Gloria Steinem: An American Feminist In India

Gloria Steinem was one of the most vocal spokespersons of the women’s rights movement in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and, at 87 today, still carries the torch for women in different social strata. But did you know that the trailblazing feminist was once part of Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Movement in India? Steinem spent a couple of years in India in the 1950s, when she also studied at Miranda House College of Delhi University and travelled with missionaries across South India. Steinem shot to fame in America in the 1960s as a journalist, a writer, a political activist and a feminist. She went on to campaign for reproductive rights and became a social commentator on issues such as prostitution, human trafficking and pornography. But she never fails to recall the time she spent in India, which she says taught her some important life lessons and was the starting point of her activism. Her journey to India began when she was awarded the Chester Bowles Asian Fellowship by the Chester Bowles Trust, to travel across India in the late 1950s. A bright 22-year-old, she journeyed East, ready to take a fresh look at life and expand her horizons. Since she did not come from wealth, Steinem offered to write for travel companies and the airlines themselves in exchange for an airline ticket to India. She managed to get a one-way ticket for her journey through an airline company. Steinem stopped in London en route to India and it was here that she discovered she was pregnant. She had broken off an engagement back in America and her options were limited. Not wanting to raise a child at such an early age, she found a doctor who agreed to perform an abortion on her, even though abortions were then illegal in England. Soon, she was India-bound and landed in Bombay, in February 1956. She spent a few days in the city before travelling to Delhi, the country’s political capital. There, she met Jean Joyce, who was working with the Ford Foundation. Joyce introduced Steinem into Indian culture. You could say she had a soft landing. Steinem’s fellowship took her to Miranda House College, a women’s college at the University of Delhi, where she enrolled to study for a year. At Miranda House, her classmates taught her to wear an Indian sari and travel around the city in the local buses. While in Delhi, Steinem took up a variety of jobs to sustain herself. A talented young woman, she helped design sandals and wrote promoti ...