Gandhiji and Women’s Issues

On women’s day, a tribute to some of those who are less known or are nameless/faceless but have opined or have raised issues before 
Mahatma Gandhi on the issue of women’s roles and rights:

[Excerpts from Gandhi Series 2, 'To The Women', Edited and Published by Anand T. Hingorani]: ‘Shrimati Sarladevi of Cuttack writes: “Don’t you admit that the treatment of women is as bad a disease as untouchability itself? The attitude of young ‘nationalists’ I have come in contact with, is beastly in ninety cases out of a hundred. How many of the non-co-operators in India do not regard women as objects of enjoyment? Is that essential condition of success-self purification-possible without a change of attitude towards women?”

[Gandhiji]: “I am unable to subscribe that treatment of women is a ‘disease as bad as untouchability?’ Shrimati Sarladevi has grossly exaggerated the evil. Nor can the charge leveled against the non co-operators of mere gratification of lust be sustained...Women must cease to consider herself the object of man’s lust. The remedy is more in her hands than man’s. She must refuse to adorn herself for men, including her husband, if she will be an equal partner with man...”

‘...From a highly educated sister: “I beg you [Gandhiji] to solve the problem of us, the women. Rajajai says that there is no women’s problem. Perhaps, not in the political sense. Perhaps, it could be made by legislation...that is, all professions should be made equally open to men and women...the natural qualities of her sex, the upbringing meted out to her because of her sex, and her environment which is created because of her sex, all are against her. And in her work, these things, mainly her nature, upbringing and surroundings always get in the way and hinder her, and give occasion for the hackneyed phrase: ‘She is only a woman, after all’. This is what I mean by sex hanging round one’s neck...your advice to me was to read Harijan. I do so eagerly. But so far I have not come across, well, the advice for the inner spirit. Spinning and fighting for the national freedom are only some aspects of training. They do not seem to contain the whole solution. For, I have seen women who do spin and do try to work out of Congress ideals, and still commit blunders which are attributed to the fact of their being women...I do not want women to become like men...tell us, please, how to make best use of our qualities, how to turn our disadvantages into advantages...”

[Gandhiji]: “...My opinion is, that just as fundamentally man and woman are one, their problem must be one in essence...each is a complement to the other. The one cannot live without the other’s active help...Nevertheless, there is no doubt that at some point there is bifurcation. Whilst both are fundamentally one, it is also equally true that in the form there is a vital difference between the two. Hence the vocation of the two must also be different. The duty of motherhood, which the vast majority of women will always undertake, requires qualities which man need not possess. She is passive, he is active. She is essentially mistress of the house. He is the breadwinner; she is the keeper and distributor of the bread. She is the care taker in every sense of the term. The art of bringing up the infants of the race is her special and sole prerogative...In my opinion, it is degrading both for man and woman, that woman should be called upon or induced to forsake the hearth, and shoulder the rifle for the protection of that hearth. It is a reversion to barbarity and the beginning of the end. In trying to ride the horse that man rides, she brings herself and him down. The sin will be on man’s head for tempting or compelling his companion to desert her special calling...I have suggested, in these columns, that woman is the incarnation of Ahimsa. Ahimsa means infinite love, which again means infinite capacity for suffering. Who but woman, the mother of man, shows this capacity in the largest measure? She shows it, as she carries the infant and feeds it during nine months, and derives joy in the suffering involved. What can beat the suffering caused by the pangs of labour? But she forgets them in the joy of creation...let her transfer that love to the whole of humanity, let her forget she ever was or can be, the object of man’s lust...”

Sarojini Naidu and one more woman I cannot identify during the Salt Satyagraha/Dandi March in the year 1930. Source of photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_March

‘...a letter written on behalf of eleven students to [Gandhiji]:  “Your [Gandhiji’s] comments on the letter of a lady student captioned Student’s Shame and published in Harijan of the 31^st December 1938, deserve special attention. The modern girl, it seems, has provoked you [Gandhiji] to the extent that you have disposed of her finally as one playing Juliet to half a dozen Romeos. This remark, which betrays your ideas about women in general, is not very inspiring...in these days when women are coming out of closed doors to help men and take an equal share of the burden of life, it is indeed strange that they are still blamed even when they are maltreated by men...and it cannot or should never be taken that modern girls are categorically all Juliets, or modern youths all Romeos...A statement like this from one revered all over the world seems to hold a brief once more for that worn out and unbecoming saying : “Woman is the Gate of Hell”...To be hated or pitied is what they [modern girls] resent much. They are ready to mend their ways if they are really guilty. Their guilt, if any, must be conclusively proved before they are anathematized. In this respect, they would neither desire to take shelter under the covering of ‘ladies please’, nor would they silently stand and allow the judge to condemn them in his own way. Truth must be faced; the modern girl or ‘Juliet,’ as you have called her, has the courage enough to face it.”

‘ ...Dr. S. Muthulakshmi Reddi, the well known social worker of Madras, has written a long letter [to Gandhiji]... “...Under the present social system, don’t you think that very few women are given sufficient opportunities of education, full development of body and mind, and self expression? Don’t you think their very individuality is being recklessly crushed under the burden of customs and conventions?...should not the members of the Nationalist Party, we mean the Congress, burn with the desire and enthusiasm to find an immediate remedy for all these social evils...or at least educate the masses to liberate their women from the servile bondage to which they are subject...”

[Gandhiji]: “Dr. Muthulakshmi has a perfect right to except Congressmen to shoulder this responsibility...it is not this custom or that which needs condemnation, it is the inertia which refuses to move even in the face of an admitted evil that needs to be removed...And lastly the condemnation is true only of the middle class, the town dwellers, i.e., barely 15 percent of the vast millions of India. The masses living in the villages have no child marriage, no prohibition against widow remarriage. It is true that they have other evils which impede growth...”

[Excerpts from Mahadevbhai Desai’s diary no- 8]: ‘Gandhiji had met fallen/sinful women in Barisal in 1921 and had suggested one or two workers to work for their betterment. But later there was a division between the Congress workers...the dispute in Barisal took an ugly form like in no other place. The workers who had pledged to serve the fallen/sinful women, those women were started to be used for political purpose. They [women] became the members of the Congress- it is not possible to refuse their demand to be the members of Congress - but they also became delegates and their votes were also used in the public meetings!  On the day Gandhiji went, those women requested that he visit their area, they asked to be able to give a letter of honor to Gandhiji and one man started supporting their demand a lot. Initially Gandhiji controlled his anger and only said this, “Inform them that if they wish to meet me they should come here. I cannot go to meet them.” But that man did not understand. He took sides. “You ordered to serve those unfortunates. And today you deprive them of your Darshan [sight] even! They also want to give you a letter of honor.” 

Gandhiji could not tolerate this. “If this is how what I have said is misunderstood, then I should kill myself by drowning. I had told you to serve them. They have not given up their work. And you use such who have not given up their work, in politics? What if they are spinning the wheel? Their yarn is useless to me. Can the spinning wheel be a lid on sins? And by taking a letter of honor from them, would I make their work “respectable”? One should be ashamed of such a suggestion. Leaving their work completely is the first step of their service. Service is impossible unless they give up their work...by giving a letter of honor to me they want to gain respect and gain power. That will never happen.”

[Mahadevbhai]: ‘Earlier the issue of sinful/fallen women had come up twice which one recalls now. In Bengal in order to raise Tilak Swaraj fund, a meeting of women had been organised in a temple. Two sinful/fallen women very hesitatingly came to the temple, put Rs 50/- in the collection bag and had left. Before that incident... a friend in Mumbai talked about the possibility of getting considerable sum from a well-known singer for the swaraj fund.  Gandhiji had clearly said no to the same and said, “It is like acknowledging her work. Let her give up her work and give lakhs of rupees and thereby do penance.” Therefore in Bengal the question arose whether to take that Rs 50/- or not. Gandhiji had said, “Those women gave that money not for fame/publicity but gave with tears of penance and so it can be taken. They did not even have the courage to attend the meeting and that shows that they had nothing to take any pride in.’

[Excerpts from Gandhi Series 2, To The Women, Edited and Published by Anand T. Hingorani]:  [Gandhiji]: “The first occasion I had of meeting those women who earn their livelihood out of their shame, was at Coconada in the Andhra province. There it was few moments’ interview with only half a dozen of them. The second occasion was at Barisal. Over one hundred of them met by appointment. They had sent a letter in advance, asking for an interview and telling me that they had become members of the Congress and subscribed to the Tilak Swaraj Fund, but could not understand my advise not to seek office in the various Congress Committees...The gentleman, who handed me the letter, did so with great hesitation, not knowing whether I would be offended or pleased with the receipt of the letter. I put him at ease by assuring him that it was my duty to serve these sisters, if I could in any way.

“For me, the two hours I passed with these sisters is a treasured memory. They told me that they were over 350 in the midst of a population of about 20,000 men, women and children. They represent the shame of men of Barisal...and what is true of Barisal is true, I fear, of every city. I mention Barisal, therefore as an illustration. The credit of having thought of serving these sisters belongs to some men of Barisal...By the time I had finished with my interview they knew, without my telling them, why they could not be office bearers in Congress Committees if they did not give up their sinfulness. None could officiate at the altar of swaraj who did not approach it with pure hands and a pure heart.”

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