidable to me. Ifthe bill, as it stands, is passed into law ee lbatn preventa Mindy marrying a Muhammadan wife of@ high clas Brahman from mar- rying a low caste Shudra woman; bur such makriages cannot possibly be regarded as valid under Hindu law. @ Some'reformers, like C.Y. Chintamani, president of the Fifth UP Social Conference, pointed out that such a bill was necessary for the « removal of caste barriers.”® These voices were hopelessly outnumber- ed, revealing the ynrepresentative character of the liberal reformers, and the bill could not be passed. The opposition revealed an incon- sistency, as it applied miscegenation arguments to liaisons between castes, While ar the same time professing one ‘Hindu’ identicy. Even branches of the Arya Samaj took public positions against the bill.7 It was maintained that there was no need of exogamy as each Hindu caste and che community as a whole contained a sufficient number of males and females.”7 It was contended that the Hindu race could 7 Abhyudays, 30 July 1911, NNR, 4 Augusc 1911, p. 709; Abbyudaya, 6 ‘August 1911, NVR 11 August 1911, p. 733; Abhyudaye, 10 August 1911, NNR, 18 Augusr 1911, p. 756, 71 meeting was held at Banaras on 5 July 1911, protesting Trishul, 5 July 1911, NR 14 July 1911p, 627, Adrafe mem to he bill vas published: Ablyudeya, 30 July 1911, NNR, 4 August 1911, p. 709. an sane 7 Abyudaya, 10 August 1911, NNR, 18 August 1911, p oe 7 17/November 1911, Judl, B, H wc (NAI), 74124/1911, Box 45, Judl ( 75 85/July 1911,140 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community not be improved or the Hindu nation made strong and muscular by such promiscuous inter-caste marriages. They would result in the birth of inferior children,’* and were seen as fatal to Hinduism itself. L. Stuart, Secretary co the Government in UP, also supported claims against reform.” a Some scholars claim that legal interference by colonial authorities vas an important cause of nationalist dissent. Thisis not entirely con~ vincing, The rejection of colonial interference in personal macters was selective, and there were interesting ambivalences towards the colo- nial law which resulted in different, even conflicting, statements by similar people and organisatiogs. “The debates around marriage and conjugal law were one manifes- tation of concerns with women’s sexuality. The sartorial styles of Hindu women, their love ofepiey te bathing semi-nude in public ghats, and their veil “other markers of desire and its con Pel, Considenstione SP hationalism and modernism gave new twists to these emblems of identity. : 1.3. Fashion, Clothes, Jewellery, Purdah Clothes veil the body. They encode ghe game of modesty and sexual explicitness, of the denial and celebration of pleasure. They mirror oxP il hierarchies, sexual divisions and moral boundaries.” Clothing played an active role in the construction of identities, Families, castes and regions in colonial India.*! In UP, Hindu reformers ced to define dress codes. There was even a call from the All India Hindu Sabha to devise a national dress for all Hindus, to distinguish chem from other ‘races’.* Cloth ing maers were especialy directed ar women. They were tacked 18 Leader, 2\ December 1911, NNR, 30 December 1911) PP: 11465. 39 (surNovember 1911, Judl, B, Home Depee (NAD. s0 Efrat Tseelon, The Masque of Femininiy: The ‘Presentation of Women in Everyday Life (London, 1995), pp. 14, 12: Gaines and Charlowe Herzog (eds), Fabrications: Cosume and ‘#1 Emma Tarlo, Clothing Matter ress and:ldentity in India (London, | pp. 23-127. Also see Bernard S. Cohn, Colonialism and its Forms of CF Brith in India (Princeton, 1996), pp: 106-62: 82 Leader, 17 May 1911, NNR, 26 May 1911, p- ‘Mapping the Domestic Domain | 141 for their love of jewellery and fashion, seen as evidence of women's inhelene frivolicy, as conspicuous consumption and an irrational aes- thetif, as a marker of cheir pleasures, passions and desires. Women Wwerdbeliew. . to be susceptible to new fashions by dressing in thins fancy and tight clothes, leaving their bodies exposed. Fashion was iderzified with an enslavement to Western goods and norms, sexual promiscuity, and the break up of the joint family. H Jewellery was 2 traditional store of wealth against hardship. It formed the most imporeant part of sri dhan, over which women had limited control, and which could be an independent resource for them: it was attacked on various grounds. Increases in the number of the poor allied with economic insecurities bolstered arguments against fashion and jewellery.’® Kaliyug, of the modern/colonial ‘world, was depicted as a world of calamity, with no money, impure ghee, adulterated food, famine, and weak children. At such times, a aace ns indulgence in artificial decorations to her body, her frivor loug expenditure of hard-earned money, were castigated as foolish. jpposition ro middle-class Hindu women’s desire ‘onl nd clothes also related ro swadeshi notions favouring the boy- cor] of foreign goods. Powder from Paris, soap from Iraly, ote eet Condon and chin saris from Manchester were shown to be items jin women’s wardrobes and were vigorously condemned.*& 1520s Gandhi called for women o give up their love of jewellery and saved co the national cause, Thrift, favoured as a donate the money modern reais value, mean jewelley was wasteful expenditure, Various caste associations passed resolutions to reduce marriage ex- ronically, British values were sometimes im in this _ the science of houschold-management, on s pendicute. Ii matter. On142 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community -#* Colonial rule was largely blamed for present-day increasing the need for swadeshi and donations, but the Euro- pean ideal. of chrift was to be duplicated. 1 ~ There wai a contradiction within this condemnation of women. The clothing styles of most Hindu women were upheld as having largely escaped the tainting influence of the West. These asjertio became a form of social control and social organisation, and i “mechanism of inclusion as wellas exclusion, 2 marker to differentiate . beoween Hindu, Muslim and European women. While men_had ‘abandoned their pagri and dhoti and taken to European clothes,“ forms, it was their dury to see that theiriwomen =Dressed in indigenous styles, women were seen ng retail ‘manners and prestige of the Hindus.** 3 Rese lncingsa est. Hindu réform- fs thus had to introduce changes and new norms of dress, i.e. by mak- ing clothes longer and thicker, leaving no part of the body, including the navel, exposed. These immediately became ‘indigenous’and ‘craditional’.” It has been argued thac hemlines started dropping with « the fervour of the nationalist movement. Hindu nationalists at- tached a moral value to modest clothing. The maralism of dress an fashion reform was no less.than an attempt to abolish fashion itself. Women were co dress with grim respectability and decency, with o| hint of sexual allure. A woman's fully draped figure served the ide ical needs of the times.”" Dressed simply, she represented a hope ‘the nation, revering degenerate past values while participating in ‘mass movements.” was precarious, It was. symbol of the honour and prestige Joshi, Grb Prabandh Shasta (Prayag, 1918, 2nd edn), pp. 1-5, |, Mahila, pp. 31-2. | *Vastron ki Vyavastha Mein’, Balabodhini (January 1876), p. 4 shcharya’, Chaturvedi, 2, 4 (1916), pp. 18-19; Ramee) Pandey, Shastra (Kashi, 1931), pp- 56, 377- 1 is, Fashion, Culture and Identity (Chicago, 1992), p. 81. gs with attacks on ‘obscenity’ and a civilisational discourse, stressdd xeenth century, many places witnessed brganised movements for Mapping the Domestic Domain | 143 of the middle-class/upper-caste Hindu ho, Sold and was sometimes even adopted by intermediate ¢: Zleyase their scatus. It was comment on the sexual promiscuiry and danger of unbridled oravail- able women and che unreliabili aes one of the most revealing indications of the status of women. Poee “British ic was a clear symbol of the de f Indian civilisation, of the low status and ‘unhealthy’ conditions of women.” = The Hindu reformers of UP moved ona pendulum where, on the 3 of men.. one hand, they opposed purdah, and on she other supposed icselect- ively and highlighted lajja as the biggest_ adornment for Hindu women, Some supported ix open, as a weapon against che evils of the West, The irreligious and immoral tendency of the present age , was pointed out, making the continuance ofthe purdah system neces= sary. Mem aur Saheb was a ttue’ story depicting the croubles of an Indian couple who adopt European ways of living and thinking. Based in Allahabad, Narayan Swarup is, inthis story, very fond of sweating English clothes and isa leading member of the Social Reform Committee, He is vociferously opposed to purdah and advocates full * freedom for women, beginning with his wife Sushila. He asks her to wear ‘mem’ clothes, which she daes with extreme reluctance. They go toa theatre, where they are separated, and after great difficulties come together again. The wife goes on to give a talk to her husband, highlighting the value of lajja and how giving up purdah can lead to . civilisational crisis. Narayan quits the Reform Committee and be- comes a changed person.”® More widespread was a selective condemnation of purdah where more important than the unveiling of women was the question of deesseform, for ifferent reasons, ee Elizabeth Wilson, ‘All the Rage’ and Sera- fina K. Bathrick, “The Female Colossut: The Body as Fagade and Threshold, ish in Gi and Heros) Farts pp 2-38 and 79-1 33 respect ively. : 93 Lord Meston, Nationhood fr India (London, 1931), pp. 52-3; Perc Score O'Connon, The Indian Gonnren ten tea ee meee TC and Travel, UP (London, 1908). ‘les Caumpore Gazette, | Wma jazette, | January 1908, NNR, 11 January 1908, p.51; Kannomal, 98 Rukmani Devi, Mem aur Saheb (Banaras, 1919), pp. 1-32.k-0-0 5-0-0 5-0-0 3-0-0 2-0-0 BURA ER ps ze we - 1-120 el st uset 1-12-0 4, 2h, atta - 22420 AIC aa ee — va arti & 1208/— When we can live economically, why should we waste ourhard-eared money on foreign goods and on fashion ! Avoid Wasteful Expenditure | 2 Whois Happy ? Mother: Total Expenses (on sari, jacket, petticoat, shaw, oper-heeled sandal, coconut oil, cloth bag, soap, ful, gram flour and twig of neem to clean teeth)—7.70 tady: Total Expenses {on sar, Bouse, pelicod, wis wach, lr; fountain pen, hand bag with makeup cas, scent, gloves, lipstick, oil, soap, socks, tooth brush, powder, hait spray and hair cul)—120,80 Mlustration 2. Fashion, Swadeshi and Thrift vi ‘fashion create more unemployment ‘and make the country pore! living and fashi Uneconomical 5 bad, 1938). pp. 9045: ‘Cartoons on Swadeshi (Akahabad, resting toon Booklet, Containing 50 Ine "source lor tustration 2:°Cal : @ Gpurnuser ‘Gperss99 ‘legemes 1 yyy hv) wpeuog susouidg ap Susdéoyy146 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community uiveiling for whom, where and how. Many women writers and jour- nals were faced with this incongruity. The discourse on, purdah : eel indu reformers highlighted it as a problem that resulted from Muslim rule and became widespread for ovo reasons, namely the unhealthy impact of Muslim customs, and as a weapon to shield Hindu women from being attacked by bestial Muslim males. More important was how to negotiate this in the present context, when one had to appear reformist, progressive and an upholder of household Jues and culture all at the same time. There were many who high- hhted the evils of purdah in a perplexing manner. An article stated younger sisters—sushilta and sehanshilta. But actual purdah could lead to problems. The article cited a ‘true’ story in which two brides, one 2 Kshatriya and the other a Brahmin, were ihter-changed un- knowingly due to purdah!”” Another suggested that the veil should not t0 be a foot long but just qwo inches, whereby it would increase the beaury of the woman tenfold, %* Beet not opposed universall women to public places, a selec *fecessary—at railway stations, public ghats-and-roads, and in inte! actions with shopkeepers and other such men.” Thi ents hint- at worries abouc women’s behaviour, movement an outside the household. With the development of railways and im- communications, the number of pilgrims increased dramati- 100 However, the Arya Samaj and certain reformers declared pi ge centres as dens of evil, where women, particularly widows, Jated. Pandas and mahants were seen as symbols | gieater access of dah was thought Kanya Manoranjan, 2, 8 (May 1915), pp. 212-13. Also se 1909, NNR, 7 May 1909, p. 351. ey, Nari, pp. 122-3. e j'Gthasthcharya’, p. 20; Lakshmi Narayan ‘Saroj, Nari Shiks , 1929), p. 21. Malley, Popular Hinduism: The Religion of the Masses (Camm p. 238-42. ston ke Vyabhichar’, Chand, 2, 2, 4 (August 1924), pp. 302~ that aja was the most important jewellery for women, and ithad two Mapping the Domestic Domain 7 archal worries about women going on pilgrimages.!°? One ee fe "Tcis my experience that, in households where womeh ie sn dah from members within the hoyse, when they g oe pilgrimages they open their big mouths and «alk for hou! : las and mahants.""°? : ‘Women bathing semi-nude in public ghats were sign® ofa of being uncivilised, of licensed misdoings in an open sPa% ‘was the antithesis of purdah. An article in Seri Darpan, 2 wome! magazine from Kanpur, said: These days women have constructed completely opposite esate x : purdah. As oon as they enter their homes, they pull a yard-long veil, an when chey go out ro fairs, they leave their face crally uncovered. Singing abscene songs, they walk on the streets atthe time of marriages: In sud Sidationscan they be thought of as purdah-bearers just because their faces are covered?... Then again in the month of Kartik, they take baths in rivers, where thousands of people see them. Then they do not feel at all ashamed ...True purdah is that which existed berween Sita and Lakshman.'® Public ghats were often depicted as places of excessive hooliganism with respectable Hindu women. Their breasts were. tugged, their * jewellery stolen, and low-caste Hindus, Muslims and native police officials ogled them. Ganga snan (bathing in the Ganges) was thus tobe done keeping in mind certain values and not when wearing thin, transparent saris.1% The need for separate ghats was debated and the 102 Tanika Sarkar, ‘Scandal in High Places: Discourses on the Chaste Hindu Woman in Late Nineteenth Century Bengal’, in Meenakshi Thapan (ed.), Em- bodiment: Essays on Gender and Identity (Delhi, 1997), pp. 35-73. 103 Pagal, Grhini, pp. 15-16. 104 Anon, ‘Striyon ka Nagn Snan’, Madburi, 1, 2, 1 (January 1923), pp. 53= ;, Kanauj Punch, 1 August 1892, .NINR, 3 August 1892, p. 284. 105 Shakuncala Devi Gupta, ‘Purdah’, Seri Darpan, 29, 1 (July 1923), pp. 346— 7. 106 Rup Narayan Tiwari (Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, UP), Ganga Snan (Kanpury 1923), pp. 8-9, 31-2; Khichri Samachar, 6 September 1890, NNR, 8. September 1890, p. 584; Ram'Pataka, 1 December 1893, NNR, p. 548; Prayag Samachar, 2 te iy brea tember 1902, eptember, 1902, p. 595; Swaraiy i ‘ 18 April 1908, p. 354. f 995; Suanaiye Sh pal oe Niaz“0€6} Ui yuu! ene peysyqnd sedoo . Goo'st yum ‘Auquow IpuIH s,uewom snow; sow euf ‘eureGew ; UBD Jo senssi snowen ul peysiignd osje aiom sa:njoid oui j0 Abe Yeping pue eyo Sunpeg “¢ uonensni{] “seid pueyd Gaglied Aq peusiiqnd sem pur ‘Agios uejpuy JOP SudOUED JO UOHOa|IOD peIDeIes ® FEM F ; ABuitD eOUEAA 26 UoHEnEnUI 204 eashos | AS jj AB | Aaj Lb Dik +.| jlepisyno eyeys e yons pue ‘yepindsiaiayjewoury | * | Aunsep jo xopesede peep “Buguin uy Aes yyBiw 2u0 sensyeu S jeBue5 seyi0WN 12H jj 212 2b bb dSib aa ‘[ph 2b lb MDI @ 2 j Bib ah | wing Ene | Romp Le bab 31 22 jj 92 | AB | eee hl 1 rua suswog 243 Susddoyy cane150 / Sexuality, Obscenisy, Community importance of purdah in such places was highlighted.!"” Missiona: criticism of the sexualised nature of various Hindu practices add. to this concern, For the Hindus of UP, modern developments like the railways! were both a boon und a curse, Railways made going on pilgrimages much easier, provided new avenues of employment for many of the lower castes, and made the population more mobile. Simultaneously, they were potent symbols.of modernisation and implicitly opposed £9 the traditional culture and religion of Hinduism.' For many orthodox Hindus, they signified a break in caste barriers, increased mobility for women, male-female contact, and a world turned upside down. Such developments led to a set of new anxieties around caste and religious exclusivities, and purity and pollutioh, which were ex- pressed in repeated demarids for separate carriages and for purdah in public spaces for ‘respectable’ Hindu women. Travel on railways was used to argue for extending the existing purdah to the new situation, and simultaneously to enlarge its practice s0 that it could be applied 45 a norm to all women travelling by rail." > The discourses on purdah were ambiguous and the opposition to Purdah could never become entirely effective. It paralleled other at- fempts t9 control and isolate women and at the same time support PAP The issue of constcucting separate bathing ghats for women had come up many times but was rejected mostly on grounds of expenditure jconstructed at Mirzapur and Mathura were also not very: sukcessful: }, Bundle 6, Jud! Deprt (Allahabad Regional Archives). ‘were no railways in India in 1850. But within che next fifty years, inenwork developed: Jan J. Kerr, Building che Railways of the a thi, 1995), p. 1 100d, Railways of India (London, 1974), pp. 36-40. 5 December 1898, NNR, 13 December 1898, p. 653; Agra ber 1876, NNR, 23 December 1876, p. 747; Hinduan, WR, 15 May 1889, pp. 300-1; Anis-i-Hind, 9 December 1893, $51; Robilkhand Gazewe, | February 1902, NNR, 8 February ink, 2 Novernber 1902, NNR 15 November 1902,'p. 693: c, 8 September 1905, NNR, 16 September 1905, p. 308; ember 1905, NNR, 23 September 1905, p. 314; Sar Punch, INR. 1910. \ Mapping th “Thus, selective purdah wasshows —/ cs. about modern developments, ie, becoming sites for the ‘exposur reformsin order to appear civilised. as being good for women, Worries markers, railways, pilgrimages, etc. of respectable women, indicated the pro i was seen endorsement of purdah. Selective purdah in public places i i ible, as necessary, even within the home, and where this cs inate Me certain relationships berween women and men had wo te onl One such relationship, a cause of some concern for Hint was that berween devar and bhabhi. 14, The Devar-Bhabhi Relasionship ; In UP, as elsewhere, devar-bhabhi relationships have provoked ra] responses and meanings and have been asubject oftoris, songs PS 3 verbs and jokes"! The newly married woman, a new entang © joine-family household, finds in her devar the one person with whom ! She is not in an unequal power relationship. The devar's status as rother/son makes him the ‘natural recipient of the bhabhi's physical i ena affections. He is the only male member of the Bae hold with whom she can talk freely. There were proverbs about this relationship’ in eastern UP—Abra ki jor, sab ki bhaujai (The poor man’s wife is everyone's sister-in-law),"”? and, Burbak ki joru, sab ki bhaujai (A foo!’s wife is everyone's sister-in-law)!” They reveal the “way a bhabhi was seen, as someone with whom one could easily irc. Many folk songs ostensibly uphold family values, but also implicit 11-The ideal in most of north Indi has been the relationship berween Sita” and Lakshman, where Lakshman, when asked to recognise Sits ring when she * is abducted, is unable ro do 50, she had onl looked at his Bhabi's feet. How- cer, cere ae strong undereurencs i Ole ratlahip ee fale hey cen ‘much highlighted. Tagore wrote on this theme, suggesting the eraticism inher- entin the forbidden crossing of boundaries, where the woman often becomes too close to her brother-in-law. In Haryana, a widow was often made to matry het FGanrak 1886), p. 1. 1 Domestic Dornan | 151m vy doing ty blems of completely ion as well as PS away with purdah, This led to discerning condemnation 25 Ne pe iSGpunuaeer tenuesg0 ‘agemras 1 261 Illustration 4. Railway Stations and Purdah PRADEEP XEROK SHOF © HINDU COLLEGE 130462424, 0711401024 : ean ted eee ar ge i WA Sel ate eat wT er wT fears SH AM fase aw fren 1 ted anfard, a acl-earst—ant fra arent tal a ter cr ¢, ae set ar TT ea 1 Scene of Our Railway Stations The appearance of woman without purdah at a station is like a thunderbolt. Tis is an ordinary scene—of how the railway staff, passengers and porters start looking at her with lustful eyes. EST) upomegy susamog a¢2 Susddoyy Source of ilustration 4: Vyanga Chiravall(Alahabad, 1990). Hote How the porter is caiaturd into a steresiypical ie ae ' + a } ®154 | Sexuality, Obscenity, Community in themare the pleasures ofillice liaisons berween a devar and bhabhi. Undercurrerits of such relationships led to exaggerated fears and the condemnation of any hint of extramarital inclinations. The Hindu joint family considerably restricted the social interac- tion benween husband and wife. Ic has been argued that this was func- tionally a traditional operating le to preserve the extende Hindu family.!" Increasing male migration at this time, especially i ‘eastern UP, widened the spatial gaps in local families and households leading to new kinds of crises. The resulting separations caused emo: tional stress and hardship for women, The joint family was ruptured and women were frequently forced to live in oppressive households, - without their husbands. Male migration increased the responsibilities of women, Many folk songs of UP in this period talk of the migration of males and women’s loneliness. The poet Bihari Thakur's Bidesiya, lament for the loved one who has gone ‘abroad’, became very popu- lar throughout the region.!' Thus a folk-song in eastern UP ran: Ser gohunve baras din khaibain, baras din khaibain, ~ + piya ke jaye na debayin ho. Rakhaiben ankhiyen ke hajuravan, piya fe jaye na debayin ho. (One seer of wheat I will eat for a year, but I will not allow my husband {0 go. [ will keep him before my eyes and will not ler him go.'"® Loneliness probably led many women to seek solace in other fonships, and the chances of getting close to their younger law were high. In urban areas, education and reformist fncreased the opportunities for worrien to move around in, Id. They may have found in such extramarital relation- tee of solace and escape from everyday drudgery. The | i, Women in Modern India (Bombay, 19577. Pandey, The Conseruetién of Communalism in Colonial North Mapping the Domesic Domain | 199 i! civrata . one of the ways in which women undercut their saced pativl™ images. Preservers of astraitlaced Hindu family wanted patccuary to pata stop to this. Munshi Jivaram Kapur Khatri, with the 23¢ ©, the Khatei Eitkari Sabha of Agra, wrore a book delineating ‘corre’ spaces and relations for women, asking them to avoid in particular talking with their devar. If this proved impossible, only the bare trinimum ought tobe spoken, with no laughter and eyes downeast- ‘Since migration led to long intervals during which the woman 8 away from her husband, ic was imperative co regulate the way she lived, She was not to wear beautiful clothes, not to eat hot food, not to talk to, laugh with, or touch any other man even by chance, A, woman who looked and admired another man when her husband was avvay was seen as ‘ugly’ and ‘dark’ with a ‘wisted face’! Chand, thy most celebrated magazine in UP, carried a series of car- toonson this theme, launching a moral crusade against che ‘misdeeds’ of devar-bhabhi relations and other illicit sexualities. That such rela- tence upon their prohibition. More than anything else, there was exhilaraced and unrestrained sense of joy and a certain emotional, dependence. This was different from the restrained relationship the woman shared with her husband. Itwas lamented that Hindu women were defying the shastras and openly flirting with their devars.!"? While such liaisons ase clearly condemned, the same material can be expected behaviour and the dominance of husbands, how they wére creating their own spaces for leisure and pleasure. Some critics were forced to recognise women's need for more space resulting in the acceptance of certain relationships. A book : 117 Jivaram Kapur Khatsi, Siri Dhar tionships were becoming common may be assumed from the insis- the relationship becween. * devar and bhabhi an’element of light-hearted exchange and fun, an read in other ways. Ithints at how women were sometimes subverting156 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community ‘Mapping the Domestic Domain 1157 aa afta 8 rah eT ( aaa 38 cer! F * * * | AIR argeoren ate & & ‘after sf ehfre-erF It * | * * refered ox sitter weamd meee! i * * * | | deeraored gue, era ai oa AT I Though his heart is pure, still Lakshman walks. with his eyes downcast! * * * Every particle of his heartis filled with worship of his elderbrother andsister-in-law !! x * ok He is very careful that he does not step over the feet of Sita! * * * Greatis such a younger brother, greatis his respect forelders!! | |‘Mapping she Domestie Domain 1159 158 / Secualisy, Obscenity, Community Why does the devar show sucha dirty picture to his bhavaj ? 4 x Bs The aimis to raise evil thoughts, as otherwise itwouldbe an insult! * * Ps Assoonas the elder brother's face is turned, + aniceschemeisworkedout! x * Whatbetteruse of j sucha160 pSexuality, Obscenity, Community L/L DE* fey anied 3 TAS wit ye 4 aa 8 ae ere | ara Fer, 2ax fra area & Wa PRS ae! aa TER A SIGS FT va ay te Ofe-fearat | él sraen ae Fer T 2 Saiftaer oe geq ars I! arate rarer But in today’s society, this is the story in every household ! The devar keeps combing and counting ; the hairs on his bhavaj’s head ! Do not spread amorous desires :. by keeping such traditions ! Otherwise this vast society will never walk on the path.of progress Ht —Anandiprasad Srivastava ‘Source for llustration 5: Vyanga Chitravall (Allahabad, 1930). [_ sure otto Ss | i Mapping she Domestic Domain 1 161 1 had a theme, ‘Striyon ke Purush Mitra’ (Women’s Mencfriends), which sid that husband and wife were friends firs. And just as women had girlfriends, they could have boyfriends as well, 30 long wr theit intentions were ‘pute’. The very suggestion represented a dgamatic step forward. : it was felt that a certain amount of education would help build * ideal wivesand mothers. Missionary activities and colonial endeavours’ in this regard made education a leading concemn among Hindu re- formists. The problem was that education also opened up new vistas: for women. . II. Education and the Fear of Reading: Stated Aims, | Unintended Consequences In early-nineteenth-century UP there was hardly any worthwhile eS) school for women. Women’s education was informal, mostly at home, which they received from senior family members and some- tiames from a sémi-professional teacher such as a panditayani.!™! The first efforts at providing formal education co Hindu women’ were made by Christian missionaries. They highlighted the degraded and neglected state of the females of India, who they perceived as bearing, the greatest burden of heathenism. Zenana quarters were depicted as the darkest, dirtiest and most wrerched of places. Efforts were made to improve matters through zenana missions, seen as the firstimpulse touthe liberation of womanhood and civilisation in the Bast.!2? It was 120 Vishwa Prakash, Seriyon ke Rishte (Prayag, 1935), pp. 73-4, pp» 112-13, ‘Also see Thakur, Vioah, p. 112, who argues tha i is necessary to.give women some space co meet and laugh with other men, fori Functions. at a safery valve inthe preservation ofthe family structure el 121 Nica Kumar, ‘Orange for the Girls, on Education of Girls in Twentieth Century Ban as Subj South Asian Histories (New Delhi, 1 NRAY, Hooper, Christian Doctrine in Contrast wi the Half-Known |162 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community seated: ‘In the dreary, monotonous life of the zenana, ong sees no books, writing materials, fancy work—nothing in fact of the innu- merable traces of civilisation which are scattered around the boudoirs of English ladies.’ These women had to be reached by any means: Ifsecluded from men they must be reached by women; and if the ordained missionary is prevented proclaiming in their ears the glad cidings of| salvation, then sister missionaries must be sent, with the Word in their hands and on their lips, to tell it out to these sorrowful ones that there is no real hindrance, but life and salvation is free, absolutely free, to them also.!4 2 Hindu reformers, however, were extremely wary of any form of if OF inter-caste mixing, of women wsnin| to English teaching,” of the entry of missionary women into homes zenana missions, % and of Christian proselytisation unter the garb of education." Isolated cases of the conversion of Hindu ‘women evoked a near-hysterical response, even when.such conver- sions were unforced and voluntary. In 1898 a case was reported whereby 4 missionary lady, who used to teach a Kayastha girl at Allahabad, advised her to leave home and convert, and the girl Sociery, Hinds Dharma ke Phal (Allahabad, 1905, 2nd edn), p. 15; H. Lloyd, Hinds Women: with Glimpses into their Life and Zenanas (London 1882), 1-47; Raj Bahadur Sharma, Christian Missions in North India 1813-1913: ¢ Study of Meerut Division and Dehradun District (Delhi, 1988), pp. 95 Priscilla Chapman, Hindoo Female Education (London, 1839), pp. 28 Saran, “The Education of our Women—A Great Social Problem’, cher, 4, 6 (December 1901), p. 490. a Raymond Pitman, Indian Zenana Minions: Their Need, Origin, Modes of Working and Revults (London, n.d), p. 27. Hinds, p. 47. pn, 11 April, 1892, p. 4. ie Gazere, 8 July 1870, NNR, 1870, p.270; Prayag Samachar, /R, 27 April 1898, p. 228; Hindi Predip, January-April 1909, 09, p. 230. 5 i, The Education of Indian Girl (Banaras, 1904), p. 1; Saran, Pratap, 26 September 1914, NNR, 31 October 1914, ‘Mapping she Domestic Domain 1163 er this. !2# consented, Family interference, in the nick. oftime, Preteoeser ee The mission, in some senses, challenged Indian religions institutions more than the empite.'”” eee No education could be useful at the cost of family ee disruption of gender hierarchies at home. On behalf 0 a paper i ing them \Wewish our women tobe educated. Burifeducation means letting fic means that as they rise in learn- fic means the loss of our honour Joose ro mix with whom they pleas ing, they shall deteriorate in morals; a the invasion of the privacy of our homes;—we prefer our honour to ‘he education of our women, even though we may be called obstinafe, ‘and prejud ced, and wrong headed.? e The disastrous consequences of modern, Western education on men were stressed,!2! and it was to be ensured chat the same did not happen co women: ‘Dear brothers, just think what might be the impact of such education on he hearts of our young girls, who must be the housewives and lights of our homes in another 6-7 years? It would be such a disaster for our dear homely women, on whose shoulders and strength even in this terrible Kaliyug, our tattered 128 Prayeg Samachar, 28 April 1898 and 5 May 1898, VNR, 11 May 1898, 254, In 1902, ladies of che American Zenana Mission at Allahabad ‘enticed woman whom they were teaching, who was the sister of one Babu Chandra Kant Bose, an ortheylox Bengali: Oudh Samachar, 14 November 1902, NIVR, 22 November 1902, p. 707. Enraged by their efforts, he started a girl's school “to prevent simple, unwayy Hindu girls from coming under the baneful influence of missionary ladies’: Prayag Samachar, uly 1904, NNR, 9 July 1904, p. 230. In 1907, a Hindu gitl was ‘abducted’ in Allahabad by a lady of the London. Mission Bible Women's Training Institution, leading ro agitation in many verna- cular newspapers: Ablyudaya, 30July 1907 and Arya Mitra, | August 1907, both in NNR, 3 August 1907, p. 926. 12 Ancony Copley, Religions in Conflict: Ideology, CadmeratGrrmmet and Con- version in Late-Colonial India (Delhi, 130 Aligarh Insitute Gazette, 8 July 1879 . 11 tkbal Kishen Shargha, The Mami f /, 1908), p. 13, Also see Purshortam, Siri, pp. 216-1 nea tiya Striyon ka Vishwavidyalaya’, 1916), p. 220;164 | Sexuality, Obscenity, Community SAAS fre o-samn wea ara HAT aR oy B, SA HT ora Predera A cméeaga’ we ye Feet aT 2a aren an) ara Hh aS OTT y Pe BH A et E— oft-caan a aga firs v1! Mapping the Domestic Domain 1 165 Sh React oh aca ea ote oft-taen wee Tee Ren ve B | Gh ae KITS yea Sere BS, GT OR Tee Meh oh Beh ToT Sa fre! | The wife is writing a terrific note on the present state of women and the god-like husbands looking after the child outside! Whoever laughs on seeing this natural scene, may God give him such a firebrand wife !! ‘Source for Illustration 6: Vyanga Chitravall (Allahabad, 1930).TGi vet Oe an 1909 that, at ial enthusiasm, reaction was setting in against female education. Education was supported publicly but opposed privately. Stagnation was reported in Banaras, indifference in Allahabad, rettogression in Gorakhpur, and actual hostilicy in Lucknow.!33 Yet UP Hindus wanted to prove they were civilised and tespect- able. Education for women was a moral imperative for a middle-class Hindu identicy and civilisation, and a national investment tq domes- ticate the woman and assign to her a more enlightened and compan- ionable role in marriage. Ignorant women were not conducive to hap. py Hindu homes; but neither were ‘over-educated’ ones, Womei symbolised all thar was wrong with the system, its backwardness an disorder, and at dite same time they were the core of family life; the also contained all thac was worth preserving. Bishan Narayan Dar, a famous lawyer of UP, said: “With female education will come not ‘only domestic peace and harmony, bur 2 new source of pleasures, pleasures which men derive from female society will be opened, en- nobled and purified, and feminine tenderness and sympathy, under the guidance of enlightened reason, will become one of the most potent instruments of social amelioration.’!35 Thus UP Hindus had to promote an education that would com- bine ideal/traditional/Aryan women with modernity/civilisation/ knowledge, 2 happy combination of Eaitern and Western ture." They had to beat the system by adapting it to what they d by enthu: jing it with idealism. Madan Mohan Malaviya ar- at women’s education must combine the best characteristics pSiwan, 18 April 1892, p. 3. fan the Working of the Local and Dittret Boards in UP, 1909-1 d, 1911), p. 5. = | ilar attempt was made by Muslim reformers: see Gail Minaule, g Women's Education and Muslim Social Reform in Colonial India Dat, Signs of she Times (Lucknow, 1895), p. 62. Also see Shiksha’, Kayastha Mahila Hitaishi, 1, 9 (1918), pp. 15-19; ber 1898, NNR, 12 October 1898, p. 543. tion’, pp. 490-6; Purshottam Das Tandon, ‘Seri Shiksha ki 4 Grhalakshmi, 7, 3 (May-June 1916), pp. 111-13. Mapping she Domes Domain | 167 . yali- of the women of the past and present, so chat women prone ae fied by education and «raining o play cheie full part in BST new India of the fucure.!9” Within this ay a major contac }°9%" cween the caditional ideal of Indian womanhood and the modes ideals of education—which were the promotion of independence o! thought and the spirit of nquiry.*Ichas been argued thatthe system filed ro pu: he Aryan-modern-educated mother synthesis into Pres tice. This was due to the logistical problem of having to retain the basic government syllabus o ge government aid, while simultaneos usl introducing ‘indigenous’ subjecs to breed a new generation of Aryan mothers. This placed a double burden on students. More ol the time, the indigenous subjects failed co become popular. Pedagogy failed because there was a failure to reconcile ‘traditional’ Hinduism with modern living, civilisation and technology." However, the weakness of this argument lies in underestimating the power of Hinduism to mould itself co ‘maglern’ means. It draws too clear a distinction beween government syllabi and the ideals of Aryan womanhood; many of the officials, che authors of recommended text- books, and those who designed official syllabi were influenced by similar ideals. UP was among the most backward provipserwitheregard to wo- men's education. I¢was hampered by pyrf@ah, early marriage, and the lacilof economic incentive!" n=rS60:4 there were’ Senate girls with 260 pupils.'"! However, the augnber of girls within formal 2 ° 137 Malaviya's speech at BHU in 1929, quoted in Purshottam, Siri, p. 2. \38 Malvika Karlek: Women's Nature and the Access to Education’, in Karuna Chanana (ed.), Socialization, Education and Women: Explorations in Gender Identity (New Delhi, 1988), pp. 129-65. ' Kumar, ‘Orange’, pp. 211-31; ‘Religion and Ritual in Indian. s: Banaras from the 1880s to the 1940s", in Nigel Crook (ed.), The Trans. of Knowledge in South Asia: Essays on Educat igia is 2 ak 1990, pp sete ee “Karuna Chanang, ‘Social Change or Social Reform: The Education of ‘Women in Pre-independence India’, in Chanana (ed,), Socialisation, pp. 10 10; Kumar, ‘Orange’. 213; Indien Pepl, 25 September 1904, NVR wee ber 1904, p. 339, 2 4 Annual Report onthe Progr of Eduction in NWP, 1860. 1862), p. 34.168 / Sexuality, ae education in UP increased remarkably. In 1886-7, their number was 13,116, a leap of more than 500 per cent. By 1916-17 ithad increased £070,712. This included public (university, secondary and primary) schools and private (advanced and elemev:iry) institutions." By 1937-8 this had risen co 1,44,998, with the largest increase being among high-caste Hindu girls. Some kind of schooling became an accepted part of an urban middle-class girls life." Two lines ofefforc were made by Hindus. One was the Arya Samaj schools, many of which conformed ra government codes and regu- lations; and the second was the evolution of schools with neo-Hindu- ism as their base, largely following a Sanacan Dharma ideal.'In the first category, the most important was the Kanya Gurukul at Dehra- dun," plus others like the Arya Kanya Pathshala at Hardoi, the Kanya Pathshala at Meerutand the Vedic Kanya Pathshala at Ghazia- bad. In the second category, the most important was Annie Bes- ant’s school for Hindu girls at Banaras, this being a part of the Hindu Central College. Almost all the girls of this school wer Brahmins. However, from a purely educational point of view the school was ‘distincely disappointing." Hindus evolved an indigenous method of education for women, differene from hac for men, and from perceived Western paradigms of education: the needs were stated to be different. Annie Besant declared: '42 Starstis of British India for 1907—8 and Preceding Years, Part VII, Educe- tion (Calcutta, 1909), pp. 16-173 Statistics of British India, Vol. V, Educat 1919-20 (Calcurta, 1921), p. 238. "4 General Report on Public Instruction in UP, year ending 31 March 1938 (Allahabad, 1939), pp. 34, 36. "4 General Report on Public Instruction in UP, year ending 31 March 1910 | Allahabad, 1911); Minna. G. Cowan, The Education oftche Women of India (Edinburgh, 1912), pp. 129-45. 145 Arya Samajists made special efforts to impart women a specific kind of edu- cation. The Kanya Mahavidyalaya at Jalandhar was one of their most successful azcempts: Madhu Kshwat, ‘Anya Sam and Women's Education: Kanya Maha vidyalaya, Jalandhar, EPW, 21, 17 (26 April 1986), pp. WS-9-24, 146 Cowan, Education, p. 134. Besides these, the most it Crosthwaite High School for university and intermediat Mapping the Domestic Domain 1.169 ° ‘The national movement for girls’ education must be on national lines: i must accept the general Hindu conceptions of women’s place in the national life, not the dwarfed rodern view bur the ancient ideal .. . It ‘cannot see in her the rival and competitor of man in all forms of outside and publicemployment, as woman, under different economic conditions, is toming to be, more and more, in the West... India needs nobly trained wives and mothers, wise and tender rulers of the household, edu- cated teachers of the young, helpful counsellors of their husbands, skilled nurses of the sick, rather than girl graduates, educated for the learned professions.'“ Many British officials, quite wary of the women’s movement in cheir own country, looked ar this ideal with warm appreciation, and there was a professed conservatism in their views. H.B. Butler, who was then the Director of Education, stressed that the education of girls should not seek to imitate that which is suitable for boys, nor & should it be dominated by examinations.“ Mackenzie, Director of Public Instruction in UP, emphasised that they did not want Indian ils co be more or less copies of Indian boys, nor did they want them lo be copies of Western girls. He highlighted the need to develop a urriculum for girls which would bring out the best traits of Indian’ womanhood." It was pesctived that the Hindu world would lose much ofits fascination and charm if, instead of a rehabilitation of the * ancientideals of womanhood, the modern type were to develop mere- + ly asa denationalised caricature.'®° The ideals of women’s education upheld by Christian missionaries in UP were not too dissimilar from the ones propagated by Hindus themselves, except for their religious teaching, It was remarked: Agitls’ school is not worth its existence that does ‘Accomplishments! .. The duraiif his presences an index of the unwi lady inmates to do their own tailoring... Sick nursing in would be a congenial at, and one that might be easily taught tothe elder girls. Domestic economy applied ro house-keeping. will be invaluabld ro those who should take in hand che management of their own homes 4nd control their household affairs .. . Many a young lady who is an angel Gur of doors is a vixen at home, only because she was not trained to unselfishness and control with her associates at school.'*! _ Onereason given for the failure of female education in UP was the unsuitabilicy of the curriculum. The public instruction department generally held that in the case of female education toe much arith- > mevic was taught, and that some instruction of domestic science was necessary. In 1915, therefore, a commixtee was formed to revise the vernaculat curriculum for girls. Is recommendations consisted chiefly ina simplification.of the arithmetic course and the introduction of domesticscience as compulsory subjectin thelower middle classes. Further, though great concern was shown for women’s education, the ment was actually unwilling to spend any substantial sam “upon it, and there was serious lack of resources and dined fenjale teachers. In comparison, boys’ schools were better equipped pnd + berter staffed.'*? ‘The insidious impact of educated women taking to Western ways feared by Hindus: In those schools where English education is given, girls get used to fionable ways ofliving. .. - To promote simplicity among Hindu girls 0 avoid the impact of English education, religious education should fally given co them. ... Todayin most ofthe English girs’ schools, of all religions and caste study together. Christian, Muslim and gover Carroll, Our Missionary Life in India (Allahabad, 1917),'pp- 335- Report om Public Iniracion in UP, year ending 31 March 1920 1920), p. 82. ; ‘Education for Every Boy and Girlin UP(Allahabad, 1928), pp. 25~ dhe Working ofthe Lacal and District Boards in UP, 1901-2 (Aaha- 3: General Reporton Public Inserucsionin UP, yearending31 March bad, 1939), pp. 34, 41 ‘Mapping the Domestic Domain\| 171 ‘on Hindu ind frocks Hindu lam Hindu girls intermingle, and this has a very negative impact women, Christian girls say “good-morning’, wear jumpers 2 instead of saris, and wear hats on heads, and high sandals. familie: send their girls for gducatiqg and not ro become mers to-sivess that Hindu, Christian and Muslim girls should pparately. This should especially be enforced in boarding| houses.'** ‘Ancient India was depicted as a period replete with educated women: ‘a model to be Followed.!95 At many places—in fiction, prescriptive texts, e55a9's—comparisons were drawn byqyeetBwo types of women, and at all times the educated, ol a ‘wife emerged the winner - while those educated in Westery andwia English education em- erged as complerely inane.'% The Kashi \Nagari Pracharini Sabha asked women to throw away English noyels and instead tead books like Hinds Grhasthi, Adarsh Dampati and Sati Charitr Sangraha.'*? Religious and moral education was considered the most important pursuit for women and included astudy of the Mahabharat, Ramayan | and the Manusmriti. This was to be combined with scientific educa- tion of a specific kind, Women were to be trained in domestic scien- ces, including sanitary laws, hope nursing, the value of food-stuffs, household management, the keeping of basic accounts, hygiene, © cooking and sewing.!#® [twas important for women to study in. Hindi 454 Shrimati Shukl, ‘Striyan au: " a eee Shukl, ‘Scriy: « Shiksha’, Bharasendu {October 1928), Bre era ge Ss aia ati, Bharat ki Vidushi Nariyan (Lucknow, 1925); Ramdevi, 156 Upendranath ‘Ash’. Swarg ki Jhalak (Allahaba id . Swarg ki Jha! lahabad, 1939). This was a satis on the Gehionsls demand for highly educated wives, ue cee ieee prove themselves conducive to marital bliss. The Rlitsioned k prov thems conduc masta is. The dilsond het aly mar '57 Mehta Lajjaram Sharma, Adarsh Hi : ind (Prayag, 1928), pp. 72-8: 1StMahendull Garg, Kalani Shia (Prayag, 1930), p. 12 ae Pre rem se Sia Gicli!antche, sio1c aa sera pp.2l-3; harkeshwari Agha, Some di Lisanne ii Agha, Some Apecsofthe Education o in UP wi a Feral GY. Chinaman Abas, 1933, 9p. 6 ee ae pp. 3-4; Thakur, Adarsh, pp. 78; Yashoda Devi, Pativrata Dhanme Mab” (Allahabad, 1926), p. 47; Udainarayan Singh, ‘Sti Shiksha’, Kuri fo es Diwakar, 1,7 (September 1925), pp. 9-11; Hindustan, 22 January 1902, a1721 Sexuality, Obscenity, Community alone, and to largely discard English and even Urdu." Mose impor- ‘aint, their literary knowledge had to be adequate so that women could “listen with intelligent pleasure to the reading-of her husband as he enjoys the masterpieces of the great writers’ (emphasis mine).'® Edu- cation for women was negessary because wives inspired or retarded husbands; justas mothersgiade of mgjrred the child. 'S! Ie was remark- “ed: ‘Our home is our shag the mistgess of the house is esta- blished chere like a SpragWati, co impart us education ... Home is a temple, in which various religious duties are performed. Home is like a small state, whose ruler is the woman and the subject are her children . . . Actually the mother can easily teach what the big edu- cationists of Oxford and Cambridge cannot even teach after years of education.’'6 Nowhere was education endowed such moral fervour, such a pure character and virtuous flavour.'® At the Kanya Gurukul in Dehradun only women teachers were employed and girls wore only khadi clothes. Sptcial attention was paid to drafting a distinct syllabus for girls. Just as men had to be taught the sciences to fight the battle of life, so women had to be taught religious literature to fulfil cheir special mission of love with- in the home. They needed merely a basic practical knowledge of mathematics to keep minimal accounts, some knowledge of science to prevent mothers narrating ghost stories to their children, and a Eoenpechessrenicacwiades ofiiistry tee mich asavould ellthers about Sita and the mythical pase.' Hierarchies of information, knowledge and a curriculum were thus constructed, legitimised and maintained with the advocacy 25 January 1902, p. 55. Hindustan Review, June 1911, NNR, 14 July 1911, pp. 620-1. 159 For language debates, see chapter 5 16 Besant, Education, p. 5. 161 Ramkrishna, Siri Shiksha (Allahabad, 1874), p. 32; Devi, Pativrata, p. 3; Hansdae Shas, ‘Sei Shiksha’, Kurmi Kihatriya Diwakar 4, 7 (September 1928), pp. 15-17; Primary Education, pp. 23-4. 162 Bishambhar Prakash, Nari Updesh (Meerut, 1912), pp. 14-17. "3 Thakur, Adarsh, pp. 14. '4 Kanhaiya Lal, Rashtriya Shiksha ha Itihas aur Uski Vareman Avastha (Kashi, 1929), pp. 90-1, 133-42. : Mapping the Domestic Domain | 173 of separate schools and a different education for women and men.'® Segregations were created: woman represented the heart and eino- tior- while man was the brain and intellect. Masculine spaces contained socially valued knowledge on theology, law and medi- cine, feminine spaces contained devalued knowledge on child-care, cooking and cleaning. The literature for women was consciously didactic. To stop here would be to emphasise only the limits to the edu- cational avenues of women and the function of education in the subordination of women.'® A study of women’s education would be ere if it drew no attention to levels other than the formal, eript. Certain upper-caste widows of Banaras, it has been shown, used education co reject stereotypes of widowhood and managed co manipulate models of asceticism to carve out a space for them- selves.'67 Scholars have also shown how Hindu middle-class women. increasingly began, to participate and become visible in the public © realfi of prine culture from the early cwentieth century in UP. Wo- men’s magazines, the periodical press and women writers were mov- ing and negotiating in a public sphere and had to be constrained in their use of language and the values they propounded, Thus, the representational practices of that culture were cast in a reformist mould. Women’s journals became agents of transmission ofa iiddle- class code of conduct, though under the mantle of a progressive ori- entation in relation to women. However, though they accepted some of the structuring principles co be found among male reformers, they also translaced and negotiated others in order to argue for a voice of their own in family and educational life, thereby posing some sort of challenge co patriarchy." Ie has been argued that 165 Purshottam, Seri, pp. 350-1; Sharma, Sukhi, | pp. 4-6. 5d ‘ 16 Most works sea to 107 Ni«also treading against the grain’ and even gai 174 | Sexuality, Obscenity, Community various women’s magazines, especially Chand, allowed space for soli-_ daricy in a covere and tentative way.!® This issue can be flaborated. Peoplecould limit and frame syllabi, they could order prescriptive texts, but once women were educated it was difficult to cdntrol what they read and the uses to which they put their knowledge. Education was conducted in relatively public spaces, but'reading was largely a private act, offering greater scope for negotiation.” Women were 1g access to ‘trash’ material. They were quite possibly reading and enjoying erotic novels, __ detective fiction, love stories, plays, svangs, nautankis and books of songs. Unmarried educated girls were even reading birth manhals. Such books were rather popular among educated women and Had a © definite marker.'7! Though educated women were less likely tof buy such books in bazaars, which were mainly frequented by|men, fhere is no doubr these books were accessible to them. Yashoda Devi, a leading ayurvedic doctor of Allahabad, and writer of more than forty prescriptive books, lamented: Tam fully aware that in the trunks of all educated women are kept at least ‘one or two such novels... If I had written such novels, I would have gathered loc of money . . . People say ir was these novels thar encouraged Hindi:reading, expecially| among women. . .. Every day women write letters to me, demanding spicy novels... They returned Iny books on | nitishastra and dharmashastra... No“one asked for bodks on religious Hindi Public Sphere: 1920-40’, unpublished PhD thesis (SOAS, Upiver- ‘of London, 1996), pp. 158-210. For Muslim women, see Minault, Seqfuded. Orsini, ‘Hindi’, passim. ger Chartier, ‘General Introduction’, in R. Chartier (ed.), The Ghulture Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe, trans. Lydia G. (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 1-5, 156. Chartier shows how festive, ritual, pedagogic uses of print literature were by definition collective. At the hhe argues that books were often read in private within the home, and xy erotic scenes unimaginable in public art or publicly displayed texts," the reading habits of women, see Thakur, Adarsh, p, 9; Upadhyaya, 27; Shyamkumar, Srriyon, pp. 98-9; Purshottam, Siri, pp. 218-19; sana, ‘Stri Shiksha’, Siri Darpan, 33, 4 (April 1925), p. 84. For names ks and their description, see Chapter 2. —_—= <—e Domestic Domain 1175 education or houschold management . . . Ror cwo-thiee years I'sene mm books on women’s education fo the Mdgh Mela on the banks of the Triveni. The women who came to purchase books went away after seeing, my stall. They named juicy novels and used to demand them specifically, as well asthe likes of lbela Gaviaand Ghazal Sangrahua. Shops that sold such useless novels reported brisk sales.'7 These novels were perhaps less taxing and more readable, although they too often upheld patriarchal notions. Moral stigmas were less attached to women here and romances usually relied on sensation, sexual excitement and titillation. The works of Janice Radway, Lynn Pearce and other such have highlighted the practice and importance of reading ostensibly sexist and misogynist texts against the grain: dif ferent ways of reading can grasp the same material differently.'7 However, more important than-what women were making of these novels was the very act of reading them—that itself had a subversive potential. The fear of reading women led to the activiry being persistently brought under the scrutiny of Hindu publicists and becoming a target ofsuspicions and inquisitions. The possible autonomy of the woman's mind was a dreadful idea. As early as 1864-5 M. Kempson, the Direc- tor of Public Instruction of UP, while condemning the translation of Urdu and Persian romantic works into Hindi, remarked: ‘A Hindi version of the Masnavi of Mir Hasan was lately put into my hands - bya native gentleman, wich whom I had been conversing on the pre- sent movement in favour of Female Education, with the remark thar if such books were allowed to find their way into houses where the females could read, the effects would be most mischievous.’ An- other forum denounced female education on the grounds that once "2 Devi, Dampati, pp. 5-7. 1? Janice A. Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature (London, 1984), pp. 7~11; Lynne Pearce, Feminism and the Politi of Reading (London, 1997), pp. 1-12; Kate Flint, The Female Reader, 1837-1914 : (Oxford, 1993), p. 10; Fania Modleski, Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-prad, Fantasies for Women (New York, 1982). widen. "Reports on Native Presses in che NWP for 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865", Selections from che Records of the Government of In es fe eet at ernment of India, 1849-1937, VI23/121,176 I Sexuality, Obscenity, Community women could read and write there would be nothing to prevent them reading works of a debased nature.'”5 There was a grave distrust of novels, see’ as the most intoxicating of all books:!76 chat they would contaminate women, generating corrupt ideas and romantic intti gue." The education of women had to be theological and ‘clean’.'” Premsagar,a book of love stories berween Radha and Krishna, commis- sioned by the British as a text at Fort William College for Company functionaries, was thought a destructive book and indicated thealarm atany form of erotic literature reachirf the hands of Hindu women.!7? Arguments about progress were used to camouflage this concern. Education for women thus raised both hopes and insecurities among Hindus: ic was aimed at making women good wives, good mothers, good Hindus, bur ic had the potential co make them bad wives, etc. t00. This dichotomy moved nationalists and reformists to emphasise the necessiry of education and, in the same breath, set its limits. Meanwhile women creatpd their own space by reading what gave them pleasure, not just prescribed texts and behaviour manuals. Ill. Gendgs, Mfalth and Medical Knowledge Influenced largely by the writings of Foucaulr,'™ historians have drawn attention to the assertion of disciplinary authority and power 175 Sabife, 26 July 1907, NNR, 3 August 1907. 176 Ramkrishna, Seri, pp. 31-2; Ratna Devi ‘Pustakein Parhne se Labh’, Siri Darpan, 29, 4 (October 1933). pp. 307-9; Rampiyari, ‘Sabhyata’, Kanya Sar- varra. 1, 10 (1914). pp. 315-17. "7 Upadhyaya, Mahila, p. 27: Thakur, Adarth, p. 10: 174 Shyamkumar, Srriyon, pp. 98-9; Onkarnach Vajpayee, ‘Editorial’, Kanya Manbranjan, 1, \ (1913), p. 30. . 179 Mariola Offredi, ‘The Search for National Identicy as Reflected in the Hindi Press’, in Mariola Offtedi (ed.), Literature, Language and the Media in India: Proceedings of the 1 Ith European Conference on South Asian Studies, Amster- dam 1990, Panel 13 (New Delhi, 1992), pp. 226-7. : 119 oichel Foucault, Power-Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-77, trans. Colin Gordon (Brighton, 1980). pp. 166-77: idem, The Birth of ve Clinie: An Archaeslogy of Medical Perception, rans. Alan Sheridan (London, 1973); idem, Diseipline and Punish: The Birth of she Priven, rans. Alan Sheridan (Harmondsworth, 1979); idem, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (London, 1970). Mapping the Domestic Domain 1 \77 by the colonial sraté over the body of the colonised through the use of Western, modern, scientific, medical knowledge. jo-medicine as emblematic of modernity. me time, Western medical science was a domain. of endorsement, Iccommodation, appropriation and resistance" for Hindu nation- ind here gender politics played a crucial fole. Through a study - “Of certain sectors, re. midwives; child and health care within the home; a woman ayurveda practitioner; and a plague rior, I artempt to examine how Hindus, women and men, elites and subalterns nego- tiated this terrain. | IIL1. From Traditional Dais to Trained Midwives In pre-colonial north India pregnancy and childbirth ‘were controlled by dais. Birch was seen as polluting and impure. Thus, midwifery was practised largely by lower-caste Hindu and Muslim wofnen, espe- cially Chamar women.' The profession was often hereditary. Many traditional midwives worked very hard, received a meagre pay, and had to perform menial tasks.'* - : There has been a tendency in some writings to uncritically cele- brate traditional medical practices, including midwifery. One such study makes a strong case for ‘natural’ childbirth and argues that many of the teaditional dais emphasised co-operation with the female 181 David Arnold, Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Diseaie = * in Nineteenth-Century India (Berkeley, 1993); ides i Medicine and Empire’, in David Arnold (ed.), /mperial Medicine and Indigenous Societies (Manchester, 1988), pp. 1-26. 181 Roy Porter (ed,), Patients and Practitioners: Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre-Industrial Society (Cambridge, 1985). z ‘ 183 Arnold, Colonizing, pp. 7-10. IMG, Briggs, The Chamars (Calcutta, 1920), pp. 24-6, 53-4; EAH. Blunt, The Caste Syitem of Northern India: With Special Reference to UP(London, 1931)| p. 242. 1 Mog 1, Balfour and Ruth Young, The Work of Medical \ (London, 1929), pp. 126-7; Geraldine Forbes, ‘Managing Midwife Dagmar Engels and Shula Marks (eds), Contesting. and Society in Africa and India (Londan, 1994), pps ‘Should the Dai be Trained or Superseded?’, Journal Women in India, 5,9 (February 1916),178 / Sexuality, Obscenity, Community body rather than its control and management. The dai symbolises rites exclusive to women, involving non-Sanskritic ritual perform- ance.'*6 Instead of romanticising ‘natural’ childbireh, it may be more useful to focus on how criticism of the dai was an attempt to build hierarchies of gender, caste and class, with shifting divisions of power * and knowledge.""” I \, * The widespread application of Western medicine to Indians, With the state's backing, did not start much before the. 1870s, the excep- tions being the army, prisons, brothelsand inoculation.'8* Even then, litle attention was paid to jwomen'’s health care.'® In Saja? 1876 Miss Elizabeth Bielby arrived in Lucknow. She had some medical training and opened a dispensary, and later a small hospitil. She left Lucknow in 1881 and carried with her images of the ignorance and prejudice of Indian women, their lack of proper instruments, help and knowledge.” The Countess of Dufferin's Fund, forme 1885, brought Western medical care to more Indian women.™! The UP Branch of the All-India Lady Chelmsford League for Maternity + and Child Welfare work was inaugurated in December 1922.17? Traditional knowledge was confronted by modern medicine ver . childbirth, and women’s influence by professional science. The ‘mdi- ‘edlisation’ of childbirth, ‘hospitalisation’ of delivery, and attempys to ‘condemn and displace traditional midwives were visiblejin Eusppe 186 Janet Chawla, Child-Bearing and Culture—Women-Centred Revisioning of Traditiozal Midwife: The Dai ez a Ritual Practitioner (New Delhi, 1994), 2-3, 80-2. Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery, Andrew Lyon, Labour Pains and Labour Women and Childbcering in India (London, 1989), p. vii medical controls over brothels and prostitutes, see Chapter 3. Harrison, Publie Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Prevent- ine, 1859-1914 (New Delhi, 1994), p. 91; Arnold, Colonizing, sand Young, Medical, pp. 19-20 , pp- 33+53s Forbes, ‘Managing’, p. 159. On Dufferin's fund, sce Lil, The’ Politics of Gender and Medicine in Colonial India: The £-Dufferin’s Fund, 1885-88", Bulletin of the History of Medicing 68, pp- 29-66. Annual Report of the Director of Public Health of UP (Allahabad, 29; Harrison, Public, pp. 90-1. ‘Mapping the Domestic Domain 179 volvement and Hindu commun* too around this time.'®’ Colonial i Tae ity concerns gave these another political spin. Westernt mes course saw the dai as the chief problem, blaming her for high infest mortality and poor hygiene.' Official records emphasised her lace of intelligence, dirty habits and inability to learn new methods. These were attitudes reflected in the censuses of UP, which became an important means to publicise and give wider authority to medical and cultural opinion. The 1911 Report connected the infant mort- ality rate chiefly co childbirch, and while pointing to its causes said: “The first and chief is unskilful midwifery. The midwife is some low- caste woman. . .. Her methods are primitive, her knowledge next to nothing; she is unclean in her person and her instruments, and she knows nothing whatever of antiseptics.'! The 1921 Report concin- ued to emphasisea link berween infant mortality and midwifery: ‘Part of this [female] mortalicy is probably attributable co insanicary meth- ods of midwifery. That such methods are prevalent and are fatal to a large number of mothers at childbirth is invariably asserted by com- petent observers." It was repeatedly stressed through statistics that the infant mortality race was much lower in cases performed by train- ed staff and midwiv "Wendy Perkins, Midvifery and Medicine in Early Modern France, Louize Bourgeois (Exeter, 1996); D. Armstrong, Political Anatoiny ofthe Body: Medical Knowledge in Britain in the Twenset Century (Cambridge, 1983); L. Doyal, S. Rowbotham and A. Scott (eds), Witcher, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healer (London, 1976); Ludmilla Jardanova, Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine Berween the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (New York, 1989); Charlotte G, Borst, Carching Babier: The Profesionalization *f Childbirth, 1870-1920 (Cambsidge, 1995) : 14 Dagmar Engels: Beyond Purdah? Women in Bengal 1890-1: 1996), p. 129; Amold, Colonizing, pp. 257-9. 2 ee 195 Forbes, ‘Managing’. pp. 163-8; Roge’ Jeff , . . 163-8; Roger Jeffery, The Politi of Health in Pea Satie. rica rear st mince ee Ce and Young could not help but say, “The problem was (and stil co a large ated is) the indigenous midwife: Balfour and Young, Medital p. 126° °%6 Census of India, 1911, UP, Nol. xv, Pact (Allahabad, 1912), p. 1 1 Cena of Idi, 1921, UP. Vo. x, Pace (Alaabad, 1923), 87. For example see Sixty-Third Annual Report of the Director of Paden. na of UP (Allahabad, 1931), p. 48. Per ofthe Diner of Pic Hea