Criticism and bibliography. Reviews

Ed. by T. L. Shaumyan. Comp. and author's introduction by E. S. Yurlova, Moscow: Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2002, 207 p.

The reviewed book combines science with simplicity of presentation, which makes it accessible to the general reader who is not experienced in the intricacies of traditional Hindu law.

The status of women in India, especially in a large undivided family, is determined by the laws of Manu ¹ . According to them, the wife is only a slave of her husband: she must fulfill all his whims and accompany him to the funeral pyre (the custom of burning widows is sati); if she does not give birth to boys, she can be divorced without any conditions. The list of such examples could go on.

The colonialist circles of Great Britain have repeatedly used the "women's problem" in India for propaganda purposes in order to present to the world community the image of a "wild", backward country that cannot live without foreign patronage. The American journalist K. Mayo was also very successful in this. In the late 1920s, after her trip to Hindustan, she published ^a biased book2, in response to which a prominent figure of the Indian National Congress (INC), Lajpat Rai, wrote a pamphlet, where he convincingly showed all the bias of the attitude of an overseas traveler to the ancient country3 . The Russian scholar-orientalist A. E. Snesarev also responded to this controversy and tried to find objective reasons for the oppressed situation of Indian women: "There can be no doubt that expanding the opportunity for women to apply their work will be the best way to get them out of the old impasse, slavery and prison; the same path should lead to the destruction of the institution of widowhood"⁴ .

In fact, the severity of the problem of disenfranchisement of the Indian woman has survived to this day and, despite the constitutional guarantees provided to her, in real life her position is determined by traditional law. Therefore, the authors of the collective work address the subject of the life and work of outstanding women in India - fighters for women's equality, participants in the national liberation struggle, prominent politicians-very relevant. It should be noted that in Soviet and Russian Indology relatively little attention is paid to the female question. The only exception is the generalizing work of E. S. Yurlova ⁵ .

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The authors of the collective monograph refer to the biography of a prominent Indian woman as part of their research interests. The focus of individual essays is set by the extensive introduction of E. S. Yurlova, who scrupulously, in a form that is understandable even to the reader who is not familiar with Hinduism, examines the women's problem in historical retrospect. She writes: "I hope that this book will give the reader an opportunity to visualize the difficult path that Indian reformers, religious, cultural and political figures - men and women-followed, and thereby better assess their contribution to the history of Indian women's emancipation" (p.32).

The first essays of the collection are dedicated to four patriotic women who represent the initial stage of the emancipation movement and are little known in our country. R. B. Rybakov introduces the reader to the biography of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's wife and associate, Sarada Devi. Ramakrishna, the priest of the temple of the goddess Kali in Dakshineswar, near Calcutta, synthesized the idea of mutual tolerance of different religions in his parables like no other. His outstanding disciple was Swami Vivekananda, who introduced these principles to "enlightened" America and Europe. The fate of Sarada Devi did not differ from the fate of millions of Indian women in the second half of the XIX century: child marriage, seclusion in the parents ' home. But unlike others, Sarada Devi managed to understand the spiritual feat of her husband. Over the years (and their marriage was purely spiritual), she became the embodiment of her husband, who was revered as a saint by millions of Indians. After the death of Ramakrishna (1886), Sarada Devi refused to observe the ritual of widowhood, continued her husband's ascetic activities and was recognized as a saint. R. B. Rybakov managed to show the social significance of Sarada Devi's spiritual feat for the whole of India. He concludes his essay with the following words: "Today, she has become a Mother to millions... Take a closer look at the daughters of India. In each of them you will find something of Sarada Devi" (p. 59).

E. S. Yurlova dwelled on the difficult fates of the "two Ramabai" - Pandita Ramabai and Ranade Ramabai-the initiators of the modern women's movement in India. The first was the widow of the Bengali lawyer Bipen Behari Madhavi, a caste shudra, and the second was the wife of Mahadev Govind Ranade, one of the" founding fathers " of the Inc. The lives and activities of both women were connected with the Maharashtra center of the national liberation movement of British India, where a patriotic press in English and Marathi was formed, and the first public organizations that advocated women's equality appeared, for example, the Widows ' Marriage Association in Pune. The fates of both women's activists were not typical for the last third of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Pandita Ramabai converted to Christianity in order to escape the persecution of the Hindu Orthodox. She was educated in London. In the late 1880s, she visited the United States, where she gave a series of lectures on Indian philosophy and Sanskrit studies. Her trip preceded Swami Vivekananda's historic speech at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. This great Indian and religious reformer stated: "If a woman is exalted, her children will glorify the name of their country by their noble deeds" (p.67).

According to E. S. Yurlova, " Pandita Ramabai was probably too radical a reformer and therefore was far ahead of her time." The secret of Ramabai Ranade's influence on the Hindu society of colonial India was a certain moderation of her views. We can agree with the author's opinion that sometimes this gives better results in the social aspect than radicalism, which does not take into account local conditions.

V. P. Kashin introduces us to the world of Kasturbai Gandhi, wife and colleague of Mahatma Gandhi. The father of the Indian nation has dedicated many warm words to the courage of his wife in the pages of his world-famous memoirs. ⁶ She went through a thorny path of struggle and spiritual trials side by side with Mohandas. After all, it was he who helped activate the women's movement, combining the national liberation struggle with the reform movement. Kasturbai was a participant in all the civil disobedience campaigns led by her husband, and was even imprisoned. She was so respected by her countrymen that even today the day of her death (February 22, 1944) is celebrated annually throughout India as Mother's Day.

Then the reader is shown political portraits of activists of the new wave of women's movement, closely associated with the activities of INC: Sarojini Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali and Indira Gandhi. They are united by the fact that they chose their life partners at the behest of their hearts, refused to recognize the marriage requirements of caste, took part in the end of the struggle of the Indian people for state sovereignty and took not the last place in the ruling elite of free India.

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E. Y. Kalinnikova showed Sarojini Naidu not only as India's greatest poetess7, but also as a purposeful politician, a supporter of Mahatma Gandhi. Naidu was a participant in civil disobedience campaigns (satyagraha), carried out diplomatic assignments for the spiritual leader of Inc. On the day of India's independence (August 15, 1947), Sarojini Naidu took the oath of office in Lucknu as the Governor of the country's largest state, Uttar Pradesh. The first female governor of the newly renovated country was distinguished by exceptional democracy and humanity in the performance of her state duties. The author managed to show her as a politician and people's diplomat defending the interests of the people of India.

G. B. Goroshko tells readers about a female legend of modern India-Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (Swarup Kumari Nehru). Like all members of the family of M. Nehru, a prominent figure of INC., his daughter supported the traditions of the family. She achieved much as a politician: she was the most prominent leader of the women's movement in British India, the first Indian woman to serve as Minister of Local Government and Health in the congressional government in the United Provinces of British India (1937-1939), and was the first woman in the world to be elected President of the UN General Assembly (1953). Of particular interest are the materials about Pandit's stay as Ambassador to the USSR (1947-1949). Many facts are presented that give an opportunity to take a fresh look at the initial stage of the formation of Indian - Soviet relations.

L. V. Vasilyeva, the author of an essay about Aruna Asaf Ali , a mysterious figure in the history of the Indian national liberation movement, worked with her as a translator. That is why her essay is written emotionally. The author covers two periods of Aruna Asaf Ali's public activity: before August 1942 (within the INC) and after the arrest of the Congress leaders for their adoption of the historic resolution " British out of India!", when her underground propaganda activities began. Despite the fact that her husband Muhammad Asaf Ali was a successful diplomat (in the United States and Switzerland), she preferred active social activities and, according to the author, in the 1950s and 1960s, she did a lot to establish cultural ties between India and the USSR. Aruna Asaf Ali's name is practically unknown to the "friends of India" in Russia.

The name of the Prime Minister of India, who tragically died Indira Gandhi, is well known in the world. Published her political speeches ⁸ . However, M. L. Salganik managed to show Indira Gandhi as a person of a complex personal fate, as a woman who, despite family difficulties and troubles (in particular, a conflict relationship with her father's sister, J. R. R. Tolkien), was able to show Indira Gandhi as a person of a complex personal fate. Nehru - Vijay Lakshmi Pandit), served as the head of a multi-million-strong country.

The materials of the book "Outstanding Women of India of the XX century" can be used to develop scientific problems of the women's movement in India, the formation of the Indian ruling elite, Russian-Indian relations, and promote the development of cultural ties, including between modern women's organizations in India and Russia. Without any doubt, numerous "friends of India" in the Russian Federation will gratefully accept the facts and conclusions of venerable authors.

Unfortunately, the collection does not reflect the diplomatic work of Sarojini Naidu, who, on behalf of M. K. Gandhi in the late 1920s in the United States, negotiated with the authorities of the Union of South Africa and British East Africa about the situation of Indian communities here, as well as the activities of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit in the United States at the end of World War II, her statements in San Francisco, with demands to grant India independence during the international conference on the creation of the United Nations. It would be very useful to publish in Russian the widely known memoirs of Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit9 .

notes

¹ See: Laws of Manu / Translated from Skt. St. Petersburg, 1913. VIII, 365; IX, 81.

^{Mauo K.} 2 Mother India. L., 1927. P. 78 - 79.

^{Rai L.L.} 3 Unhappy India. N.Y., 1972 (reprint).

^{Snesarev A. E.} 4 Etnograficheskaya Indiya [Ethnographic India], Moscow, 1981, p. 200.

⁵ Yurlova E. S. Social status of women and women's movement in India, Moscow, 1982.

^{Gandhi M. K.} 6 Moya zhizn [My Life], Moscow, 1969, p. 289.

^{Sarojini Naidu.} 7 From Indian Poetry // Foreign literature. 1970. N 1; Lightning and lotuses. Indian Lyrics of the XX century, Moscow, 1976.

^{Gandhi I.} 8 Foreign Policy of India: Selected speeches and speeches. 1980-1982. Moscow, 1982.

^{Pandit V.L.} 9 The Scope of Happiness. A Personal Memoir. L., 1979.

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