Mystical internationalism in Margaret Cousins's feminist world

Abstract

Synopsis Another international feminist venue which this issue adds to our historical knowledge is the All Asian Women’s Congress, formed by Indian feminists in 1931. Catherine Candy takes us into the AAWC via the person of Margaret Cousins, the Irish militant suffragist who went on to become a leading Indian patriot. Candy’s portrayal of Cousins carries one of the major messages of this special issue: that an expanded account of international feminism is best understood, not via the simple opposition between imperial domination and colonial resistance, but through the rich subaltern transmutations of European feminist practices and principles and the tension and exchange between diverse and geo-politically unequal national feminisms. A major theme of Candy’s examination is the mystical, non-rational, spiritualized feminist vision on which Cousins relied and which, Candy argues, may have been one of the underlying themes, and secret strengths of non European feminists on an international stage. Cousin’s organizational convictions, and her ability to inspire challenges to European leadership, were motivated in part by a conviction that national female “essences” were at work, under the surface, on an international stage. Asia, she believed, and Asian women especially, could provide the world with an alternative basis of knowledge, empowerment and even “civilization” itself.