At a time when our society is again falling in the grip of conservatism, irrationalism and over-religiosity, we must remind ourselves of the work of Late Haleema Beevi, the first female journalist from Kerala. She participated in social movements at a time when Muslim women had not yet joined the mainstream society. Haleema Beevi was Kerala’s first female newspaper editor. She became the first woman municipal councillor, Ernakulam DCC member, Travancore Vanita Samajam president and Travancore State Muslim League’s Thiruvalla Taluk Secretary.

Haleema Beevi is a symbol of women’s advancement in Kerala’s Muslim society. Halima Beevi is a unique female presence in the history of Kerala’s Renaissance and the history of Muslim religious reformation.

Haleema Beevi was born in 1918 to Peer Muhammad and Maiteen Biwi in an ordinary Muslim family in Atur, Kerala. At that time when Muslim girls were not used to going to school, Haleema Beevi studied in the school of Atur till the 7th standard. Halima Beevi got married at the age of 17. Her husband was KM Muhammad Maulavi who was a religious scholar and writer. This marriage was the turning point in Haleema Beevi’s life. Her husband Muhammad Maulavi was a disciple of Vakkom Maulavi who ran a magazine called Ansari. This is what motivated Haleema Beevi to turn to journalism.

Inspired by her husband, who was the editor of Ansari magazine, she launched ‘Muslim Woman Magazine’ in 1938 in her twenties from Thiruvalla. Halima entered the field of journalism as its editor. Later it was shifted to Kodungallur. She was its printer, publisher as well. Thus Halima Beevi made history as the ‘first Muslim woman editor’ in Malayalam. A weekly magazine named ‘Bharata Chandrika’ was started in 1946 by a few Muslim women under Beevi’s stewardship. After the Bharata Chandrika weekly received huge acceptance, they converted Bharat Chandrika into a daily newspaper in 1947 to give more strength to the reformist cause. Bharat Chandrika had an stupendous editorial board like Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Vaikom Abdul khader and Vetur Raman Nair. Basheer’s ‘Nivalvelicham’, ‘Pathumma’s Goat’, and ‘Vishudraromam’ were first published in Bharat Chandrika. Prominent Malayalam litterateurs Ponkunnam Varki, Balamaniyamma, Changampuzha, S. Gupthan Nair etc. were the chief writers of Bharat Chandrika.

  She also incurred the wrath of Dewan Sir CP, Diwan of Travancore, for doing some printing work for Manorama when the Malayala Manorama daily was confiscated. Haleema Beevi had to face severe opposition due to her open writing against Sir CP’s reign of terror in Bharat Chandrika. At one point, Sir CP’s emissary approached Halima Beevi with a promise to bring a printing machine from Japan if she wrote in his favour. After refusing the offer, Sir CP took revenge by cancelling the teaching license of her husband Muhammad Moulavi. In 1949, Halima Beevi had to stop publishing Bharata Chandrika due to extreme financial crisis. 

Halima Beevi returned to journalism in 1970 when she was living in Perumbavoor. With the money from the sale of her house and land, Haleema Beevi started an institution called Azad Trust, a publishing house for publishing books and a magazine called ‘Adhunika Vanita’ (Modern Women). Philomena Kurian, B. Sudha, K.K. Kamalakshi, M. Rabigam, Baby J. Murikan were the members of the editorial board of ‘Adhunika Vanita’. ‘Adhunika Vanita’ was a literary and cultural magazine that published articles and novels. C. Achyutamenon, Ch. Mohammadkoya, K.M. George, K. Avukadarkuttinaha, Balamaniyamma, Dr. P.K. Abdul Ghafoor, Abu Sabah Maulavi, P.A. Said Muhammad, K.M. and Cherian are some of the well-wishers in this journalistic enterprise. ‘Adhunika Vanita’ also has a special feature that the managing editor, co-editors, printer and publisher were all women.

When she was studying at Adoor NSS School, the Women’s Society of NSS, which worked there, attracted Halima Beevi a lot. She wanted to create an organization among Muslim girls on its model, through which the society should be made aware of the importance of education and the customs and superstitions that are clinging to the community should be exposed. Along with journalism, she also took the initiative to form women’s societies to empower Muslim women. Based on that, at the age of 20, she held a women’s conference in Tiruvalla. More than 200 women participated in that conference. This is the first women’s conference not only in the history of Muslim revival, but in the history of Kerala.

The main objective of the conference was to form an organization for Muslim women and start units for it in all colleges. ‘Akhila Travancore Muslim Women Samajam’ (All Travancore Muslim Women’s Conference) was formed in the conference and later unit committees were formed in many places of Travancore. As the President of ‘Travancore Vanita Samajam’, she took leadership of the organization. Many women were active in the Travancore State Muslim League at that time and were members of the committees. It was also a reflection of the women’s society formed by Halima Beevi. It is estimated that more than a thousand Muslim women have joined this organization. Then many small and big meetings of the organization were held.

Abolition of school fees for Muslim girls, compulsory primary education for girls, providing employment to educated women and role of women in nation building were some of the other resolutions of the conference. In the welcome speech of the conference, Haleema Beevi said: “The men of the community whose women are trapped in freedom will never be able to experience the beautiful results of their actions, and the world, which should be enlightened by the determination of the future citizens, will end up worshiping the youth and babies who are left only as a burden of the earth, it will become ineffective in nature. Think about who has the burden to make them responsible, prudent and knowledgeable…”

Haleema Beevi was also actively involved in politics. Haleema Beevi actively participated in the freedom struggle and was arrested. Haleema Beevi’s speeches at the Mujahid Women’s Conference held in Kochi in 1953 and the Mujahid General Conference held in Idiyangara, Kozhikode, in 1956 are very famous. Haleema Beevi considered it a great honour to be able to speak with Indira Gandhi at a conference in Ernakulum. She was an active worker of Congress, Sevadal worker and member of DCC. Active worker of Travancore Muslim Majlis, President of Tiruvalla Muslim Women’s Samaj, Member of Majlis League Integration Committee, Secretary of Tiruvalla Taluk Muslim League Union She had been a councillor of Thiruvalla Municipal Corporation for five years. Haleema Beevi died on January 14, 2,000 at the age of eighty-two. Haleema Beevi was the secretary of Tiruvalla Taluk Muslim League decades before the Vanita League was formed. Haleema Beevi, who worked tirelessly for women’s emancipation movements in Kerala had been arrested for participating in the Responsible Governance Movement (political protest against the misrule of Travancore Maharaja). Haleema Beevi also participated in the independence movement and was arrested.

Haleema Beevi’s public work was aimed at eradicating superstitions and customs in the community and making religious, educational and cultural progress, especially among women. Her efforts have been fruitful to some extent. An editorial titled ‘A National Disaster’ is an example of Haleema Beevi’s foresight. This explained the importance of women giving up luxury goods. Haleema Beevi had written in her foreword that one of the main reasons behind smuggling, which has a negative impact on India’s economy, is excessive love for luxury goods and gold. They firmly believed that working for the uplift of women is not only the responsibility of women but also of men.

Education of Muslim women was the topic discussed in all the articles focusing on various topics. Some Muslim groups in Kerala believed that learning the Malayalam alphabet was against Islam. Religious rulings (fatwas) were even issued against learning the alphabet. All this motivated Haleema Beevi to write many articles on education.

 Haleema Beevi actively participated in the freedom struggle and was arrested. Haleema Beevi’s speeches at the Mujahid Women’s Conference held in Kochi in 1953 and the Mujahid General Conference held in Idiyangara, Kozhikode in 1956 are very famous.

A regular columnist for NewAgeIslam.com, Mubashir V.P is a PhD scholar in Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia and freelance journalist.

Courtesy: New Age Islam

The post Haleema Beevi: Pioneer of Social Reform and Broad-Based Muslim Education in Kerala appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: Wikipedia

He taught himself numbers counting the mile-stones from his native Birsingha village of Midnapore district, West Bengal to Calcutta when he was barely eight years old. Today, September 26 is 196^th Birth Anniversary. Born into a family steeped in poverty, his life story is one of commitment and compassion. His life struggle was to dignify the life of the Hindu widow, prevent Child Marriage and ensure egalitarianism and dignity for those whom the caste system viewed as “lower”, unclean or polluted. The last two decades of his life were spent with the Santhals at ‘Nandan Kanan’ in the district of Jamtara where he died in 1891.

His fierce advocacy and campaigning ensured the enactment of a law in 1856 which removed all legal obstacles to the marriage of Hindu widows. The Widow Remarriage Act XV was passed in 1856.(July 25)

It was the plight of child widows in India that influenced his passionate campaign and he worked hard to make life better for these young girls and women. He was a staunch believer in the remarriage of widows and tried to create awareness about this issue.
 
Why were there so many increasing numbers of child widows?
One of the huge contributing factors was that many wealthy men of high castes used to have numerous wives which they would leave behind as widows upon their death. Hence, as a logical extension of the campaign for modernity and reform, Vidyasagar also fought against the system of polygamy.
 
Ishwar Chandra Bandopadhyaya was born to Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay and mother Bhagavati Devi was a unique symbol of the Bengali Renaissance, a great scholar, academician and reformer of whom, on his death Rabindranath Tagore said, "One wonders how God, in the process of producing forty million Bengalis, produced such a man!"

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar campaigned for Widow Remarriage, Abolition of Child-Marriage and Polygamy. He also opened the doors of the colleges and other educational institutions to lower caste students, which were earlier reserved only for the Brahmins. For his immense generosity and kind-heartedness, people started addressing him as "Dayar Sagar" (ocean of kindness). He is credited and remembered across Bengal for revolutionizing the education system of Bengal. In his book, "Barno-Porichoy" (Introduction to the letter), Vidyasagar refined the Bengali language and made it accessible to all persons, reducing its exclusivist, Brahmanical orientation.
 
In this day and age of a dominant Hindutva men like Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar find no place or mention. Any surprises? They spoke of radical reforms and modernizing of faith practices.
In his own words, why Widow Marriage needed to be Abolished. These are Excerpts from a booklet entitled, Whether the practice of widow-marriage among Hindus should or should not prevail, published by Vidyasagar in 1885:
 
“AN ADEQUATE idea of the intolerable hardships of early widowhood, can be formed by those only whose daughters and sisters have been deprived of their husbands during their infancy. How many hundreds of widows, unable to observe the austerities of a Brahmacharya life, betake themselves to prostitution and foeticide and thus bring disgrace upon the families of their fathers, mothers and husbands. If widow-marriage be allowed, it will remove the insupportable torments of life-long widowhood, diminish the crimes of prostitution and infanticide and secure all families from disgrace and infamy. As long as this salutary practice will be deferred so long will the crimes of prostitution, adultery, incest and foeticide flow on in an ever increasing current… so long will a widow’s agony blaze on in fiercer flames….
 
And this is a description of the first widow marriage, obtained from a biographical sketch of Vidyasagar by Pandit Shivanath Shastri, a Brahmo Samaj leader.
 
“I SHALL never forget the day. When Pandit Vidyasagar came with his friend, the bridegroom, at the head of a large procession, the crowd of spectators was so great that there was not an inch of moving space, and many fell into the big drains which were to be seen by the sides of Calcutta streets those days. After the ceremony, it became the subject of discussion everywhere; in the bazaars and the shops, in the streets; in the public squares, in students’ lodging-houses, in gentlemen’s drawing-rooms, in offices and in distant village homes, where even women earnestly discussed it among themselves. The weavers of Santipore issued a peculiar kind of women’s sari which contained woven along its borders the first line of a newly composed song which went on to say “May Vidyasagar live long.”

Sati ceremony in progress. (Pictorial History of China and India,185.)
 
Campaign for Reforms
It was with the support of many including e Akshay Kumar Dutta, Vidyasagar introduced the practice of widow remarriages to mainstream Hindu society. The prevailing custom of Kulin Brahmin polygamy allowed elderly men — sometimes on their deathbeds — to marry teenage or prepubescent girls, supposedly to spare their parents the shame of having an unmarried girl attain puberty in their house. After such marriages, these girls would usually be left behind in their parental homes, where they might be subjected to orthodox rituals, especially if they were subsequently widowed. These included a semi-starvation, hard domestic labour, and close restriction on their freedom to leave the house or be seen by strangers.

Often, unable to tolerate the ill treatment, many of these girls would run away and turn to prostitution to support themselves. Ironically, the economic prosperity and lavish lifestyles of the city made it possible for many of them to have successful careers once they stepped out of the sanction of society and into the demi-monde. In 1853 it was estimated that Calcutta had a population of 12,718 prostitutes and public women. Many other widows had to shave their heads and don white saris, supposedly to discourage attention from men.
 
Background
A brilliant mind that excelled at academics, his quest for knowledge was so intense that he used to study under a street light as it was not possible for him to afford a gas lamp at home. He cleared all the examinations with excellence and in quick succession. He was rewarded with a number of scholarships for his academic performance. To support himself and the family Ishwar Chandra also took a part-time job of teaching at Jorashanko. In the year 1839, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar successfully cleared his Law examination and two years later, in 1841, at the age of twenty one years, Ishwar Chandra joined the Fort William College as a head of the Sanskrit department.

After five years, in 1946, Vidyasagar left Fort William College and join the Sanskrit College as 'Assistant Secretary'. In the first year of service, Ishwar Chandra recommended a number of changes to the existing education system. This report resulted into a serious altercation between Ishwar Chandra and College Secretary Rasomoy Dutta. Following this, Vidyasagar resigned from Sanskrit College and rejoined Fort William College but as a head clerk.

How a Nawab's Shoe Helped Ishwa Chandra’s Dream of Staring the Calcutta 
An interesting story. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and his few friends decided to collect donations to form Calcutta University. He traveled across Bengal and neighboring states asking people to donate for the foundation. While doing so, one day he reached outside the palace of an influential King, a Nawab. After hearing his plea, not entirely sympathetically, the King, pulled one of his shoes and dropped into Vidyasagar's bag as donation. Vidyasagar thanked the Nawab and left. Turning this into an opportunity, the very next day Vidyasagar organised an auction of the Nawab's shoe and earned Rs. 1000. The Nawab after hearing that his shoe has fetched so much amount of money, he himself gave a similar amount of money as donation.

The title 'Vidyasagar' (ocean of knowledge) was given to him due to his vast knowledge in almost all the subjects. Poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta while writing about Ishwar Chandra said: "The genius and wisdom of an ancient sage, the energy of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother".

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar passed away at the age of 70 on 29 July, 1891. After his death, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s home was sold by his son to the Mallick family of Kolkata that was later purchased by the Bengali Association, Bihar on 29 March 1974. They maintained the house in its original form and also started a Girls’ school and a free homeopathic clinic.

Girls Schools a Priority for Reformers
Recognising the taboos imposed by caste, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, along with many other active reformers emphasized the importance of girls education and even participated in opening schools for girls. This was because, for him, educational reform was much important than any other reform. He believed that the status of women and all kinds of injustice and inequalities that they face could be changed only through education.
 

The post “Anniversary Tribute: Think Hindu Widows’ Remarriage, Think Vidyasagar” appeared first on SabrangIndia.