Reading Sarala Devi – The Radical Odia Feminist through the Western Perspective

This paper aims at evaluating the writings of a lesser-known feminist-activist of the early 20th century Odisha – Sarala Devi in the light of western radical feminism. The problems of women and their trusted solutions that Sarala Devi had proposed were of no lesser value than the propositions of the western feminists which have retained their validity till date. Her groundbreaking and pioneering works on women liberation quite well anticipated the women's liberation movement of the later phase of the 20th century. The scope of the paper is not to compare and contrast the works of Sarala Devi with that of the early western feminists but to show how a subaltern woman has fought for the rights of the women. Though radical in thought and action she has dutifully discharged her responsibility towards her family thus demonstrating that women's liberation in no way refers escaping from family.