Women, Agency, and Patriarchal Critique in Early Indian Feminist Thought: A Study of Tarabai Shinde’s Stri Purush Tulana

Abstract

This study analyzes Tarabai Shinde’s Stri Purush Tulana (1882) as a seminal text in the early development of Indian feminist thought, emphasizing its radical critique of patriarchal structures, gendered moral codes, and women’s autonomy in colonial India. Prompted by the public shaming of a young widow, Shinde’s work represents one of the earliest sustained feminist challenges to Hindu social and religious conventions. The analysis contextualizes Stri Purush Tulana within the socio-political environment of nineteenth-century India, which was characterized by caste-based inequalities, Brahmanical patriarchy, and the influences of colonial modernity, and examines how Shinde deconstructs the moral inconsistencies that affected women. Employing feminist theories of agency and subjectivity, this paper posits that Shinde articulates an early form of feminist consciousness that critiques women’s internalised subjugation while simultaneously revealing the structural mechanisms of oppression inherent in religious practices, familial structures, and societal institutions.
Her incisive rhetorical techniques, employment of irony, and moral arguments serve to challenge male dominance while simultaneously reasserting women’s intellectual and ethical autonomy. Through an examination of Stri Purush Tulana, this study emphasises Tarabai Shinde’s sustained significance as a foundational figure in Indian feminism, thereby illuminating the text’s critical role in comprehending the historical origins of feminist opposition and the ongoing pursuit of gender justice within India.