Abstract
The article focuses on the early feminist engagement of some female members of India’s most prominent nationalist family, the Nehrus, whose women undertook from the early 1900s public social and political work for the cause of their own sex. Despite this, history has not granted them much room, preferring to give accounts of their participation in the Gandhian mobilisations, from the late 1920s. The essay thus sketches the beginning of Nehru women’s activism, concentrating in particular on the two most significant figures: Rameshwari and Uma. By drawing on the writings in Hindi that appeared on the journal they edited, on the autobiographical narrations and private correspondence of several Nehrus, and on the memories collected through oral interviews, the article suggests that a vibrant and autonomous women’s movement existed before Gandhi’s call to nationalist action.
