![Margaret E](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Margaret_E._Cousins%2C_1932.png)
Margaret Elizabeth Cousins (''
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Gillespie, also known as Gretta Cousins; 7 November 1878 – 11 March 1954) was an Irish-Indian
educationist
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Var ...
,
suffragist
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
and
Theosophist
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...
, who established
All India Women's Conference
The All India Women's Conference (AIWC) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Delhi. It was founded in 1927 by Margaret Cousins in order to improve educational efforts for women and children and has expanded its scope to also tackle ...
(AIWC) in 1927. She was the wife of poet and literary critic
James Cousins
James Henry Cousins (22 July 1873 – 20 February 1956) was an Anglo-Irish writer, playwright, actor, critic, editor, teacher and poet. He used several pseudonyms, including Mac Oisín and the Hindu name Jayaram.
Life
Cousins was born at 18, K ...
, with whom she moved to India in 1915. She is credited with preserving the Indian National Anthem ''
Jana Gana Mana
"" (Sanskrit: जन गण मन) is the national anthem of the Republic of India. It was originally composed as '' Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata'' in Bengali by polymath Rabindranath Tagore. The first stanza of the song ''Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata' ...
'' based on the notes provided by Tagore himself in February 1919, during Rabindranath Tagore's visit to the Madanapalle College.
Life
Margaret Gillespie, from an
Irish Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian minority on the island of Ireland. In the 2011 census of Northern Ireland, 48% (883,768) described themselves as Protestant, which was a decline of approximately 5% from the 2001 census. In the 2011 census of the ...
family,
was born at
Boyle, County Roscommon
Boyle (; ) is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Curlew Mountains near Lough Key in the north of the county. Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, the Drumanone Dolmen and the lakes of Lough Arrow and Lough Gara a ...
,
and educated locally and in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
.
She studied music at the
Royal University of Ireland
The Royal University of Ireland was founded in accordance with the ''University Education (Ireland) Act 1879'' as an examining and degree-awarding university based on the model of the University of London. A Royal Charter was issued on 27 Apri ...
in Dublin, graduating in 1902, and became a teacher. As a student she had met the poet and literary critic
James Cousins
James Henry Cousins (22 July 1873 – 20 February 1956) was an Anglo-Irish writer, playwright, actor, critic, editor, teacher and poet. He used several pseudonyms, including Mac Oisín and the Hindu name Jayaram.
Life
Cousins was born at 18, K ...
, and she married him in 1903. The pair explored socialism, vegetarianism, and
psychical research
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near- ...
together. In 1906, after attending a National Conference of Women meeting in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, Cousins joined the Irish branch of the NCW. In 1907 she and her husband attended the London Convention of the
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...
, and she made contacts with
suffragettes
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
, vegetarians,
anti-vivisectionists, and
occultists
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism ...
in London.
Cousins co-founded the
Irish Women's Franchise League
The Irish Women's Franchise League was an organisation for women's suffrage which was set up in Dublin in November 1908. Its founder members included Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, Margaret Cousins, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and James H. Cousins. Tho ...
with
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
Johanna Mary Sheehy Skeffington (née Sheehy; 24 May 1877 – 20 April 1946) was a suffragette and Irish nationalist. Along with her husband Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Margaret Cousins and James Cousins, she founded the Irish Women's Franchis ...
in 1908, serving as its first treasurer.
In 1910 she was one of six Dublin women attending the
Parliament of Women, which attempted to march to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
to hand a resolution to the Prime Minister. After 119 women marching to the House of Commons had been arrested, 50 requiring medical treatment, the women decided to break the windows of the houses of Cabinet Ministers. Cousins was arrested and sentenced to a month in
Holloway Prison
HM Prison Holloway was a closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, until its closure in 2016.
Hist ...
.
Vacationing with
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
in 1912, Cousins and her husband heard Yeats read translations of poems by
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
. In 1913, breaking the windows of
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle ( ga, Caisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a former Motte-and-bailey castle and current Irish government complex and conference centre. It was chosen for its position at the highest point of central Dublin.
Until 1922 it was the se ...
on the reading of the
Second Home Rule Bill, Cousins and other suffragists were arrested and sentenced to one month in
Tullamore Jail. The women demanded to be treated as
political prisoners
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...
, and went on
hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
to achieve release.
In 1913, she and her husband moved to
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, where James Cousins worked in a vegetarian food factory. In 1915 they moved to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. James Cousins initially worked for ''
New India'', the newspaper founded by
Annie Besant
Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist.
Regarded as a champion of human f ...
; after Besant was forced to dismiss him for an article praising the
Easter Uprising
The Easter Rising ( ga, Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the ...
, she appointed him Vice-Principal of the new
Madanapalle College, where Margaret taught English.
In 1916, she became the first non-Indian member of the
Indian Women's University at
Poona
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...
.
In 1917 Cousins co-founded the
Women's Indian Association The Women's Indian Association (WIA) was founded at Adayar, Madras, in 1917 by Annie Besant, Margaret Cousins, Jeena Raja Dasa, and others to liberate women from the deplorable condition women suffered in socio-economic and political matters duri ...
with Annie Besant and
Dorothy Jinarajadasa
Dorothy Jinarajadasa (1882 - 1963) was a Scottish-Indian feminist, suffragette, and writer. Along with Margaret Cousins and Annie Besant, she established the Women's Indian Association in 1917, and was active in efforts to end child marriage and ...
. She edited the WIA's journal, ''Stri Dharma''.
In 1919–20 Cousins was the first Head of the National Girls' School at
Mangalore
Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...
. In 1922, she became the first woman
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
in India. In 1927, she co-founded the
All India Women's Conference
The All India Women's Conference (AIWC) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Delhi. It was founded in 1927 by Margaret Cousins in order to improve educational efforts for women and children and has expanded its scope to also tackle ...
, serving as its President in 1936.
In 1932, she was arrested and jailed for speaking against the
Emergency Measures.
By the late 1930s she felt conscious of the need to give way to indigenous Indian feminists:
A stroke left Cousins paralysed from 1944 onwards. She received financial support from the Madras government, and later
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
, in recognition of her services to India.
She died in 1954. Her manuscripts are dispersed in various collections across the world.
Works
* ''The Awakening of Asian Womanhood'', 1922
* ''The music of Orient and Occident; essays towards mutual understandings'', 1935
* ''Indian womanhood today'', 1941
* (with James Cousins) ''We Two Together'', Madras: Ganesh, 1950
See also
*
List of suffragists and suffragettes
This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the public ...
*
List of women's rights activists
This article is a list of notable women's rights activists, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed.
Afghanistan
* Amina Azimi – disabled women's rights advocate
* Hasina Jalal – women's empowerm ...
*
Timeline of women's rights (other than voting)
Timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. The changes include actual law reforms as well as other formal changes, such as reforms through new interpretations of laws by ...
*
Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant ...
*
Women's suffrage organisations
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cousins, Margaret
1878 births
1954 deaths
Irish suffragists
Irish Theosophists
Irish feminists
Irish expatriates in India
People from Boyle, County Roscommon
Irish women's rights activists
Hunger Strike Medal recipients