In framing the Reform Bill of 1919, the British Parliament decided that the question of enfranchisement for the women of India could properly be determined only by the Indian peoples themselves. Parliament accordingly allowed the old sex disqualification to remain in the Bill; but at the same time so shaped the electoral rules as to leave it in the power of each province's Legislative Council to place women on the provincial electoral register by passing a resolution to this effect.
Pursuant of this power, the Provinces of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, United Provinces, Punjab and Assam have removed their sex disqualifications, granting the vote to women on the same terms as to the male electorate. Further, the Central Legislative Assembly having passed a similar resolution, women may now vote not only for their Provincial Councils but also for the Legislative Assembly. Under the present general qualifications, however, the total number of women entitled to vote throughout India does not exceed 1,000,000, or about 17 per cent, of the total electorate.
Sir Alexander Muddiman's Reform Enquiry Committee of 1924, in opening the consideration of a further step--that of women's candidature for elective office--reaffirmed that[1]
[1. Report of the Reforms Enquiry Committee, 1924, p. 57.]
the question went deep into the social system and susceptibilities of India, and . , . could only with any prudence be settled in accordance with the wishes of the Indians themselves as constitutionally expressed.
It was, however, upon the Muddiman Committee's recommendation that the rules of candidature for Provincial Councils were lately amended, enabling the removal of the sex disqualification by vote of Provincial Council. To this invitation Madras and Bombay have already responded.
The Muddiman Committee next recommended that the electoral rules of both chambers of the Indian Legislature--the Council of State and the Assembly--be amended by the removal of the sex disqualification, so that constituencies in provinces that have enfranchised their women might at will elect women to both Chambers. On September 1, 1926, the Indian Legislature so voted.
Thus far, however, it seems to be the British Provincial Governor rather than the Indian electorate that uses the new privilege. From 1922 to 1926, twenty-two women had become Municipal Councilors or Members of Local Government Boards, of whom only four were elected, the rest being nominated by Government.[2]
[2. Indian Year Book, 1926, p. 511.]
The following statement is that of an Englishman deeply conversant with Indian affairs, one who wields much moral influence in India, and who vigorously used that influence to advocate the changes above indicated. It was elicited by my request for the grounds of his position and his view of the present status, and was elsewhere confirmed by ranking Indians.
As for the reason for enfranchising Indian women, I can give you my own reasons, which I put before the Parliamentary Committee which framed the Act. In some places women had long enjoyed the municipal franchise, especially in Bombay. There were a considerable number of women, in Bombay, who took a very useful part in our social work. Therefore I pressed for the enfranchisement of women, both to encourage and hearten these where actually so engaged, and to give others inducements to come forward. The purdah must be broken as fast as it can...its influence on the health of Indian women is disastrous. I looked on the franchise as another nail in the purdah coffin.
As for the effect of enfranchisment in the Bombay Presidency, so far as I can see, it has been slight; the women in public life are the women who were there in one way or another before enfranchisement took place. In other parts of India I should say the effect was smaller still. Until the social conditions have improved, the franchise can mean nothing to the Indian woman, for she dares not use it.
In observing the position of the women of Bombay, outstanding in India, one heavily contributing factor appears: This city is the great Parsi center. Out of the total number of Parsis in all India--101,778--nearly 93,000 are domiciled in Bombay Presidency.[3] Descendants of old Persian stock, the Parsis are practically all either merchants or bankers. Eight hundred per 1,000 of their men are literate, as against the 115 literates per 1,000 of male Hindus. The Parsis neither sequester nor suppress their women, but favor their adequate education. Thus 672 per 1,000[4] of the women of the Parsis are literate, as against the 14 per 1,000 female literates of the Hindus.
[3. Census of India, 1921, Vol. I, p. 118.]
[4. Census of India, 1921, p. 180.]
The presence of such a body, occupying conspicuous positions, cannot but influence the whole upper-class population.