Socio-Political Changes in Muslim Women of the British Punjab during 1849-1947

Abstract

The present study which covers the era of 1849 to 1947, attempts to fulfil the gap. Punjab’s socio-political setup has been subjected to many changes in the past. After passing the Punjab Law Act in 1872, which established customary law as the personal law of the province, the British government in Punjab eventually withdrew from India and partitioned the province of Punjab into Pakistan and India. Socio-political changes in the status of Muslim women of Punjab in the era of 1849 to 1947 were due to two factors; by Government Legislation and by the activity of the Indigenous opinion makers. The article emphasis is on the apparent sequence of the events in the slow but steady emancipation of Muslim women in Punjab from the last quarter of the 19th century to the time of independence. The legal system that the Muslim women were placed in, western education which created an educated class along with the public participation of Muslim women in politics brought many of them out of isolation. This article is concerned with the study of Shurafia (elite) Muslim women only, who had a strong respectable family background was cultured and educated because great were the cultural differences between the Shurafia and the people at large.