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what was the attitude of people in india in the nineteenth century towards women reading?how did women respond to this? |
The lives of Indian women began to change significantly in the late nineteenth century when the colonial government, critical of the treatment of both Hindu and Muslim women, found allies among Indian reformers. Keen to reform their own society, these men agreed that women should be educated and play some role in public life.Women's employment and education was acknowledged in 1854 by the East India Company's Programme: Wood's Dispatch. Slowly, after that, there was progress in female education, but it initially tended to be focused on the primary school level and was related to the richer sections of society.The conservative and orthodox Indian society denied the right to education for centuries and it was the great efforts of the social reformers and English missionaries that the women education came to light. The women also fought so hard to obtain the right of education along with men. The reformers like Raja Rammohun Roy formed a coalition power with the British to abolish the social abuse, Sati. Again, Pundit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar consolidated the way for the remarriage of socially forsaken widows through the Widow Remarriage Act no XV of 1856. All these helped the women to get freed from the clutches of evils of society and have a self reliable and confident life. |