Women and Politics in India 

A Comparative study of role of women in the 

Indian Nationalist Movement and Palestine 
Nationalist Movement 
Submitted By:- 
Arihant Jain (201431001) 

Women and Indian Nationalist Movement 

India's struggle for independence is of unique importance in the history of anti-colonial 
movements since it set the precedent of achieving independence through non-violence - 
‘ahimsa’. However, the most important aspect of this movement was that it saw mass 
participation by Indian women, women who had till then been confined to the domestic 
household activities.  

Indian society represented a conflicting position of women. While Sati - the barbarous 
practice that questioned women’s right to live or die and treated women as servants of 
men, female goddesses like Sita, Parvati or Lakshmi drived the true spirit of Hinduism as 
the source of strength, wisdom and wealth. However the stories of goddesses 
themselves had presence of elements like respect for husband, sacrifice and one’s duty 
towards the larger society. I​ n this Indian patriarchal society the women's question was 
always answered by others rather than woman herself.​ Then British rule came and 
‘women’s question’ were again raised and British rule used this barbaric and pitiable 
position of women to justify their role in civilizing India. Although, the Indian reformers 
used the second position of women - the analogy of women being goddesses to free 
bharatmata from the colonial rule. This justification of Indian society being “effeminate” 
in character, as opposed to “colonial masculinity”, was provided for the loss of 
independence. But women’s role with relation to the family was always looked through 
the patriarchal lens. Britishers considered position and status of women as an indicator 
to the development or modernization of a country.  

As Partha Chatterjee described in his 1989 article - although Indian reformers regarded 
Hindu culture as far more superior to British’s Western models, they also believed that 
HIndu culture had to be rendered more consistent with Western liberal ideas. He also 
described these western values as part of ​‘material’ d
​ omain and its counterpart was the 

 
 
 
‘spiritual’​ domain which was seen as representative of the ‘​ true identity’ ​of the Indian 
women. Thus reformers perceived a need to protect the sanctity of this domain which 
represented the true ‘Indianness’.  

The basic form of women’s movement was triggered by 19​th​ century male reformers. 
Colonial social reform of the 19​th​ century tried to abolish abuses of social life and tried 
to usher in more progressive gender relations. A
​ new wave of human greatness eager to 
help the suppressed and the weak emerged mainly due to the new colonial education 
which led to enactment of various social laws by the government.​ For example: Abolition 
of Sati (1829), Widow Remarriage Act(1856), Child Marriage Act(1872). Despite these 
progressive legislations the women’s question was far from being answered by the 
women themselves. Also, various articles on the women’s nationalist movement argued 
that both the participation and leadership of women’s activities were dominated by the 
upper and middle class women. 

Early years of twentieth century saw the construct of the ‘​new woman​’ and the ideas that 
came along with it such as feminism. These ideas emerged even more when Gandhi 
brought ideas about women’s roles in the movement. He argued that the qualities of 
self-sacrifice were ingrained in Indian women and these qualities are perfectly suited 
with his core ideas of ‘​ahimsa’​. Gandhi bought self-reliance by weaving one’s own cloth 
which was primarily done by women and boycotting foreign cloth. Hence it brought a 
sense of responsibility on women to feed and provide clothes to her family. This also 
satisfied women of participating in movement without going on the streets. However 
this changed in 1930 when Salt satyagraha saw a mass participation from women as salt 
was a commodity that affected women from all walks of life equally. After this women 
started leading processions, holding meetings and courting arrest. They also stopped 
men from purchasing liquor and cloth from foreign shops. In all these activities, the 
most visible participation came from middle-class women. However, middle-class 
women were not an homogenous category. They differed on the basis of age, religion 
and political goals. This difference was also observed in the activities as activities of 
younger women were markedly different from the activities of older women who 
majorly followed Gandhian non-violent programme. Younger women were active in 
organizing underground activities whereas older women lacked the courage to try and 
establish new social norms. Young leagues sprung up in all parts of the country by both 
young men and women. Just as women were positioned differently with respect to age 
in middle class, similarly they were positioned differently with respect to religion. 
Though Muslim women participated in the nationalist movement, their participation 

 
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was much less as compared to the Hindus. Muslim women’s participation also 
questioned the important issue of ‘​purdah’ ​in the nationalist movement. Gandhi’s 
movement of encouraging women to come out of their domestic sphere definitely 
attracted more Hindu women than Muslim women. Muslim women did not discard 
purdah a
​ nd one of its possible reason was the resentment expressed by their men 
towards their activities outside the home.  

Hence, the construction of ‘new woman’ brought in place by Indian reformers, saw a 
divide on the basis of age and religion and clearly wasn't a homogenous category. 

Women and Palestine Nationalist Movement 

Women’s involvement in the Palestine Nationalist movement started from 1882, from 
the beginning of the establishment of the Zionist settlements. Women were under a 
strict social order and their freedom of movement was almost non-existent. But women 
raised their voices for the first time in 1884 alongside men against the first Jewish 
settlement. The early days of the movement saw women marching in the streets, school 
girls throwing stones at soldiers, older women carrying baskets of stones on their heads 
to supply younger demonstrators. G
​ iven this u
​ naccustomed public profile​, it was a 
social revolution in its own in which women rebelled against their traditional place in a 
patriarchal society.  

Major involvement of women in Palestine Nationalist Movement started in 1929, when 

women inaugurated their involvement in organized political activism with the founding 
of a society - The Arab Women’s Society. The involvement of women was described as a 
"new and disquieting feature"​ and "​ the prominent part taken by women of good family as 
well as others." T
​ he unique part was that it was not just students and long-time activists 
who participated but women of all ages and from all sectors of society, especially 
women from villages and refugee camps. The uprising spurred these women to work for 
the national cause in a situation of real emergency. However, the society ceased to exist 
after only two years due to the political pressure put on them. But they revived it 
afterwards and collected donations and distributed them among the people in need. 
They also organized a Women’s conference which sent a protest letter to the King of 
England demanding that the Balfour Declaration be revoked and Jewish Immigration 
halted.  

 
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After the loss of Palestine in 1948 Arab-Israeli war, another six-day war broke out in 
1967 which resulted in complete destruction of the economic, social and political 
infrastructure of the Palestinian Society, which now demanded further unity among the 
people and within the national movement. As a consequence, women formed charitable 
organizations that supported and responded to the needs of the other communities. 
However women's participation was still shaped by the ideology of the male leadership, 
which could not take direct action, either in occupied Palestine, now Israel, or in the 
West Bank that became part of Jordan. The losses in the war put pressures on women in 
general and shifted their focus on preserving national identity, tradition and heritage. 
Palestinians chances of continuing the struggle in the new Israel were very limited as 
their political institutions were under the threat of closure. In the West Bank, most 
Palestinians became a part of the Jordanian system. However, Palestine Liberation 
Organization(PLO) was established in 1964 and Palestine Women’s Association was set 
up with it. In 1965, the Palestinian Women’s Association held its first conference, and 
later it set up branches in West Bank. But the association was banned by the Jordanian 
regime in 1966. However, by the late 1960s women became very active and several 
women’s group were made but they majorly consisted of educated middle-class 
women. From 1967 to 1972, armed struggle became an important part of the 
Palestinian movement and women also took part in planning and carrying out of armed 
operations.  

Following this women also joined different political parties which created a new image 
of women – where women’s roles were sexually defined and limited to providing service 
support – were still maintained, but also critically questioned.  

Conclusion 

“The colonial historiography indicates that in India the modern notions of gender rights in the 
public domain were premised on the public private split whereby private disempowerment 
and the subordination of Indian women were masked and reinforced by the bestowal of 
public rights.” ​- [Dr. Namrata Singh, 2015] 

Palestinian and Indian Feminism movement have resemblances as well as differences. 

Feminism is not just about gender conflict but its really about a conflict between women 
and their oppressive conditions. For Palestinian women, oppressive conditions were 

 
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defined in terms of the occupation, whereas Indian women had to overcome the 
inherited patriarchal norms which governs the Indian society.  

Both in India and Palestine, the reforms were modern but at the same time the 
inherited patriarchy was not questioned. Reforms were merely the recasting of male 
domination. Legislations have not been able to change societal attitudes and 
perceptions about women and hence, egalitarian society is a myth for majority of 
women. Thus a fight for new values, new perceptions and a new egalitarian based 
society- the women’s movement- continues forever.  

References 

- The Women’s Question: Participation in the Indian National Movement and its 
impact - Dr. Namrata Singh, 2015, IOSR-JHSS 
- The Palestinian Women's Movement: From Resistance and Liberation to 
Accommodation and Globalization - Eileen Kuttab 
- The Emergence of the Palestinian Women's Movement, 1929-39 - Ellen L. 
Fleischmann, 2000 
- Women as Activists; Women as Symbols: A Study of the Indian Nationalist 
Movement - Suruchi Thapar 
- 'The Nationalist resolution of the women's question - Partha Chatterjee, 1989 

PS: Felicity - the techno-cultural festival of IIIT, started in 2002 and always had 3 male 
coordinators. So last year we thought to increase women’s participation and to include a 
female point of view in functioning of Felicity, we should add a provision for 4th 
position. So we formed a committee of ex-coordinators along with parliament members 
to come up with a proposal which sought of had a reservation for a girl candidate. What 
important here is that although we had discussions and took views from everyone but 
no girl was involved in the policy/decision making process. I was the head of the 
committee and never realized until I took this course that how deep patriarchy is 
ingrained in us.  

 
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