Indian Christian women and indigenous feminism, c.1850–c.1920

This chapter focuses on the twin issues of consciousness and assertion among Indian women in the colonial era. It attempts to trace the character of the indigenous feminism and determines whether the consciousness went beyond the question of individual empowerment to encompass a wider conception of women as a group which could be used as the basis for collective action. For high-caste educated women like Pandita Ramabai, Krupabai Satthianadhan and Soonderbai Powar, it was the treatment of women in each religion which emerges as the main issue in their process of conversion and their adherence to Christianity. Among Indian Christian women's writings, Krupabai's analysis offers the most intricate link between religion and a woman's identity and role. A large number of semi-literate women converted to Christianity towards the end of the nineteenth century, many at Ramabai's Sharada Sadan, the largest school for Brahmin widows in India.

Aesthetics · Assertion · Caste · Christianity · Colonialism · Consciousness · Empowerment · Feminism · Identity (music) · Indigenous · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment · Religious studies

• Islamization, Gentrification and Domestication

  Open Access•Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery et al.•Modern Asian Studies•2004

  Add to list

• Theological and religious exploration of an Indian indentured descendant—Dr Betty Govinden

  Open Access•Kogielam K Archary•Verbum et Ecclesia•2025

  Add to list