Bish Shataker Pratham Aloy Banganari by Nikhil Sur [Hardcover]

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the position of women in Bengali society had not undergone significant change by at least the first three decades of the twentieth century. The likely reason for this is that while active initiatives were taken for social reform in the second half of the nineteenth century, by the twentieth century, these efforts faded as political movements took precedence. However, there was a shift in the mindset of Bengali women. They began to fight, both within and outside their homes, to break down all narrow social restrictions. They aspired to become empowered by modern ideas and thoughts. The responsibility for reforming women's society, which lay on the shoulders of men in the second half of the nineteenth century, was taken up by women themselves in the twentieth century. They became eager to enter every social and political domain that had been previously dominated by men. Nonetheless, many women remained hesitant, especially when it came to participating in political movements. Yet, in the 1940s, with the upheavals of World War II, famine, and the partition of India—these three crises delivered a revolutionary change in the lives of Bengali women. The history of how these events transformed their lives is narrated in this book.