Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1979

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Frazer, Heather

Abstract

This thesis examines the historical and ideological development of Hindu women's social reform associations from their inception in 1863 up to the women's enfranchisement movement in 1917. Women's associations, founded by male middle class social and religious reform organizations, sought to influence public opinion against child marriage, polygamy, illtreatment of widows, legal restrictions against women, and the denial of education to women. The first independent women's association, established in 1882, encouraged women's education and facilitated women's movement into public life. After 1900, women's associations were no longer exclusively middle class oriented, and goals were extended to include women's occupational training as woman's self-reliance grew in popularity. Hindu women's social reform associations utilized an extraordinary blend of tradition and western liberal humanitarianism which quelled women's fear of departure from normative social behavior as they created new roles for women in Hindu society.

Extent

141 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1979.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT13995

Format

pdf

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