"I’m just a poor woman without any real intelligence, who’s been kept locked up and confined…But every day now we have to look at some new and more horrible example of men who are really wicked, and their shameless lying tricks. And people go about pinning the blame on women all the time, as if everything bad was their fault. When I saw this, my whole mind began churning and shaking.. I lost all my fear, I just couldn’t stop myself writing about it in this very biting language’. This was how a young woman, Tarabai Shinde, introduced her booklet, A Comparison Between Women and Men, originally published in Marathi in 1882. This pioneering piece of feminist writing is translated into English by Rosalind O’Hanlon who also provides a substantial interpretative essay, explaining the historical context and social significance of this extraordinary work. For anyone interested in the history of the women’s movement in India, particularly during the colonial period, this is a rich, provocative and highly readable book.
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