Feminist Movements-India
Feminism isn't about making women stronger. Women are already strong, it's about changing the way the world perceives that strength." - GD Anderson
For centuries,
women have borne the burden of being called the 'weaker sex'. But a look at the
history of women's movements and history shows that the tag is nothing more
than an excuse to exclude women from the public sphere - a domain
historically claimed by the man. Through eras and aeons, women have been told
they are unequal to men, especially when it came to politics, war, or even
having a career.
But time and
again, women have risen up from the depths of patriarchal apathy to claim
what's rightfully theirs or against the misogynistic practices that denied them
the right to live and grow with freedom and equality. While the women's rights
movements across the world have been spearheaded by women, feminist thinkers,
activists and even ordinary women have not shied away from taking up the mantle
of protest, be it against oppressive government policies, sexual violence, bad
governance and environmental degradation.
Early Phase
According to
Maitrayee Chaudhuri, unlike the Western feminist movement, India's
movement was initiated by men, and later joined by women.But feminism as
an initiative started independently a little later in Maharashtra by pioneering
sex of women's rights and education: Savitribai Phule, who started the first
school for girls in India (1848); Tarabai Shinde, who wrote India's first
feminist text Stri Purush Tulana (A Comparison Between Women and Men)
in 1882; and Pandita Ramabai, who criticized patriarchy and caste-system
in Hinduism, married outside her caste and converted to Christianity (1880s).
The efforts of Bengali reformers included abolishing sati, which was a
widow's death by burning on her husband's funeral pyre, abolishing the custom
of child marriage, abolishing the disfiguring of widows, introducing the
marriage of upper caste Hindu widows, promoting women's education,
obtaining legal rights for women to own property, and requiring the law to
acknowledge women's status by granting them basic rights in matters such as
adoption
First Phase
This first phase
of feminism in India was initiated by men to uproot the social evils of sati (widow
immolation) to allow remarriage of widows, to forbid child marriage, and
to reduce illiteracy. It also aimed to regulate the age of consent and to
ensure property rights through legal intervention. In addition to this, some
upper caste Hindu women rejected constraints they faced under Brahminical
traditions. However, efforts for improving the status of women in Indian
society were somewhat thwarted by the late nineteenth century, as nationalist
movements emerged in India. These movements resisted 'colonial interventions in
gender relations' particularly in the areas of family relations. In the mid to
late nineteenth century, there was a national form of resistance to any
colonial efforts made to 'modernize' the Hindu family. This included
the Age of Consent controversy that erupted after the government tried to raise
the age of marriage for women.
Second Phase
Gandhi legitimized
and expanded Indian women's public activities by initiating them into the
non-violent civil disobedience movement against the British Raj.
He exalted their feminine roles of caring, self-abnegation, sacrifice and
tolerance; and carved a niche for those in the public arena. Peasant women
played an important role in the rural satyagrahas of Borsad and Bardoli. Women-only
organisations like All India Women's Conference (AIWC) and the National
Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) emerged. Women were grappling with
issues relating to the scope of women's political participation, women's
franchise, communal awards, and leadership roles in political parties
In the Hindu
Code Bill, he
formulated marriage as a contract, devoid of spiritual or sacramental
elevation. Dr. Ambedkar was against internal hierarchy in marriage and
contended for equality. In 1928, he introduced the Maternity Benefit Bill in
the Bombay Presidency and demanded compensation for maternity leave. He opposed
the gender wage gap and advocated equal pay for women labourers. His newspapers ‘Mook
Nayak’ (1920) and ‘Bahiskrit Bharat’ (1927) contained exclusives
covering women’s issues, inspired by works of social reformers like Tulsibai
Bansode, which, owing to caste obliteration in mainstream media, still receives
limited mainstream attention.
The Dalit
Mahila Federation of 1942 is an important landmark in this sense. The
conference was addressed by luminaries including Keertibai Dongre, Indirabai
Patil and Shantabai Dani, who spoke strongly about the education and
uplifting of marginalised people, and the dangers of sub-serving to the
impositions of Hindu patriarchy. Sulochanabai Dongre is a notable
personage in education, body representation and abortion rights.
Third Phase
Mary Roy won
a lawsuit in 1986, against the inheritance legislation of her Keralite Syrian
Christian community in the Supreme Court. The judgement ensured equal
rights for Syrian Christian women with their male siblings in regard to their
ancestral property. In 2014, an Indian family court in Mumbai ruled
that a husband objecting to his wife wearing a kurta and jeans and
forcing her to wear a sari amounted to cruelty, which led to the wife
being granted a divorce. In 2016 a judgment of the Delhi high court was
made public in which it was ruled that the eldest female member of a Hindu
Undivided Family can be its "Karta"
In 2018 the
Supreme Court of India struck down a law making it a crime for a man to have
sex with a married woman without the permission of her husband. Prior to November
2018, women were forbidden to climb Agasthyarkoodam. A court ruling
removed the prohibition
Legislature
passed various statutes for the welfare for the welfare of women like The Protection
of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 , The Sexual Harassment of
Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, The Criminal
Law (Amendment) Act, 2013
Movements
Chipko Movement
Women have
played a key role in several environmental movements in India. One of the first
and foremost came on March 26, 1974, when a group of 28 women, led by Gaura
Devi in Uttarakhand’s Garhwal region clung to trees to prevent them from being
felled. Other leaders from Uttarakhand such as Suraksha Devi, Sudesha Devi,
Bachni Devi and Chandi Bhatt, Virushka Devi and others too went on to become
renowned environmental activists. The movement followed the Gandhian Satyagraha
style of non-violent protests and became a benchmark for several future
environmental movements. The Chipko Movement is one of the first examples of
eco-feminism in the country where women not only played a vital role but also
were the mainstay of the movement and participated as the biggest stakeholders.
After all, the cutting of trees affected women most with deforestation causing
the depletion of firewood, fodder, water and other household necessities.
Narmada
Bachao Andolan
The Narmada
Bachao Andolan led by activities Medha Patkar is yet another women-led
environmental movement against the construction of a multi-crore
project involving dams over the Narmada River. The movement started in
1985 and was focused on the displacement of thousands of people in the region
who would be left homeless. An estimated 2,50,000 people stand to be displaced
if the project is carried out as per plans. The movement was led by a
collective of people including tribals, activists, students, environmentalists
and farmers. It mainly opposed the Narmada Dam Project which ostensibly aims to
provide electricity to states like Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh and Maharashtra through which the Narmada river passes. Under
Patkar and Baba Amte, the movement grew and used several tactics like hunger
strikes, mass and public demonstrations and collusion with public celebrities as
ways to further their cause. Patkar, who herself has been at the forefront of
the strikes, satyagrahas and protests, has even been to jail several times. The
Narmada Bachao Andolan has won the Right Livelihood Award in 1991 and
enjoys the support of the international community.
Anti-Arrack
Movement in Andhra Pradesh
Tired of their
domestic abuse and their unemployed husbands spending all their money on
locally made alcohol (arrak), the women from the small village of Dubagunta in
Andhra Pradesh began a movement that forced the state and several private
agencies to bring complete prohibition against country liquor in 1990. The
movement started after a national literacy movement that was gaining ground in
Nellore brought to the fold hundreds of women who came together in mass
gatherings to discuss their problems. The high levels of consumption of arrak
among men as well as women was found to be the root cause of the economic amd
domestic strife in the women's lives. The culmination of the dialogues was the
anti-arrack protests - a call for a total ban on manufacture, sale and
consumption of country-made arrak. As protest fanned out across the state,
the women tool on the murky and powerful crime-political nexus behind the
production of arrak, which was a major source of revenue for the state
government. The illicit liquor trade brought in high volumes of revenue to both
alcohol contractors and politicians. The women started with destroying
ingredients used to concoct arrak at home and raided local hooch sellers and
distributors to destroy their licenses. They also started policing their
husbands at home. At its height, the movement, led by strong women leaders like
Vardheneni Rosamma, managed to mobilize over 10,000 people from 300
villages and even gained political traction from parties like BJP and the left.
Despite opposition fr local bureaucracy, criminals, even law enforcement
agencies, the women managed to convince the government to bring about a total
prohibition of liquor in thr state.
AFSPA
protests - Irom Sharmila and Mothers of Manipur
Manipuri women
have for decades been involved in protests against the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act. Activist Irom Sharmila, known as the 'iron lady' of Manipur, was
prompted by the killing of 10 civilians by the 8th Assam Rifles in November
2000 to sit in peaceful protest against the incident. She went on to embark on
a seven-year-long hunger strike against the draconian law that critics claim
gives the armed forces in the region power to arbitrarily arrest and execute
locals. Not just Sharmila, women of the state have been at the forefront of the
struggle against army excesses in the region. In March 2004, a group 12
Manipuri women stripped in front of Assam Rifles in protest against the rape
and killing of Manorama Thangjam allegedly by security personnel. The
protesters have gone down in history as the 'Mothers of Manipur'. The 'imas'
from the Meitei community continue to seek justice for the brutal killing and
images of their 'naked protest' have brought international attention to the
issue and pressurised the government to negotiate with local leaders.
Comments
Post a Comment