Stri – Dharma: The Mouth Organ of Women Liberation Movement in Colonial Tamilnadu, 1916 – 1936

Abstract

Stri Dharma, a widely known paper was started in India in 1915 by British feminist, Margaret Cousins, an Irish suffragist. Cousins would be active in the Indian women's movement, and Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy, who would later go on to serve as the editor of the magazine and the first woman legislator in British India. In 1918, feminists living in Madras, India established Stri Dharma in connection with the WIA. This anti-colonial, pro-nationalist journal asked women to take up the cause of female reform and national freedom. Stri Dharma as a political advocacy publication that attempted to create and sustain a community of women activists, simultaneously involved in the international and indigenous feminist and Indian nationalist movements. As the quarterly journal of the WIA, it intended, according to the editor to act as the voice, the ear and the eye of their members. Editors made a special effort to reach Stri Dharma's indigenous language audience. During the 1930's Stri Dharma increasingly addressed nationalist themes. Feminist claims began to fuse with Gandhi's growing nationalist movement linking together freedom for women with the progress of the Indian Nation. In its editorial columns Stri Dharma focused on issues of women and supported women's welfare.