The women’s movement in India can be divided into three rough phases

The pre-independence women's movement began in the late 1800’s and continued till around 1947. This stage involved two main strands- one was social reform movements led by men for the upliftment of women from the “shackles of tradition” and the other was women's involvement in the national movement. Most scholars are of the opinion that these movements used women for their nationalist ends and weren’t concerned with the ‘feminist’ empowerment of women as such.

The second stage of the women's movement covered movement’s that primarily involved women however they involved protest around issues of Increased price of essential commodities, the Chipko movement etc- issues that are class, community and region specific unlike issues of violence against women that are per se gendered.

The third stage involves women's movement arising out of issues concerning only women, and patriarchy like Dowry, Sati, Prohibition and Domestic Violence, Rape, this stage had an added feminist angle to it.

The second and third stage overlap in terms of time periods, however I have classified them on the basis of the nature of the women's movement and the issues they dealt with. The second stage roughly covers the movements from the 1950’s to the 1970’s and the third stage the 1970’s to the 1990’s and continuing even today.