VOI World/ Desk
Gloria Steinem, the celebrated American writer, journalist and feminist activist who became one of the most influential voices of the women’s movement in the United States, has died at the age of 92. But long before she emerged as a global feminist icon, a formative period in India helped shape her understanding of activism, equality and women’s rights.
Steinem came to India in 1956, shortly after graduating from Smith College, after receiving the Chester Bowles Asian Fellowship. At just 22, she spent part of her time at Delhi’s Miranda House, where she lived, studied and developed friendships that remained important to her decades later. She also travelled extensively across the country, including to Calcutta, Bombay and southern India.
Her experiences in India went far beyond travel and education. Steinem encountered grassroots organising and spent time with Gandhian activists, gaining exposure to social movements working at the village level. She also travelled with people associated with Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement, which sought to encourage landowners to donate land to the landless. These experiences exposed her to poverty, inequality, caste divisions and the power of grassroots activism.
India also introduced Steinem to a history of women’s activism that she later said she had not encountered in the United States. She was particularly struck by the role women had played in India’s Independence movement and their struggles against oppressive social practices. Activists such as Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay became an important part of her understanding of women’s leadership and social change.
In a 2014 interview with Rajya Sabha TV, Steinem acknowledged the influence India had on her developing feminist ideas. Asked whether India had made her a feminist, she replied: “Yes, I didn’t know what feminism was.” Her experiences in the country, she later reflected, helped shape her understanding of social justice and equality.
Her connection with Miranda House also endured. According to the college, Steinem later returned and spoke about how her time there had transformed her life, helping her form friendships with women and deepening her engagement with social justice and equality.
While living in India, Steinem also took up different jobs to support herself, including writing promotional material and modelling assignments. Some accounts note that she appeared in advertisements for saris. These years offered a very different life from the one she would later lead as one of the most recognisable faces of American feminism.
After returning to the United States, Steinem went on to become a pioneering journalist and a leading figure of the feminist movement. She co-founded Ms. magazine and spent more than five decades campaigning for women’s rights, reproductive freedom and social equality.
Yet India remained an important chapter in her life. Before Gloria Steinem became a global symbol of feminism, she was a young woman travelling through India, learning from its women, its activists and its grassroots movements. Those experiences would remain a lasting influence on the worldview that helped shape one of the most important feminist voices of the modern era.
