Text and Glossary of M K Gandhi's Woman Not the Weaker Sex

1. WOMAN
NOT THE WEAKER
SEX
M KGANDHI
Mahuthun Nisha S
Asst. Prof. of English
TBAKC for Women
Kilakarai

2. LANGUAGE II - GENERAL ENGLISH I
GBLG12
Academic Year 2020- 21

4. M. K. GANDHI
 October 2, 1869, Porbandar, India - January 30, 1948, Delhi
 Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer
 The leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule
of India.
 His contributions to the formation of Modern India also gave him the
title – "Father of the Nation".
 Gandhi is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent
protest (satyagraha) to achieve political and social progress.

5. M. K. GANDHI – CONTINUED.,
 Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921,
Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding
women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending
untouchability, and above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.
 Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as
Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International
Day of Nonviolence.

6. M. K. GANDHI – CONTINUED.,
 In recognition of his universal love for humanity, Rabinranath
Tagore conferred on him the title ‘Mahatma’, the great soul.
 The given extract is from The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi compiled
by R K Prabhu and U R Rao.

7. NOTABLE WORK

8. TEXT - W O M E N N O T T H E W E A K E R S E X
If I was born a woman, I would rise in rebellion against any pretension on
the part of man that woman is born to be his plaything. I have mentally become a woman
in order to steal into her heart. I could not steal into my wife’s heart until I decided to
treat her differently than I used to do, and so I restored to her all her rights, by
dispossessing myself of all my so called rights as her husband, And you see her today as
simple as myself. You find no necklaces, no fineries on her, I want you to be like that.
Refuse to be the slaves of your own whims and fancies, and the slaves of men. Refuse to
decorate yourselves, and don’t go in for scents and levender waters. If you want to give
out the proper scent, it must come out off your heart. And then you will captivate not
man, but humanity. It is your birth-right. Man is born of women, he is flesh of her flesh
and bone of her bones. Come to your own and deliver your message again

9. Woman must cease to consider herself the object of man’s lust. The remedy
is more in her hands than man’s. She must refuse to adorn herself for men, including her
husband, if she will be an equal partner with man. I cannot imagine Sita wasting even a
single moment on pleasing Rama by physical charms
Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so
degrading, so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity to me, the
female sex, not the weaker sex. It is the nobler of the two, for it is even today the
embodiment of sacrifice, silent suffering, humility, faith and knowledge.
…CONTINUED
TEXT - W O M E N N O T T H E W E A K E R S E X

10. Woman, I hold, is the personification of self-sacrifice, but unfortunately
today she does not realize what a tremendous advantage she has over man. As Tolstoy
used top say, they are laboring under the hypnotic influence of man. If they would realize
the strength of non-violence they would not consent to be called the weaker sex.
To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by
strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by
strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not
grater intuition? Is she not more self sacrificing? Has she not greater powers of
endurance, has she not grater courage?
TEXT - W O M E N N O T T H E W E A K E R S E X
…CONTINUED

11. Without her man could not be. If the non-violence is the law of our being, the future is
with woman… .. … Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?
Had not men in his blind selfishness crushed woman’s soul as he has done
or had she not succumbed to “the enjoyments she would have given the world an
exhibition of the infinite strength that is latent in her. The world shall see it in all its
wonder and glory when woman has secured an equal opportunity for herself with man
and fully developed her powers of mutual aid and combination
Woman are special custodians of all that is pure and religious in life.
Conservative by nature, if they are slow to shed superstitious habits, they are also slow to
give up that is pure and noble in life.
TEXT - W O M E N N O T T H E W E A K E R S E X
…CONTINUED

12. I am uncompromising in the matter of women’s rights. In my opinion she
should labour under no legal disability not suffered by man. I should treat daughters and
sons on a footing of perfect equality.
I believe in the proper education of women. But I do believe that woman
will not make her contribution to the world by mimicking or running a race with men.
She can run the race, but she will not rise to the great heights she is capable of by
mimicking man. She has to be the complement of man.
TEXT - W O M E N N O T T H E W E A K E R S E X
…ENDS

13. GLOSSARY
REBELLION Defiance of authority or
control
FINERIES Ostentatious clothes decorations
LAVENDER WATER Perfume
CAPTIVATE Attract, Fascinate
CEASE Stop
LUST A passionate desire for something
…CONTINUED

14. ADORN Decorate
REMEDY Treatment for a disease, Cure
SITA Heroine of the Epic, Ramayana
BRUTAL Savagely Violent
EMBODIMENT Representation
HUMILITY State of being humble
GLOSSARY …CONTINUED

15. PERSONIFICATION Giving a visible form to an
idea or quality
TREMENDOUS Immense, Great
TOLSTOY Leo Tolstoy, the great short story
writer and novelist
LIBEL False and defamatory statement
INTUITION Ability to understand something
immediately without conscious
reasoning
GLOSSARY …CONTINUED

16. ENDURANCE Tolerance
SUCCUMB Yield
INFINITE Endless
LATENT Present but not active and not
seen
CNSERVATIVE Opposed to sudden change
SHED To throw out
GLOSSARY …CONTINUED

17. SUPERSTITION Irrational Belief
UNCMPROMISING Resolute
MIMICKING Imitating
COMPLEMENT Something which makes
complete
HYPNOTIC INFLUENCE Artificial production of a state of
resembling deep sleep in which
the subject acts only on external
suggestion
GLOSSARY …ENDS

18. COMPREHENSION
 What does Gandhi say about his life?
 What according to Gandhi is the worst evil of man done towards
woman?
 Female sex is not the weaker sex – why?
 What is today’s comment on women?

19. PARAGRAPH & ESSAY
 How does Gandhi describe the status of women in his days?
 Explain the relative strength of man and women?
 How does Gandhi glorify womanhood?
 What is Gandhi’s advice to women?

20. THANK YOU
M A H U T H U N N I S H A S
A S S T . P R O F . O F E N G L I S H
T B A K C F O R W O M E N
K I L A K A R A I