Making “ideal” Indian women: Annie Besant’s engagement with the issue of female education in early twentieth-century India

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn 1893, Annie Besant touched the shores of India as a leader of the Theosophical Society. In India, Besant is widely known for her involvement in the Home Rule Movement and as president of the Indian National Congress, the chief political organisation in the Indian freedom struggle. Before entering into the political arena of the country, Besant was actively involved in the religious education of Hindu youths. After six years of establishing a college and a school for upper caste Hindu boys, she founded a school for upper caste Hindu girls in the city of Benares in the United Provinces of British India. The formal education of girls was in a nascent stage in the United Provinces compared to those in the presidencies of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. One of the reasons behind this lag, particularly in Benares, was the deep-rooted orthodoxy which was either opposed to the formal education of girls or enforced restrictions on it. The paper aims to throw light on Besant’s engagement with the question of female education not only in terms of physical access to school but also with regard to “what” the girls were being taught at the school. Did Besant strive for “true” education of upper caste Hindu girls enabling them to liberate themselves from the fetters of orthodoxy or did she perpetuate the orthodox ideals to make them “ideal” Indian women?