Women’s citizenship in India is a deeply contested subject. Even in the decades preceding independence, a generation of women leaders in India was closely engaging with the Indian state and society, negotiating ideas of citizenship and gender justice across various public spheres. These women leaders did not all share the same views. They were often in deep contention with one another over issues like women’s health, reservation, the rescue and repatriation of abducted women, social service and family planning.

South African Historian Annie Devenish closely examines these complex debates by studying the ideas and activism of leading figures within the All India Women’s Conference and the National Federation of Indian Women, and in India’s Constituent Assembly. Dive into this conversation to know more.

References:

1. Debating Women’s Citizenship in India, 1930–1960 by Annie Devenish
2. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
3. The Raj Quartet (four-volume novel sequence) by Paul Scott: The Jewel in the Crown, The Day of the Scorpion, The Towers of Silence, A Division of the Spoils
4. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) and Ela Bhatt
6. Sarojini Varadappan, Sarla Sharma, Vidya Munshi
7. Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic: Gender Politics of the Framing of the Constitution by Achyut Chetan
8. The Women’s Library at London School of Economics and Political Science
9. Hilda Seligman, Lady Dhanvanthi Rama Rau, Mridula Sarabhai, Muthulakshmi Reddi
10. Kerala Story by Sudipto Sen