Role of Women in India

Role of Women in INDIA

God could not be everywhere, so he created Mother. Mother is one who is the best woman we had in our life. There is no animal who do not like mother, and the title we are discussing here also begins from mother who is first women we know better. In India since ancient time mother took very important role as we know the examples like Jijamata – mother of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Kaushalya – mother of Lord Rama, Yashodha – mother of Lord Krishna, Indira Gandhi – mother of Rajiv Gandhi, Mother Teresa and many more.

The role of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia (thousands of years). From a largely unknown status in ancient times through the low points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, the history of women in India has been eventful.

Scholars believe that in ancient India, the women enjoyed equal status with men in all fields of life. The Indian woman's position in the society further deteriorated during the medieval period when Sati, child marriages and a ban on widow remarriages became part of social life in India.

Despite of these conditions some women execeled in the fields of politics, literature, education and religion. Razia Sultana became the only woman monarch to have ever ruled Delhi. The Gond queen Durgavati ruled for fifteen years, before she lost her life in a battle with Mughal emperor Akbar's general Asaf Khan in 1564. Chand Bibi defended Ahmednagar against the mighty Mughal forces of Akbar in 1590s. Jehangir's wife Nur Jehan effectively wielded imperial power and was recognized as the real force behind the Mughal throne. And also influenced the ruling administration Shivaji's mother, Jijabai was deputed as queen regent, because of her ability as a warrior and an administrator.

The Bhakti movements tried to restore women's status and questioned some of the forms of oppression. Mirabai, a female saint-poet, was one of the most important Bhakti movement figures.

European scholars observed in the 19th century Hindu women are "naturally chaste" and "more virtuous" than other women. During the British Raj, many reformers such as Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Jyotirao Phule etc. fought for the upliftment of women. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's crusade for the improvement in condition of widows led to the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856. Many women reformers such as Pandita Ramabai also helped the cause of women upliftment. Chandramukhi Basu, Kadambini Ganguly and Anandi Gopal Joshi were few of the earliest Indian women to obtain educational degrees.

Women played an important role in India's independence struggle. Some of the famous freedom fighters include Bhikaji Cama, Dr. Annie Besant, Pritilata Waddedar, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Anjali Ammal, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kriplani and Kasturba Gandhi. Other notable names include Muthulakshmi Reddy, Durgabai Deshmukh etc. The Rani of Jhansi Regiment of Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army consisted entirely of women including Captain Lakshmi Sehgal. Sarojini Naidu, a poet and a freedom fighter, was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the governor of a state in India.

Women in India now participate in all activities such as education, politics, media, art and culture, service sectors, science and technology, etc. The Government of India declared 2001 as the Year of Women's Empowerment (Swashakti).

 Since ancient time we can see women are playing very important role in India as we saw many examples earlier there are few more like Indira Gandhi becomes the first woman Prime Minister of India, Kamaljit Sandhu becomes the first Indian woman to win a Gold in the Asian Games, Kiran Bedi becomes the first female recruit to join the Indian Police Service, Mother Teresa wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Indian female citizen to do so, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest, Justice M. Fathima Beevi becomes the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India, Kalpana Chawla becomes the first India-born woman to go into space, Priya Jhingan becomes the first lady cadet to join the Indian Army, Harita Kaur Deol becomes the first Indian woman pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF), Karnam Malleshwari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, Lakshmi Sehgal became the first Indian woman to run for the post of President of India, Punita Arora became the first woman in the Indian Army to don the highest rank of Lieutenant General, Pratibhatai Patil becomes the first woman President of India, and most recent Meera Kumar became the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha, the lower house in Indian Parliament. Also there are many more actresses, singers and vocalists such as M.S. Subbalakshmi, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, Aishwarya Rai are widely revered in India.

As we discussed above women has very important place in India and all of we can observe it easily with our mother who has played very important role in development of us which helped us to become a good human being.