(This article is the third in a series by Milind Oak exploring the intellectual and literary contributions of women in India from 1 CE to 1857. The series will cover the status of women’s education across different periods, notable women intellectuals and authors, and their literary achievements in various fields, including poetry, philosophy, and religious discourse. It aims to bring forth the often-overlooked contributions of women to India's intellectual and cultural heritage.)


In the first few decades of the 19th Century, women's education became a subject of heated debate in the society. There were people opposed to it, is a fact, but it has been repeated ad nauseam. There were people staunchly supporting it, which is a fact often ignored. Even more ignored is the argument that they put up in support of women's education.

The supporters of women's education were saying that there was already a tradition, admittedly on a small scale, to educate women, which was exemplary to justify the further spread of education among them. As the writer of the (somewhat later) article on ' Native Female Education' in the Calcutta review of 1855 aptly mentioned, 'the practices of close seclusion, and non-education, are an innovation upon the proper Hindu system.’ Shri Gourishankar Tarkabagis, editor of the Sambad Bhaskar (started in March, 1839), wrote in his paper on the 31st May, 1849: '...we have been repeatedly asserting and we shall still reiterate that education of girls and women is nothing new inasmuch aswomenin India had all along been engaged in learning right from the reigns of the Sooryya-banshi monarchs till the subjugation of India by the Muhammadans. We have published sufficient evidence for the above contention.'

The Strisiksavidhayak, written in 1822 by Pandit Gourmohan Vidyalankar of the Calcutta School Society, essentially makes the same argument. It was not an empty argument. Many documents and articles of this period provide ample facts to support the argument

The Strisiksavidhayak, mentions that almost all the ladies of the family of Raja Radhakanta Dev of Shobabazar, Calcutta, were educated. Raja Radhakanta Dev, an influential person in contemporary Bengal, was a staunch supporter of female education.

A Bengali newspaper of 1822 states as follows: 'At present there are many educated ladies in different places, in this famous city of Calcutta, many fortunate men are having educated wives. Even today, many educated ladies are to be found in Karnat, Maharashtra, Dravida, Tailanga and other places; some women transact affairs of their estates, and at Benares, many of them can talk in Sanskrit..'

Even the British people in India were aware of this ground reality. Sir Edward Ilyde East, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (later, High Court) of Calcutta, referred to the system of domestic education of women in some of the respectable families of Calcutta and elsewhere in his presidential address at the second annual meeting of the Calcutta School Society on June 2, 1822.

Various articles in that period mention that the famous Rani Bhabani Devi of Natore, queen Kamala Kumari of Bardwan State and women of many other prominent families were well educated. The 1849 article of Gourishankar Tarkabagis is replete with such examples. '...late Harasundari Dasi, had attained such proficiency in Sanskrit, Bengali and Hindi that even learned persons dared not enter into discussions with her.....AshutoshBabu’s daughter is well-versed herself in Bengali (language of Gauda), UrduandVrajabhasa and even pandits do highly appreciate her capacity of writing in Devanagri script.' etc.

Yet another article of 1849 mentions: ‘There are not a few Hindu ladies, among the upper classes in this city (Calcutta), that can read and that do read. In such cases, when they are children, they attend the instructions of a Guru-mahasai, either in their own house or at the house of some near neighbour. By the time this is finished, they are married. They are now removed from school and, for want of practice, soon forget to write. But they donotlose their knowledge of reading. Some of the matrons in the family—it may be an aunt—continue the study of the Bengali with the little girl, and she soon learns to read fluently.....The vernacular newspapers, especially the Bhaskar and Prabhakhar, are in great demand with them. In one of the divisions of this city, called Bartollah, there are many printing presses employed in printing books, of which many are bought by respectable Hindu ladies. The other day we learned with great pleasure and surprisethata young married lady, being obliged to visit her mother, who was very ill, and wholivedatthe distance of six day's’ journey from Calcutta, took with her in her palkee (palanquin) several books for her travelling companions, to relieve the ennui of her journey... It is a fact, which may surprise our European readers, that reading is a resource, which many a Hindu lady makes use of, to beguile the hours of the day... '

The now famous Adam's report of 1835 on indigenous education also mentions that the Zamindars ‘...in general instruct their daughters in the elements of knowledge. They hope to marry their daughters into families of wealth and property, and they perceive that, without a knowledge of writing and accounts, their daughters will, in the event of widowhood, be incompetent to the management of their deceased husband’s estates....’

'....The number of big Zamindars in the whole district is about 50 or 60, of whom more than half are women, many of them widows. Of these two, namely Rani Suryamani and Kamalmani Devi, are alleged to possess a competent knowledge of Bengali and accounts, while some of the rest are more imperfectly instructed...'

These are, of course, examples from very affluent families which attracted media attention. But in common Bengali families also, female education was prevalent.

Peary Chand Mitra (1814 –1883), a prominent writer, journalist, and cultural activist of Bengal, wrote in the preface to his book Adhyantika: 'I was born in the year 1814 (12th July). While a pupil of Pathtsala at home, I found my grandmother, mother and aunts reading Bengali books. They could write in Bengali and keep accounts.'

Kailashbashini Devi, one of the 26 authors mentioned in this article, was the wife of Kishorichand Mitra, a social reformer. She was home-schooled in Bengali, learned English after marriage from her husband and a European lady teacher, Miss Tugod, was acquainted with both English and Bengali novels. When she went to Kashi with her sister, she mentions 'she found a friend in Lakshmimoni, with whom she discussed Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s Mrinalini. '

Anandamayi was born at Vikrampur, East Bengal, in 1752, and was married at the age of nine to a scholar named Ajodhya Ram. She is said to have become more learned than her husband. Her poems are included in 'Harilila, ' a famous work by her uncle, Jaynarayan.

The Culcatta school society was founded in 1818 and was functional till 1833. At its peak, it ran about 175 schools in Calcutta. In a letter of 1851, Raja Radhakant Devmentions, 'The Indigenous schools or Pathsalas in Calcutta which flourished under the patronage of the late School Society numbered among the scholars many an intelligentgirl who received their instruction at the domicile of their father or neighbours, wereexamined by the Pandits and other officers deputed by the Society and the distributionofprizes used to be held at my residence. I was the Native Secretary to the Society and had the supreme gratification of witnessing the admirable working of the system. Nota stigma was attached to it nor a voice of censure was raised against it.'

There was another class among common people where women's education was prevalent. The Vaishnavas, followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The Adam's report mentions 'many women amongst the followers of Vaishnavismin Bengal are well conversant with literary works relating to their cult, some of them knew Sanskrit too and were able to work as public preachers.'

Sitanath Tattvabhushan, in his book published in 1904, Social reforms in Bengal: a side sketch, mentions, 'In Santipur and Nadiya, the chief centres and seats of Vaishnava influence in Bengal, women in the early part of the last century were known not only to possess a rudimentary knowledge of vernacular, but some even acted as public preachers. There was early in the thirties and forties, an old woman at Santipur, Kshepi by name, who had a pretty large library of Vaishnava scriptures in her house, which she used to read and expound of an evening to large crowds of women and boys. Kshepi is said to have come from Sylhet and settled towards the close of her life at Santipur, on the banks of the sacred Ganges. Adaughter ofRasharaj, the well-known buffoon of the Court of Raja Krishnachandra Ray of Krishnanagar, lived at Santipur in those days, and she too was well conversant withtheliterature of her people. Some twenty years ago, a very old woman used to expound even the Sanskrit Bhagavata to crowds of women at Brindaban, and she was supposed to have gone from one of the Eastern districts of Bengal.'

Bengal was at that time at the forefront of social reforms. But even in the traditional Hindi belt, we find references to educated women. In 1850, the East India company started an education scheme for North Western provinces. The NWprovinces thenwere comprised of almost half of today's Uttar Pradesh divided in 8 districts, Agra, Aligarh, Bareli, Etawah, Farukabad, Mainpuri, Mathura, Shahjahabad. Henry Stewart Reid was appointed as ' visitor general of schools'. In his 'report on the state of EducationintheNorth Western Provinces, for the years 1856/57 and 1857/58' He mentions

'Years ago, I was told of Rajputri girls attending Hulkahbundee schools (opened by us, but maintained by the people) in Pergunnah Aligunj, Zillah Furruckabad.' This 'years ago' seems to be a reference to the year 1850. It should be noted that 'Hulkahbundee schools' were village schools, and their expenses were contributed by villagers.

Munshi Kalyan Singh, whom the report refers to as 'of the Native Masters of the Agra College, a Jat of good family, large influence,' opened 8 schools with 146 girl students. The report mentions, 'The School-mistresses are of high caste, and the relatives of rich and influential zemindars. They have also received a course of instruction under Kaliyan Singh. They can read and write well and have a knowledge of elementary Arithmetic.' It is obvious that if in 1858 there were school mistresses available as teachers 'who could read and write and have a knowledge of elementary arithmetic', they were the product of the indigenous education system, perhaps of homeschooling.

The diary note of one of the inspectors mentions '28th January 1860. Ramghat (Zillah Aligurh) examined a girls' school. Teacher, Rani Koowar, a widow of 50, and the daughter of Bal Mokund, Brahmin, who keeps a Sanskrit School. She receives Rs. 4 from the Halkahbandi fund. The two in the 2nd class read Dharm Singh-ki- Kahani well, wrote to dictation from it; the others were reading Akshuradipika, some the easy lessons, others only letters. The eldest girl was about ten years old, the rest about eight, all Brahminées. The Pundit says that thirty girls have passed out of the School, able to read and write. They all leave to be married at the age of eleven.' If 30 girls have already passed out from the school, it must be running from at least since 1850, and Rani Koowar, the teacher,r must have been educated even before that.

In Maharashtra, although the situation seems to be not as well documented as in Bengal, it is possible that a similar situation of home schooling for women existed in a significant number. The first Marathi monthly magazine for women, "Sumitra", was started in 1855. It can be inferred that if a sufficient number of educated women were available in magazines for women to survive, then it must be due to homeschooled women who could read.

Punjab was annexed by the British in 1849. The first Administration Report of the Province 1849-50 mentions

It is remarkable that female education is to be met with in all parts of the Punjab; The girls and the teachers (also females) belong to all of the three great tribes, namely, Hindoo, Mussulman and Seikh.

In fact, as our women authors in this period come from all over the country, from Uttarakhand to Kerala, the situation seems to be uniform all over Bharat.

Modern girls' schools

But despite such a background, Christian missionaries were successful in establishing the narrative that they were the saviours of Indian women. By 1850, various missionaries had established in India 284 day schools with 8919 girl students and 86 boarding schools with 2274 students. The spread was not uniform. The majority of the schools(222) were in Madras province.

Against this background, we need to understand the opening of modern schools for women by Indians. It was sometime in the 1820-30 decade that the Tanjore king Sarfoji (2nd) initiated and opened up education to girls. He even took a revolutionary step by appointing women teachers. In 1823, Winoba Ragoonath and Noor Muhammad Ibrahim Parkar from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra started a school with two teachers, 19 boys, and one girl. This is so far the earliest reference to a girl student and also of co-educationina modern school. In 1847, Peary Churn Sirkar, Nabinkrishna Mitra and his younger brother Kalikrishna Mitra started a school for girls at Barasat in Bengal. In1848Savitribai Phule and Jyotiba Phule opened a girls' school at Pune in Maharashtra. This was the most successful school of the period. Within one year, more than 100 girls were enrolled in the school. The year 1849 saw the opening of multiple girls' schools. V. N. MandlikatMumbai, John Bethune, an English person with Pandit Madan Mohan Tarkalankar and few other Bengali persons in Kolkata, Raja Radhakant Dev at Kolkata and Gujarat Vernacular Society at Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Shortly after that, by the end of 1849, three more schools were started at Neebudhia, Sooksagar and Uttarpara in Bengal.

In the decade 1850-60, one Pundit Gopal Singh, the Deputy Inspector of schools in Zillah Agra, succeeded in establishing 207 girls schools with 3623 girl students in Agra district. The teachers were Pundits, not women. About one-tenth of the whole number of pupils were more than twenty years of age, the remainder varying from six to twenty years. Although these schools are reported in Reids report mentioned above, the majority of them were Hulkabandi schools, maintained by local people. Another enthusiastic person, Thakur Kalyan Singh, established 15 girls' schools with 260 students, where even the teachers were women. The initiative seems to be largely indigenous. The contribution of Pandit Gopal Singh and Thakur Kalyan Singh seems to have gone entirely unnoticed so far.

In fact, in the entire NW province in February 1860, out of a total 9621 general schools mentioned in the Reid report, 2670 were Halkahbandi schools where people contributed the expenses, and the management of schools was also local, and 6649 schools were entirely maintained by the people. The report mentions, 'In addition to the above, 7 schools supported by the Government and 10 by private parties are attended by 465 girls.'

Such a response from the society was possible because there was always a segment in the society which supported women's education.

This series highlights how Indian women across centuries have made significant contributions to literature, education, and philosophy. Their presence in various fields challenges the notion that women's education and intellectualism were absent in earlier times. In the next part, we will explore the status of women's education from 1 CE to 1857, examining historical records, inscriptions, and literary references that provide insights into how women acquired knowledge and participated in scholarly discourse.

Notes and References: 

4. Although Serfoji II had to surrender his State to British in 1799, the agreement provides that the Tanjore fort, city and few adjoining villages were in his domain. He also received 1 lakh Pagodas per year plus 20 per cent of annual revenue of entire Tanjore State under the agreement. A polymath, he did many things which were quite ahead his times within his limited resources. He opened schools where modern and traditional Vedic education was given to students of all castes. His contribution to women education has been less documented and needs
further research.

 5. Hulkabandi schools: the name originates from Hulqs, or circles, made up of an average of five villages. These schools were started by co-opting the existing indigenous school masters, the authority of the nomination of a school master rested with the zamindar and principal residents of the village, and although they were given salary from government, an extra 1 percent cess over the village tax was levied on the villages. The government role was limited to supply of some schools books and nominal supervision.

6. Barasat is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. The girls school started in 1847 is still functional. It is now named Kalikrishna girls school in memory of Kalikrishna Mitra.

 7. For further information on Hoti Vidyalankar and Huti Vidyalankar see Uma Bhattacharya’ s Bengali book Shei Meyera or Those Women.

8. Devi Tarkalankar, Parvati Tarkbhushana, Meenakshi Shastri and Lakshmi Shastri are mentioned by William Ward. Satyam Sharma has drawn attention to these names for the first time. These names need further research.