FEMALE EDUCATION IN BRITISH INDIA AND SENSITIVITY OF IMPERIAL RULE

Abstract

British administration in India had its own sensitivity about the prevalent conditions of women subjugation. They realized that plight of Indian women could be addressed by disseminating the ideas of western civilizations through the medium of education. Their approach in this regard was seemingly paradoxical. At one end of the spectrum of their thinking was to emancipate women from the patriarchal barriers and on the other end was to strengthen their rule by not undue interference in the social spheres of Indians life.  British authority used education as catalyst and variable of social change in relation to gender development. This article tried to grasp the thinking of British administration in relation to introduction of modernity in colonial India by peeping into the record of nineteenth and twentieth century and used formal education in altering the gender related social roles. This thematic impulse has provided an understanding of the motivations for educating women within the socio-cultural context of colonial India.