Two Distant Feminist Standpoints in Nineteenth-Century India: Case Studies of Savitribai Phule and Pandita Ramabai

Abstract

Modern feminist theory endeavours to explain gender inequality in terms of gender politics, power hierarchies and sexuality. In this endeavour, it has come to the crossroads with a variety of theoretical and philosophical domains. It dynamically deals with multiple domains such as sociology, history, anthropology, economics, philosophy, psychoanalysis and literary criticism. Standpoint epistemology has been applied by gender scholars to highlight the intersectional issues in feminist theory. In the present article, two different feminist standpoints in the nineteenth-century India have been discussed. Feminist ideologies of Savitribai Phule, a low-caste Hindu woman, and Pandita Ramabai, a high-caste Hindu widow, have been compared. Their thoughts and writings on diverse gender issues such as education, self-reliance, child marriage, widow remarriage and choice marriage have been examined. Since both the leaders are from different backgrounds at the individual, interactional and macro levels, efforts have been made to understand their standpoints. By tackling two different standpoints, it has been embarked upon to contribute to a critical gender scholarship leading to a better social understanding.