Book excerpt: The Arya Samaj, a Hindu reformist and revivalist movement, was a major force in the efforts to raise the status of Indian women in the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book traces the changing nature of the Arya Samaj's programmes from the late nineteenth century to the present. The author shows how the Arya Samaj has consistently projected a self-sacrificing `maternalism' as the highest ideal for Indian women, and discusses the contradictory effects of this attitude in today's environment.