writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

FROM THE FEMINIST SIDE: WOMEN’S NARRATIVES AND THE
PAKISTAN MOVEMENT, 1940‐1947
Naumana KIRAN *
Women have always taken active role in national movements. They were part and parcel of the
Pakistan movement during 1940‐1947. This paper looks into the contribution of the women of
present Pakistani provinces including Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier Province (presently called
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan in the Muslims’ struggle for independence against British
colonial rule. The focus of this study is on how women’s Political Organizations were established in
present Pakistani areas, how the educated women of upper classes convinced the women of lower
classes to participate in the national movement and how the movement got impetus with the
involvement of women in massive amounts within few years and led to success in 1947.
This paper has been produced under the theory of radicalism. Radical historiography is written
about the social protest and the resistance of the people against the government. It highlights social
injustice and people’s agitation against it. It further fills the gaps in historiography which have been
produced while emphasizing on the contribution of great political leaders. The paper is an attempt to
bring to light the omissions of feminist’s history of Pakistan Movement, women’s resistance against
the British government and the Hindu majority.
The research is based on documentary sources including the Archives of Pakistan Movement
Workers Trust, which are the only archives of its type in Pakistan. This archival material is essentially
relevant to the male and female workers’ contribution and sacrifices in getting independence.
Various memoirs of the Muslim women who directly participated in the Movement from different
parts of India and interviews of female participants, which have been conducted by the author, are
important sources of collecting insightful account of their struggle for independence. Newspapers
have also been consulted extensively to find the account of women’s contribution in the Pakistan
Movement.
The present Pakistani area was one of the least developed areas of the sub‐continent vis‐à‐vis the
Muslim female and her role in politics. This area had been in the clutches of Jagirdari (feudal) system,
particularly the rural areas where Muslim female had hardly any access to education. Only a few
families could provide education to their female children through informal means, thus majority of
Muslim women were politically unaware. As far as urban areas were concerned, few girls’ schools
were run in the present four provinces of Pakistan. The Muslims were also reluctant to enroll their
daughters in schools where there was Hindu majority. The female members of the upper class had
been educated and got access to political participation. They had the chance to take part in public life
owing to their being born in the upper class families that could afford their education at home. The
educated ladies of the upper classes played prominent role to create awareness and to convince the
uneducated and domestic Muslim ladies to work for the cause of Pakistan.
Individual efforts of the educated Muslim women
There were some prominent women who shouldered the responsibility of opening educational
institutions for girls. By the first half of the twentieth century, it was being felt by the Muslim
educated women that education of the women‐folk had become essential and they started appealing
to the elders of traditional families to allow their daughters to get education. Fatima Begum (1890‐
1958), daughter of Molvi Mehboob Alam, 1 played a prominent role in this regard. She was the first
*
Department of History and Pakistan Studies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
222