| Chapter : | Editor’s Introduction |
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This “right to feel”, that Francesca Orsini refers to in her study of the gendered construction of the Hindi public sphere, became an integral motivation in the legitimation of women’s journals during this period as well. The journal Chand, in particular, pushed the limits of what was considered to be the acceptable voice that women’s journals could project. More than being a mere compilation of “political education” for women, Chand sought to give legitimacy to women as “emotional beings, questioning their home-bound existence, and envisaging [for them] new public roles”.46 Despite the fact that the time was ripe for women to come out into the public spaces of society—of politics and publishing—the fact still remained that women like Mahadevi who lived a public life as single women had to maintain the utmost respectability in all aspects of their personal and professional life in order to be taken seriously as symbols of Indian femininity and womanhood.
Sacrifice as a National Ideal:
Gandhi’s Calling and Mahadevi’s Response
Sacrifice and service, Gandhi’s twin ideals for how India would win freedom from the British, dominated the social scene in India during the twilight of the British Empire. One aspect of Gandhi’s intervention concerned the domestic sphere (the private, the home); his ideal satyagrahi (freedom fighter) was based on his understanding of women’s nature as fundamentally driven to sacrifice and service for her husband and family. His vision of sexual abstinence and social service (seva) made it possible to imagine the part that each individual could play in helping to overthrow colonial tyranny. Mahadevi’s own engagement with Gandhian thought and praxis may have been partially