Women's Indian Association

The Women's Indian Association (WIA) is an organization formed by women of the Theosophical Society in Adyar to support local women's groups in their efforts toward self-development, education, and service. It is considered to be India's first major feminist organization. "The WIA's success can be attributed to its secular agenda for women of all sects, classes, and castes, and to its initial effective use of the organizational framework of the Theosophical Society"

Formation of the association

The WIA was established on White Lotus Day, May 8, 1917 at Adyar with Annie Besant as President.

The honorary secretaries were Margaret Cousins, a teacher and Irish suffragist; Dorothy Jinarajadasa, the Irish wife of a Sri Lankan Theosophist; Ammu Swaminathan and Malathi Patwardhan...

Margaret Cousins sounded out her proposal to a gathering of Theosophists at Adyār after her arrival in 1915. The founders included S. Ambujammal, Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi, Mangalammal Sadasivier, Saralabai Naik, Herabai Tata, Dr. Poonen Lukhose, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Begam Hasrat Mohani, and Dhanavanti Rama Rao. Describing themselves as the "daughters of India," its mothers and wives, their objectives were to guide the nation; serve the poor; promote women's education and compulsory universal primary education; abolish child marriage; raise the age of sexual consent to sixteen for women; win female suffrage; and attain the female right to elected office.

Muthulakshmi Reddy, 1918

Growth and activities of the organization

K. J. B. Wadia wrote, "A women's Association was already in existence in Bombay and this was turned into a Branch of the new Association on July 25, 1917, by Mrs. Hirenbai A. Tata, a prominent and very active member of the Blavatsky Lodge [Bombay].

At the request of the WIA, Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy gave up her medical practice to enter the Madras Legislative Council. Her numerous social reforms are described in her book My Experience as a Legislator. She worked to raise the minimum age for marriage; to provide housing for orphan girls and scholarships for Harijans; to establish a Cancer Relief Fund; and to study educational progress in India.

Woman Suffrage

In response to the demands of women's groups, some of the Indian provincial governments granted voting privileges to some women beginning with Madras in 1921. Men and women were permitted to vote if they owned land property according to the records of the British administration. Truly universal suffrage for both men and women did not take place under 1950, after India became independent from England.

The Association was represented at the Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held in Rome on May 14, 1923. Mr. and Mrs. Jinarājadāsa were present, along with Mr. and Mrs. Patwardhan.

A speech from Mrs. Jinarajadasa was... one of the items on the agenda of the Conference, and some resolutions referring to India were expected to come up for support. It is a matter for congratulation that the qualified women in the Madras and Bombay Presidencies, the United Provinces and Burma, are all at the present moment being included in the new electoral registers, and that they will be voters in the elections before the end of this year, and this within only four years of the first demand made by Indian women for the suffrage.... India will be able to rejoice in that International Congress before the Nations of the world that its women are enfranchised on exactly equal terms with its men, not, as in England, on a different qualification, that women must be 30 years old while men need by only 21. We know that the World Sisterhood has been sharing in the pride of our Indian representatives in this matter.

Other activities

WIA branches engage in a wide range of activities. Recent examples of programs are:

• Reducing violence against women.
• Reducing discrimination in the workplace.
• Preserving traditional games.
• Increasing awareness of disabilities.
• Recognizing academic excellence in nursing students.
• Using arts to express concerns about women's safety.
• Introducing bio-enzyme products for consumers.

2017 Centenary celebration

Centennial celebration in 2017

In 2017, the centenary of the WIA was celebrated at the Adyar headquarters of the Theosophical Society.

Additional resources

NOTE: See also annual General Reports of the TS and The Golden Book of the T. S., Figure 216, and pp 285-87.

Articles

The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists

• 4 articles about WIA.
• 3 articles about Women's Indian Association.

Other articles include:

• Women's Indian Association at Theosophy World.
• Burton, A. "British feminists and Indian Women 1865-1915", Women's Studies International Forum 13 no. 4 (1990).
• Forbes, G. "Caged Tigers: First Wave Feminists in India" in Women's Studies International Forum 5 no. 6 (1982).
• Kishwar, M. "Gandhi on Women," Race and Class 28 no. 1 (1986).
• Sarkar, T. "Women in South Asia: the Raj and After," History Today (September, 1997).
• Thapar, S. "Women as Activists, Women as Symbols: A study of the Indian Nationalist Movement" in Feminist Review 44 (1993).
• Women's Indian Association to Mark Centenary in Times of India March 3, 2017.

Books and pamphlets

• Carroll, L. "Law, Custom and Statutory Social Reform: the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856" in J. Krishnamurty (ed.) Women in Colonial India: Essays on Survival, Work and the State. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1989.
• Chakravartty, R. Communists in Indian Women's Movement. New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1980.
• Chatterjee, P. "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question" in K. Sangari and S. Vaid (eds.) Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.
• Jayawardena, K. The White Woman's Other Burden: Western Women and South Asia during British Colonial Rule. New York & London: Routledge, 1995.
• Kumar, R. A History of Doing: an Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminist in India 1800-1990. London: Verso, 1993.
• Liddle, J. and Joshi, R. Daughters of Independence. Gender, Caste and Class in India. London: Zed Books, 1986.
• Menon, L. "Women and the National Movement" in D. Jain (ed.) Indian Women. New Delhi, 1975.
• Sinha, M. "Suffragism and Internationalism: the Enfranchisement of British and Indian Women under an Imperial State" in I. Fletcher, L. Nym and P. Levine Women's Suffrage in the British Empire: Citizenship, Nation, Race. London and New York: Routledge, 2000.
• Talwar. V. B. "Feminist Consciousness in Women’s Journals in Hindi 1910-20" in K. Sangari and S. Vaid (eds.) Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

Video

The Women's Indian Association YouTube channel offers over 20 video presentations such as these about their activities:

• WIA - " ILLUMINATING CAMPAIGN " awareness on elimination of violence against women on Womens' Indian Association YouTube channel. Posted March 30, 2023.
• WIA-Traditional games-Indira Nagar branch. Posted April 1, 2023.
• Seminar on Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace. Posted December 13, 2024.

Websites

• Women's Indian Association website.