These movements and the changes they brought about in India profoundly altered women’s standing in society. Therefore in order to evaluate the position of women in India today it is necessary to first look at some of the fundamental changes that occurred through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in particular the nationalist and independence movement. We will show how the movement varies according to geographical area, how individual organisations are run along differing ideological perspectives and how they are tackling the many problems that Indian women face. This history has a direct link to the women of today and in this essay we will show how the Indian women’s movement is a vibrant and complex movement that includes millions (Ray : 1999), yet is also a diverse and often of a contradictory nature (Desai : 1996).
However there is a ‘rich history linked to the social reform movements’ that were taking place in India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1999 : 3). Images of instances of ‘sati’ and stories of mass foeticide have helped form in the western mind the stereotypical ignorant and backward Indian women (Jeffrey & Basu : 1998).
Often we see the Indian woman cast as a victim of patriarchal and religious control (Chatterjee : 1989). Viewed through a western perspective it can often seem an impenetrable place. Said to be the largest liberal democracy in the world with a population of over 1 billion, India is not easy to assess. India is a vast and complex capitalist society.
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