1. Answer the following questions from the lesson to check your comprehension:
a) Who was Chandraprabha Saikiani?
Answer:-Chandraprabha Saikiani was a renowned social reformer from Assam, who fought to make formal education available for girls.
b) What did Chandraprabha do to educate the girls of her village?
Answer:- When Chandraprabha Saikiani was studying in school she gathered other girls of her village and taught them what she learnt at school.
c) Which two incidents show us how Chandraprabha fought for the rights of girls?
Answer:-Chandraprabha Saikiani has done many great things for our society and the girls. Among two of them were-
a) In those days girls weren’t admitted into the hostel unless they converted to Christianity. Chandraprabha opposed this and made them compelled to allow girls of all religious to avail the hostel facilities.
b) There was a custom in Assam in those days that women had to sit up behind a bamboo screen in public meetings. She demanded the removal of this kind of custom. She also formed the first women’s organisation, ‘Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti’ to work dedicatedly for the rights of the women.
c) On what occasion did Chandraprabha Saikiani inspire women to come out from behind the bamboo screen?
Answer:-Chandraprabha Saikiani gave a very powerful speech and demanded the removal of the bamboo screen in the Assam Sahitya Sabha session held in 1925 at Nagaon district.
d) What steps did Chandraprabha take to eliminate the caste system?
Answer:- Chandraprabha Saikiani was greatly affected by the deep rooted caste system in India as well as her own state Assam. She wanted to Abolish such kind of rules from the society, so she fought for the entry of every one, irrespective of caste, gender and class, into the famous Hayagriva Madhava temple at Hajo in Assam.
e) What was Chandraprabha Saikiani’s role in the freedom movement of India?
Answer:- She was greatly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom movement so she spread the message of Khadi, boycott of foreign cloths, removal of untouchability, banning of opium and other social evils.
2) Work in pairs and complete the following sentences with information from the lesson:
Ans:
a) At a time when society did not allow young girls to step out of home, she fought for the rights of girls.
b) In those days girls’ schools did not exist, so Chandraprabha Saikiani went to the boys’ school and after school she taught other girls in her village what she learnt at school.
c) Chandraprabha and her sister were awarded a scholarship to study in Nagaon Mission School.
d) In order to eliminate the evils of the caste system, Chandraprabha fought for the entry of every one, irrespective of caste, gender and class, into the famous Hayagriva Madhava temple at Hajo.
e) Being inspired by mahatma Gandhi, Chandraprabha joined the freedom movement and spread the message of khadi, boycott of foreign cloths, removal of untouchability, banning of opium and other social evils.
3. Read the following sentences and find a word from the text to replace the underlined part.
a) Chandraprabha Saikiani was a famous and respected social worker from Assam.
Answer:- renowned
b) She tried to get of all the cultural or religious restrictions against women that prevailed during those days.
Answer:- taboos
c) Chandraprabha refused to accept and questioned the prevailing custom of women sitting behind bamboo screens in public meetings.
Answer:- Challenged
(d) She was strong in her attitude against society’s restriction and her protest against the norms of society was not confirmed to a particular incident.
Answer:- staunchly
d) Whenever she saw any injustice, her desire to resist authority rose to the occasion.
Answer:- rebellious spirit
4) Listen to your teacher read out the first paragraph of the lesson. As you listen, complete the table below with information about Chandraprabha Saikiani:
Answer:-Chandraprabha Saikiani—- A renowned social reformer from Assam.
Birth——- 16 March 1901
Father——- Ratiram Mazumdar
Mother——- Gangapriya
Sister——- Rajaniprabha Saikia
School—— A school which only had boys.
5) There are seven paragraph in the lesson Chandraprabha Saikiani. Choose the appropriate description for each paragraph
Answer:- The first paragraph is about:
a) Chandraprabha Saikiani’s birth as the social reformer
b) The second paragraph is about: iii) Chandraprabha Saikiani’s efforts to get an education just like the boys of her village.
c) The third paragraph is about: ii) her fight for the rights of girls.
d) The fourth paragraph is about: i) formation of Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti. ii) Chandraprabha Saikiani’s protest against restrictions imposed on women. iii) Chandraprabha Saikiani’s speech at the Assam Sahitya Sabha meeting.
e) The fifth paragraph is about:
i) the caste system of India.
ii) Chandraprabha Saikiani’s protest against the caste system
f) The sixth paragraph is about:
i) Chandraprabha Saikiani’s meeting with Mahatma Gandhi.
ii) Chandraprabha Saikiani as the freedom fighter.
iii) the punishment Chandraprabha Saikiani received for being a freedom fighter.
g) The seventh paragraph is about: the given options are not described in paragraph seventh.
7. Let’s learn some grammar:
Now practice using the to-infinitive. Combine these sentences by using to-infinitives. The first one is done for you-
a. I will visit the book fair. I will buy a few novels.
Answer:- I will visit the book fair to buy a few novels.
b. We are going to Puri Tomorrow. We will visit the Jagarnath Temple there.
Answer:- We are going to Puri to visit the Jagarnath Temple.
c. She started a small school for girls. She would help them to overcome the taboos against women.
Answer:- She started a small school for girls to help them to overcome the taboos against women.
d. She delivered a very powerful speech. She demanded the removal of the prevailing customs of women sitting behind bamboo screens.
Answer:- She delivered a very powerful speech to remove the prevailing customs of women sitting behind bamboo screens.
e. She and her sister were awarded a scholarship. They will study in Nagaon Mission School.
Answer:- She and her sister were awarded a scholarship to study in Nagaon Mission School.
8.You must have come across English words which have different forms. One word can be used to form several other words, and such words usually go to a different word class. For example, look at the following word web where you will see different forms of the word beauty.
Ans: Do it yourself.
9. B) Now that you have learnt about Chandraprabha Saikiani and the norms of society women had to follow, choose any one of the topics below and write a short essay. You can work in small groups.
Answer. i) Chandraprabha Saikiani as a social reformer.
Introduction:- Chandraprabha Saikiani was a renowned social reformer from Assam. She especially worked for the availability of education for girls in Assam. She was born on 16 March 1901 at Doisingari village in Kamrup district Assam. Her father name was Ratiram Mazumdar and mother was Gangapriya.
Childhood and school: She spent her childhood in her village Doisingari. She had a sister named Rajaniprabha. Those days girls were not allowed to go school, only boys could go to school. Chandraprabha and her sister were so eager to study. So they had broken all the rules and went to school many kilometers away from their home with great effort. Not only that, after school, Chandraprabha and her sister gathered other girls of her village and started teaching them.
Life’s work: From her childhood she introduced herself as a social reformer as she taught the girls of her own village. Her efforts greatly impressed school sub inspector of her area and her sister were awarded a scholarship to study in Nagaon Mission School. But in those days girls weren’t admitted into the hostel unless they converted to Christianity. She vehemently opposed this and the school authorities were compelled to allow girls of all religions to avail the hostel facilities.
Lack of school education is not only the single problem but also many problems girls faced in those days. Another custom was prevailing that time was that the girls had to sit behind a bamboo screen in public meetings. Chandraprabha was against that kind of custom. She protested it publicly. In 1925 the Assam Sahitya Sabha session was held at Nagaon district, she delivered a powerful speech and demanded the removal of the bamboo screen that was placed between men and women. The next year, at her initiative, the first women’s organisation, ‘Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti’ was formed.
Chandraprabha Saikiani was greatly affected by the deep rooted caste system in India. In her own state, Assam, she took matters into her own hands. One of such radical steps was to fight for the entry of every one, irrespective of caste, gender and class, into the famous Hayagriva Mandhava temple at Hajo.
In 1921, she met Mahatma Gandhi and she was inspired to join the freedom movement. She spread the message of Khadi, boycott of foreign clothes, removal of untouchability, banning of opium and other social evils. From 1930 onwards she immersed herself in the freedom movement. She was imprisoned thrice, in 1931, 1942 and in 1943. Nothing could dampen her indomitable patriotic spirit. Whenever she saw any injustice, her rebellious spirit rose to the occasion. She had written many books in support of women’s rights and equal social status in society.
Conclusion:- One of the great social reformer of Assam as well as India passes away on 16 March 1972. She was the pioneer of the feminist movement in Assam. She was conferred the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri in 1972 after her death. Apart from this great honour, she was also remembered with a commemorative postal stamp in 2002. Her contribution for our society will not be forgotten forever.