Women petitions against the colonial officials: Punjab (1881-1907)

Pages: 1315-1318
Harneet Kaur (Department of History, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab)

This paper will attempt to study the efforts made by the colonial women against the oppression of the state officials of the Punjab. The colonial women do showed their resistance by filing petitions against the atrocities of the government officials and the people of local influence. There are 82 petitions filed by the women against the officials from 1881 to 1907. Out of 82 petitions 13 were against the police officials, 17 against the lambardars, 7 against the tahsildars, 9 against the Guardians and 36 against the others officials of the State. These 82 petitions showed that the women raised their voices against the issues like demand of bribery, extortion and corruption of the state officials. The women filed petitions against the police officials for having forcible connection and of the ill-treatment at the hand of the police. Even the women petitions showed their protests against the appointment of someone as Sarbah for her minor son. These all petition showed that women were awaked about their rights and laws of the British India. Though the numbers of such kind of the petitions are not significant but still these petitions give us good idea about the commendable effort of the colonial women against the state officials and their atrocities.