Saroj Nalini Dutt

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Saroj Nalini Dutt, MBE, (1887-1925) was a feminist, social reformer, and founder of the Women’s Institute Movement in India.

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[edit] Background

Saroj Nalini was born in her father’s country house in Bandel, near Hooghly, in Bengal. Her father, Brajendranath De, Esq., was the 8th Indian to become a member of the Indian Civil Service and her mother was Nagendra Nandini.[1] She was brought up with her brothers and sisters and shared with them an education under a tutor and a governess.[2] She was married to Gurusaday Dutt, Esq., the renowned ICS officer. They had one son called Birendrasaday Dutt, Esq.

[edit] Work

Saroj Nalini was a well known social reformer, educationist and a pioneer of the movement for the upliftment of women in Bengal. She dedicated herself to the cause of women both inside and outside the home as well as the community. [3] C.F.Andrews wrote about her:

“ Her name had become intimately associated with the Women’s Movement, and her glowing inspiration as one who stood out for women’s freedom was felt throughout the whole of the Bengal Presidency. The devotion of her heart to the Women's Movement was so deep that it had become with her an all-absorbing passion.[4] ”

Rabindranath Tagore wrote about her:

“ ...as I read this little sketch of the life and work of Saroj Nalini, I realised that her husband, ..., is indeed a fortunate man. For such a woman as Saroj Nalini cannot be lost even in death ... Ordinarily when we look for the typical Bengali woman, we think of one whose activities are confined within the four walls of her home ... Saroj Nalini lived for the most of her life in the midst of the crowd outside her home. Her life's work was not confined to the family circle only; her home sphere comprised many and varied elements ... Her relations with this large home circle were rendered gracious through her sweetness, and beneficient through her unselfishness ... In her own life the home was not sacrificed to society, nor society to the home.[5] ”

Her dedication to the improvement of the condition of Indian women was evident in the great efforts she took to actively participate in the raising of the social status of zenana ladies, mostly belonging to the former Presidency of Bengal. She met the zenana ladies of the various sub-divisional and district headquarters in Bengal and Bihar, where her husband was posted, and discussed the problems of the purdah system with them. She also took the lead in introducing the charka (spinning wheel) in village homes. She reorganized the local girls’ school in Birbhum which was called ‘Sir Rivers Thompson School’. She participated in the work of the local Mahila Samities and encouraged their organizers and members to improve the level of teaching in the girl’s schools in the districts. She also set up the Mahila Samities of Pabna and Birbhum.

[edit] Positions Held

She became the Secretary of the Indian Section of the Calcutta League of Women’s Workers (later Bengal Presidency Council of Women), Member of the Council of the Nari Siksha Samiti (Women’s Educational League), and Member of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s committee which was to make suitable arrangements for allowing women to elect councillors. She was also the Vice President of the Sylhet Union, an association set up for the promotion of female education in the district of Sylhet. For her contribution to the cause of the upliftment of women in Bengal she was awarded an MBE by the government.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Brajendranath Dé, Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service (Calcutta, 1929) (partly unpublished memoir); Dé took the open competative service examination in 1873. He remained in Britain for the next two years as an ICS probationer, coming out to India in 1875. He was inspired by the brilliant batch of 1869, comprising Romesh Dutt, B.L.Gupta, Surendranath Banerjee, and Sripad Babaji Thakur, all of whom made it to the ICS. Banerjee, the 4th Indian ICS officer was later disqualified from service on grounds of being overage.
  2. ^ Gurusaday Dutt, A Woman of India: Being the Life of Saroj Nalini Dutt, Founder of the Women's Institute Movement of India (Calcutta, 1926).
  3. ^ Geraldine Forbes, Women in Modern India (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 28-9.
  4. ^ Dutt, A Woman of India, p. 7
  5. ^ Ibid, p. 12

[edit] External links