In this study the history of social reforms and women education among Patidars of former Baroda State has been discussed in the context of social reforms and women education in India in general and Gujarat and Baroda State in particular. This book provides useful information about the position of women in gender biased Indian society in the past. This study gives a detail account of the efforts of the Social Reformers to improve the status of Indian women through educational developments and also by prompting the colonial Government to pass suitable legislation to protect the welfare of girl children and women.This study scrutinizes the patriarchal social structure of the Lewas and Kadwas—the two major groups in Patidar community. The sanskritization process (which popularized the concept of higher the caste, the stricter the rituals and social taboos) that had begun among the Patidars somewhere in the eighteenth century assumed a definite shape in the nineteenth century entailing a lower position of women. In order to elevate their social status among the Hindu elite, Patidars started marrying daughters as children and indulging in female infanticide. Lewa Kanbis and Kadwas who had earlier practiced widow remarriage stopped this practice as well coming under the sanskritization process.
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