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Fallen Through the Nationalist and Feminist Grids of Analysis: Political Campaigning of Indian Women against Indentured Labour Emigration

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  • Shobna Nijhawan

    (Shobna Nijhawan is Associate Professor of Hindi Language and Literature at York University, Toronto, Canada. E-mail: shobna@yorku.ca)

Abstract

This article examines the Indian nationalist campaign against indentured labour emigration from British India in the early 20th century from a micro perspective, by exploring the interventions of the Prayag Mahila Samiti (Allahabad Women’s Association). The proceedings of a conference organised by the women’s organisation in 1917 reveal that its elite Indian women participants displayed sisterhood, patriotism and concern for emigrant male and female plantation workers in a manner that crossed the boundaries of gender, caste, class and the rural–urban divide. Their campaign operated within colonial civilising discourses while making use of middle-class nationalist idioms, claiming that the honour of Indians was threatened by the morally unrestrained and sexually exploited female labourers employed in plantation colonies. The campaign ultimately led to a petition to the Viceroy of India, Lord Chelmsford, marking it as the first instance of Indian women lobbying as political subjects.

Suggested Citation

  • Shobna Nijhawan, 2014. "Fallen Through the Nationalist and Feminist Grids of Analysis: Political Campaigning of Indian Women against Indentured Labour Emigration," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 111-133, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:21:y:2014:i:1:p:111-133
    DOI: 10.1177/0971521513511202
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