Walking towards Empowerment: Indian Women’s journey from subjugation to emancipation

Abstract

The life of a woman in a patriarchal setup had to undergo many obstacles. The same goes for woman in India. They keep facing discrimination in every setup throughout their life. The source of obstacles are sometimes from their family while most of the times it is due to the social norms that governs our life. The patriarchal setup treats women like second class citizens. When India was under the British rule, woman experienced ‘double colonization’, a term coined by Kirsten Holst Petersen and Anna Rutherford to point out the oppression of women by both colonial and patriarchal powers. Even achieving independence was not enough to uplift the social status of women in this country. For a long time, women of this country have remained socially, economically, and psychologically handicapped due to religion, social sanctions and patriarchal ideologies. However with time they have started to resist and oppose the treatment that is being meted out to them. This paper analyses five chapters from the book “Walking Towards Ourselves: Indian women tell their stories” edited by Catriona Mitchell. These three chapters traces the journey of the Indian women from oppression and subjugation to empowerment and emancipation.