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www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 Biswajit decides to help out Paro in her aspiration. He reaches her home and bears hostility of Hariprasad and anyhow takes his permission to have a discussion. The heating debate is being heard outside the closed room. Paro wants to be a part of it when her mother asks her to be away from the door but Paro says, “Na, ma, my life depends on this.” 36 (pp. 68) Paro is called inside and everyone thinks about the end of Paro’s ambition. It is interesting to see the change in the Hariprasad conservative attitude to a progressive attitude with the words of Biswajit. He understands that there is no match in marrying a girl at such young age with an old man. It is his duty to educate her to make her stand in the society. He gets courage to go against the society and follows the dream of her dear daughter Paro. Hariprasad looks at society with the new light. Here the mission of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar transformed not only the life of Paro but also his father. Malavika Karlekar states in her book, “ it was a handful which was prepared to grant daughters the privilege of stepping out of the home into a new world of experience.” 37 (pp. 160) Paromota gains her gender identity with this push and pull of the events in her life. It is her determination that she challenges the society and makes them realize that women are not submissive or passive and they have their dreams and desires to be fulfilled and they have their identity which should not be concealed. Because of women’s assertion and decisiveness, their education started spreading its wings and the result was the advancement of the nineteenth century generation of the “new women”. The latter half of the 19h century was considered as the period of the rise of Indian womanhood to freedom and assertion. In this paper, we have looked into the history of women in colonial India in the radiance of new notions of gender which has made the study of gender assertion in colonial setting more attention-grabbing and demanding. Notes: 1. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), was an Indian Bengali polymath and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. He was asocial reformer, philosopher, academic, educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer, and philanthropist. His efforts to simplify and modernize Bangla prose were significant. He also rationalized and simplified the Bengali alphabet and type. Vidyasagar championed the uplift of the status of women in India, particularly in his native Bengal. 2. Raja Ram Mohan Roy (22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the father of modern India. He founded an influential Indian socio-religious reform movement during the Bengal Renaissance. His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration, and education, as well as religion. He is known for his efforts to abolish the practice of sati, the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow immolated herself on her husband's funeral pyre. 3. 3. Parda Pratha is the practice of requiring women to cover their bodies so as to cover their skin and conceal their form. In nineteenth century India, Pardha pratha coupled with early marriage became very popular in Hindu society, which led to the women to gloomy situation. 4. Satī was a religious funeral practice among some Indian communities in which a recently widowed woman either voluntarily or by use of force and coercion would have immolated Vol. II. Issue. III 230 September 2011
www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. From about 1812, the Bengali reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy started his own campaign against the practice. He was motivated by the experience of seeing his own sister-in-law being forced to commit sati. Among his actions, he visited Calcutta cremation grounds to persuade widows not to so die, formed watch groups to do the same, and wrote and disseminated articles to show that it was not required by scripture. On 4 December 1829, the practice was formally banned in the Bengal Presidency lands, by the then governor, Lord William Bentinck. 5. Sonapara (West Bengal) was one village of Bengal in India. 6. Gobindapur (West Bengal) was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in India. The other two villages were Kalikata and Sutanuti. Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company is traditionally credited with the honour of founding the city. 7. Baba is used to address father. 8. Old baur – old husband 9. Ma- Mother 10. Dada- Elder brother 11. Mastermoshai- Teacher 12. Zamindar- A landowner in a village who owns a big area of land and hires workers to work. Works Cited: 1. Sudhakar, Sumathi. Paromita. Rupa & Co. (2002), pp. xiii-xiv. 2. Ibid, pp. 1. 3. Ibid, pp. 4. 4. Raja Ram Mohan Roy put forth his views on women in five pamphlets, two petitions and a number of letters. Written originally in Bengali he translated these into English so as to make them available to a larger reading public. These quotations are from his second tract on sati entitled ‘A Second Conference between an Advocate and an Opponent of the Practice of Burning Widows Alive’ in Collet, Life and Letters, pp. 53. 5. Collet, Life and Letters, pp. 52-3. 6. Ibid, pp. 6. 7. Ibid, pp. 6. 8. Ibid, pp. 7. 9. Ibid, pp. 80. 10. Deb, Mahesh Chundra. ‘A Sketch of the Condition of the Hindoo Women’, PP. 98-9. Kul in this context means family status. 11. Ibid, pp. 11. 12. Ibid, pp. 13. 13. Ibid, pp. 12. 14. Ibid, pp. 13. 15. Sen, Alok. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and his elusive milestones, Calcutta: Ridhi-India, 1977; pp. 59-60. 16. Ibid, pp. 13. 17. Ibid, pp. 13-15. 18. Ibid, pp. 15. 19. Ibid, pp. 15. Vol. II. Issue. III 231 September 2011
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