Agony of Child Brides : Stance of the Women Reformers

Abstract

Nineteenth century played a significant role in the transformation of women in particular in the larger context of gender restructuring under colonialism. Many aspects of  subalternity  of ‘the second sex’ were addressed by the society ignited by the presence and intervention of the ‘Progressive –white-masculine’ British. Though women and women reformers were treated as ‘other’ in the midst of their own ‘brownmen’ and the dominant ‘whitemen’, a reading through the lines of the autobiographical accounts of the women reformers echoes the voice of dissent and agony that they had experienced being child brides. Being subaltern, they were given only the chance to be represented   in the discourse of ‘women’s question’.   Men, both Indian and British debated and took decision on behalf of women ; but  the first-hand experience of being child brides places their voice something above representation. It expresses their ‘selves’ and the mere rhetoric of male reformers on behalf of child brides were endorsed often by the personal experience of women reformers. The paper examines the experiences of child brides and how these experiences make the stance of the women reformers on the issue unique and different from male reformers.