Mughal Women Were neither All Subjugated nor Oppressed nor Invisible In Society
By
Rafia Zakaria
30 Dec 2020
IT is the
princesses and queens that get top billing. We know about the intelligence of
the inimitable Nur Jehan, who assisted her husband in the management of a vast
empire. We also know about Mumtaz Mahal, whose tomb is the wonder of the world.
Of all the things they did and were known for, the greatest interest lies in
their jewellery and their clothes.
Nur Jahan (born Mehr-un-Nissa, 31 May 1577 – 18 December 1645
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Bollywood
has done its part, memorialising women like Jodha Bai, wife of Emperor Akbar,
in the image of Aishwarya Rai. Fashion designers have not been far behind; the
top wedding couturiers in Pakistan (and in India) try every year to recreate
the glamour and resplendence of the Mughal court. Lavish weddings — which are
now put together by planners and concept designers — rely heavily on these
images as their inspiration. Many would-be brides, it appears, want the ‘Mughal
rani for a night’ experience at whatever cost it is available.
The Mughal
world, however, was not just jewels and princesses; reducing it to just that is
as much an indictment of the hollow history Pakistanis consume as anything
else. The ordinary Mughal woman was not a princess but more likely a working
woman, who either worked as a domestic servant or as a potter or tailor who
assisted her husband in these professions.
Mumtaz Mahal born Arjumand Banu Begum
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According
to historian Shireen Moosvi, paintings of Mughal women from the era show them
performing hard labour along with their husbands. The potter’s wife, for
instance, would be saddled with the heavier and harder labour. Similarly, a
painting of a construction site from the era shows women doing the arduous work
of breaking down limestone rocks for construction purposes. Unlike the popular
impression drawn from the undue emphasis on princesses and wealthy women alone,
these women were strong and actively involved in the workforce of the time.
Wealthier
women tried to protect their own interests in their own way. Evidence from
court records reveals that women were represented in courts by lawyers, often
to settle property disputes. The amounts of Mehr set during the Nikah
ceremonies were (unlike the current situation in Pakistan) taken seriously, to
be paid either at the time of the marriage or upon demand at any time after the
marriage. Given that plural marriage was commonplace among the aristocracy and
upper-middle classes, women often went to court to safeguard their inheritance
rights. Women who owned property or other items often wrote tamlik namas, or
certificates of bestowal, that would allow their property to be transferred in
whole or in part to a particular son or daughter, instead of being lost to
inheritance disputes following their passing. Then, as now, women who owned and
inherited property tended to have more important positions in society than
those who did not.
Jodhabai was described by a contemporary as 'a great adventurer', she
towered over phenomenal business enterprises even while sequestered in the
Mughal harem
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The
sociological and historical research into the everyday lives of Mughal women is
continuing. Unsurprisingly, it has taken the emergence of women historians
studying the Mughal era to draw attention to particular research on its women.
The erasure — or rather, the lack of attention — given to Mughal women in prior
decades is a symbol of the colonial and post-colonial patriarchal mores rather
than the status of women themselves in that era.
The Mughals
themselves did not erase women from the visual or written record. The miniature
paintings from the era reveal that women were everywhere and doing all sorts of
things. Mughal art depicts women dancing, playing musical instruments, working
on construction sites, reciting poetry and all sorts of other activities. Based
on this alone, it can be concluded that women of the era were very much
present, very much visible, able to strategise and instigate war, able to help
construct a building. Unlike orientalist and misogynistic reinterpretations of
the time that have followed, they were neither all subjugated nor oppressed nor
invisible in society.
Some would
argue that calling women of the past ‘feminists’ is reading the present into
the past. This sort of position is heavily influenced by the British colonial
mindset that deliberately and actively worked to depict and present the women
of the subcontinent as lacking in terms of strength, volitions and respect and
regard for their own liberty.
The moral
argument for colonialism presented to the British public — and designed to get
their support — was that the women of the subcontinent were in an abject
situation and required immediate intervention. It is no surprise that the first
‘law’ passed by the East India Company was the prohibition on sati or widow
immolation. The clever propaganda accompanying this ignored the fact that this
practice was not a common one, nor was it pervasive all over India and neither
was it associated with Vedic prescriptions. In sum, it was essential for the
British to present all the women of the subcontinent as being on the verge of
being made to commit sati to justify the occupation of India.
It is a
colonial myth that feminism or women’s empowerment struggles were initiated,
theorised and maintained by white women in the West. Studying Mughal history is
one example that unravels this myth. The ways in which Mughal women asserted
themselves, protected and advocated for themselves, participated in society and
its institutions, is all evidence of this fact.
The values
of resilience, of inner strength, of persistence and so much more, are all
modelled in the record. The charge for the women of the subcontinent today is
to examine these records and reveal that women’s efforts to empower themselves
have hardly been the sole prerogative of upper middle-class white and Western
women who grew tired of domesticity and servitude.
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Rafia
Zakariais an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
Original
Headline: The Mughal feminist
Source: The Dawn, Pakistan
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mughal-women-were-neither-all/d/123921
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