Question

Provide evidence to support the claim that print culture had a significant impact on the social lives of women in India?

Answer 1

1. The rise of print culture in India during the 19^th century played a crucial role in awakening the social life of women. The printing press allowed women to access information, knowledge and ideas that were previously inaccessible to them. Women's magazines, newspapers and books provided a platform for women to express their views, ideas and opinions on various social issues such as education, gender equality, women's rights, and social reform.
2. Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home and sent them to schools.
3. In East Bengal, Rashsundari Debi, a young married girl in a very orthodox household, learnt to read in the secrecy of her kitchen and wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban (1876). It was the first full-length autobiography published in the Bengali language.
4. The Bengali women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experiences of women – about how women were imprisoned at home, kept in ignorance, forced to do hard domestic labor and treated unjustly by their families.
5. In Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde & and; Pandita Ramabai wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows.
6. A woman in a Tamil novel expressed what reading meant to women who were confined by social regulations:’ For various reasons, my world is small … More than half my life’s happiness has come from books …’
7. Therefore, print culture helped awaken social consciousness and contributed to the progress of women's rights and empowerment in India.