Social conditions of women were very depressing in India. Most of the women were bereft of
education and were married off at a very early age. Further, widowhood was considered
inauspicious and thereby Sati Pratha was prevalent in the Indian society due to which with the
death of her husband, his widow had to sacrifice her life too by burning herself on the husband's
funeral pyre and such woman who sacrificed her life in this manner was called 'sati' or virtuous
woman. Further, due to the patriarchal mentality being dominant in Indian society, the space of
women was very confined and also the birth of a female child was considered a bane while on
the other hand the birth of the male child was celebrated and considered a boon. Due to this toxic
perception of the society, the position of women in the society was miserable. Even women's
right to property were limited.
However, in the Colonial era with the advent of western education and modernity, the social
position of women was hugely impacted. In mid eighteenth and nineteenth century, the issue of
women's reform came in the forefront in Bengal and this period came to be known as renaissance
or the age of enlightenment. Notable reformers such as Rammohun Roy and Ishwarchand
Vidyasagar raised their voice against this injustice meted out towards women for centuries but
their reforms owed their existence to the conception of modernity, the British brought with them
from the west and probably this is why this period of social reform was known as 'Bengal
Renaissance' or 'Enlightenment' similar to the period of Renaissance that originated in the west in
Italy and was responsible for the spread of intellectualism and freedom of thought and action.
Transformation of the Gender Dynamics
Roy tirelessly criticized what he saw as the idolatry and superstition of traditional Hinduism. He
denounced the-caste-system and attacked the custom of-suttee-(ritual-burning of widows upon the
funeral pyres of their deceased husbands). His writings emboldened the British East India
Governing Council to act decisively on the matter, leading to the prohibition of sati practice in
1829. Further, reformers such as Ishwarchand Vidyasagar and Dayanand Saraswati opened up
schools for girls to spread education in other parts of the country such as Bombay and Punjab.
Even Child Marriage Restraint Act had come into place for the abolition of child marriage.
While these changes were responsible for the eradication of traditional unjust Hindu practices,
the role of women was also changing in the domestic sphere or Ghar where traditionally the role
of women was to do household chores and take care of their children and thereby maintain the
'inner spirituality' of indigenous social life and the role of men was to step outside or Bahir and
work in the materialistic realm in opposition to the spiritualistic realm of Ghar. But as the Indian
society or specifically, the Bengali society was undergoing a change, this equation seemed to
start transforming and Bengali women as suggested by the literature on women in the nineteenth
century, the Bengali women became westernized. This westernization was evident in their
clothing, travelling in open carriages and further, their reading of novel. Though, these features
don't essentially show how the domestic world was getting impacted but the women who
belonged to wealthier houses started relying on the maids for the household chores and instead
were indulged in either reading novels or playing cards and thereby the inner spirituality could
