| Colonial Images Of Asian Women |
|
|
|
| Written by Sheeba Mir | |
| Thursday, 20 September 2001 | |
|
This article will present the argument that the fixed image of Indian women held by Europeans allowed a pretext for their colonial intervention. " the colonisers and the colonised used the image of Indian women and the notion of Indian tradition in relation to gender to contain political and cultural change in both Britain and India." Liddle & Rai, 'Feminism, Imperialism and Orientalism', 1981 This article will present the argument that the fixed image of Indian women held by Europeans allowed a pretext for their colonial intervention. Viewed from Great Britain, Indian women were often depicted as helpless victims of an 'unmanly' and 'effeminate' patriarchal system. European women and men used these conclusions as an entry into Imperial politics and as justification for the continued European rule over India. For clarification purposes my arguments will place emphasis on differences in classes, urban/rural and Hindu/Muslim Indians. Acts in colonial India as Suttee/Sati (widow burning) were seen as 'barbaric' in nature that they deserved European womens' attention. This so-called biological degeneration was attributed to: "...child marriages, premature consummation and pregnancy, destructive methods of midwifery, excessive child-bearing, purdah, [segregation amongst the sexes, veiling of the face] child widowhood, prostitution, sexual recklessness and venereal disease, lack of education especially for women and an irrational system of medicine."2 These social disorders have occurred in European culture as well as in Indian culture. Mary Daly in Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism disscuss witch burning, arguing that " witch-hunts were different from the atrocities in Asia and Africa because they were directed against women outside the control of the patriarchal family, rather than those who were assimilated into it."3, however this reasoning seems very convenient as it draws comparisons away between Asian and Western societies and so European ethnicity. No matter what the reasoning behind such an act they are still comparable atrocities. Thus, because of numerous welfare issues concerning Indian women I will focus on the more documented concerns such as suttee and child marriages. From what I have read it becomes clear that the Indian womans' welfare issues escalated into a way of voicing racial condemnation of Indian ethnicity instead of expressing disapproval of the Indian patriarchal system. One of the main concerns of Asian womens' welfare involves the act of Suttee/Sati. Hindu woman performed this at the funeral mound of their dead husbands. It was believed in Hindu customs' that women should burn to death on the funeral mound along with their husband, as they would be considered worthless in the community as a widow. Her place was to remain by her husband's side in life and death. Her husband's death was seen as punishment for past life sins she had committed. Another practice observed known as child marriages, was common in both British India and Britain. As mentioned by Lucy Carroll; young girls around the age of 10-12 were married to older males in India4. This practice was greeted by the same outrage in Britain as suttee received. Female missionaries, according to Claire Midgley, were encouraged to travel to India and instil Victorian Christian values on the inhabitants. Like suttee, petitions were sent to the British government to intervene, this resulted in the Age of Consent Act (1891)5. This act prohibited sexual intercourse with females under the age of 10, whether they were married or not. These practices, according to Mrinalini Sinha, resulted in reinforcing British justification for colonial rule in India6. As a result Indian males were seen as unmanly through the treatment of Indian women and as sexually un-controllable through examples as 'child marriages'. According to William Dairymple, author of 'The White Moguls', sexual relations between the Europeans' and Indians' were encouraged and promoted. However, British views changed and attention was focused on the 'defects' of the Indian society, and the condemnation of the Indian male being un-fit for self-determination was reinforced. Womens' subordination in Indian society was used to illustrate the political necessity of British rule due to inferiority of Indian masculinity. Dr. Ratnabali Chaterjee7, a scholar, continues by claiming that women in purdah were seen to be very restricted in European womans' point of view, however, when focusing on European nuns who also were restricted from the public environment, wore scarves and took a vow of celibacy. And as Europeans' saw these women visually and did not interact personally, so that they could not judge these so-called restrictions accurately for themselves. This form of hipocracy is commom of imperial expansion, theses forms of justification were crucial to the continuation of the Empire. European community interpreted Indian customs with negativity. As Sinha explains as proof that the Indians exhibited a lack of sexual self-control. Such customs were seen as signs that verified the Indian culture as being uncivilised. Repeatedly women were used to reflect the inadequacies of the Indian males' in comparison to the British. British men were seen as having a 'muscular Christianity' which rose in 19th Century England as coined by Sinha, depicted manliness as: "God made Man in His Image and not in an imaginary Virgin Mary's image"6 Thus, Christian men were physically on the same standing as God in contrast to the native Indian male. With hindsight, one can argue the British had no genuine concern for Indian women themselves, but were motivated by what the British could achieve economically and politically from India. To conclude, European rulers were generally ignorant towards Indian customs. The British readily accepted initial interpretation, more research would have revealed that customs such as suttee and infanticide were all condemned by appropriate religious authorites. Further investigation would have shown their respective religions arguably gave women greater freedom in society than white women possessed in the 19th century. For example Aisha Bewley8 claims that Islam revealed in the fourteenth century allowed Muslim women to earn, work independently from their husbands, and even gave them the right to vote. As mentioned above suttee was condemned by the Hindu religion, one can also refer to Pandita Ramabai an independent advocate for Hindu womens' rights. Thus, European concerns over female abuse in India were not as, Sinha comments, to emancipate the women but rather to strengthen the British argument for not giving political recognition to the Indian male. European women, under the same pretext, used these native women to prove their involvement in politics and the maintenance of their empire in India, as their male counterparts had done and thus advance their own emancipation. Bibliography for Colonial Images Of Asian Women 1 Liddle J. & Rai S., 'Feminism, Imperialism and Orientalism: The Challenge of the 'Indian Women'' in Women's History Review, Vol. 7, no. 4, 1998, demonstrated by Sangari & Vaid p.498 2 Liddle & Rai 'Feminism, Imperialism and Orientalism' p.503, taken from Mayo's Mother India, 1927 |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|