Abstract
In the cultural context of the modernisation of Bengal, the concept of the social construction of childhood is a useful analytical tool. This is particularly the case when studying the effect of the western education system on Bengali girls. The transition from traditionalism to modernity impacted the life of girls through the introduction of an education system in which the curriculum was based on a designated infanthood and a designated girlhood. The stratification of age groups for different levels of education was a concept absent in the indigenous mode. As steps were taken to extend mass education across gender and class lines, childhood itself lasted longer as enlightened patriarchs allowed their female wards to remain in school until the end of the primary or secondary stage.
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Notes
- 1.
Philippe Ariѐs, L’ Enfant et la vie familial sous l’ ancient régime (Paris: Plon, 1960). Translated into English by Robert Baldick as Centuries of Childhood: a Social History of Family Life (New York: Vintage Books, 1962).
- 2.
See Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban—A Modern Autobiography (Delhi: Kali for Women, 1999).
- 3.
Girls from upper-class backgrounds as well as girls from a lower class shared the same fate as child widows. For example, Kamala Debi, daughter of Ashutosh Mukherjee, Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court and Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, was married at the age of eight in 1904 and was widowed the following year. She remarried in 1908 at the age of 16, but the majority of the child widows bore the life of widowhood from their teenage years. Girijasundari Debi, for example, was born in 1894; she was widowed at the age of 15 and never remarried. She was the aunt of Dr. Bharati Ray, historian and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University. See Bharati Ray (ed.), Shekaler Narishiksha: Bamabodhini Patrika (Calcutta University: Women’s Studies Research Centre, 1994).
- 4.
Geraldine Forbes (ed.), The Memoirs of Dr. Haimabati Sen: From Child Widow to Lady Doctor, translated by Tapan Raychaudhuri (New Delhi: Roli Books, 2000).
- 5.
The Indian Education Policy, Bengal Education Proceedings (A) for the month of June 1904, File 10-0/16, Nos. 50–51, National Archives, Bangladesh.
- 6.
Report of the Indian Education Commission Appointed by the Resolution of the Government of India dated 3rd February 1882 (Calcutta: Printed by the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1883), chap. 10 (hereafter referred to as Education Commission Report).
- 7.
See Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (New York: Free Press, 1968), cited in Richard J. Gelles and Ann Levine (eds.), Sociology: An Introduction, 5th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995), 65.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
See Kazi Shahidullah, Patshalas Into Schools: The Development of Indigenous Elementary Education in Bengal, 1854–1905 (Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Limited, 1987).
- 10.
W. Adam, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 and 1838)Edited by Anathanath Basu (University of Calcutta, Calcutta, 1941), cited in Shahidullah, Patshalas Into Schools, 14.
- 11.
Shahidullah, Patshalas Into Schools.
- 12.
Ibid., 16–17. There was no fixed timetable within which the scholars were requried to acquire that skill.
- 13.
Cited in ibid., 17.
- 14.
First Quinquennial Report, 1891–1892 to 1896–1897, Review of Education in Bengal (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1918). West Bengal Secretariat Library (VII 67, West Bengal Secretariat).
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Report on Progress of Education in Eastern Bengal and Assam, 1907–08 to 1911–12, vol. 1, 92.
- 17.
Extract from the Proceedings of the Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam in the Education Department, Assam Secretariat (Sylhet Proceedings) Education A Proceedings, File No. E-946 of 1909, Nos. 1–8, National Archives, Bangladesh.
- 18.
Sonia Nishat Amin, The World of Muslim Women in Colonial Bengal, 1876–1939 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996), 185–210.
- 19.
Sheikh Abdur Rahma, ‘Shikshar Vitti’ [The Basis of Education], Al-Eslam, 5th year, 8th number, Agrahayon, 1919 cited in Mustafa Nurul Islam, Samayikpatre Jiban O Janamat, 1901–1930 (Dhaka: Bangla Academy, 1977), 22. The chemise and the kameez were garments associated with westernised women, hence shuuned by the conservatives. Prolonged girlhood was also associated with modernity in the western mode and was, thus, also unacceptable to conservatives.
- 20.
Ibid.
- 21.
See the entry on Shiraji by Rana Razzak in Banglapedia (Dhaka: 2006).
- 22.
Amin, The World of Muslim Women, 196.
- 23.
Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam Education Proceedings (A), File No. E-349 for April 1908, nos. 125–143, National Archives of Bangladesh.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
See Resolution No. 1028 T.G., dated the 10th June, 1907, by the Government of Bengal, 4th Edition (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1908), National Archives of India, New Delhi.
- 26.
Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam Education Proceedings (A), File No. E–349 for April 1908, nos. 125–143, 91, National Archives of Bangladesh.
- 27.
Ibid., 98.
- 28.
Ibid., 89.
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
Michael Sanderson, Education, Economic Change and Society in England: 1780–1870, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1995), 56.
- 31.
Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam Education Proceedings (A), File No. E-349 for April 1908, Nos. 125–143, p. 91, National Archives of Bangladesh.
- 32.
Enclosure No. 1, Recommendations of the Female Education Committee, Education Department (A) Proceedings, Assam Secretariat (Sylhet Proceedings), File No. E-946 of 1909, April 1910, nos. 1–8, National Archives of Bangladesh.
- 33.
Ibid., 8.
- 34.
Carol Dyhouse, Girls Growing Up in Late Victorian and Edwardian England (London: Routledge, 1981), chap. 2; June Purvis, A History of Women’s Education in England (Milton Keynes: Open University, 1991), chap. 4; June Purvis, ‘Using Primary Sources When Researching Women’s History from a Feminist Perspective’, Women’s History Review, 1, no. 2 (1992), 273–306.
- 35.
Madhu Kishwar, ‘The Daughters of Aryavarta’ in Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar (eds.), Women and Social Reform in Modern India: A Reader, vol. 1 (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2007), 306.
- 36.
Government of Bengal, Ninth Quinquennial Review on the Progress of Education for the years 1932–37, by A. K. Chanda, I.E.S., Superintendent (Alipore, Bengal: Bengal Government Press, 1939). Copy in West Bengal State Archives.
- 37.
See Maureen Woodhall, ‘Investment in Women: A Reappraisal of the Concept of Human Capital’, International Review of Education, 19, 1 (1973), Special Issue: The Education of Women, UNESCO Institute for Education, 9–29.
- 38.
Ibid.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
National Archives, Bangladesh
Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam Education Proceedings (A), File No. E-349 for April 1908, nos. 125–143
Proceedings of the Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam in the Education Department, Assam Secretariat (Sylhet Proceedings) Education A Proceedings, File No. E-946 of 1909, nos. 1–8
Indian Education Policy, Bengal Education Proceedings (A) for the month of June 1904, File 10-0/16, nos. 50–51
Enclosure No. 1, Recommendations of the Female Education Committee, Education Department (A) Proceedings, Assam Secretariat (Sylhet Proceedings), File No. E-946 of 1909, April 1910, nos. 1–8
Printed Sources
First Quinquennial Report, 1891–1892 to 1896–1897, Review of Education in Bengal (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1918, West Bengal Secretariat Library (VII 67, West Bengal Secretariat))
Government of Bengal, Ninth Quinquennial Review on the Progress of Education for the years 1932–37, by A. K. Chanda, I.E.S., Superintendent (Government Printing, Bengal Government Press, Alipore, Bengal, 1939). Copy in West Bengal State Archives
Report of the Indian Education Commission Appointed by the Resolution of the Government of India dated 3rd February 1882 (Calcutta: Printed by the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1883)
Resolution No. 1028 T.G., dated the 10th June, 1907, by the Government of Bengal, 4th edition (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1908). Copy in The National Archives of India
Sarkar, Tanika, Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban—A Modern Autobiography (Delhi: Kali for Women, 1999)
Sen, Haimabati, The Memoirs of Dr. Haimabati Sen: From Child Widow to Lady Doctor. Edited by Geraldine Forbes and translated by Tapan Raychaudhuri (New Delhi: Roli Books, 2000)
Secondary Sources
Amin, Sonia Nishat, The World of Muslim Women in Colonial Bengal, 1876–1939 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996)
Ariѐs, Philippe, L’ Enfant et la vie familial sous l’ ancient régime (Paris: Plon, 1960). Translated into English by Robert Baldick as Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (New York: Vintage Books, 1962).
Banglapedia (Dhaka: 2006).
Dyhouse, Carol, Girls Growing Up in Late Victorian and Edwardian England (London, Routledge, 1981)
Gelles, Richard J. and Ann Levine (eds.), Sociology: An Introduction, 5th Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1995)
Islam, Mustafa Nurul, Samayikpatre Jiban O Janamat, 1901–1930 [Life and Public Opinion in Periodicals] (Dhaka: Bangla Academy, 1977)
Kishwar, Madhu, ‘The Daughters of Aryavarta’ in Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar (eds.), Women and Social Reform in Modern India: A Reader, vol. 1 (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2007), 298–340
Merton, Robert K., Social Theory and Social Structure (New York: Free Press, 1968)
Purvis, June, A History of Women’s Education in England (Milton Keynes: Open University, 1991)
Purvis, June, ‘Using Primary Sources When Researching Women’s History from a Feminist Perspective’, Women’s History Review, 1, no. 2 (1992), 273–306
Ray, Bharati (ed.), Shekaler Narishiksha: Bamabodhini Patrika [Women’s Education in Yester Years: The Bamabodhini Journal] (Calcutta University: Women’s Studies Research Centre, 1994).
Sanderson, Michael, Education, Economic Change and Society in England: 1780–1870, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Shahidullah, Kazi, Patshalas Into Schools: The Development of Indigenous Elementary Education in Bengal, 1854–1905 (Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Limited, 1987)
Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar (eds.), Women and Social Reform in Modern India: A Reader, vol. 1 (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2007)
Woodhall, Maureen, ‘Investment in Women: A Reappraisal of the Concept of Human Capital’, International Review of Education, 19, 1 (1973), Special Issue: The Education of Women, UNESCO Institute for Education, 9–29
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Nayeem, A.I. (2018). Did the Bengali Woman Have a Girlhood? A Study of Colonialism, Education, and the Evolution of the Girl Child in Nineteenth-Century Bengal. In: O'Dowd, M., Purvis, J. (eds) A History of the Girl. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69278-4_9
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