How Women Won the Vote in India

The movement for women’s right to vote in India was remarkable in both its ambition and its speed. In just three decades, Indian women—regardless of class, caste or marital status—secured the right to participate in the making of their nation’s democracy. Yet their story has long been overshadowed by the more powerful narrative of the nationalist movement that dominated the history of the first half of the twentieth century. In this compelling and deeply researched book, Adrija Roychowdhury brings India’s forgotten suffrage movement to the fore, revealing how women’s struggle for political rights became an intrinsic part of the larger project of decolonization. Drawing on the personal lives, writings, speeches and political journeys of the extraordinary women who led the campaign for the vote, Roychowdhury recovers a vital chapter in India’s history and reveals how the fight for women’s political rights helped shape the democracy we inherited.