Women in the argumentative tradition

Men have mostly dominated argument, but the role of women in Indian politics and thought has not been negligible. Many political parties are led by women, and the freedom movement had many women leaders.

Sarojini Naidu became President of the Indian National Congress in 1925, fifty years before Margaret Thatcher led a major British party.

The tradition goes back much further. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanisad, the scholar Gargi questions the sage Yajnavalkya sharply, comparing her questions to arrows.

In the same text, Maitreyi asks her husband whether wealth could make her immortal. Told that it could not, she asks: what use, then, would such wealth be to her? Her question points to the gap between riches and a good life.

In the Mahabharata, Draupadi angrily urges Yudhisthira to fight, instead of living quietly as a hermit. She is far from the gentle image often given to women. Women have long asked the sharpest questions.