Abstract

"Islah-un-Nissa: the declaration of 19th.cetury's modern thoughts".
In this paper, I have tried to explore the situation of 19th century women of colonial India, through the first Urdu novel- Islahun-Nisa by a female writer Rasheedun Nisa. On contrary to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and other contemporary male reformists, she advocated women's education and opposed customary rituals of her time. She also spoke for women's reforms, (the literal meanings of Islahun-Nisa) but did not suggest the segregation of women from society as her male contemporary reformists tried to pose. She has linked all superstitions of her time with lack of education. She has knitted her concepts of modernity and education in the story of novel like a master craft person.