Feminist Historiography with special reference of Pandita Ramabai and Tarabai Shinde

In colonial Maharashtra women tried to converse with themselves and the society through biographies, autobiographies, articles in newspapers, journals and they even wrote books, trying to discuss women’s issues that arose from the patriarchal system of society at the time. They criticized social customs and blind faith in religion pertaining women, very intensely. Their writings were theoretical and visionary, and stood out creating a baseline for feminist historiography; here my efforts are to interpret their writings from that point of view. The first part of this paper discusses the efforts of feminist historiography as a whole and the second part is based on the book, ‘The High Caste Hindu Woman’ and ‘Stri-Purush Tulana’ by Pandita Ramabai and Tarabai Shinde respectively. Artículos atravesados por (o cuestionando) la idea del sujeto -y su génerocomo una construcción psicobiológica de la cultura. Articles driven by (or questioning) the idea of the subject -and their genderas a cultural psychobiological construction Vol. 5 (2020), enero-diciembre ISSN 2469-0783 https://datahub.io/dataset/2020-5-e117 Feminist Historiography with special reference of Pandita Ramabai and Tarabai Shinde Swati Rajan Revista Científica Arbitrada de la Fundación MenteClara Vol. 5 (2020), ISSN 2469-0783 2 Resumen En el Maharashtra colonial, las mujeres intentaron conversar con ellas mismas y con la sociedad a través de biografías, autobiografías, artículos en periódicos, revistas e incluso escribieron libros, tratando de discutir los problemas de las mujeres que surgieron del sistema patriarcal de la sociedad en ese momento. Criticaron muy intensamente las costumbres sociales y la fe ciega en la religión de las mujeres. Sus escritos fueron teóricos y visionarios, y se destacaron creando una línea de base para la historiografía feminista; Aquí mis esfuerzos son para interpretar sus escritos desde ese punto de vista. La primera parte de este documento discute los esfuerzos de la historiografía feminista en su conjunto y la segunda parte se basa en el libro "La mujer hindú de la casta alta" y "Stri-Purush Tulana" de Pandita Ramabai y Tarabai Shinde, respectivamente.


Hypothesis
In this paper I try to explore the writings of nineteenth century women and the possibility of linkages they may have with today's feminist movement as these writings show the beginnings of many of the values we see amalgamate with feminism today. The historiography we see today is built largely through a chauvinistic perspective and illustrates history through the mindset of a patriarchal system. This is an effort to understand women's contribution in the evolution of feminism even though this word didn't exist at the time. Women were cautious witnesses to their changing position in colonial Maharashtra and were also part of the efforts taken by the reformers to improve the condition of deprived and victimized women. Pandita Ramabai and Tarabai Shinde criticized the traditional value system which was imposed on women forcefully and both were initially attached with social organizations; Arya Mahila Samaj and Satyashodhak Mandal respectively.
The literary work put forward by these women was theoretical, visionary and way ahead of their time, my effort here is to interpret this through the point of view of feminist historiography. The first part of this research paper will be on an efforts of feminist historiography as a whole and second part is on these writer's book namely 'Stri-PurushTulana' and 'The High Caste Hindu Woman'.
Stri Purush Tulana (Shinde, 1882) is an essay of forty pages published in the form of a book in 1882. Initially written as a response to an article on the Vijayalaxmi case published in the Pune Vaibhav, a weekly newsletter which was known to be extremely orthodox (Tharu & Lalita, 1993). Stri-Purush Tulana thus put forth a mature feminist argument which broadened the scope in which the composition of patriarchal society was analyzed.
Feminist Historiography with special reference of Pandita Ramabai and Tarabai Shinde Swati Rajan

Revista Científica Arbitrada de la Fundación MenteClara
Vol. 5 (2020), ISSN 2469-0783 4 Pandita Ramabai's book 'The High Caste Hindu Woman' (Ramabai, 1887) was an empathetic narration of the suppressed and oppressed lives of upper caste Hindu women who came up with a proposal for their emancipation. Considered by Meera Kosambi as the 'an unofficial Indian Feminist Manifesto' (Kosambi, 2016) the book sold over 9,000 copies within year of being published in the United States in 1887.

Feminist Historiography
The term historiography derives two basic meanings, first, it refers to a spontaneous and self conscious approach of historical practice: 'a critical consciousness at work in the writing of history' (Chandler, 1998) In the second approach (instance), it refers to a theoretical or philosophical exercise that takes a step back from the writing of substantive history, in order to critically examine the deeper underlying conceptual models and imaginaries that inform the kind of histories, and the ways that we use and approach our histories. feminist historiography, intimately linked to rhetorical and ethico-political concerns and discourse' (Browne, 2013).
Feminism means challenging patriarchal influence and authority and androcentric 1 norms and comparison, the field of feminist history, necessarily overlaps with the field of 'women's history'.
The historical task of recovering female pasts and making women visible in history, thereby expelling or complicating androcentric or patriarchal perspectives, is indeed a crucial feminist practice (Lerner, 1979 (Millet, 1998). provide a unique record of the systems which shapes and contains the life stories of women" (Niranjana, 1989).

Indian Feminist Historiography
She identifies women's writing as a site of struggle which involves both dominant perceptions of social reality and the resistances to it (Niranjana, 1989). In this sense, women's writings become significant documents in the analysis of women's spaces, which demonstrate the making and remaking of these spaces while recording their resistances to the outside world. Feminist historiography, while deconstructing dominant ways of writing women's history, considers women's writing itself as history writing.

The Introduction: Authors and Books
The objective of the research paper is to demonstrate the evolution of woman space that materializes in the writings of Pandita Ramabai and writers from a sense of collective identity, it does not seem possible to speak of a movement" (Showalter, 1977).
Dominant versions of history either neglect the minimal presence of women, or mention some women who have never disturbed the frames of the assertive -dominant-social order. In nineteenth century Maharashtra, Pandita Ramabai and Tarabai Shinde tried to challenge prominently traditional frames of the privileged patriarchal social order.
One of the main agendas of feminist historiography is to counter these dominant versions of women's invisibility explained as women's incapacity to be in the family and the public sphere.  (Tharu & Lalita, 1993). Tarabai Shinde claimed that almost all men in colonial period reforms made by British accepted which was had deep concern and beneficial to men, on the contrary essential and required reforms which will help out women to come out through worst social condition and enhance the  (Tharu & Lalita, 1993). There are prejudices about women and they are treated like vultures, facts remain invisible. be educated and foster for and taught to be self reliant -this she points out in an earlier chapter is against Manu's laws, since women are never fit for independence (Ramabai, 1887 (Ramabai, 1887). Further she reasoned out, a problem  (Ramabai, 1887). Ramabai does not fire into any kind of rhetoric against society. Very convincingly and logically she points out that women by being unwilling to learn and giving in to slavery will in no way be capable of producing children who will do the nation proud.
The sons of such mothers will only learn fault-finding with neighbors, bitter feelings towards tyrant relatives expressed in words and actions, selfish interest in personal and family affairs since that is the only thing that high caste women confined to purdah are allowed to trifled in. 'named' most eloquently and systematically the problems of the 'oppressed Indian woman', so highly toped in the West...... This attempt to trace her entire register is a project of retrieval -of her significant texts, her multiple ideological evolutions and of the intricacies of her feminism within the intersecting and sometimes conflicting structures of patriarchy, religion, nationalism and internationalism (Kosambi, 2016).

Conclusion
In the first part of the research paper I have tried to clarify the concept of feminism and historiography. My response to this issue has been to handle an investigation into the concept of feminist historiography with help of writings of Pandita Ramabai and Tarabai Shinde. To ensure clarity as we seek to further investigate this is an important model of feminist historiography.
In its essence this effort is to develop an opportunity to create a space and alternative for re-examining the numerous writings by women in history from a different perspective. From a historiographical perspective, it is also essential to explore how feminist histories are being constructed