Daily Mains Question - GS 1 - 23rd August 2025
- TPP
- Aug 24
- 3 min read
Welcome to your Daily UPSC Mains Answer Writing Practice – GS Paper 1 (Modern Indian History, Society).
Today’s discussion focuses on the role of women revolutionaries in Bengal’s freedom struggle. Their stories reflect not only the courage to resist British colonial power but also the determination to challenge entrenched gender norms in Indian society. At a time when purdah, child marriage, and limited access to education confined women to the domestic sphere, many stepped forward to join militant groups, run underground networks, and promote education as resistance.
For UPSC aspirants, this topic is highly relevant under GS Paper 1 themes:
Modern Indian history: Contributions of women in the national movement.
Role of women and social change: Breaking patriarchal barriers during colonial rule.
Society and reform: Education, reformist writings, and grassroots mobilisation.
Interlinkages: Nationalism as both a political and social revolution.
Understanding this dual struggle helps aspirants see how India’s independence movement was inseparable from the movement for gender equality.
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QUESTION
How did women revolutionaries of Bengal challenge both colonial rule and gender norms during India’s freedom struggle?
Answer:
The national movement in India was not only an anti-colonial struggle but also a social transformation.
Bengal in the early 20th century became a crucible where women, despite societal restrictions such as purdah, child marriage, limited education, and restricted mobility, emerged as active participants in the revolutionary stream.
Their contributions highlight the dual struggle—against colonial domination and against patriarchal norms that denied them agency.
Colonial Bengal: Context of Gender and Society
Social constraints:
High prevalence of early marriage and widowhood.
Upper-caste women confined by purdah and domesticity.
Resistance to women’s higher education and public visibility.
Colonial policies:
British often projected themselves as “saviours of Indian women” while simultaneously excluding them from political rights.
This paradox created fertile ground for women to assert both nationalist identity and gender equality.
Women’s Revolutionary Participation – Beyond Symbolism
Women revolutionaries in Bengal were not merely symbolic participants; they were frontline actors in armed struggle, underground networks, and intellectual mobilisation.
1. Armed Resistance
Women broke gender stereotypes by joining direct militant actions.
Examples:
Attacks on colonial officials, smuggling of arms, harbouring revolutionaries.
Many faced imprisonment, exile, or martyrdom.
Significance: Their presence challenged the colonial and patriarchal view of women as passive or docile.
2. Intellectual and Cultural Resistance
Writings, underground literature, and educational initiatives fostered political consciousness among women.
The use of vernacular publications and secret study circles spread nationalist thought.
Significance: Literacy and education were turned into tools of empowerment and defiance.
3. Social Reform as Resistance
Founding of schools for girls, promotion of khadi, and rejection of social taboos became part of nationalist assertion.
Significance: Everyday defiance of patriarchal customs was linked to resisting colonial subjugation.
Illustrative Case Studies
Urban Bengal: Women in cities engaged in armed raids, assassinations, and propaganda work—challenging both British repression and gender segregation in public spaces.
Rural Bengal: Women organised reading groups, informal schools, and underground shelters, spreading nationalist consciousness at the community level.
Literary and Reformist Bengal: Visionary writings and establishment of institutions for female education created a blueprint of an alternative society free from colonialism and patriarchy.
The Broader Significance
Challenging Gender Norms: Women’s direct action redefined the “new woman” in nationalist discourse, shifting her role from domesticity to public activism.
Intersection of Nationalism and Feminism: Their struggle proved that freedom from colonialism could not be separated from freedom within society.
Legacy: Their participation influenced later women’s movements in independent India, particularly in education, suffrage, and social reform.
The women revolutionaries of Bengal demonstrate that the freedom struggle was not only political but also a social revolution that questioned entrenched patriarchy. Their actions reveal that independence was imagined not merely as transfer of power but as a transformation of society itself. They must be remembered as equal architects of freedom, not as footnotes in history.
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