'Punjabi Woman: a Momentum Journey from Dark to Dawn Essay\r'

'Punjab is the ingleside of Mata Kaushalia and Mata Sita, the self effacing wives and m other(a)s who would non thwart a committal stir by their married mans to a rival, even when that would restrain their own sprightliness an unmitigated agony. The mapping of Punjabi wo hands as commandos in the battle- topics is no less glorious. Sada Kaur and ranee Sahib Kaur is remembered as atomic number 53 of the largeest generals of her time even in the afghan records those have successfully defended their kingdom against the attacks of the Marathas, Afghans and European adventurers and chased them a behavior from the battlefield. This visualizes the women of Punjab had an equate sh atomic number 18 in the re-building of India. Through Kuka, Nirankari, Arya Samaj, Dev Samaj, sexual congress and Akali effects, the women of Punjab has played an equ all in ally admirably role in the separateddom oppose against the Britishers.\r\nThis member is an effort to put a light on the g ruelingships of the Punjabi women that how they have stood shoulder to shoulder with their men in war and in peace and how they have cover their journey from dark to dawn. They gave up the pleasures of a wonderful home to fight for the liberty of India., acquired the prominent places in the Indian administration, some became the low Health minister of godliness of India and some of them became commanders of the rani Jhansi Regiment of the Indian national Army, and gave her life while fighting for India’s license in Assam. Now they have grown from their hard times and today the enlighten women paved the way for them to adopt new professions specially in the field of law, medicine and teaching and existed as a in the buff Woman with New Spirit\r\n__________\r\nâ€Å"Punjabi Woman: A Momentum Journey from Dark to Dawn”\r\nMiss. Ritu\r\n supporter professor in Laws ,\r\nKCL Institutes of Laws, Jalandhar.\r\nâ€Å"Women have great talent, notwithstanding no geni us for they always remain subjective,” say Schopenhauer in â€Å"World as Will and conception”. Greek philosophers thought a â€Å" char is an bleak man left standing at a lower step in the scale of development. The potent is by nature superior and female person inferior. The unrivalled is the ruler and the other ruled. Woman is weak of leave behind and, therefore incapable of independence of character and position.” such prejudices prevail even today. On the threshold of a new millennium the billet of char muliebrity is pipe down to be elevated to that of man. The position and status of women wide-ranging from time to time in the different societies. The primeval on Vedic times of the ancient period were free from many of the cordial evils that harmed the Indian exalted hostelry in the later eras. At that time women were assigned high status in the society.\r\nBut during the post-vedic period, women lost that status which she once enjoyed in soc iety. She became a subject of tribute and treated as a second tier citizen. In the great Indian mythology of Mahabharat the heroes of the legend, the Pandavas, lost their married charr Draupadi in a card game! She was offered by and by their other valuables, deal gold and land, had been lost in the gambling game. Against this backdrop it is probative that Sikhism, one of the origination’s youngest religions, accorded women complete equality with men in all spheres of life.\r\nGuru Nanak Dev Ji (1469-1539), founder of the Sikh religion do Sikhism conform to enlightened, simple, practical, progressive and humane ideals just from its inception. Guru Nanak Dev Ji understood and appreciated the unifying role of women in society and worked for their emancipation. Sikh scriptures categorically render that man and woman together make society a composite and well balanced alone and should not be viewed as a curse to one another. Women as multifaceted personalities had a si gnificant role to play in society.\r\nâ€Å"Then wherefore call her evil from whom are great men born,\r\nAnd without woman none could exist\r\nThe eternal gentle is the only one, O Nanak\r\nWho depends not on woman?” (Guru Granth Sahib, P. 473)\r\nSuch thinking was revolutionary and far onward of the times. Bibi Nanaki, the elder sister of Guru Nanak, was a perfect example. The Guru was especially close to her and regarded her as his inspiration and mentor. Nanaki had implicit faith in her brother’s ideology and back up him in his life’s mission and became the branch person to be initiated into Sikhism by Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak’s ideals were tending(p) a practical shape and consolidated by Guru Amar Das (1479 †1574), the third Sikh Guru. He was a great champion of women’s rights who based his concepts on complete gender equality and specified norms for ameliorate the status of women in medieval India. Guru Amar Das halt contemptuous references to women as mere child-bearing machines.\r\nâ€Å"Blessed is the woman who creates life”, he wrote in the Granth Sahib. During his pontifications, he do sure women were provided opportunities to lead more meaningful lives which enabled them to actively break downicipate in social and religious affairs. For the lengthiness of the faith’s ideology, he created twenty ii administrative units called manjis or parishes. Of these four were headed by women †which were unhearable of in those times. In status these four women were equal to modern Bishops because each enjoyed full economic and decision-making powers inwardly her parish or manji. During the medieval age, characterise of women was again degrading. Muslim attacks made batch to protect their ladies and compelled them to shut the weaker put forward behind the four walls of the houses.\r\n purdah system, polygamy, child trade union and other evils started creeping into the society which affect ed the condition of women. But still during that time many socio-religious movements like Sufism and Bhakti movement tried to emancipate women. The Sikh Gurus and their great ladies became social reformers, acknowledged the importance of woman and lenient their opinion against the prejudices of society like child marriage, sati system, purdah, oblige leave behindhood and others. With the creation of Khalsa on the Baisakhi day of 1699 by Guru Gobind Singh ji, Sikhism underwent a major transformation. The Khalsa was created to instill a fresh opinion of courage and confidence among the Guru’s followers. Here again women were an integral part of the celebrations. At the time of taking Amrit a man was given the name â€Å"Singh” (lion) and women added â€Å"Kaur” (princess) to their names. The postfix â€Å"Kaur” is of immense significance as a woman was recognised as an individual who need not take her husband’s name after marriage. She could use the word â€Å"Kaur” after her name from race to death.\r\nThe word ‘Kaur” is derived from the word â€Å"kanwar” †the son of a king. This empowers Sikh women, Apart from equality in socio-religious affairs, could participate in political matters as well, including leading an army into battle. This gave women in Sikhism a sense of enormous self-confidence. Guru Gobind Singh’s widow Mata Sundari played a key role in Sikh history for forty momentous years. She issued Hukamnamas (decrees) to the Khalsa grown directions at a critical juncture and successfully guided the destiny of the Sikh against both the Afghan invaders and miscellaneous claimants to the â€Å"Guruship”. Rani Sada Kaur, the brave mother-in-law of Maharaja Ranjit Singh is competently described as a first woman commander-in-chief. She became a young widow when her husband was killed in battle. She used this crisis to transform herself into a woman-warrior, donning a high turban and battlefield garb with full weaponry.\r\nShe commanded many battles and eventually lay the foundation for the Sikh empire. Rani Jinda, married to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the mother of Dalip Singh, the ruler of Lahore kingdom, was the point behind the rising of 1848-49 against the British authorities. She was known for her intelligence information and intrepid spirit, Jindan was one of the hardly a(prenominal) persons who was intensely dislike and in like manner feared by the British. She was the first female exemption fighter in the struggle to oust the British from India. After the annexation of Punjab by the Britishers in 1849, miscellaneous changes occurred in the modern era of the Punjab. It was the period where on the one hand a tuff struggle for freedom was on the peak and on the other a concerted effort was to a fault made to form a new woman. The Board of face was formed by the Britishers and they started working for their vested interests which in turn ov er had some plus impact on the society of Punjab.\r\nSome socio-religious reform movements like Singh Sabha, Namdhari, Arya Samaj, Kukas and others began to develop in Punjab during the late nineteenth and early twentieth speed of light and played a significant role in the history of Punjab. They raised voice for women emancipation. They all fought against social evils like sati system, female infanticide, child marriage, purdah system, widowhood, polygamy, prejudices against female education and many more. These social reformers opened mixed schools, colleges, gurukuls for girls in the different parts of Punjab. Most of the literary works of the missionaries, colonial administrators or social reformers were the narrative of women’s slow but progressive march towards modernity following a period of stagnation. These accounts gave importance to women’s biological differences; specification of their nature, the role played by them and categorized them into single str ata irrespective of their class, caste and hierarchies of their age.\r\nA concerted effort was made by the informal press especially magazines, journals and newspapers through their editorials, articles, essays and others to motivate and assist women who were having a segregated existence in the society. effeminate education was given importance and stress was laid on the domestic household work for girls in the early decades of 1900s. A new woman-educated, free from the tie of purdah, accomplished in domestic skills, devoted to the husband and family, an intelligent companion, an ideal mother, producer and nurturer of a inviolate masculine race and custodian of tradition, was portrayed. Rich and higher(prenominal) classes wanted to educate their girls as the education became eligibility for their marriages, on the other hand, the poor and middledle class spate needed bread winners for their family.\r\nThe journey from education to commerce by the girls in Punjab was crossed . The educational experiments of the government and reformers produced a â€Å"new woman” with interests that were beyond the household. The main objectives of their associations was to make society evil free and gave special help to the female upliftment. The Chief Khalsa Diwan of Amritsar was established in 1902 to promote the spiritual, intellectual, moral, social, educational and economic welfare of the people and the girls of orphanage were sent to different schools in Punjab for getting education. The Central Vidwa Ashram for the welfare of widows was as well as established where they were imparted proficient and vocational education. The Sikh Educational Conferences were also conducted every year by the Diwan from 1908. From 1908 to 1947, thirty three sessions of the crowd were held and all the issues dealing with female education were regularly discussed.\r\nThe royal women of the different princely states like Nabha, Patiala, Jind and others were the patrons o f the multitude. These congregations made women of Punjab to come forward and they began to communicate with their counterparts outside their families and topical anaesthetic communities. These later became a platform for the women to participate in public life and the freedom struggle for India. The intro of Mahatma Gandhi and the Jallianawala Bagh tragedy of 1919 made women of Punjab to directly participate in the non-cooperation case of 1920-22. They held the meetings, led the processions, boycotted foreign goods, adopted the catchword of swadeshi and indulged in the picketing of foreign cloth shops and liquor shops. Sarla Devi Chaudhrani, Parvati Devi of Kamalia, Puran Devi, Gauran Devi, Mrs. Duni Chand, Kumari Lajjavati, Lado RaniZutzhi were the few names who participated in the movement of 1920-22.\r\nThe participation of 1920-22 was a sort of training programme for the future Satyagraha programmes of 1930-34 and 1940-42.Women’s participation in Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930-32 differed quantitatively and qualitatively from their involvement in the early 1920s and won them a place in history. As the Dandi March was initiated by Gandhi in 1930, women of Punjab inaugurated the movement by taking out processions, prabhat pheris and holding meetings. firm processions were led by women like in Lahore the life and soul of the movement was Lado Rani Zutshi, Parvati Devi,Kartar Kaur, Atma Devi and many others. As the women were participating in all these activities of the campaign, the government also started arresting these women participants. In the year 1932,that is, in the mid of the movement, the number of women convictions in Punjab was gradually increasing and on average ten women were convicted every month. Thus, it was the women’s organizations and networks, demonstrable between 1925 and 1930, that laid the ground work for their positive reaction to Gandhi’s call.\r\nThe public participation of the women gained momentum . The every India Women’s Conference which was first organized in 1927 at Poona. The women of Punjab also participated in the twenty sessions of the conference from 1927-47. The participation was so important that one of the sessions of the conference was held at Lahore in 1931and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur belonging to the royal family of Kapurthala was a very active participant from Punjab in the conference. She was one of Gandhi’s closest lieutenants and took a leading part in protest marches which were subjected to ruthless lathee charges in Quit India Movement of 1942. The conference was also presided once by a Muslim wench of Punjab †Lady Abdul Qadir of Lahore in 1933. Sarla Devi Chaudharani also represented Punjab and initiated various resolutions during the period of freedom movement in India. The women from Punjab also participated in some of the sessions of Indian National Congress and went to the different venues of the sessions.\r\nWomen of other provinces also came to Punjab to enlighten their associate degree sisters like Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, Muthu lakshmi Reddi and others. The active women were even appointed as parliamentary secretaries and were elected to the Punjab Legislative Council. Shrimati Lekhawati Jain (the first elected lady member of the Punjab Legislative Council), Mrs. Jahahara Shah Nawaz, Mrs. Duni Chand,Shrimati Raghbir Kaur were the few other elected members. The most important issue of this public participation was that it cleared the way for the women of Punjab to show presence in the nationalist movement of India. sooner the last phase of the struggle 1940-47, many of the women in Punjab were members and some were even leaders of the student associations (Lado Rani Zutshi in Lahore), and other political movements.\r\nToday, the 21st one C continued to witness Punjabi women in the forefront in different spheres, especially in India’s independence movement. Some other outstanding women free dom fighters of Punjab were Gulab Kaur, Kishan Kaur, Amar Kaur, Harnam Kaur, Dilip Kaur and Kartar Kaur. coeval Punjabi women are making a mark all over the world as academicians, administrators, entrepreneurs, politicians, doctors, poets and painters.\r\nAn important face of the rights conferred on women in the Sikh faith was that they did not have to fight for their rightful place in Sikh society: they were given their due voluntarily because of the enlightened ideals of the Gurus. In this way, the Punjabi women have proved that they are made of sterner stuff. They toiled, they fought, and they sacrificed. They believed in what they did. Indian history has save the astonishing vitality and matchless deeds of the courageous daughters of India especially the Punjab, who continue to serve the country in fields almost unknown in the past.\r\nREFERENCES:\r\n* Geraldine Forbes, Women in Colonial India: Essays on Politics, Medicine and Historiography, New Delhi, register Books, 2005 , * Aparna Basu, â€Å"The position of Women in the Indian Struggle for freedom in B.R. Nanda (ed), Indian Women : From Purdah to Modernity * Manju Verma, The Role of Women in the Freedom Movement in Punjab. * The working Women and Popular Movements in Bengal, Calcutta, K.P. Bagehi and Co.: P.Custers, 1987. * â€Å"Traditional Symbols and New Roles, The Women’s Movement in India”, in M.S.A. Rao (ed.), SocialMovements in India, Vol.II, Delhi, Manohar, and 1982, â€Å"From Purdah to Politics; the Social Feminism of the All India Women’s Organizations”, in Hanna Papanek and Gail Minault, 1982, Separate Worlds, Delhi, Chanakya Publications. * Chanana, K., â€Å"Social Change or Social Reform: The Education of Women in Pre-Independence India”, in Chanana (ed.). * Jaspreet Singh, â€Å"Style of the Lion: The Sikhs” and â€Å"A Glimpse of the\r\nSikh”.\r\n'