Development of Women Education and its Impact on the Status of Women: A Case Study of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Darjeeling

Abstract

Education provides a base for the upliftment of the status of women in the society. If women in society does not get access to education, they are unable to make claim for their rights, and in the long run this affect their status. Women though constituted almost half of the population in the world were denied equal opportunities. As a result of their little access to education, they were forced to accept the secondary status to men. Darjeeling, being a colonial master, could not escape from such social injustice. The situation in Darjeeling was little unique with regards to women education. It nurtured a society, which though patriarchal in nature, had allowed women to go out from their domestic domain for livelihood. However, they lagged substantially in getting formal education. The nineteenth century being a transitional phase as a result of the introduction of British colonial rule and various social reform movements, the sector of women education was also substantially touched upon. The unlettered women of colonial Darjeeling encountered the world of education with the help of missionaries and the Bengali bhadramahilas. The education of native women in turn gradually transformed their status in the society. In the present paper, an attempt is made to examine the nature of the progress of female education in Darjeeling hills and how far it impacted upon their status in the society.