Vikram Anand
Independent Researcher
Delhi, India
Abstract
This study offers a comprehensive analysis of the multifaceted roles women played in indigenous resistance movements across Colonial India between 1757 and 1947. Drawing on an extensive mixed-methods approach—combining archival research in the National Archives of India and British Library’s India Office Records with oral histories collected in Jharkhand, Malabar and Sindh—the research foregrounds women’s agency in contexts traditionally understood as male-dominated. In the Santhal Rebellion (1855–1856), Santhal women organized clandestine networks to supply munitions and food to insurgents, while in the Moplah Uprising (1921–1922) Mappila women concealed arms beneath their sari folds and coordinated strategic retreats. In Sindhi peasant revolts, Koli women led frontline ambushes against colonial revenue officers. Beyond direct combat and logistics, women contributed ideological labour—composing and transmitting protest songs, ritual dramas and oral poetry that galvanized collective identity and sustained morale. The study also highlights urban elite women’s intersectional leadership in early twentieth-century nationalist campaigns, demonstrating how figures like Sarojini Naidu bridged rural and urban mobilizations. By situating women’s contributions at the centre of indigenous struggles, this work critiques patriarchal historiographies, enriches understandings of anti-colonial praxis, and underscores the importance of integrating gendered dimensions into post-colonial memory and policy. Findings suggest that women’s resistance strategies, rooted in local cultural frameworks, not only challenged colonial power but also laid early groundwork for later feminist movements in independent India.
Keywords
Women’s Agency, Indigenous Resistance, Colonial India, Gender and Nationalism, Anti-Colonial Movements
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