8th March: International Women’s Day

BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY

CONVOCATION WEEK 1949

Lecture on

THE ROLE OF WOMAN IN NEW INDIA

by

Mrs. Hansa Ben Mehta,

Vice-Chancellor,

Baroda University

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       21^st November 1949                                                                                                                                                       

(Extract)

           

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, Ladies and Gentlemen,

                  I am not much of a speaker and I would have been very happy to have avoided lecturing to you today. But your Vice-Chancellor was very persistent and therefore I have agreed to say a few words to you about the role of woman in New India. When we talk about new India, what exactly do we mean by new India? By new India we mean India that is going to be soon declared a Republic, a Democratic Republic. Now, what does democracy mean or democratic republic mean? Democracy means equality of status, equality of opportunity, freedom in all its aspects, social justice and economic justice and all these irrespective of caste, creed or sex. This means that in future India, there is going to be no distinction, there is to be no discrimination against any individual, on grounds of sex or caste or creed. That being so, if woman is going to have the same position, the same status as man, if woman is going to have the same rights as man, then the part, the role she will have to play will not be very different from that which man will have to play in the New India, which is to build up a country where real democracy will exist. To-day there is no democracy in the real sense of the term. We are divided into several castes and creeds. And every one thinks that his caste is superior to the caste of another man; and every one thinks that his religion is better than, or superior to, the religion of another man. Also man thinks that woman’s position is in the home. She is to be confined within the four walls of the maintenance – that is all. She cannot have a share in the father’s property. In the husband’s home, also she is a dependent. In 1947 Dr. Deshmukh brought a Bill which gives her some share in the husband’s property. But till now she was only a dependent. She had no right even in the husband’s property. It is the man who today is all in all in the home and it is also the man who is responsible for breaking the home. It is not woman who is going to break the home, on the contrary she will want to make it really good, so as to bring up good healthy children, who will be real hopes of new India....

            In this country we never talk about wife, but always of mother, and very rightly for the most important part that woman has to play is that of a mother. We say – Matru devo bhava. In the Scriptures we always talk of mother. Woman as mother has to create new human beings who will be responsible citizens of the new country. I, therefore, appeal to women, those who have come out, who are emancipated, to see that they bring their other sisters out; that they are properly educated. I know it is an uphill task, especially in this province or a province like Bihar where old ideas still prevail. We will have to fight these old ideas. If we fought for our political freedom side by side with men, we can also fight for our social freedom. If woman does not understand the new country that is going to be, she will soon find herself in a sorry state. If man thinks that he is going to be a superior person in the home and outside, then he will be sadly mistaken. Woman will have to fight such notion and will have to see that women do not remain long behind the purdah. It was very unfortunate that we could not put it in the Constitution about purdah being considered an offence as untouchability is considered to be, but we will see that purdah is broken and that the woman comes out of the four walls of the home, and that she comes out, not to break homes but to create better and happier homes.

Source:  Harsha Mehta Papers, MSS, NMML