Women in Gandhi’s Mass Movements

Women, who constitute nearly half of the population of Indian society, were suffering from various oppressive, dehumanizing and exploitative social practices. Gandhiji profoundly distressed by their degenerated condition made relentless efforts for ameliorating their position in private as well as in public life as he believed that the real swaraj could not be attained without the upliftment and consequent awakening of the vast mass of women. Gandhi’s painstaking and imaginative steps, consequently, laid foundations of a new tradition, which enabled the Indian women to come out in thousands from their secluded shells to contribute in the nationalist movement. Their participation on the equal terms with men in the country’s freedom struggle not only projected a new and revolutionary image of women but also paved the way for their emancipation as well as empowerment.