ABSTRACT
In her own way, Rashsundari had a great deal to say about what had emerged as a central theme in 19th century reform in Bengal: on women’s education, on the strictures against it in orthodox families, on its growing availability in her later years. Very often, Indian reforms, especially those related to education for women, are seen as a simple function of mimicry, of aspirations towards Victorian gentility, for an emulation of companionate marriage. In colonial Bengal, education was the only resource that could fit out the middle class man with a self-image of transformative enterprise. It was the only avenue to some power, to profitable professions, to self-esteem under colonial conditions. Strishiksha insists that religion cannot be practised without knowledge. By an extension, religious knowledge is made to cover human history in all its facets as well as the natural, physical world, for they are all God’s handiwork.
