Forgotten Feminist History
Many white British people think that Asians are relative newcomers to the country. Not so – and not only that, Asians were instrumental in many of the political changes that benefited women and the working classes at the start of the last century.
Sophia Duleep Singh for example:
Sophia Duleep Singh was daughter of the last Maharajah of Lahore, deposed by the British at the age of 12. All his personal effects and jewels were made over to his guardians, including the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, which was then presented to Queen Victoria. Sophia lived at Hampton Court, in London, and was a high-profile Suffragette, a member of the Mrs Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union. She was an active campaigner and fundraiser for the cause, and became a prominent tax resister. For refusing to pay taxes on her five dogs, a carriage, and manservant in 1911, she was fined and had her diamond ring impounded and sold off at auction.
Oh, the poor privileged love. A princess deprived of her jewels, how sad. But it was much more politically significant than that:
The auction was packed with other campaigners and a Mrs Jopling Rowe duly bought the ring for 10 Pounds and promptly returned it to Sophia Duleep Singh. She maintained her resistance and at a court appearance in 1913 she declared:
“I am unable conscientiously to pay money to the state, as I am not allowed to exercise any control over its expenditure; neither am I allowed any voice in the choosing of Members of Parliament, whose salaries I help to pay. This is very unjust.
When the women of England are enfranchised and the state acknowledges me as a citizen I shall, of course, pay my share willingly towards its upkeep. If I am not a fit person for the purpose of representation, why should I be a fit person for taxation?” [ My emphasis]
Asian women were also prominent in the development of the socialism of the time:
Bhikaji Cama was also a suffragette, a prominent socialist and an ardent campaigner for Indian independence. Having worked as a social worker during the plague epidemic in Bombay in 1897, she moved to Europe, with Paris providing her main base. She addressed the International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart in 1907, making a passionate speech on behalf of the dumb millions of Hindustan, exposing the terrible tyrannies under British rule and pointing to the 35 million pounds taken from India annually. She ended her speech by theatrically unfolding the Indian National flag, the first time an Indian flag had been displayed abroad, with the words:
“This flag is of Indian Independence! Behold, it is born! It has been made sacred by the blood of young Indians who sacrificed their lives.”
Financially independent, Madam Cama published a radical newspaper with her own funds and her home became a meeting place for budding nationalists and revolutionaries from India, Egypt, Turkey and China. British intelligence monitored Madam Cama’s movements, viewing her as one of the recognised leaders of the revolutionary movement in Paris and described her as anarchical, revolutionary, anti-British and irreconcilable. During the First World War she was interned for incitement to rebellion in Bordeaux.
There’s much more than these short historical footnotes to know about these brave women, who refused to be contsrained by race, nationality, caste or gender at a time when all these things were seen as insuperable barriers to any form of advancement for women other than by accident of birth or by marriage.
I’ll wrap up with a quote from Mme Cama, which rings as true today as it did then, particularly in light of the troubles in the Middle East:
Speaking at National Conference at Cairo, Egypt in 1910, she asked, “Where is the other half of Egypt? I see only men who represent half the country!”
