For South Asian feminism to achieve enduring and far-reaching influence, it must embrace its cultural heritage. While academia often rely on insights from Western-centric feminist scholars, the rich history of feminism within our own region remains largely unexplored. This translated excerpt from a nineteenth century Indo-Muslim feminist text serves as an effort to shed light on a predominantly overlooked indigenous history of feminism, aiming to elevate it to the forefront of scholarly discourse. The following excerpt is part of a translation of Maulavī Sayyid Mumtāz ‘Alī’s Huqūq un-Nisvāñ that is currently in progress. Through this translation we aim to recover the work of early South Asian Muslim reformers like Mumtāz ‘Alī whose work has been missing from modern understanding of the history of women’s rights movement within South Asia.

Aḥmad, Naẕīr. Mirat Ul-‘Arus [Bride’s Mirror]. Lahore: Urdu Public Library, 2006.

Aḥmad, Naẕīr. Ibn’ul Waqt. Lahore: Urdu Public Library, 2006.Aḥmad, Naẕīr. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2013.

Alī, Maulavī Sayyid Mumtāz. Huqūq Un-Nisvāñ. Lahore: Dar Ul Asha’t Punjab, 1898.

Allen, David Oliver. India, Ancient and Modern, Geographical, Historical, Political, Social, and Religious; With a Particular Account of the State and Prospects of Christianity. New York: Arkose Press, 2015.

Allen, David O. India, Ancient and Modern, Geographical, Historical, Political, Social, and Religious: With a Particular Account of the State and Prospects of Christianity. London: Forgotten Books, 2012. Originally published 1856.

Bano, Shadab. “Reform and Identity: Pardah in Muslim Women’s Education in Aligarh in the Early Twentieth Century.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 73 (2012): 607–14.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Hooks, Bell. Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres, eds. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Gracey, J. T. India: Country, People, Missions. Rochester, NY, 1884.

Metcalf, Barbara. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982.

Minault, Gail. “Sayyid Mumtaz Ali and ‘Huquq Un-Niswan’: An Advocate of Women’s Rights in Islam in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Modern Asian Studies 24, no. 1 (1990): 147–72. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X00001190.

Minault, Gail. Secluded Scholars: Women’s Education and Muslim Social Reform in Colonial India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Morris, Rosalind C., ed. Can the Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of an Idea. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

Pernau, Margrit. “The Virtuous Individual and Social Reform: Debates among North Indian Urdu Speakers.” In Civilizing Emotions: Concepts in Nineteenth Century Asia and Europe, edited by Margrit Pernau and Helge Jordheim, 169–86. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Robinson, Francis. “Technology and Religious Change: Islam and the Impact of Print.” Modern Asian Studies 27, no. 1 (1993): 229–51.

Robinson, Francis. “Islamic Reform and Modernities in South Asia.” In Islamic Reform in South Asia, edited by Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella, 26–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139382786.003.

“Review of Refiguring Unani Tibb: Plural Healing in Late Colonial India by Guy Attewell.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 18, no. 3 (2008): 384–85.

Saini, Anu. “Physicians of Colonial India (1757–1900).” Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care 5, no. 3 (2016): 528–32. https://doi.org/10.4103/2249-4863.197257.

Tahir, Naeem. Sayyidah Muḥammadī Begam Aur Un Kā K̲h̲āndān: Bashamūl Savāniḥ Ḥayāt Muḥammadī Begam. Lahore: Sang-i Mīl Publications, 2018.

Thānvī, Ashraf ʿAli, et al. Bahishti Zewar (Requisites of Islam). Lahore: Dini Book Depot, 1973.

Thanawi, Ashraf Ali. Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi’s Bihishti Zewar; A Partial Translation with Commentary. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

Zaman, Muhammad. “Evolving Conceptions of Ijtihād in Modern South Asia.” Islamic Studies 49, no. 1 (2010): 5–36.

vvv