FATHER OF THE NATION 95

bilities': 'Monologue is finalized and deaf to the other's response, does

not expect it and does not acknowledge it in any decisive force. Mono-
logue pretends to be the ultimate word. It closes down the represented
world and represented persons.'2 In these respects, Gandhis practice of
patriarchy was monologic.
This can be demonstrated to start with through an examination of
Father of the Nation the history of Gandhi's own family life—an often-distressing and sad
affair—to see how his patriarchy was rooted in an everyday familial
practice. I shall then go on to look at Gandhi's understanding of sexual
desire and female sexuality. From both a feminist and a psychoanalytical
perspective, there is much in Gandhi's practice and belief that was
problematic in the extreme. I shall also examine how all of this cast a
Although in much of his life and work Gandhi tried to maintain a
long shadow over his admirable aspiration to better the position of
series of dialogues, there were crucial areas in which his record in this
women in India. Although his encouragement of women to take an
respect was not a good one. This chapter examines one such area, that
active part in his campaigns of civil resistance helped to give many
of his practice of patriarchy. Gandhi always acted the patriarch, and
women in India a new sense of empowerment, this did not lead, within
he was expected by many of his followers to do so. They related to
the nationalist movement, to any ideological challenge to his patriarchal
him as they would a daughter or son towards a father, addressing him
ways.
respectfully as 'Bapu' (father). He often signed off his letters to such
people with 'Bapu's blessings'. He claimed that he treated all women as
he would a 'sister or daughter'.1 He ran his ashrams as a benevolent but Gandhi's Family Life
authoritarian patriarch. In his own family life he demanded obedience Gandhi was married in 1882, when he was thirteen, to Kasturba, who
from his wife, Kasturba, and his four sons and their wives. It was hard was the same age. It was an arranged marriage—they had already been
for him to accept when a 'daughter' or 'son—real or adopted—sought betrothed for six years. In his autobiography, he commented that 'I
to assert their independence; there were acrimonious quarrels, leading took no time in assuming the authority of the husband.'3 The marriage
in some cases to sharp and bitter breaks. In all these ways he was in a was thus consummated, and the couple then lived together while he
very personal sense the 'father of the nation'. studied in high school in Rajkot. He doubted her faithfulness to him
Patriarchy, by its nature, allows at best only a limited degree of dia- at that time, and not only kept a close eye on her but tried to restrict her
logue, whether between husband and wife, father and child, or elder movements. She refused to obey him, going out and about as she wished.
and younger. Patriarchy is characteristically monologic. M.M. Bakhtin As he later stated: 'This sowed the seeds of a bitter quarrel between us.'4
has defined the monologic as the voice of an entrenched authority that Within three years, Kasturba was pregnant.
denies any meaningful dialogue with another person or group. Even It was at this juncture that his father, Karamchand, became gravely
when equality is accepted in theory, in practice it perceives the other as
2
'merely an object of consciousness, and not another consciousness', in M.M. Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, ed. and trans. C. Emerson,
the process denying that the other has 'equal rights and equal responsi- Manchester University Press, Manchester 1984, pp. 292-3. Emphasis in original.
iAutobiography, CWMG, Vol. 44, p. 99.
ll 4
My Life', Harijan, 4 November 1939, CWMG, Vol. 77, p. 61. Ibid.,p. 100.
94
96 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 97

ill. Although Gandhi tended him as a dutiful son, his mind was on his There was worse to come. He relates how he then objected to her
wife and he continued to have sexual intercourse with her. This was to attitude, demanding that she carry the pot cheerfully. She abused him:
prove for him in retrospect a 'double shame'; first, he was forcing himself 'Keep your house to yourself and let me go.' Gandhi lost his temper
on a pregnant woman, and second, he was doing it as his father lay and, in his words, 'caught her by the hand, dragged the helpless woman
dying.5 He was in fact having intercourse with Kasturba at the moment to the gate ... and proceeded to open it with the intention of pushing
of Karamchand's death. His 'lust' at that moment was for him 'a blot her out.' She shouted back that he was a shameless man: 'Being your
I have never been able to efface or forget...' When Kasturba gave birth wife, you think I must put up with your cuffs and kicks?' Gandhi claimed
soon after, the baby died in a few days. He saw this as a divine judgement that he then realised that he was in the wrong and backed down. He
on his 'lust', implying that a wife and child should expect to be punished commented: 'The wife, with her matchless powers of endurance, has
by God for the failings of a husband and father. In future years, he was always been the victor.'
to implement such a will by continuing to punish Kasturba. As Erik We know of this incident because Gandhi was honest enough to
Erikson has pointed out in his psychoanalytical study of Gandhi, the describe it in his autobiography, written many years later. He explains
incident provided a 'cover' or reason for a way of behaving that had his bad behaviour in terms of his continuing sexual 'infatuation', and
deeper and more structural roots.6 Gandhi would also express this argues that once he took his vow of celibacy he was able to maintain a
logic—of divine retribution on women and children for the sins of strict non-violence in this respect, and that his relationship with Kasturba
men—in a more public sphere, as we shall see later. improved accordingly. In other respects, however, he continued to assert
Over the following years, Gandhi continued to be harsh in his himself against his wife. He refused to give any credence or respect to
demands for obedience from Kasturba. Despite claiming in his autobi- her opinions or intellect: 'Kasturba herself does not perhaps know
ography that he had regarded her as his equal, he compelled her to do whether she has any ideals independently of me.' He then immediately
many things that she believed to be wrong. Although he accepted that contradicted this by stating: 'It is likely that many of my doings have
this was a cause of tension between them, he argued that he acted not her approval even today. We never discuss them, I see no good in
always for her own good. In his autobiography he recounted one par- discussing them.' He went on to declare that her thoughts were of no
ticular instance that occurred in 1898 in South Africa, when he insisted matter because 'she was educated neither by her parents nor by me at
that she empty the chamber pot that had been used by a guest, who was the time when I ought to have done it.' Kasturba was thus condemned
a Dalit Christian. 'Even today I can recall the picture of her chiding as being ignorant and lacking any worthwhile opinions of her own. All
me, her eyes red with anger, and pearl drops streaming down her cheeks, she had were her prejudices that she had learnt to keep to herself.
as she descended the ladder, pot in hand. But I was a cruelly kind hus- He wound up this chapter of his autobiography by trying to paper
band. I regard myself as her teacher, and so harassed her out of my over these glaring contradictions:
blind love for her.'7 Little respect is shown for his wife in this passage
But she is blessed with one great quality to a very considerable degree, a
that was written nearly thirty years later.8
quality which most Hindu wives possess in some measure. And it is this:
5 willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, she has considered
Ibid., pp. 112-14.
6
Erik Erikson, Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence, Faber herself blessed in following in my footsteps, and has never stood in my
and Faber, London 1970, p. 128. way of my endeavour to lead a life of restraint. Though, therefore, there
7
Autobiography, CWMG, Vol. 44, p. 296. is a wide difference between us intellectually, I have always had the
8
Erikson has commented on this passage that it reveals both Gandhi's sadism feeling that ours is a life of contentment, happiness and progress.9
and an unacknowledged and unconscious hatred towards Kasturba. Gandhi's
9
Truth, pp. 234-5. Autobiography, CWMG, Vol. 44, p. 297.
98 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 99

It seems, however, that Kasturba had little choice but to put up with and later gave birth to a daughter, as this revealed that the couple were
her family situation without obvious complaint. There could be no having sexual intercourse despite his injunctions.13 He punished them
real 'contentment' or 'happiness' in such a circumstance. In this, Gandhi by demanding that Harilal be the first to court arrest and go to jail
showed himself to be very insensitive to his wife's emotional life. during the satyagraha of 1908. Gandhi acted as his lawyer during his
His relationship with his eldest son, Harilal, and Gulab, his wife, trial, insisting before the judge that the punishment should be as severe
was also a troubled one. Harilal was born in 1888, while Gandhi was as possible.14 In a public statement made a week later, he said that his
a college student in Bhavnagar. During the boy's infancy he was away twenty-year-old son was 'only a child' and that it was 'a part of Harilal's
for three years in London. The father whom Harilal first learnt to look education to go to gaol for the sake of the country.'15 Harilal spent
up to was the flourishing lawyer of the early years in South Africa, the nearly a year in prison in all, constantly anxious about Gulab. He had
patriarchal head of a prosperous and westernised family. This all changed good reason to be, for Gulab developed an alarming cough, excruciating
radically when Gandhi decided to adopt a simple and austere way of earache and sores all over her body.
life. He ordered his sons to wash their clothes, cook their own food, Once out of jail, the relationship between father and son deteriorated
chop wood, work in the garden—even in the bitter cold of winter— further. Harilal still wanted to go to university. He objected to Gandhi s
and forced them to walk long distances rather than use means of treatment of Kasturba, something Gandhi shrugged off by arguing that
transport.10 Harilal found it extremely hard to adapt to this new regime. she did not know her own mind. In 1911, Harilal returned to India,
He wanted to go to university or study law, but Gandhi would not and after some studies in Gujarat tried to establish himself in business
agree to this as he now held that such institutions were deeply corrupting. in Calcutta. In 1915 the rest of the family followed him back to India,
At the age of eighteen, Harilal escaped to India, where he hoped to sett ling in Ahmedabad, a thousand miles away from Calcutta. In 1916
create an independent life for himself. This proved difficult, for Gandhi Gandhi's second son Manilal sent some money to relieve his brother's
had not given him a conventional education and he lacked paper hardships. When Gandhi came to know of this he was furious and
qualifications. When Gandhi heard a rumour that he had married Gulab, expelled him from the ashram. Manilal ended up back in South Africa,
the daughter of a leading Kathiawadi lawyer who was his friend, Gandhi where he spent the rest of his days.16
retorted that he had ceased to think of Harilal as his son 'for the present Harilal then suffered a deep tragedy when Gulab died suddenly in
at any rate'.11 As Erik Erikson has asked in relation to this episode: how the influenza epidemic of 1918, leaving him to look after their two
can a son cease to be such on a temporary basis? He sees this as one daughters and two sons. He took to drink and was often seen to be
more example of the 'patriarchal bad manners' that characterised inebriated in public. His business ran into difficulties in the early 1920s
Gandhi's relationship with his eldest son.12 and he embezzled a large sum of money from a friend of his father.
A year later, Harilal and Gulab were married. Gandhi told him to When Gandhi heard of this he denounced his son in his journal Young
return to South Africa alone, but instead Harilal came with his new India. He stated that the two of them had been at odds for the past
wife. Gandhi resented the obvious love the couple had for each other, fifteen years:
and tried to take her in hand in an authoritarian way, causing her great
1j
emotional suffering. He was very annoyed when she became pregnant Robert Payne, The Life and Death ofMahatma Gandhi, The Bodley Head,
London 1969, pp. 185-6.
14
10
Louis Fischer, The Life ofMahatma Gandhi, Granada, St. AJbans 1982, 'Trial of Harilal Gandhi and Others', 28 July 1908, CWMG, Vol. 9, pp.
p. 265. 15-16.
15
"Ibid., p. 263. Letter to Indian Opinion, 8 August 1908, CWMG, Vol. 9, p. 42.
10
12
Erikson, Gandhi's Truth, p. 243. Fischer, The Life ofMahatma Gandhi, pp. 264-5.
100 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 101

There is much in Harilal's life that I dislike. He knows that. But I love My dear son Harilal, ... I have been feeling very miserable ever since I
him in spite of his faults. The bosom of a father will take him in as soon heard about this incident ... I have been pleading with you all these
as he seeks entrance. For the present, he has shut the doors against long years to hold yourself in check. But you are going from bad to
himself. He must wander in the wilderness. The protection of a human worse. Now you are making my very existence impossible. Think of the
father has its decided limitations. That of the Divine Father is ever open misery you are causing your aged parents in the evenings of their lives.
to him. Let him seek it and he will find it.17 Your father says nothing to anyone but I know the shocks you are
giving him are breaking his heart. You are committing a great sin in
The deity that Harilal eventually embraced was hardly the one that
thus repeatedly hurting our feelings. Though born as our son you are
had been in Gandhi s mind, for in 1936 he underwent a conversion indeed behaving like an enemy.
to Islam, becoming 'Abdulla Gandhi'. The ceremony of admission to Every morning I rise with a shudder to think what fresh news of
the new faith took place in a Bombay mosque before a large audience, disgrace the newspapers will bring. I sometimes wonder where you are,
and the news was broadcast all over India. where you sleep, what you eat. Perhaps you take forbidden food ... I
By now, Gandhi realised that his son was a broken man, and his often feel like meeting you. But I do not know where to find you.20
reaction was one of sadness rather than patriarchal rage, though he still
felt compelled to moralise on the subject of conversion. He said that She told him also that his father loved him very deeply, and was
he had no objection to Harilal changing his religion in good faith, but prepared even now to look after him and to nurse him back to health.
he feared that it was done for selfish reasons.18 He believed that Harilal Kasturba also wrote a distressed letter to Harilal's Muslim friends, saying
had taken loans from some unscrupulous Pathans in Bombay, and they that they seemed to want 'to make his mother and father a laughing
were taking their interest in the form of this 'conversion. If this was the stock of the world... I am writing this in the hope that the piteous cry
case: of this sorrowing mother will pierce the heart of at least one of you, and
you will help my son turn a new leaf.'21
Harilal's apostasy is no loss to Hinduism and his admission to Islam a Harilal's sad decline seems to have united the ageing father and mother
source of weakness to it, if, as I apprehend, he remains the same wreck in mutual grief. The anger of the old animosities faded away. But
that he was before. ... conversion is a matter between man and his Kasturba's health had suffered, and there is little doubt that her death
Maker who alone knows His creatures' hearts. And conversion without in jail in Pune in 1944 was hastened by her enduring sadness in this
a clean heart is, in my opinion, a denial of God and religion. Conversion respect. When she lay dying, Harilal came to see her twice. On the first
without cleanness of heart can only be a matter for sorrow, not joy, to
occasion she was overjoyed, but on the second he came drunk and
a godly person.19
she beat her forehead in anguish. He was removed and she never saw
Kasturba's reaction to her son's escapades was more direct and emo- him again. Next day, she begged Devdas to look after Harilal's children.
tionally honest. After reading in a newspaper that he had been arrested Gandhi was by her bed day and night, nursing her with devoted care
by the police in Madras for drunk and disorderly behaviour in a public and determined to be with her at the end, succeeding here where he
place at midnight, she wrote to him pleading that he change his ways: had failed with his father. His wish was fulfilled, for she died in his arms
on 22 February 1944. She was cremated next day, and Gandhi sat by
17
A Domestic Chapter', Young India, 18 June 1925, CWMG, Vol. 32, pp. the pyre from morning to evening. For weeks afterwards he was listless
17-18.
18 20
Letter to Mirabehn, 30 May 1936, CWMG, Vol. 69, p. 59. Fischer, The Life ofMahatma Gandhi, pp. 267-8.
2
''Statement to the Press, 2 June 1936, CWMG, Vol. 69, p. 78. 'Payne, The Life and Death ofMahatma Gandhi, p. 474.
102 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 103

and ill.22 From then until the end of his own life he observed a day of after he had made up his mind. He stated that she had no objection.28
remembrance for her on the 22nd of each month, in which the entire Even if she had objected, one doubts that he would have paid her any
Bhagavad Gita was recited at his early morning prayer.23 heed.
Gandhi continued to try to win back Harilal. In early 1947, he wrote Gandhi was not the only Indian nationalist who was striving at that
to his son asking him to join him in East Bengal in his work for Hindu- time to be chaste; it was an aspiration shared by many of those who
Muslim unity. Harilal never replied.24 Less than a year later, Harilal was followed the path of violent terrorism during those years. The latter can
in Delhi when his father was assassinated. His younger brother Ramdas be seen to have internalised the colonizer's argument that an uncontrolled
lit the funeral pyre while he remained in the crowd an anonymous and lax sexuality had undermined the virility of the Indian people,
watcher. He was suffering from tuberculosis, and in less than six months allowing them to be conquered by a more manly race. Following Swami
time was himself dead.25 Vivekananda, they believed that sexual restraint would lead to moral
regeneration. Gandhi was not impressed by this desire to build a more
Gandhi and Sexual Desire 'masculine' Indian persona. His aim was different, that of striving to
Gandhi interpreted his sexual desire for his young wife as a detraction assert the 'feminine' principles of love, selfless service and non-violence.29
from his duty towards his father. He also believed, following an old For Gandhi, sexuality in men was a powerful, intrinsic force that
tradition in India, that a loss of semen drained a man's vitality. Erikson could be mastered only by hard self-discipline. Sexuality in women,
has pointed out: 'Where such imagery is dominant and some obsessive by contrast, lacked such power, for women were, in his eyes, naturally
and phobic miserliness is added, as is universally the case in adolescents abstemious. He saw women as 'the mother of man' and 'too sacred for
convinced that ejaculations are draining them, all sexual life assumes sexual love'.30 Because he expected women to be pure and virtuous, he
the meaning of depleting a man's essence.'26 Once in public life, he was harsh and unmerciful with those who failed in this respect. Thus,
began to see his sexuality as a hindrance in this sphere also. In this, he while on the one hand he placed women on a pedestal as 'sisters of
regarded his sexuality as a passion to be disciplined, rather than some- mercy' and 'mothers of entire humanity', on the other he blamed them
thing that provided the basis for a relationship. Love, for him, was lor luring men into immorality.31 He refused to sanction the use of
defiled by sexual intercourse.27 In his autobiography he explains many contraceptives, as they, in his opinion, encouraged sexual pleasure,
of his early shortcomings and failures, both personal and political, in profligacy and vice. A woman who used contraceptives was no better
terms of his continuing sexual profligacy. Only after he had taken his than a prostitute.32
vow of celibacy in 1906 could his full strength be realised. Typically, he He reserved a particular loathing for prostitutes, whom he saw as
took this momentous decision unilaterally, only consulting Kasturba evil temptresses luring men to their ruin. When some prostitutes of

22 28
Ibid., pp. 504-6. Autobiography, CWMG, Vol. 44, p. 245.
23 2<)
Nirmal Kumar Bose, My Days with Gandhi, Orient Longman, Calcutta Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform, pp. 183-4.
3
1974, p. 55. °'My Life', Harijan, 4 November 1939, CWMG, Vol. 77, p. 61.
24 31
Payne, The Life and Death ofMahatma Gandhi, p. 526. Madhu Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women, Part 1', Economic and Political Weekly,
25
Harilal died in a Bombay hospital on 19 June 1948, Fischer, The Life of 5 October 1985, pp. 1694 and 1701; Sujata Patel, 'Construction and Reconstruc-
Mahatma Gandhi, p. 490. tion of Women in Gandhi', Economic and Political Weekly, 20 February 1988,
26
Erikson, Gandhi's Truth, p. 120. p. 378.
27 32
Bhikhu Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform: An Analysis of Gandhi's Madhu Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women: Part 2\ Economic and Political Weekly,
Political Discourse, Sage Publications, New Delhi 1989, p. 183. 12 October 1985, p. 1755.
104 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 105

Barisal in Bengal asked to be allowed to join the Congress in 1920, he young women without feeling any sexual stirrings.37 He did this at a
told them that there was no way that he could accept them while they time of great difficulty for India, when he felt a need to enhance his
continued in their calling. Madhu Kishwar says in this context: 'It is spiritual powers so as to be equal to the situation. His success in this
significant that Gandhi never displayed this kind of self-righteousness respect (his advanced age could have been a factor in this) may have
vis-a-vis better known exploiters of society. The doors of the Congress given him the moral strength to act with supreme courage—as he did—
were not closed to even the most tyrannical of landlords or the most in the face of the terrible division and carnage of those years.38 He does
corrupt of businessmen.'33 not, however, seem to have been concerned with the psychological effects
In directing his rebukes at the prostitutes, rather than at their clients, that this experiment might have on the young women with whom he
Gandhi revealed a male fear of female sexuality. The idea of women slept, such as nineteen-year-old Manu, his cousins granddaughter.39
luring men towards doom is of course an inverted understanding of
the relationship of power actually experienced by such women. There Marriage and Patriarchy
were other occasions on which Gandhi applied such a logic. When,
for example, a young male resident of the Tolstoy Farm in South Africa The British had always been highly critical of the way in which women
teased two young women, Gandhi felt that it was not enough to tell were treated in India, seeing it as one of the chief markers of Indian
off the boy. 'I wished the two girls to have some sign on their person as social and cultural 'backwardness'. Indian social reformers had responded
a warning to every young man that no evil eye might be cast upon to this by demanding a ban on sati, an end to child-marriage and an
them, and as a lesson to every girl that no one dare assault their purity.'34 acceptance of widow remarriage by high-caste Hindus. They had de-
After much thought he decided that the only way 'to sterilize the sinners plored the illiteracy and ignorance of women in India, and had sought
eye' was by their agreeing to have their hair cut off. They were at first to create a 'new woman' who was literate, cultured and pure. She was to
unwilling to accept this, but Gandhi brought them round through be a well-informed companion and a model wife for her husband, a
pressure, and he himself cut off their hair. He claimed that the two teacher for her children, and an exemplary manager for the household
young women gained by this experience and also 'hoped that young as a whole. In this way, she would take her place as a worthy yet subor-
men still remember this incident and keep their eyes from sin.'35 In this dinate citizen of the nation. As Uma Chakravarty puts it: 'the inter-
case, Gandhi was blaming girls who were being sexually harassed. His locking of an indigenous patriarchy with new forms of patriarchy
assumption was that the young men would not have acted as they did brought in by the colonial state produced a situation where apparently
without some laxity on the part of the girls. spaces opened up for women but were simultaneously restricted.'40
Gandhi himself was always in doubt as to his success in achieving Gandhi's own thoughts on the women's question were rooted in this
full mastery over his passions. He set high standards for himself in patriarchal agenda. The first major statement that he made on the subject
this respect, being wracked by a sense of failure whenever he had an after his return to India in 1915 was at an educational conference in
involuntary discharge of semen in his sleep. He assumed that he had Gujarat in October 1917. He focused, appropriately given the venue,
not entirely conquered his desires.36 This led to his experiment of 1946-
37
7, when he sought to test his celibacy by sleeping with naked and nubile Bose, My Days with Gandhi, p. 150.
38
Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform, p. 202.
33 39
Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women: Part 1', pp. 1693-4. Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women: Part 2', p. 1756.
34
Satyagraha in South Africa, CWMG, Vol. 34, p. 202. °Uma Chakravarty, Rewriting History: The Life and Times ofPandita Ramabai,
35 Kali for Women, New Delhi 1998, pp. 174-5. See also pp. 82-94, 203-9 and
Ibid.
36 224.
Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform, pp. 186-8.
106 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 107

on the need for education for women. It had, however, to be an education their consent.44 Until the 1930s, Gandhi preferred that marriages be
with a difference: within broad caste bounds, but in his later years he came round to the
view that caste mattered less than compatibility. He was however
As Nature has made men and women different, it is necessary to maintain
opposed to marriage customs that he saw as being demeaning towards
a difference between the education of the two. True, they are equals in
women. He condemned child marriages, on the grounds that if the
life, but their functions differ. It is woman's right to rule the home.
child-husband should die, the girl was left a widow for life. He believed
Man is master outside it. Man is the earner, woman saves and spends.
that child-widows should be allowed to remarry. In the case of adult
Woman looks after the feeding of the child. She shapes its future. She
is responsible for building its character. She is her children's educator, widows, he preferred that they should remain unmarried and chaste,
and hence, mother to the Nation ... but if this proved too hard to maintain, they should remarry. He was
If this is the scheme of Nature, and it is just as it should be, woman opposed also to expensive marriage celebrations and dowries, pre-
should not have to earn her living. A state of affairs in which women ferring instead simple weddings, with garlanding of the couple in front
have to work as telegraph clerks, typists or compositors can be, I think, of friends and relatives. At the time, this was known as Gandhi lagan
no good, such a people must be bankrupt and living on their capital.41 (Gandhian marriage). Women were also encouraged to stop wearing
jewellery, to wear clothes of simple and cheap khadi, and not to over-
He went on to deplore the custom of child-marriage that stood in dress. He was opposed to the practice of purdah for women. He also
the way of the education of women. The young wife became merely a encouraged families to cook simple food so as to save women from
household drudge and was unable to provide adequate companionship drudgery. He also sought to counter the pressure placed on wives to
to a husband. He deplored those men who treated their wives as they produce children by valorising marriages in which the partners remained
would an animal and condemned the couplet attributed to Tulsidas: chaste. At one wedding, he blessed the couple with the words: 'May
'The drum, the fool, the Sudra, the animal and the woman—all these you have no children.'45
need beating,' arguing that it was either a later interpolation or the poet Gandhi was a strong believer in the sanctity of the family, and saw
was merely mouthing the prejudices of his time without any reflection. marriage, like religion, as a force for 'restraint'.46 In this, he failed to
'We must fight this impression and pluck out from its very root the take into account the fact that almost the entire burden of restraint
general habit of regarding women as inferior beings. Four months rested on women, any failure on their part being punished severely,
later he stated that the maltreatment of women by even the most ignoran r while the misdemeanours of husbands were generally overlooked. He
and worthless of men impoverished the Indian spirit. Nationalists were argued that women could fight oppression within the family through
to go out and educate women.43 satyagraha against the men, and although he knew that men often
Gandhi believed strongly in the institution of marriage, which he enforced their will in a vicious manner, he was confident that the strength
saw as a bastion of morality. He refused to consider the relationship of the women would in most cases prevail. He even stated that women
between husband and wife as being in any way hierarchical, arguing who were faced with rape should prefer to give up their lives rather
that it should be considered a partnership between equals. Because oi than surrender their virtue and chastity.47 In this, he once again placed
this, men had no right to make sexual claims on their wives without the chief onus for moral behaviour on women rather than men. This
41 44
Speech at Second Gujarat Educational Conference, Bharuch, 20 October Harijan, 5 May 1946. Quoted inTerchek, Gandhi, p. 66.
45
1917, CWMG,Vol 16, p. 93. Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women: Part 1,' pp. 1692-3 and 1696; 'Gandhi on
42
Ibid., pp. 94-5. Women: Part 2', pp. 1754-5.
43 46
Speech at Bhagini Samaj, Bombay, 20 February 1918, CWMG, Vol. 16, 'Abolish Marriage!', Young India, 3 June 1926, CWMG, Vol. 35, p. 144.
47
p. 274. Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women: Part 1', pp. 1691 and 1700.
108 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 109
may be taken as a compliment to women, but it seems unreasonable that it was acceptable for women to fight back against rapists: 'When
and unfair for Gandhi to have expected women to bear the major burden a woman is assaulted she may not stop to think in terms of himsa or
in such matters. ahimsa. Her primary duty is self-protection. She is at liberty to employ
So committed was Gandhi to the institution of marriage that he every method or means that come to her mind in order to defend her
even stated in 1917 that children born outside wedlock were like ver- honour. God has given her nails and teeth. She must use them with all
min who should not be preserved. For this reason, he had no time for her strength and, if need be, die in the effort.' 51 Men, likewise, were
orphanages that brought up such children. In the words of Madhu entitled to use violence to prevent a woman being raped.
Kishwar, 'it is hard to comprehend the violence of thought underlying During the partition period of 1947 there were many cases in which
this sentiment considering that he never used similar language or ex- men killed the women of their families rather than have them 'shamed'.
pressed such sentiments against well known exploiters of society, and In cases in which women were abducted or raped (and rape was assumed
would not have condoned violence against them as he does against whether or not it had occurred), they were commonly rejected by their
little babies who could not by any stretch of imagination be held re- families as being 'dishonoured'. When confronted with the suffering
sponsible for being born of people who refused to take responsibility caused through this logic of'honour', Gandhi issued repeated appeals
for them.'48 Gandhi also revealed his patriarchal sentiments over the to families to accept back with an open heart any women members
matter of defending family or community honour. In disputes over who had been abducted, stating: 'I hear women have this objection
matters of honour, women were frequently made to bear the burden of that the Hindus are npt willing to accept back the recovered women
family or community honour. It was believed to be particularly sham- because they say that they have become impure. I feel that this is a
ing if a family or community could not defend its female members matter of great shame. These women are as pure as the girls who are
from sexual violation, rape or murder. Rather than condemn a men- sitting by my side. And if any one of those recovered women should
tality which made women the prime bearers of such 'honour', Gandhi come to me, then I will give them as much respect and honour as I
surrendered to his patriarchal prejudices by arguing that a father would accord to these young maidens.'52 No longer, it seems, was he so sure
in such circumstances be justified in killing his daughter: 'it would that women deserved to bear the blame for the sexual crimes of men.
be the purest form of ahimsa on my part to put an end to her life and
surrender myself to the fury of the incensed ruffian. Women and Satyagraha
He seems to have modified his opinions on this issue to some extent The most significant respect in which Gandhi went beyond the agenda
during the last decade of his life. In 1942 he stated that there was of the nineteenth-century social reformers was in his injunction that
absolutely no justification for holding a woman to blame for being women should play an active role in their own emancipation through
raped and subjecting her to social ostracism as a result: 'Whilst the satyagraha. In a letter of June 1917 he reminded his followers of the
woman has in point of fact lost her virtue, the loss cannot in any way bhakti sant Mirabai, who, he said, had waged satyagraha against her
render her liable to be condemned or treated as an outcast. She is entitled husband to maintain her chastity, converting him into a devotee through
to our sympathy for she has been cruelly injured and we should tend her moral power.53 He also invoked Sita, who, he claimed, maintained
her wounds as we would those of any injured person. He even said
51
Ibid.,p. 42.
48 52
Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women: Part 2', p. 1757. Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India,
49
Young India, 4 October 1928, inTerchek, Gandhi, p. 207. Penguin Books, India 1998, p. 160.
50
'Criminal Assaults,' Harijan, 1 March 1942, CWMG, Vol. 82, p. 41. "Letter to Esther Faering, 11 June 1917, CWMG, Volume 15, p. 436.
110 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 111

her purity by standing up to both Ravana and Ram.54 He believed very nationalists' attempts to revive a 'male' vigour in India as a counter to
strongly that women who wished to remain chaste should follow the the masculinity of British colonialism. In his opinion, this could lead
example of Mirabai and refrain from sexual intercourse, even if they only to violence and hatred.57 He preferred to stress the 'female' principle
were married and had to resist their husband's will in this respect. He of non-violence. Ashis Nandy has argued in this respect that Gandhi
praised those women who had made a decision to remain unmarried 'rediscovered' womanhood as a civilizing force in human society. He
and chaste throughout life—serving society rather than a family—in holds that Gandhi s role model was above all his mother, who combined
the process resisting the huge social pressures there were to get married. a strong religious faith with confidence in her power to have her own
In this respect, Gandhis emphasis on celibacy, or brahmacharya, had way within the family. In valorising such 'female' values, Gandhi was
a particular value for women, for it could provide a means for resisting taking on both a patriarchal Sanskritic tradition that devalued woman,
male domination in a way that was legitimised in their culture. For and also the colonial valorisation of masculinity. In its place he combined
men, it could provide a mark of their commitment to a non-exploitative elements of Indian folk culture that celebrated the female principle
and equal relationship with women. Critics of Gandhis brahmacharya with a Christian belief that the meek would inherit the earth. Like St.
tend to ignore this issue and focus on the admittedly problematic matter Francis he wanted to be the bride of Christ.58 Or, we may add, like that
of his beliefs about male semen and moral power. While Bhikhu Parekh, of the young cowherd women—the gopis—whose love for Krishna
for example, raises legitimate questions about the efficacy of such beliefs, became spiritual rather than physical once they experienced his true
which he labels as 'largely mystical and almost certainly false', he takes being.59
an over-optimistic and gendered view of male sexuality: 'A man who Although Gandhi argued that women were best suited for domestic
assigns [sexuality] its proper place in life and gratifies it within limits is life, he also encouraged them to participate in political activity as the
far more at peace with himself and free of its domination than one equals of men. At the Gujarat Political Conference at Godhra in 1917
locked in a mortal battle with it.'55 This argument is clearly gendered— he said that in not including women in their movement they were
a man speaks for his own. It presumes that male sexuality is essentially walking on one leg.60 During the Kheda Satyagraha of 1918, Gandhi
benign, failing to understand that in a patriarchal society the 'limits' made a point of encouraging women to become involved. He insisted
which men define serve their interests rather than women, so that what on women sharing the platform with him during meetings—women
is 'proper in life' becomes the routine exploitation of women. Gandhi such as Anandibai, a widow from Pune, who told the audience in
knew that the only effective limit in such a society was strong self- Karamsad village that she wished she held land in Kheda so that she
control and moral self-discipline. could also refuse her taxes and risk having it confiscated.61 When, on
Gandhi believed that women had a moral power that was particularly one occasion, Gandhi saw that only men were attending a meeting, he
suited to satyagraha. 'To call a woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is 57
man's injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then Dalton, Mahatma Gandhi, p. 40.
58
Ashis Nandy, 'Final Encounter: The Politics of the Assassination of Gandhi',
indeed is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral in Ashis Nandy, At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture, Oxford
power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. Has she not greater University Press, New Delhi 1993, pp. 73-4.
intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of 59
As Parekh has pointed out, this relationship became inverted at times, with
endurance, has she not greater courage?'56 Gandhi scorned the extremist many of Gandhi's female followers relating to him as a gopi would to Krishna.
Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform, pp. 205-6.
54 Secret Bombay Presidency Police Abstract of Intelligence, Bombay 1917, p. 938.
Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women: Part 1', p. 1691.
55 61
Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform,^. 182-3. Shankarlal Parikh, Khedani Ladat, Rashtriya Sahitya Karyalay, Ahmedabad
56 1922, p. 150.
'To the Women of India, Young India, 10 April 1930, CWMG,VoL 39, p. 57.
112 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 113

rebuked the audience: It was my hope that women also would be present was my most unforgettable experience of the satyagraha.'68 Womens
at this meeting. In this work there is as much need of women as men. If participation in the struggle was taken onto a new plane during the
women join our struggle and share our sufferings, we can do fine work.'62 Civil Disobedience movement of 1930-1. Gandhi had initially stated
In some cases, special meetings were held for women. 3 that only men should break the salt laws, but his women followers
Gandhi's emphasis on hand-spinning from 1920 onwards gave refused to accept this decree and went ahead and manufactured salt on
legitimacy to womens' activity and allowed them to participate in the a large scale. As Usha Mehta says: 'I remember, during the salt satyagraha.,
struggle in a new way. He stated that in matters concerning swadeshi, many women of all ages came out to join the movement. Even our old
women should put the interest of the nation before even that of their aunts and great-aunts and grandmothers used to bring pitchers of salt
husbands. The nation was thus considered to have precedence over the water to their houses and manufacture illegal salt. And then they would
household.64 Gandhi also encouraged women to take a leading role in shout at the top of their voices: "We have broken the salt Law!'"69
the picketing of liquor shops during the Non-Cooperation movement Women also took out early morning processions, known as prahhat
of 1921-2.65 This campaign struck a chord with many women, who pheris, when they walked through the streets of their towns and villages
resented the fact that their husbands squandered their hard-earned singing religious and nationalist songs. Because such processions were
incomes on drink rather than provide for their families. Also, their normally of a purely religious nature, the authorities were reluctant to
intoxicated husbands often beat them up. Gandhi believed that the clamp down on them lest they be accused of religious persecution.
presence of women on the picket line helped sustain an atmosphere of The anti-liquor campaign reached fresh heights in 1930-1. Due to
non-violence, while at the same time it deterred 'undesirable characters' some violence by male picketers during the 1921-2 movement, Gandhi
from joining the protest.66 Encouraged by the evidence of this new insisted in 1930 that anti-liquor protest should be the preserve of women
spirit of assertion, he looked forward in July 1921 to the day when satyagrahis. Kasturba Gandhi played a prominent role in this campaign,
'women begin to affect the political deliberations of the nation', and organising the cutting down of around 25,000 toddy trees during the
stated that they should be given the vote and a legal status equal to men.67 period of the salt satyagraha, and picketing government auctions of
Women were soon even taking the initiative in protests. During the liquor shops. In many cases, not a single licence was sold, and in some
Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, for example, Vallabhbhai Patel had advised areas liquor revenues dwindled to almost nothing. The women also
women not to join the picket lines on one particular occasion as he attended religious and social functions and urged the people to forsake
feared that the police intended to beat up or even fire on the protesters. liquor.70
One woman later recalled: 'Undeterred by the warnings given by Sardar In Ahmedabad city, the Rashtriya Stree Sabha (Nationalist Womens
Patel, I led a group of fifty sisters in spite of promulgation of the article Organisation) launched an intensive swadeshi campaign, which involved
under Section 144, broke through the police cordon and joined the almost daily processions of khadi-clad women through the streets singing
picket lines. I was arrested along with twenty-four of my sisters. This
68
Ammt Nakhre, Social Psychology ofNon Violent Action: A Study of Three
62
Speech at Uttarsanda, 6 April 1918, CWMG, Vol. 16, p. 396. Satyagrahas, Chanakya Publications, Delhi 1982, p. 143.
63 69
Parikh, Khedani Ladat, p. 221; Bombay Chronicle, 30 April 1918, p. 9. Zareer Masani, Indian Tales of the Raj, 1987, quoted in Rozina Visram, Women
64
Patel, 'Construction and Reconstruction of Women in Gandhi', p. 380. in India and Pakistan: The Stugglefor Independence from British Rule, Cambridge
65
' Women as Pickets', Young India, 28 July 1921, CWMG, Vol. 24, pp. 15-6. University Press, Cambridge 1992, pp. 27-8.
66< 70
My Notes', Navajivan, 31 July 1921, CWMG, Vol. 24, p. 33. Frederick Fisher, That Strange Little Brown Man Gandhi, Orient Longman,
67 New Delhi 1970, pp. 142 and 148.
'Position of Women', Young India, 21 July 1921, CWMG,Vol. 23, p. 469.
114 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 115

patriotic songs, house-to-house collection of foreign cloth which was ladies in Gujarat...', or for that matter, she added, anywhere in India.73
then burnt in public, the distribution of cyclostyled sheets from door The Borsad Satyagraha Patrika later published a list of 115 injured
to door, and picketing of shops selling foreign cloth. They also picketed women who came from nineteen different villages. The ages of 61 of
liquor shops—which could be hazardous, as they were subject to abuse them were given—the youngest was 15 and the oldest 65. Their overall
by men who wanted to buy liquor. They had however strength in average age was 25.74 One of them, sixteen-year-old Kashiben
numbers, and many felt exhilarated and empowered in their new public Trikambhai Patel of Bochason, stated that:
role. Although the police were at first reluctant to arrest women,
increasing numbers were sent to prison, becoming celebrated public When Madhumati Ben was being beaten I tried to protect the [national]
figures in the process.71 flag when I was given a blow on the left shoulder and was dragged by
As the movement progressed, and more and more of the male par- the hair so forcibly that I fell on the ground. Before falling down, I was
ticipants were arrested and jailed, women came increasingly to the fore. given 2 or 3 blows by hand on my cheek, and some blows on the loin.
By early 1931, the authorities, frustrated by their inability to break the 1 tried to get up when I got 3 pushes on the chest. They again caught
spirit of resistance, moved onto the offensive against women. The situ- hold of my hair and made me stand. Three blows on the left foot: six to
ation became ugly in Gujarat after a seventeen-year-old inmate of seven on the right thigh and one blow on the back. After receiving two
Gandhi's ashram in Ahmedabad called Lilavati Asar organised a rou- pushes of the butt-end of the rifles, I fainted.75
tine procession of women through the town of Borsad in Kheda
Gangaben Vaidya, an older woman who was on the managing board
District on 15 January. She was arrested, taken to the police station and
of Gandhi's ashram, recounted how she had been beaten until blood
slapped on the face until she passed out. The police claimed later that
poured from her head: 'The other sisters bore the blows with exemplary
she was a hysterical girl, subject to fainting fits.72 She was then taken to
bravery. In some case the assaults were outrageous, many being kicked
the Sabarmati prison in Ahmedabad. A local woman from Kheda called
on their chests with the heels of the policemen's boots. Not one budged
Benaktiben organised another procession in Borsad on 21 January to
an inch, everyone stood unflinching at her post. Whereupon came this
protest against the treatment meted out to Lilavati; 1,500 women from
sudden access of courage and strength, I wonder. God was with us I am
31 different villages participated. They were mostly from the locally
sure. He gave us the strength.'76 Gandhi praised her fulsomely in his
dominant caste of Patidar peasants, who were at that time supporting
reply: 'How shall I compliment you? You have shown that you are what
the struggle by refusing to pay their land tax. As soon as they had
1 had always thought you were. How I would have smiled with pleasure
assembled, the police charged them and beat them with their lathis and
to see your sari made beautiful with stains of blood. I got excited when
rifle butts, at the same time showering them with sexual abuse. Women
I knew about this atrocity, but I was not pained in the least. On the
who fell to the ground were kicked by heavy police boots, or pulled
contrary, I felt happy.'77
by the hair. The women later stated that the police were reeking of
alcohol. Kasturba Gandhi visited the women four days later and saw
^Bombay Chronicle, 30 January 1931, pp. 13 & 15; Times of India., 4 February
their cuts and bruises. She stated that: 'This is the first occasion in I'm, p. 11.
my life, when I have seen such inhuman treatment meted out to ' ^Suba, Baroda Division to Manager, Huzur Political Office, Baroda, 9 February
1931, Baroda Records Office, Huzur Political Office file 189 of 1930-1, p. 51.
71 75
Aparna Basu, Mridula Sarabhai: Rebel with a Cause, Oxford University Press, Servants of India Society Report on the Borsad Incident, published in The
New Delhi 1996, pp. 34-6. Bombay Chronicle, 24 February 1931, p. 7.
72 76
This particular allegation was reported in The Times of India, 10 February Letter from Gangaben Vaidya, January 1931, CWMG, Vol. 51, p. 442.
77
1931, p. 19. Letter to Gangaben Vaidya, 2 February 1931, CWMG, Vol. 51, p. 94.
116 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 117

During this period, women from all parts of India proved themselves There have, however, been subsequent critiques from a broadly
the equal of the male freedom fighters, and in many cases their superior. feminist perspective. Madhu Kishwar, as we have seen, points out the
In the process, they gained a new sense of empowerment. In the words 'age-old patriarchal bias' that informed his attitude towards women.80
of Aruna Asaf Ali: Despite her specific criticisms, she holds that Gandhi was far more
radical in his actions than in his theory, for he provided an unprecedented
Gandhiji's appeal was something elemental. At last, a woman was made
role for women in political work. And not only this—he asserted that
to feel the equal of man; that feeling dominated us all, educated and
women were superior to men as satyagrahis.81 By 1931, she asserts,
non-educated. The majority of women who came into the struggle
were not educated or westernised ... The real liberation or emancipation Gandhi's initiative in this respect was so accepted that the Congress was
of Indian women can be traced to this period, the 1930s. Earlier, there able to pass a resolution committing itself to the equal rights of women.82
had been many influences at work, many social reformers had gone Although it is true that many women gained a new self-confidence
ahead, it was all in the air. But no one single act could have done what and pride through their nationalist work, their participation failed to
Gandhiji did when he first called upon women to join and said: 'They shake the structure of patriarchy in any very profound way. In an article
are the better symbols of mankind. They have all the virtues of a on women in the nationalist movement in Bengal, Tanika Sarkar, also
satyagrahi.' All that puffed us up enormously and gave us a great deal of writing from a feminist perspective, has described the unprecedented
self-confidence.78 degree of public protest by women during the Civil Disobedience Move-
ment there. They took part in processions, picketing and blockading of
The Critique of Patriarchy roads with their own bodies to prevent the passage of police vehicles.
When male satyagrahis were arrested, women took their place, and
Fellow nationalists and women activists never subjected Gandhi to any
some became the local 'dictators' of the movement. This lead to brutal
strong criticism for his patriarchal attitudes. In this, we find a contrast
counter-reprisals, involving insults, molestation, beating and even fir-
to his other major fields of work, in which sharp differences were
ing, with one young Mahisya woman, Urmilaben Paria, being shot
expressed in a way that forced him to often qualify or modify his position.
dead. Sarkar argues that all of this became possible because such mili-
His close women followers in his ashram and elsewhere revered him
tancy was depicted as being almost a religious duty at that time.
as 'father', accepting his patriarchal persona without a murmur. More
independent women nationalists never took up this issue. Notable in The most crucial element in dovetailing the feminine role with nationalist
this respect was Sarojini Naidu, a woman of intellect and power who politics was perhaps the image of Gandhi as a saint or even a religious
had fought with success for the women's franchise and who served as
80
President of the Congress in 1925. She described Gandhi as 'my father, Kishwar, 'Gandhi on Women: Part 1', p. 1691.
81
my leader, my master'.79 The strongest dissent came from within his Ibid.
82
Ibid., p. 1697. The 1931 resolution of the Congress stated that every citizen
own family, but this was brushed aside as being informed by ignorance
of India had a fundamental right to equality before the law 'regardless of caste,
in the case of Kasturba and immorality in the case of Harilal. We shall creed or sex.' The position of women was one element in a more general statement
never know how Gandhi might have responded to a strong feminist of principle; this was not a specific pro-woman initiative, as Kishwar makes out.
critique. See P. Sitaramayya, The History of the Indian National Congress (1885-1935),
Congress Working Committee, Madras 1935, p. 780. Also, the crucial battle in
78
Zareer Masani, Indian Tales of the Raj, 1987, quoted in Visram, Women in this respect had been for the right for Indian women to have the vote. Women
India and Pakistan, p. 23. activists fought for this during the 1917-19 period, leading to enfranchisement
79
Sarojini Naidu, Selected Poetry and Prose, edited by Makarand Paranjape, during the 1920s. This victory had nothing to do with the mobilisation of women
Harper Collins, New Delhi 1995, p. 195. in satyagrahas as such. See Visram, Women in India and Pakistan, pp. 31-4.
118 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 119

deity and the perception of the patriotic struggle as an essentially religious of women. But that in its turn inhibited the extension of radicalism to
duty. According to this perception, joining the Congress agitation would other spheres of life.85
not really be politicisation, a novel and doubtful role for women, but
sharing a religious mission—a role deeply embedded in a tradition In Gujarat, too, the vigorous participation of women in the nation-
sanctified by the example of Meera Bai and the 'sanyasinis'. The stress alist struggle failed to undermine prevailing patterns of patriarchy in
on the personal saintliness of Gandhi, a subtle symbiosis between the any substantial manner. When I was carrying out interviews of peasant
religious and the political in the nationalist message under his leadership, nationalists in the 1970s, I found it hard to gain access to women activ-
enabled nationalism to transcend the realm of politics and elevate itself ists, even though they had played a prominent role in the struggle in
to a religious domain.83 1930-1. The men commonly stated that they could tell me all I needed
to know. If pressed, a woman who was known to have participated in
In this, Sarkar argues, Gandhi was in certain respects in tune with a the movement was sometimes summoned to the front room of the
tradition going back to Bankimchandra and the extremist nationalists, house. There was no equality in such a space, for while I and the males
in which the country became a part of the Hindu pantheon as the sat on chairs, the women normally sat on the ground, their heads cov-
highest deity of all—the Motherland. Women were linked to this, as an ered in the presence of the patriarchs, speaking hesitantly and with
embodiment of the Shakti of the Mother Goddess. Through national- inhibition. Only in a few exceptional cases, as with the remarkable
ism, this Shakti could be released. In the earlier manifestation, how- widow Dahiba Patel, did I manage to obtain any worthwhile testimony
ever, this Shakti was seen as a violent power. 'The Gandhian movement through such means.86 This experience revealed that power relation-
resolved the tension beautifully by retaining the religious content of ships in such families had not been altered in any profound way by
nationalism while turning the movement non-violent and imparting women's participation in what was in other respects a 'freedom struggle'.
it a gentle, patient, long-suffering, sacrificial ambience particularly Sujata Patel, in another critique, has argued that there was a strong
appropriate for women. If the movement is non-violent then no dan- class and caste bias in Gandhi's prescriptions for women. Most of the
gerous, aggressive note is imparted to the feminine personality through women participants in the movement were, she states, from a middle-
participation.'84 class, higher-caste background.87 She criticises Gandhi's claim that
The downside to this, from a feminist perspective, was that this women were more biologically suited to life in the home than working
militancy failed to mount any challenge to the institution of patriarchy.
85
Whether in Gandhian movements or in more militant alternatives to Ibid.,p. 101.
86
it, nationalists rarely sought a permanent reversal of the customary role Dahiba Patel had persuaded her half-brother to resign his official post as
of women in and outside political action. Politicisation was internalised headman, had taken the lead in her village in refusing to pay land-tax, and became
the acknowledged leader of the protest there after her half-brother was arrested.
as a special form of sacrifice in an essentially religious process. The
She however denied that village women acted as a radical force in general; in most
language, imagery and idiom of the entire nationalist protest remained cases, she said, they followed the lead of their husbands. Interview with Dahiba
steeped in tradition and religion as self-conscious alternatives to alien Lallubhai Patel, Boriavi, Anand Taluka, Kheda District, 26 February 1977. In
Western norms. And herein lay the paradox: such strong traditionalist retrospect, I am very aware that I failed to address this issue at all adequately, and
moorings alone permitted the sudden political involvement of thousands it circumscribes the history that was written as a result.
8/
Patel, 'Construction and Reconstruction of Women in Gandhi', p. 377-
83
Tanika Sarkar, 'Politics of Women in Bengal: The Conditions and Meaning On this point, I might note that although it is probably true that the majority of
of Participation', The Indian Economic and Social History Review 21:1 (1984), women who went to jail were middle class, there is evidence that many peasant
p. 98. women took part in protests such as the salt satyagraha, the no-tax campaigns and
84
Sarkar, 'Politics of Women in Bengal', p. 99. forest satyagrahas.
120 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS FATHER OF THE NATION 121

outside it for wages, arguing that his understanding in these respects the empowerment of women, while his patriarchal beliefs are firmly
was that of an upper-caste and middle-class male, whose ideal woman rejected.
was cloistered in the home. The stricture thus essentialised a sexual To conclude, Gandhi's approach to the question of women's eman-
division of labour determined by class. It ignored the fact that the cipation was one that, on the whole, he shared with many male nation-
majority of Indian women of his day earned their livelihood through alists and social reformers of his day, namely that women should
field-labour and factory-work and that most were compelled to do so receive education, should not be married off early and should be
through necessity. The only source of earning he could suggest for allowed to remarry if widowed. He deplored the practice of seclusion
women was hand-spinning—something which could earn only very and a rigid separation of the sexes. Like the social reformers, he believed
small sums of money in practice. Gandhi thus failed to provide any that women were biologically more suited to a life in the home. Simi-
space within his movement for the economically independent woman.88 larly, he was a strong defender of the institution of marriage, which
Patel is also highly critical of his opinion that a woman had to make a he saw as inculcating a sense of morality. He believed that women had
choice between being either a housewife or a political worker dedicated a duty to defend the honour of their family. He insisted that men should
to an unmarried life of service to the nation. In effect, this meant that treat their wives with more consideration, advocating, for example,
women were left with a choice of either looking after the home as a the easing of women's household work through a simple cuisine, and
wife, or working outside as an asexual being, in the process denying a curb on their sexual demands. The latter was a particularly significant
their biological being. Gandhi does not, in Patel s opinion, provide any and original intervention in a social milieu in which few women were
grounds for a serious attack on patriarchy. She thus denies that Gandhi in a position to resist the unwanted sexual advances of their husbands
can be seen in any way as a messiah of the contemporary women's and other men. By valorizing sexual abstinence and celibacy for men
movement in India.89 and women, Gandhi provided a means for setting limits on this rou-
Besides these critiques by intellectuals, it is important also to ex- tine but gross form of exploitation. Gandhi also went further than most
amine the way in which modern women activists and political workers of his contemporaries in insisting that women should play an active
have felt either empowered or reduced by Gandhi's legacy. I shall and positive part in the nationalist movement. In left-led trade union
examine women's activism within the Gandhian tradition in the post- protests of the 1920s and 1930s, for example, women's issues were
independence period in chapter eight, in relationship to the anti-liquor consistently marginalized by the male leaders. Unlike Gandhi, these
movement after independence and the struggle for peasant women to leaders did not even attempt to address women's issue in a serious man-
have the right to gain ownership of land through land reform. In the ner.90 In this way, the Gandhian movement stood out for the way in
case of the former, there has been considerable militancy among women, which it allowed many women in India to gain a new sense of empow-
though Gandhi's influence has been patchy. In the case of the latter, erment.
women who started within the Gandhian tradition launched a cam- Few feminists can, however, accept his prescriptions for women,
paign for land for women against the advice of their male colleagues. arguing that they were rooted in a patriarchal ideology that would
There was therefore a strong debate, with the women's position be- always prevent the full self-realisation of women. Gandhian patriarchy
ing taken up and championed by feminists. In this case, as in others, has, from this perspective, to be rejected in a wholesale manner. Some
the Gandhian tradition of resistance has been deployed as a means for feminists would argue that this calls into question Gandhi and his legacy
as a whole. Others, like Kishwar, refuse to take such a step, arguing that
88
Ibid., p. 379.
89
Ibid., p. 386. 90
Sarkar, 'Politics of Women in Bengal', p. 94.
122 GANDHI IN HIS TIME AND OURS

the negative elements of Gandhi's patriarchy were outweighed by the

positive social and political benefits he helped achieve for women.
Patriarchy has survived as an institution in part through its coercive
violence, but in part through its inculcation of strong ties of affection.
The patriarch is at the same time feared, hated and loved. Such a dialectic
has likewise informed the relationship of many Indians towards their
own national 'father', and it is one that is likely to continue to resonate
so long as patriarchy flourishes.