Gloria Steinem: An American Feminist In India

Gloria Steinem was one of the most vocal spokespersons of the women’s rights movement in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and, at 87 today, still carries the torch for women in different social strata. But did you know that the trailblazing feminist was once part of Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Movement in India? Steinem spent a couple of years in India in the 1950s, when she also studied at Miranda House College of Delhi University and travelled with missionaries across South India.

Steinem shot to fame in America in the 1960s as a journalist, a writer, a political activist and a feminist. She went on to campaign for reproductive rights and became a social commentator on issues such as prostitution, human trafficking and pornography. But she never fails to recall the time she spent in India, which she says taught her some important life lessons and was the starting point of her activism.