ALTEKAR’S PARADIGM ON GENDER AND ITS CRITIQUE

Title of the Subject:

1.2 History

Submitted By:
Akhya Anand
(SF0119007)
1st year, 1st Semester

Faculty-in-Charge:
Ms. Upasana Devi

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, ASSAM

GUWAHATI

1ST November,2019
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 2

1.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 2

1.2 Literature Review ....................................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Scope and Objective .................................................................................................................... 4
1.3.1 To study the position of women in ancient India. .................................................................. 4
1.3.2 To study Altekar’s biases against women. ............................................................................. 4
1.4 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 4
1.4.1 How did the position of Indian women evolve? .................................................................... 4
1.4.2 What did Altekar study about the women in the Hindu Civilisation?.................................... 4
1.5 Research Methodology ............................................................................................................... 4

2.WOMEN IN PRE-COLONIAL INDIA ........................................................................................... 5

3. ALTEKAR’S STUDY OF POSITION OF WOMEN .................................................................... 8

4. EXPLAINING ALTEKAR’S BIASES AGAINST WOMEN ..................................................... 10

5.COLONIALISM AND INDIAN WOMEN .................................................................................... 12

6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 16

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................... 17

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

The status of women has a special place in early Indian history. All through these years, it has
been taken as an object of family prestige and honour. Conventionally, we have seen how
women were restricted to husband, households and family. In this paper, we shall see how the
position of women has evolved through the ancient to the modern India. Women were usually
seen as a homemaker, confined to their families and to raise children. Also, most of the texts
related to status of women were Brahmanical texts. This meant that the Brahmana ideology
prevailed and the social practice of the people somewhere remained hidden. The analysis of
the position of women in ancient India has also been coloured by the fact that almost all the
works have been written by scholars who would fall within the nationalist school of History.
However, the Hindu social institutions argued that this was a mere aberration and could be
eliminated easily. We have seen how the status of women was of high regard in the Vedic
period and with the invasion of Muslims, it started declining and women were reduced to
objects.
The paper talks in detail of the Altekar’s view on the position of women and how it is very
important to bring up their status in order to develop the future race of the country. Explaining
his biases against women, Altekar puts up a new picture of women.

1.2 Literature Review

Altekar, A. S. The Position Of Women In Hindu Civilisation. Motilal Banarsidass, 1956.
An attempt has been made in this book to describe the position of women in Hindu
civilisation from prehistoric times to the present day. It talks about the general
problems that confront Hindu women and should be tackled in order to get a fairly
satisfactory solution. The Position of Women in Hindu Civilization enables to
understand the subject in true perspective, as it is based upon a critical and impartial
survey of all the available data from the ancient times.

Roy, Kumkum. Women In Early Indian Societies. 1st ed., Manohar Publishers And
Distributors, 1999.

This book is a masterpiece on status of women in early civilizations and talks about
the issues and perspectives related to early age women, socio-sexual constructions of
womanhood and religious beliefs and practices. The researcher found women and
religion in ancient India relevant to the research project.

Chakravarti, Uma. "Beyond The Altekarian Paradigm: Towards A New Understanding

Of Gender Relations In Early Indian History"

Altekar appears to be making statements without marshalling adequate evidence; he

seems to be pining for the golden era of the past. For him the Vedic and Samhita era
(up to 500BC) was a relatively golden period for Indian women He compares the status

3
 of Indian women to the Greek situation and finds the Indian position better. The sati
movement, according to Altekar, gained strength only after 500BC (for reasons
unanalysed). Some of these challenges to his claims have been highlighted by the author
in this article.

1.3 Scope and Objective

1.3.1 To study the position of women in ancient India.

1.3.2 To study Altekar’s biases against women.

1.4 Research Questions

1.4.1 How did the position of Indian women evolve?

1.4.2 What did Altekar study about the women in the Hindu Civilisation?

1.5 Research Methodology

For this project the book help of various websites from the internet were taken. The internet
provided a lot of articles which played a vital role in making this project.

Approach of Research

In this project doctrinal research is used. Doctrinal Research is a research in which secondary
sources are used and materials are collected from libraries, archives, etc. Books, journals,
articles were used while making this project.

Type of Research

Explanatory type of research is used in this project, because the project topic was relatively
broad and also because various concepts were needed to be explained.

Sources of Data Collection

Secondary source of data collection was used which involves in collection of data from
books, articles, websites, etc. No surveys or case studies were conducted.

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 2.WOMEN IN PRE-COLONIAL INDIA

Research has proved significantly that in ancient, pre-Vedic India, women were certainly in a
better position than in Vedic times. The beginnings of women's studies in Indological literature
have been traced to people like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. These
studies led to a greater interest in the position of women in ancient India. B.S. Upadhyay's
Women in Rig Veda and A.S. Altekar's ‘The Position of Women in Hindu Civilization’ have
been seminal tracts in this regard. Vedic representations of the Indian woman have largely been

5
influenced by the Manu smriti. Manu saw four roles for a woman- as someone's daughter,
sister, wife or mother. Altekar's views however still continue to inspire studies on the position
of women in ancient India. Altekar's work is based on Brahmanical studies and outlines the
position of women from the earliest times till the mid 1950's. It covers within its ambit various
issues related to women such as education, marriage, divorce, position of the widow, property
rights and the general position of the woman in society, it is "steeped in the nationalist
understanding of the women's question."1 A criticism of Altekar's argument is that it
concentrates on the woman in the context of the family, and regards them as the "stock breeders
of a strong race" and sees them as incapable of competing equally with men or possessing the
authority and the ability to own property. And although his work shows some flashes of
foresight, it is by and large couched within the traditional and popularly held notions about the
status of women in Indian, and particularly Hindu society women certainly occupied an
important position in pre-Vedic ancient Indian society. In fact, it has even been suggested that
in many respects, her position was superior to men. The evidence from the ancient epics also
pays tribute to the power or "Shakti" of the Indian woman. For example, the swayamvara
ceremony gave the woman the right to choose her husband, although of course, her choice was
limited to those present in the gathering. Both The Ramayana and The Mahabharata depict
wars that were fought because a woman's dignity and pride were insulted. It is also perhaps not
a coincidence that the plethora of Goddesses that have existed in Indian society since time
immemorial have depicted the inherent power of the female. Whether it is the all-conquering
Durga, or the Vanquisher of evil, Kali, the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi or even the Goddess
of learning, Saraswati, women were seen as the epitome of power and luck in all sections of
society. It is therefore extremely ironic to note how over the ages, the position of women in
Indian society has degenerated to the extent that today, women continue to struggle for their
rightful position and due in society. Women in ancient societies could have more than one
husband and could remarry if widowed. Altekar believes that even primitive societies had some
degree of barbarism and there were few checks on the tyranny of men over women.
Anthropological studies too are divided on the issue. A traditional male bias among
anthropologists has depicted ancient society as egalitarian, whole some have stressed on the
traditional notions of male superiority. The truth perhaps lies somewhere in the middle. At the

1
Uma Chakraborty. 'Beyond the Altekarian Paradigm: Towards a New Understanding of gender relations in
early Indian history.' p. 77.

6
comparative level, women in pre-Vedic period were certainly in a better position vis-a-vis later
ages, but some kind of hegemony did exist.

It was in the Vedic period that the condition of women really started degenerating and
deteriorating. The creation of texts such as Manu smriti, the Rig Veda, Atharva Veda and others
proposed a codified structure of caste in which the life of women became almost non-existent
in terms of recognition and independence. The strict compliance of the codes laid down in these
documents. also made equality non-existent. However, in spite of all these records, the fact
remains that only 1% of the Rig Veda was actually written by women. There does exist
contradictory evidence within the Vedas, suggesting egalitarianism and degradation
simultaneously for women. The Rig Veda also states how in ancient times women would
participate in samhotra or communal sacrifice and Samana or community festival. Indrani is
believed to be the maker of 'law'2 while Sinivati has been described as vispatni, or protector
against vis or poison. Women who stayed on in their parents’ household were entitled to a
portion of the property. On the other hand, the same Veda, in other places presents a somewhat
negative view of women. A brother-less woman is portrayed as one who pursues men in search
of a husband. It was difficult for such a girl to find a husband as her son, when born, would be
claimed by her father's side of the family and the child would thereby be lost for the husband's
family. The institutionalisation of this custom is evident in later Vedic texts which speak of the
appointment of a brother-less daughter as putrika so that the son (putrikaputra) may inherit the
father's property, carry forward his lineage and perform ritual services for his maternal
grandfather. This aspect may have later grown into such a stage where there was an aversion
towards the girl-child, for whom, it was believed, the paramount duty of life was to reproduce
and carry on the lineage of her in-laws' or her parental family. Whatever the case, one thing
was clear - a woman's sexuality was under male, patriarchal control even at this point. Scholars
like S.V. Karandikar and G.S. Ghurye argue that exogamy was a concept borrowed from the
indigenous population by the Aryans when they came to India, while others such as Benvemiste
and John Brough maintain that gotra exogamy came to India through the Indo-European
Aryans. Exogamy further added to the subordination of women. As the girl had had to move
out of her parental home after marriage, her freedom and her independence were significantly
curtailed.

2
It has also been variously interpreted as 'tribal law'. 'truth' and sacrifice'.

7
The striking feature of the traditional writing on the position of women was that they were
based entirely on Brahmanical sources. Even if these sources are considered to be reasonably
authentic, they carry the problem of (a) an inherent bias of the brahmanas, (b) reflecting the
precepts of the brahmanas rather than the actual practice of the people, and (c) confining
themselves to the upper castes. At best the existing work can be termed as a partial view from
above. The analysis of the position of women in ancient India has also been coloured by the
fact that almost all the works have been written by scholars who would fall within the
nationalist school of history. Writing at a time when Hindu social institutions were being
subjected to fierce criticism by a generation that was imbibing western education and western
values, these scholars worked hard to show that the position of women had been high in the
ancient past. The contemporary evils reflecting the low position of women were responsible
for the Hindu sense of inferiority in relation to their ruling masters. As a reaction, Hindu
scholars argued that the evils were only a temporary aberration and could easily be eliminated.
The general thrust of the work has therefore been to demonstrate that the status of women was
very high in the Vedic period; according to this view there was a general decline afterwards,
reaching rock bottom with the coming of the invaders, especially the Muslims, who abducted
Hindu women and violated them, and these circumstances resulted in the development of such
evils as Purdah, Sati and female infanticide. This view has become widely prevalent since it
appears regularly in popular literature and vernacular journals but we must point out that it is
only an extension of traditional academic research.

3. ALTEKAR’S STUDY OF POSITION OF WOMEN

The best known and most internally coherent nationalist work on women is Altekar's study on
the position of women in Hindu civilization. His work is based primarily on Brahmanical
sources and outlines the position of women from earliest times right up to the mid- fifties of
this century when the Hindu Code Bill was under consideration. His work represents the best

8
that is available to us by way of women's studies in history but it also shows up very sharply
the limitations of the traditional approach. Although the work unravels in detail the entire body
of opinion of the law makers on such areas as the education of women, marriage and divorce,
the position of the widow, women in public life, proprietary rights of women, and the general
position of women in society, it is steeped in the nationalist understanding of the women's
question. Further his overwhelming concern is with women in the context of the family and
one almost gets the feeling that the status of women needs to be raised in order to ensure the
healthy development of the future race of India. In this he was reflecting the opinion of
nationalist writers from the second half of the nineteenth century who placed tremendous
importance on the physical regeneration of the Hindus. A survey of Altekar's work will indicate
the limitations inherent in his approach.

According to Altekar, one of the best ways to understand the spirit of a civilization and to
appreciate its excellence and realize its limitations is to study the history of the position and
status of women in it.The marriage laws and customs enable us to realize whether men regarded
women as market commodities or war prizes or whether they realized that the wife is after all
her husband's valued partner whose co-operation was indispensable for happiness and success
in family life.

Altekar's own genuine commitment to reforming women's status led him to sometimes making
quaint statements which he intended as positive and progressive. Thus, he suggests that
although Women have low fighting value they have potential military value. By giving birth to
sons they contribute indirectly to the fighting strength and efficiency of their community.
Further, his programme for women, despite his apparent liberality and sympathy for them, was
to view women primarily as stock-breeders of a strong race. This view is particularly noticeable
in his suggestions about women's education. In Altekar's programme of reform, women were
to be educated enough but in doing so one had to ensure that no undue strain was placed upon
them. Thus, he expressed his fears as:

Things stand today girls have to pass the same examinations as boys and to learn house-keeping
at home as well, all the while having less physical strength than their brothers. This certainly
puts too much strain upon them and is injurious to the future well- being of the race. 3

3
Chakravarti, Uma. "Beyond The Altekarian Paradigm: Towards A New Understanding Of Gender Relations In
Early Indian History". Social Scientist, vol 16, no. 8, 1988, p. 44.

9
 4. EXPLAINING ALTEKAR’S BIASES AGAINST WOMEN

Establishing the high status of women was the means by which 'Hindu' civilization could be
vindicated. This was the finished version of the nationalist answer to James Mill's denigration
of Hindu civilization published a century ago; the locus of the barbarity of Hindu civilization
in James Mill's work (A History of British India) had lain in the abject condition of Hindu

10
women. By reversing the picture, Altekar was attempting to lay Mill's ghost aside. But it was
easier to provide a general picture than to deal with a variety of customs oppressing women
that still obtained in the early twentieth century. Altekar was thus forced to provide
explanations for existing biases against women.

If a cruel fate inflicted widowhood upon the daughter, the calamity would break the parent's
heart. Remarriage being no longer possible parents had to see the heart-rending pain of seeing
their daughter wasting herself in interminable widowhood parents had often to pass through
the terrible ordeal of seeing their daughters burning themselves alive on the funeral pyre of
their husbands. To become a daughter's parent thus became a source of endless worry and
misery. As a natural consequence, passages about the undesirability of the birth of daughter
become more numerous.

Altekar is particularly weak in his attempts at relating the status of women at a given point of
time with social organization as a whole. Thus, early Vedic society which did not as yet have
noticeable concentration of power, or a well-developed institution of kingship, is the context
for Altekar's unnecessary explanation for the absence of queens. Since, Altekar is convinced
about the high status of women in the Vedic period he feels he has to account for why we do
not hear of women as queens. Thus, he is constrained to suggest that, Aryans were gradually
establishing their rule in a foreign country surrounded on all sides by an indigenous hostile
population that considerably outnumbered them. Under such circumstances queens ruling in
their own rights or as regents were naturally unknown.

Similarly, Altekar has a facile explanation for why women did not own property. According
to him, landed property could be owned only by one who had the power to defend it against
actual or potential rivals and enemies. Women were obviously unable to do this and so could
hold no property.l1 In his inability to see women within a specific social organization and
recognizing patriarchal subordination of women Altekar was not unique. Like others he was
reflecting a deeply internalized belief in biological determinism and therefore in the physical
inferiority of women. Very occasionally however Altekar shows flashes of insight into the
socio-economic context within which women's subordination was achieved. For example, in
his analysis of the causes for the 'fall' of the status of the Aryan women Altekar suggests a
connection with the subjugation of the Sudras as a whole. He argues that the Aryan conquest
of the indigenous population and its loose incorporation as members of a separate varna had
given rise to a huge population of semi-servile status. In such a situation, Aryan women ceased

11
to be producing members of society and thus lost the esteem of society. But even as he makes
this broadly contextual explanation Altekar is insensitive to the crucial distinction between the
participation of women as producers and participation in terms of controlling production.
Thereafter Altekar's semi-historical insight is unfortunately lost and popular prejudice takes
over. Like the ancient Brahmanical law givers, he appears to have a horror of Sudra women,
as in this passage: The introduction of the non-Aryan wife into the Aryan household is the key
to the gradual deterioration of the position of women. The non-Aryan wife with her ignorance
of Sanskrit language and Hindu religion could obviously not enjoy the same religious privileges
as the Aryan consort. Association with her must have tended to affect the purity of speech of
the Aryan co-wife as well. Very often the non-Aryan wife may have been the favourite one of
her husband, who may have often attempted to associate her with his religious sacrifices in
preference to her better educated but less loved Aryan co-wife. This must have naturally led to
grave mistakes and anomalies in the performance of the ritual which must have shocked the
orthodox priests. Eventually it was felt that the object could be gained by declaring the whole
class of women to be ineligible for Vedic studies and religious duties.12 This facile argument
was, in Altekar's view, the key factor in the decline of the status of women. Altekar is
completely obtuse to other historical explanations. The possibility that the Sudra woman,
whom he regards as a threat, could have contributed to a more dynamic and active kind of
womanhood for Hindu society would not even occur to Altekar because his focus is on Aryan
women (regarded then as the progenitors of the upper caste women of Hindu society) and in
his racist view Sudra women counted for nothing. The most important consequence of Altekar's
limited repertoire of biological and psychological explanations was that the logic of the
distorted social relations between men and women is completely obscured. The kind of
explanations offered by Altekar might appear to be astoundingly trivial to us today but it is
important to remember that, by and large, nationalist historians were content to restrict
historical explanations to cultural factors while writing about ancient India. This was in contrast
to their focus on economic and social factors while discussing British rule in India.

5.COLONIALISM AND INDIAN WOMEN

Colonialism brought with it a whole new gamut of problems for the Indian women. The years
in between had not alleviated her position to any extent, if anything, it had made it worse. The
Britishers brought with them the "white man's burden" - of "civilising'' the natives, "educating"

12
them and also converting them to Christianity. In doing so, they betrayed their total ignorance
of ancient Indian history. After all, the world's first university was started in Takshila, with
10,500 students back in 700 B.C. However, the first historical accounts of Indian women in
history date from the nineteenth century and are a product of the colonial experience. The
Colonisers sought to define the entire colonised nation space and its inhabitants, especially the
males, as effeminate, and secondly, attempted to rewrite the past in a manner that sought to
justify the colonial enterprise. The woman's question became a crucial part of the re-writing of
history, and as Indian educated men sought to reassert their own masculinity and past during
the colonial period, they, unintentionally and unknowingly perhaps contributed to a greater
understanding and delineation of the woman. Thus, one of the more positive consequences of
colonialism, however unwittingly, may be said to be an introduction and recognition of
women's roles, abilities and capabilities:

... this somewhat precarious focus on women's history had to do with the challenge posed to
indigenous male identities. One defensive strategy in the face of charges of effeminacy may
have been to focus on the separate histories of men and women.4

Until recent times, it is this history that has dominated thought and academics. It was the
establishment of the subaltern school in 1982, which gave a whole new dimension to the
woman's experience, culminating in Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak's pronouncement that the
subaltern female voice has continued to remain gagged and cannot speak. It is a fact that most
accounts of the women's position in colonial India are largely male, patriarchal accounts by
British scholars or the educated Indians of the nineteenth century. Women's voices of the period
were discovered much later- for instance, Rassundari Devi's Aamar Jibon (My Life) - the first
autobiography by a woman published in 1876 or the writings of Pandita Ramabai, Tarabhai
Shinde etc. The name of Raja Ram Mohan Roy is among the most prominent of all nineteenth
century reformers concerned with improving the women's situation in India. Ram Mohan Roy
stands out as the figure who took a firm stand against the practice of Sati. Sati was the custom
through which a woman was condemned and pressurised by society to sacrifice her life by
dying alongside her husband on his funeral pyre. The practice was officially abolished by the
British in 1829, an act through which they justified their colonial conquest of the Nation, but
as Lata Mani points out in her treatise, although this was a founding moment in the history of
women in modem India, it has its genesis in the colonial discourse of the period. Ultimately,

4
Kumkum Roy ed. Women in early Indian Societies. Introduction. p. 2.

13
sati was not about whether the Vedic scriptures prescribed such self-immolation, nor was it
about the individual women's wishes and desires. Rather, it was a part of the traditional
behaviour that Indian women had internalised within themselves. Many of them saw it as an
essential part of the '·'duty" expected from them as a good wife - to sacrifice her life in order
that her husband could gain ultimate salvation.5

Within the context of ''social reform" that became the buzzword in nineteenth century India,
"accounts of Indian women ... are often imbedded within discussions of sati, child marriage,
widowhood, polygyny and prohibitions on education, it has also been pointed out, quite rightly,
that the dominance of discussion on these issues has left the other part of a women's life totally
ignored; and this leads to her ignorance on issues such as "women's work and occupations,
values and emotional lives, and health and physical well-being".6 Women were thus either
heroes or villains in the narrative of the nation; their identities as complex personalities and
possible agents of change were totally denied.

It may be argued that women became the 'subject" of discussion by male reformers and
academicians, and in spite of the positive results, it does seem to further highlight the
subordination of women as the few women whose achievements were considered significant,
even by male standards, were seen as anomalies rather than the norm.

For Ram Mohan Roy, the fight against sati began with reason and rationalism, and gradually
shifted towards a view that showed a greater willingness to accommodate the possibility of
religious sanction in the discourse. Using the same religious scriptures that had been seen as
sanctifying sati, Roy countered the British attacks on Indian society, and examined the
necessity for the practice. He concluded that documents like the Manu smriti and people like
Yagnavalkya proved that a widow was enjoined to live with either of her families after her
husband's death. It is largely this view that has prevailed since then, although the life of the
Hindu widow in the nineteenth and early twentieth century was nothing short of tragic. Apart
from sati, the other areas of social reform in the colonial period were related to widow
remarriage and the education of women. As already discussed, the Manu smriti and other Vedic
texts justify a woman's inferior status in society on the basis of her inherent moral weakness.
She could only hope to improve her prospects in her next life by faithfully following the duties
prescribed in these texts. With the death of her husband however, a woman's "utility" 7 was

5
Lata Mani. 'Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India.' in Recasting Women. pp. 117-18.
6
Ibid.
7
Rajul Sojani. The Hindu Widow in Indian Civilization. p.6.

14
over, particularly if she had no children. For widows who did not commit sati, the options were
few. She was condemned to lead a life totally withdrawn from society with an imposition of
severe discipline that made her existence a virtual social death. Any breach in lifestyle was
supposed to endanger the life of her dead husband in his after-life. Their lives were totally
barren, and that they were totally marginalised from the mainstream society.

Just as Ram Mohan Roy spoke out in favour of the abolition of sati, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
waged a battle in favour of widow remarriage and the education of women. He published a
large number of articles and tracts articulating his views on the subject and substantiating his
position, like Roy. with scriptural citations and historical data. For instance, in his first tract on
widow remarriage, he pointed out that the "Kaliyug" or "Dark Age·· permitted such marriages.
This pronouncement met with encouragement as well as pronounced disapproval. However,
Vidyasagar remained undeterred, and his efforts culminated in the passage of a bill that
legalised Hindu widow remarriage, including those of brides who had never left their parental
homes or consummated their marriage. The law generated tremendous controversy, with huge
number of petitions filed against it. Underlying the reason for these petitions was the primary
fear about the sexuality and sexual promiscuity of women, deemed dangerous for society, and
the fear that widow remarriage would herald a return to the medieval period, whereby
"whosoever may wish will run away with any one's wife."8 The Hindu Widows Remarriage
Act XV 1856 did not yield sufficient returns. Vidyasagar himself paid for the cost of a number
of such widow remarriages.

From the latter years of the nineteenth century, the educated woman's voice began to be heard
publicly for the first time. These voices did echo the male discourse on womanhood but at the
same time, offered a critique of the system from within the system. For instance, in 1881, a
court in Surat, Gujarat tried a young Brahmin widow Vijayalakshmi, for killing her illegitimate
child. She was first sentenced to death, but later this was changed to 5 years imprisonment.

Tarabai Shinde (c. 1850-1910) was so angered by this fact that she wrote the tract Stri-purusha
tulana (A Comparison between men and women) in which she made it clear that this judgement
was simply a metaphor for the general mistreatment of women. Shinde wrote of the plight of

8
Law Commission. Eighty First Report. p.15. cited in Janki Nair. op cit. p.62.

15
widows: "Once a woman's husband has died, not even a dog would swallow what she's got to."
9

Although these attempts were limited, it did create some kind of foundation from which later
movements towards education of women and their empowerment could take place. The first
missionary schools were begun at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but the number of
educated women only grew substantially by the end of the nineteenth century, although this
was limited to the educated, elite classes. The Government too offered support towards this
movement. When one recalls the fact that in ancient India women were able to read the
scriptures, participate fully in community life and remarry if widowed, the situation of women
in India in the nineteenth century is a painful pointer towards the level to which their lives had
degenerated. The spread of women's education of course had its impact on other aspects of
society. Most particularly, the freedom movement saw large-scale, mass level participation of
women.

6. CONCLUSION
In summing up nationalist historiography on women in early India we might draw attention to
the fact that the Altekarian paradigm, though limiting and biased, continues to nevertheless
influence and even dominate historical writing. In essence what emerges from the mass of
detail he accumulated is the construction of a picture of the idyllic condition of women in the

9
Rosalind O'Hanlon. 'Issues of Widowhood: Gender and Renaissance in Colonial Western India'. cited in
Geraldine Forbes. op.cit. p.22.

16
Vedic age. It is a picture which now pervades the collective consciousness of the upper castes
in India and has virtually crippled the emergence of a more analytically rigorous study of
gender relations in ancient India. There is thus an urgent need to move forward and rewrite
history, a history that does justice to women by examining social processes, and the structures
they create, thus crucially shaping and conditioning the relations between men and women.
Just as Altekar displaced Mill in his work, it is time we realized that despite Altekar's
substantial contribution we must lay his ghost aside and begin afresh.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Altekar, A. S. The Position Of Women In Hindu Civilisation. Motilal Banarsidass, 1956.

Roy, Kumkum. Women In Early Indian Societies. 1st ed., Manohar Publishers And
Distributors, 1999.

17
Chakravarti, Uma. "Beyond The Altekarian Paradigm: Towards A New Understanding Of
Gender Relations In Early Indian History". Social Scientist, vol 16, no. 8, 1988, p. 44.

Mani, Lata. Contentious Traditions. Univ. Of California Press, 2007.

Sogani, Rajul. The Hindu Widow In Indian Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002.

18