Pandita Ramabai is not only acknowledged as an eminent social reformer and a

scholar but also perhaps as one of the first feminists in the modern Indian history
who struggled for the emancipation of Indian women. Her critique of patriarchy
and demand for civil rights and gender justice reflects her political thought.
Pandita Ramabai is undoubtedly one of the greatest feminist reformers in modern
Indian discourse. With her exceptionally learned background, she became a pillar
of women’s educational rights and social reform, not only in the Indian territory
but worldwide.

The traditional Hindu society in 18th-19th century India was a caste ridden and
male dominated society, where the status of women was generally inferior to that
of men and women had no independent status of their own. Her progressive
parents went against the prevailing social norms of restricting a girl child from
education and imparted within her vast knowledge of Sanskrit literature. Ramabai
was also well acquainted with other Indian languages such as Bengali, Marathi
and Kannada, which helped in her later years as a social reformer. The more she
read and reflected on her experiences, the more she was exposed to the subtle
patriarchal structure of society. It was during these young days that Ramabai’s
political thoughts started getting firmly grounded and expressed. She connected
the teachings of the ancient literature with the inferior status of women in
society. The caste system that was prevalent in the society during those times did
not have any impact on the progressive thinking of Ramabai. She firmly believed
that in ancient times people were assigned to the four castes according to their
work and merit and not on the basis of their birth. It was much later that caste
system became identified with birth and turned discriminatory. These caste-based
differences coupled with gender-based differences deeply affected the Indian
women. Ramabai understood that the patriarchal ideology of the society placed
women within the domestic sphere as a wife/mother and housewife according to
her sexual, reproductive and home making roles. In this caste- ridden, patriarchal
society, the highest status for a woman was that of a saubhagyavati and a mother
of sons. A woman only with daughters or one without children had a lower status
and lived under the fear of being deserted by her husband. A widow had the
lowest status, especially a child widow or one without children.

Ramabai’s study of Upanishads, Manusmriti and the Vedas made her realize how
the caste system, the Hindu shastras, society and social customs helped
patriarchy to not only thrive but to grow larger. She thought that the low account
of women’s nature and character depicted in Manusmriti was, to a larger extent,
responsible for their seclusion and suppression. Ramabai soon realized that all
sacred books in Sanskrit literature shared hateful sentiments about women. Child
marriage, polygamy and enforced widowhood thus turned out to be the great
social evils in India which were responsible for the pathetic condition of Indian
women and which needed to be changed.
Pandita’s most popular academic venture ‘The High Caste Hindu Women’
contained a critical account of miseries that were faced by girls and women in the
domain of a high- caste Hindu Joint family system. Through this book, Ramabai
tried to become the voice of these millions of women.
Her next academic venture ‘Cry of Indian Women’ more explicitly reflected her
feminist thinking and her desire to seek gender justice.
Imparting education to women was thought to be the best remedy of the
problems. Pandita’s hope was that women’s education would lead to the
rejection of Brahmanism and realize the deception of sacred literature.

In her revolutionary work titled, The High Caste Hindu Women, Ramabai focused
on the plight of Hindu widows and called widowhood – “the worst and most-
dreaded period of a high-caste woman’s life”.
In another of her revolutionary academic ventures, The Cry of Indian Women,
Ramabai brought out the details of Indian women’s oppression through early
marriage, marital harassment, desertion by the husband and widowhood.
In 1889, she established a widows’ home called Sharada Sadan which eventually
blossomed into what is known as the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission. Here, she
imparted emotional and physical support to marginalised women and also
provided vocational training to teach them self-reliance. The Mukti Mission
continues to date and is committed to providing housing, education, vocational
training, and medical services amongst other things for many needy groups
including widows, orphans, and the blind.

Ramabai was a staunch believer that imparting education to women was the best
remedy for dismantling the patriarchal structure. She hoped that women’s
education would lead to rejection of Brahminism and realisation of the fallacies
within sacred literature.
In 1919, the British government awarded to Pandita Ramabai, the Kaiser-i-Hind
medal for her distinguished service to the Indian education system. All the
writings of Ramabai reveal her liking for all non imperialistic western world in
general and for United States in particular. For her, America was a nation of
progress, equality, opportunity and of citizen’s rights- a liberal country that suited
to be followed by a colonial country like India as an example to gain political
freedom and social reform. In America, Ramabai was largely impressed by
women’s entry into the public sphere in the realm of all kinds of jobs and
organizations founded with the aim of social reform.

Conclusion:
The story of Pandita Ramabai is a source of inspiration to all feminists within India
and abroad. Her work in the field of empowering women has revolutionized
our understanding of feminist literature, emphasizing the assertion of women’s
equality, liberation and emancipation within the public and private spheres. Her
firm defiance of patriarchy through marriage, religious conversion, rebellious
academic literature and taking radical decisions are groundbreaking examples for
generations of feminist movements and scholars to date. She continues to preside
as one of the most prominent feminist social reformers in the Indian state.