cora vreede-de steurs.docx

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Purdah: A study of Muslims life in North India

Cora Vreede-De Stuers

Outline by Muhammad Shahzaib Bajwa and Areesha Banglani

Introduction of the author:

Cora Vreede-De Stuers is a Research Associate at the Institute of the Modern History and Sociology

of South and South East Asia of Amsterdam University in Netherland. She is the wife of Professor

Frans Vreede. She obtained her PhD from University of Paris and wrote a doctoral dissertation on

Indonesian women, which was later published, titled Indonesian Woman: Struggles and

Achievements. It is a careful account of the political actions and statements promoting the

improvement of womens status by members ofthe modern intellectual elite of Indonesia, a circle

within which the author had considerable and understanding contact. Her second book, Purdah: AStudy of Muslims Womens Life in Northern India, was published in 1968. Before doing the

fieldwork for this book, she went to India for three years with her husband before the Second

World War. This helped her in finding the sources for this book.

Intention:

Through her book, the author has tried to show the difference in the socio-economic

conditions of the women in India, pre and post partition of 1947. She has focused on the

institution of Purdah; she believes that the lifestyle of Indian women cannot be explained

separately from it; and how women from different social strata, as well as different

generations, went about observing purdah. She talks about the segregation of the sexes in

Muslim families of northern India. She also talks about the difference the partition brought

to this practice. She intends to find out the reasons why certain women have been

emancipated from the purdah while others have gone into a more strict purdah.

Research methodology (People & Place):

Her research is set in northern India. She relies heavily on participant observation and

interviews. Her research was on a time span of four months followed by two short visits in

later years. She was not equipped with the language skills and had to rely on an interpreter

to translate the conversations from Urdu to English when necessary.

Her research mainly focuses on four sites:

1. Jamia Millia Islamia, a residential institute near Delhi. The people here were fromthe middle class families, mostly teachers and students.


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2. The village of Okhla near Jamia Millia Islamia. The village had a mixed population ofHindu and Muslims. The Muslims were poorer than Hindus but neither was very

rich as they were mostly low wage-earning labor and artisans.

3. Matia Mahal, a Muslim muhalla near the Jamia Masjid in Old Delhi, about ten milesfrom Okhla. The population consisted of people from diverse economic

backgrounds, from poor wage-earners to well-to-do-upper-middle-class families.

4. Muslim University at Aligarh, eighty miles southeast of Delhi. She worked with theteaching staff and the female students of the university.

Works of other authors:

Zain-el-Abidin:The author talks about the work of Zain-el-Abidin. He wrote that segregation of the

sexes by Purdah in no way hinders the Indian Muslim woman as she can interactand move freely in her home. The author disagrees with him and says that authors

of such kind believes that their women needs to protected and sheltered from the

undesirable contamination of the outside world.

Syed Ahmad Khan:Syed Ahmad Khans stance on women education disagreed with that of the authors.

Syed Ahmad Khan, though favored male education, extended no such courtesy for

the female population. However the author credits Syed Ahmad Khan for his work

for modern and English education as it, later, helped in liberating the women to

some extent.

D.A. KhanHe published an article in The Moslem Chronicle of 18th August, 1900. He talked

about the limited life of a Muslim woman. He said that the purda system, in essence,

is the social separation of the sexes. The author recognized D.A. Khans work andcalled it courageous.

Outline:

Women Zenana: Zenana are mostly completely separate from the rest of the house. Women would host guests inside zenanas Men were not allowed in zenanas. The author says that women have their own territories and as a girl matures, she

eventually becomes aware of her territory.


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Conditions of Purdahnashin: Purdahnashin are women who practice purdah. They had to rely on their male relatives for interaction with the outside world. Sometimes women would hire mukhtars (agents) on the recommendation of

their relatives. Most of the times the relatives would conspire with the agent and

deceive the Purdahnashin.

Purdahnashin did not have any access to education. They were not even awareof their Quranic rights. They were just taught the recitation of Quran and that too

in a foreign language.

Girls Education: Initially most of the girls were educated in their home by the parents. They were

taught recitation of Quran and some Urdu and Persian.

Some parents would engage teachers who would come and teach the girls inhome within Purdah.

Ustani Sahibas were also employed by the upper middle class, and aristocraticfamilies for developing the social manners and culinary skills of the girls.

There were no schools for Muslim girls. However, Anglo Oriental College forboys was established by Syed Ahmad Khan.

Eventually some women started schools in their zananas for girls such as ShaikhBegum who started by teaching six girls.

Begum Shaikhs husband, Shaikh Abdullah by using the donation from Begum ofBhopal established the first Girls School.

The 13thMuhammadan Educational Conference in 1899 decided that girlsschools within the tenets of Islam should be established.

Thus, education for girls started but behind Purdah. Reforms by British Government:

The British government introduced modern and liberal education for the elitesin hope of obtaining useful civil servants.

However, they prevented these liberated civil servants from interfering with thesocial and religious customs of the people under them.

The British did so because it could have eliminated orthodoxy from the massesand this would have led to a decrease in Britishs influence in the region.

The British passed laws making sure that the women who practice purdah havechoice not to go to court; this move was made to ensure that orthodoxy continue

to exist.


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Partition: Partition resulted in radical changes in the daily life of thousands of Muslim

women.

Muslim women abandoned Purdah during this time to save themselves from theanti-Muslim riots. They moved unveiled as it burqa was clear-cut characteristic

of Muslim women.

After partition, however Purdah came back and infiltrated all the economic andsocial classes of Muslims.

Economic Class and Purdah: The author talks about how burqa is reflective of ones economic class. The material and color of the burqa as well as the way it is worn by women

reflects her economic status.

White and cotton burqa was worn by lower middle class women; while the silkburqa was worn by women of higher economic class.

Womens attitude: Jamia Millia Islamia:

The educated women or those who were brave enough to take steps without thedependence on any men found it easier to discard the burqa.

Young girls did not have to be clad in burqa but as they grew older, their attitudetowards the burqa is that of dislike.

Most of the girls lived in the hostel. Burqa is not worn by students in the university but they wear it when they go

home on vacations.

They led simplistic lives, free of any western influences and in accordance withthe teachings of Quran.

Aligarh University : Led comfortable, luxurious life. Did not wear burqa in public, either due to their husbands modern attitude or

because their families never enforced it.

Matia Mahl: Ashraf families set great importance to purdah. All women, irrespective of age and generation, observed purdah, at least in the

muhalla


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Went outside the muhalla without burqa but this was not frowned upon as longas they entered the muhalla with the burqa.

Social events hold great importance to women of Matia Mahl because duringthose events, they are, in a sense, free and in control.

Okhla Village: During afternoons, when men were away at work, women would be without

purdah. They would leave their houses with the burqa.

Once men returned from work, women would cover their heads and lower theirgaze.

Older women were more relaxed and did not adhere to the purdah as strictly asthe younger women.

Women work outside their homes. Women cover their faces when they meet a man. Even though, they are more liberated yet they would give up their liberty for the

reverence the purdah brings entails.

Types of Purdah: The author divides the purdah into four general categories1. Strict purdah:

Observed by the Ashraf women or those with orthodox religious values. This type of purdah means women dont leave their houses unless absolutely

necessary and when they do leave the house, they must wear a burqa.

2. Partial purdah:

The purdah is observed sporadically depending on the time andcircumstances.

A woman can go out of the house without men but then she has to be withother women.

3. Intermittent purdah: Purdah is related to ones mentality towards it. When a woman is in purdah but desires to be out of it. When a woman is not in purdah but not because of a sense of liberty but

other reasons, and given the choice would opt for purdah.

Ashrafization: the desire to belong to a higher social class causes the womenof lower class to imitate the ashraf womens practice ofpurdah.

Wearing burqa in the neighborhood and not out of the neighborhood. purdah is evidently a question of social propriety, not of religious

conviction.

4. Absent purdah: Purdah is not practiced in the material sense but the mental sense.


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Men fail to acknowledge their wives creating a sense of purdah.

Significance of the work: The author clearly portrays the condition of the women in Purdah before and

after partition.

The author worked in four different geographical locations; this helped her instudying a wider part of Northern India and also allowed to her to make

comparison among the four regions.

The book helps in understanding the lives of Indian women and provides ethnographicmaterial on the seclusion of Muslim women. As a woman, the author was able to

observe sequestered women in a way no male investigator could. The book also

includes a brief but interesting history of Indian attitudes toward purdah.

Critique of the Work Author didnt seem objective in her research and showed only one side of the

coin. She made several generalizations and assumed that most of the women

in Northern India are forced to practice Purdah.

The short time period of her study in four different regions was not enough for thewomen of those areas to completely open up to the author and share what they truly

felt.

The author admitted in the Preface that she had a limited knowledge of Urdu and Hindiand had to rely on an interpreter. It is possible that the interpreter might have censored

some information or might have added something of his/her own.

The overuse of the term emancipation (literal meaning: To free from bondage,oppression, or restraint.) by the author shows her biased attitude against purdah.

The author uses the term Parda from the very beginning of the book but fails to definethe term until midway (pg 61) through the book.

Conclusion: The author states that purdah is a means of protecting the womensrespect by letting them stay safely in homes. Families that are already respected and

termed khandani, do not need to employ purdah. However, families that want to climb

the social ladder try to earn respect and purdah is one way of doing so. She also says

that the sense of non purification of religion due to westernization has resulted in

increase in purdah as a way of religious revivalism. She talks about how women are

taught that submission to men is a religious act and hence, these women are happy in a


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restrained life. The author believes that purdah is a more of a social obligation than a

religious one. She also says that women recognize that the only way to be

emancipated from purdah is economic independence which can be gained through

education.

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