Which of the following characteristics are associated with the Women's Movement of post-1947?
(A) Involvement of women in nation building task
(B) Growth of autonomous women's movement
(C) All women suffer discrimination at uniform level
(D) Change in ideology and organizational strategy
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → (A), (B) and (D) only
(A) Involvement of women in nation building task Correct. After 1947 the active women’s movement of the freedom struggle went through a lull. One explanation is that many women activists who had been in the nationalist movement got involved in the nation building task; others point to the trauma of Partition.
(B) Growth of autonomous women’s movement Correct. When the movement revived in the mid-1970s, in what some call its second phase, there was the growth of autonomous women’s movements. ‘Autonomous’ meant independent from political parties, unlike the women’s organisations linked to parties, because parties were felt to push women’s issues aside.
(C) All women suffer discrimination at uniform level Incorrect. The movement came to recognise the opposite: while all women are in some way disadvantaged compared with men, all women do not suffer the same level or kind of discrimination. The concerns of an educated middle-class woman differ from those of a peasant woman, and a Dalit woman’s from an ‘upper caste’ woman’s.
(D) Change in ideology and organizational strategy Correct. In the second phase many concerns remained the same, but there were changes both in organisational strategy and in ideologies. New issues such as violence against women, dowry, land rights and sexual harassment were taken up.
Note: The lines on the growth of autonomous women’s movements (statement B), in the part ‘Post 1947’ of the chapter ‘Social Movements’, were there in the pre-rationalised NCERT. They were cut in the 2023-24 NCERT, which NTA followed in 2024, and are not in the NCERT book (2025-26); the rest of the section, and the chapter, is still there.
NCERT (2025-26): “Post 1947 … An issue that is often raised is that if there was an active women’s movement before 1947, what happened afterwards? One explanation has been that many of the women activists who were also involved in the nationalist movement got involved in the nation building task. Others cite the trauma of Partition responsible for the lull. In the mid–1970s, there was a renewal of the women’s movement in India. Some call it the second phase of the Indian women’s movement. While many of the concerns remained the same that there were changes both in terms of organisational strategy, as well as, ideologies.…” “There has been a recognition too that while all women are in some way disadvantaged vis-a-vis men, all women do not suffer the same level or kind of discrimination. The concerns of the educated middle class woman is different from the peasant woman, just as the concern of the Dalit woman is different from the ‘upper caste’ woman.…” NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “…There was the growth of what is termed as the autonomous women’s movements. The term ‘autonomy’ referred to the fact that they were ‘autonomous’ or independent from political parties as distinct from those women’s organisations that had links with political parties. It was felt that political parties tended to marginalise issues of women.…” |