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  • Essay / Women's Education in India and Sir Syed Ahmad

    The India of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was not the India of today, it took a long time before feminist thought became fashionable in the upper echelons of intellectual discourse, it was a time when the struggle for survival against alien suppression had to be at the forefront of every action taken by a thinking Indian. It is in this context that if we analyze Sir Syed Ahmad's vision and efforts towards women's education, it becomes truly enriching. Sir Syed Ahmad's contribution to the advancement of higher education in India is not only monumental, but also truly ahead of its time. Analyzing the work and achievements of men so firmly rooted in history comes with a caveat: in scrutinizing their lives, we often make the crucial mistake of allowing ourselves to enter into a time warp, c That is to say, we forget that the actions of people who have disappeared for a long time need to be experienced. to be observed with reference to the various socio-economic and structural factors at play during his life or at the time when he made the decisions in question. Let us first try to put things in perspective by analyzing the context from four angles: firstly, the situation of women in India during the era of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, secondly, the educational framework of the country as a whole at that time, third, the positive aspects. the impact of the efforts of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan on the educational status of women in India and finally the organic growth of the ideas and ideals of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and its evolution up to the present times. Status of Women in IndiaIn the early 19th century, when Sir Syed Ahmad was born (1817 to be precise), the status of women in India was not something we could be proud of. Renowned historian Bipin Chandra has this to say about the precarious situation of women in India in the early 19th century: “Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe most distressing was the situation of women. The birth of a baby girl was unwelcome, her marriage was a burden, and her widowhood was inauspicious. Attempts to kill girls at birth were not unusual. Those who escaped this initial brutality were subjected to the violence of marriage from an early age. Often, this marriage was a way of escaping social ignominy and, therefore, married life did not turn out to be a pleasant experience. In Bengal, an eighty-year-old Brahmin had as many as two hundred wives, the youngest being only eight years old. Many women had little marital life worthy of the name, since their husbands participated in marriage ceremonies for money and rarely laid eyes on their wives afterwards. Yet when their husbands died, they had to commit Sati, which Rammohan Roy described as “murder” according to each shastra. If they managed to overcome this social coercion, they were condemned, as widows, to poverty, neglect and humiliation for the rest of their lives. “The situation of Muslim women in education was even worse, because a Muslim girl was doubly disadvantaged. The Muslim community in India, unlike its counterparts of other faiths, has failed to develop a bourgeois middle class due to lack of trust and suspicion towards Western standards and English education, as observed Sir Syed as the Bengalis adopted English education and were gradually placed. In relatively senior positions within.