labrys, études féministes/ estudos feministas
julho/dezembro 2015 - juillet/décembre

 

Introduction:

Asha Mukherjee 

 

Feminism as voices of protest has its own history in India, whether that may be called as Indian Feminism is a matter of debate among most of the feminists. But the existence of a voice of protest against the patriarchal structure and male bias is more of less accepted by everyone. The volume would focus on these voices of protest and it would also discuss in this context the challenges as feminist one has to face, silenced in tradition.  We would take up relevant narratives and focus on their arguments and counter arguments as debates.

If we look at the historical development of feminist movements in India, we note different phases. Before and during Independence movement women participated in large number but their participation was in a way a role of subordination required by the sheer contextual necessity. It hardly can be considered as wave of feminism. It is only around 1970’s that ‘gender’ as a category was recognized and ascertained.  Feminism was seen as a tool for transcending sphere of knowledge, production and feminism as critical perspective to various disciplines was added.  It took the form of an academic movement and as a result greater inclusion of women and women’s experience in every inquiry was felt. Feminists got engaged in transforming every branch of knowledge by using gender as a category of understanding examining the relation of theory to political questions and argued that there is a close relation between theory and politics. It was realized that a particular theory either entails a mode of politics or the mode of politics engenders a theory.  Feminists argue that notions such as reason, laws of thought, logical forms, objectivity, selfhood-construction, and self-identity are in need of major revision. Feminist concepts of relational-self, care, distributive justice, etc. need to be recognized as legitimate concepts. During this time  the ‘privileged’ feminists reached  out to, and identified with their distant sisters to avail social, economic and gender justice, for ‘all’ women. 

But during 1980-90 one can notice significant change in political questions especially when Mondal commission recommendations took place, mandir-masjid (temple-mask) debates and free-bank policies were implemented. The issues of caste, religion and economic liberalization started creating new problems and contexts, ‘a reconfigured hegemonic culture’ when the knower and the known were both feminist forcing feminists to re-introspect their immediate world (Tharu and Niranjan: 1994 and John, 1996.a). Tharu and Niranjan expressed their serious concern and dissatisfaction with the Hinduism becoming hegemonic and the discourse of ‘new Indian Women’ a new hegemonic subject (1994). The shift in feminist issues is perceptible as the issues of ‘gender and development’ which were primarily economic issues started becoming the social issues as well. Women are treated by the state as self- sacrificing and political centers of family taking back to their traditional roles within the feminist agenda. Women were empowered to act as agents within the development agenda of the state, with Govt. officials preparing to use the term ‘women’s empowerment’ for feminism. Women’s movements as empowerment programs have also been able to achieve intellectual, institutional and political transformation perceived by the founders of women’s studies centers in education system in India.

In recent times women’s protests have gained a distinct voice in the context of eco-feminism and in the area of development. The problems related to development, mal-development and the ‘subsistence perspective’ are major issues. It is believed that the marginalized rural women’s participation and their lived experience at the grass root level can transform feminist epistemology making space for women’s ways of knowing and women’s consciousness. They are recognized as “experts” due to their intellect and close association with nature. Further, women’s work is recognized not only as ‘producers’ but also as ‘home makers’. Women contribute most to the family and all their domestic work is not considered as ‘work’. (María Mies , Vandana Shiva,Ecofeminism, Fernwoodblications, 1993)

In contemporary times women’s movements are taking shape of NGOs. Completing specific projects without fresh thinking on what constitute feminism and the notion of ‘self’ and ‘identity’ (Menon, 2004). They depend mostly on foreign funding who dictates the terms and conditions of the project for ‘gender issues’ such as HIV or AID or trafficking without any focus on feminist concern.

This special issue Feminism in India is broadly dealing with the articles written on different areas of feminist movements, theory and methodology within Indian context.

Now let me briefly discuss the articles included in this volume.

Rekha Pande in her essay “Mapping the terrain of activism in the Feminist and the Women’ Movement in India” maps the terrain of activism in the feminist movements in India. The diversity of Indian women’s movement covers the cultural, historical, geographical, religious, political and regional factors that make it very difficult to analyze all the movements in general.   She stresses that the women’s movements in India is not a homogeneous group or federation of different groups. There is no one voice but ‘there is a basic acceptance of women’s oppression and the belief that it can be eliminated.’ She is of the view that the women’s movement is a much earlier phenomenon, and the term ‘Feminism’ is a modern one.  But today the Feminist movements represent social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and equal rights for women.  Tracing the history she says that ‘

In the pre-independent era, the Women’s Movement began as a social reform movement in the 19th century. At this time, the western idea of liberty, equality and fraternity was being imbibed by our educated elite through the study of English and the contact with west. This western liberalism was extended to the women’s question and was translated into a social reform movement. The reform movements were not homogeneous and varied a lot in terms of the ideas and changes that was to be fostered. ..This was a period of the hegemonic control and influence of colonial ideology. At this juncture, the Indian intellectual reformers were sensitive to the power of colonial domination. They were responding to the western ideas of rationalism, liberalism and civilized society on one hand also sought ways and means of resisting this colonial hegemony by resorting to what Panniker  refers to as Cultural defense (Panniker: 1975). This cultural defense resulted in a paradoxical situation.  Rooted in new European ideas of rationalism and progress, the reformers tried to create a new society, modern yet rooted in Indian tradition. They began a critical appraisal of Indian society in an attempt to create a new ethos devoid of all  overt social aberrations like polytheism,  polygamy, casteism, sati, child marriage, illiteracy- all of which they believed were impediments to progress of women. All the social reformers shared a belief common to many parts of the world in the 19th century that no society could progress if its women were backward. To the reformers, the position of Indian women, as it was in the 19th century was abysmally low and hence their efforts were directed at an overall improvement in the status of women through legislation, political action and propagation, of education. This was mainly spurred by the first wave feminism of the west and concentrated on basic rights for women (Pande, 2009, 27).

Usha V.T. in her essay “Tracing Multiple Orientations of the Feminist Movements in India” attempts  to  trace  the  lineage  of  feminist  thinking  in  India  through  some  of  the contemporary Indian women’s movements in an effort to understand their impact on everyday women’s lives in  independent India. Following Maitrayee Chaudhuri she argues that studies and analytical research reflect the presence of feminist thinking in India long before the Western feminist thinkers and activists became widely known “  …  yes,  feminism  has  been  debated  in  India, notwithstanding the often active denial of the term itself” (Maitrayee Chaudhuri: 2004 p. xv).

It is a fact that Western feminist theory has moved slowly in the direction of looking up to Indian women’s movements with a view to understanding the complexity of a non-Western frame that required a different identity and varied cultural response.  As far back as 1986, Chandra Mohanty had, in her essay,  “Under Western  Eyes:  Feminist  Scholarship  and  Colonial  Discourses” drawn  attention  to  the  complexities  of working  across  race,  class,  sexuality,  and  nationality  in  the  context  of  multiple  colonial  legacies.  The challenges faced  by  the  multiplicity  and the  diverse directions  that  exert  influence  with  relation  to  the “woman question” make the situation more defying.  The new feminist directions and the importance of significant individual culture specific theories were called onto the foreground and these become more relevant in the context of India.

Arvinder Ansari in her easy “ Muslim Women’s Activism in India; Negotiating Community Dictates and Feminism” looks at the complex processes of identity construction of Muslim women that takes place within and outside social movements in India  and how  they evolve and interact with wider socio-political contexts. The advocates for Muslim women’s rights are engaged in processes of collective identity construction, to enrich the wider women’s movement. Through such processes, within or outside women’s movements, aim to achieve social change in terms of expanding Muslim women’s access to power and resources. She notes that thenetworks have increasingly used the language of “Islam” to promote its concerns, representing a concerted shift away from earlier positions and the network’s members believe in ‘positive, liberal, humanist, and feminist interpretations of religion for ensuring justice and equality.’ But how much feminist are these interpretations remains to be examined.

Ayesha Khatun in her article “Society Reformation by Muslim Women” concentrates on how in recent years the Muslim women in different parts of the country, at individual level are trying to change the society and liberate women although they lived behind the veil facing all odds.  She presents her own and some other women’s life experiences which show that there may be few spirited women of this kind crossing the boundaries of religion to enlighten other women and set an example.

Madhuja Mukherjee,   in her contribution “Gender as method: Early Indian cinema and a (few) marginal star(s)” draws attention to the subject of women's active participation in cinema cultures, especially in mainstream Indian filmmaking. She ‘opens up the social history of Indian cinema as it circulates through women’s networks, both public and memory construction’. The paper is an outcome of the analysis of unconventional  sources  and evidences – especially letters by an  actor, a  minor  star, Miss  Ratan  Bai,  from the 1930s and interviews of Miss Rainey Smith aka Sita Devi, in an attempt to forge new methods, and highlight the import of gender in film production. The paper attempts to create a space for ‘conceptual and critical’ interventions through new methods and to locate such material in social history and consider the ways it may help us to understand the gaps within historical accounts. It also stresses upon the complex relationship between cinema, culture, industry, labor, gender and desire. 

Urmimala in her paper “Feminist Issues and Displacement : A Close look from Odisha” argues that tribal women being closer to nature in terms of their livelihood, fodder, fuel medicine, water, shelter, beauty, security etc. understood the sustaining character of nature’s gift and also experience, live, share, preserve and nurture the nature  with their own lifestyle. But in Odisha due to displacement, women have lost their natural and social support system along with the identity they derived out of it for the sake of national development. In these movements, one can locate two forms of feminist consciousness; one is linked to the economic issues and the other often interpreted as eco-feminist issues. Source of sustaining livelihood and cultural entity have emerged as the nonnegotiable feminist issues between state and displaced women.

Nandita Dhavan in her essay raises very interesting question in Indian context ‘what happens when the opportunities of well-being are being denied by the state, due to particular religious belief? It could be Christianity or Islam or Hinduism. Here comes the question of justice. In this context the question ‘How the good and bad things in life should be distributed among the members of a human society, given how other members of the society in question are faring’ becomes important. Theories of justice do not cover the entire spectrum of moral and religious issues; they generally agree that some components of morality and religiosity fall outside the scope of justice. Justice is a property that has been ascribed to both individuals and institutions: justice is a virtue of individuals in their interactions with others, but justice is also a virtue of social institutions.

Kanchana Mahadevan in her article “Experience and Representation: Beyond Hierarchy “ attempts to rethink the notion of experience from an intersectional point of view that takes differences between women into account. It engages with the feminist debate concerning experience to respond to critique that Indian feminism has overlooked the lifeworlds and experiences of Dalit women. She argues that epistemologies that address the lifeworlds of women from unprivileged social perspectives – fractured by caste and class for instance- would have to reinterpret the notion of experience from historical, embodied and intersectional dimensions.

Veena Poonacha in her text “Feminism in India: many streams, many struggles” examines the resurgence of feminist politics since the 1970s that sought reforms in the existing criminal-justice. Violence against women is seen as including not just physical and sexual assault but also forms of structural violence that deny women their rights and entitlements. Through the decades, feminist politics has also challenged the violence generated by the rise of identity politics and the violence of ‘development’ ushered in through economic liberalization. This analysis has forced feminist politics to align with many of the other people’s struggles against exploitation and alienation of communities from their rights and entitlements.

Using the formulation by Mohanty (Mohanty, C.: 1986) and Mary John (1996a:142-43) one could say that ‘no non-contradictory or ‘pure’ feminism is possible in India, black and dalit feminisms are product of critique of main stream feminism. One ‘needs to be more self-reflective about their objectives, methods of critique and their politics of alliance.’ Further, the women with their identities become especially important in the present context because of the fragmentation of the universal category of ‘woman’, which makes it impossible to speak of women without reference to their class, caste and community. India today is facing the biggest challenge posed by ‘Hindutva Feminism’ to the Indian women’s movements and the limited space provided within ‘Hindutva Feminism’. One has to seriously look into the answers of the questions such as ‘If Hinduism is also full of diversity and plurality as argued by Balagangadhara and Pannington, is there any grand narrative of Indian Hindu tradition?’  ‘Is there any change in the trajectory of feminism and its politics from the 1990’s?’ and ‘Does Western feminism object to the institution of marriage as such?’ Granting that gender is naturalized in an individual (due to faith in a particular tradition and culture, in this case Hindutva) in such a way that she and others cease to see the distinction between just and unjust, how do we implement the idea of justice? The big and foundational question ‘how do we get justice in a society like India’ remains unanswered which seems to be the prime concern in India today.

Asha Mukherjee in her paper “Indian Feminism: Dynamics and Challenges ” argues that since feminist primarily objective is  to end sexual oppression and injustice as moral imperative at the level of thought as well as practice, one needs to carefully analyze  the social reality of gender and the patriarchical mode of dominated culture in Indian context. At the level of thought we need to understand ourselves well enough as human beings as normal females as a reality. Subjects as well as collectivities are necessarily dynamic agent(s) and not simply a passive victim of religious traditions and culture. Thus feminist by implication is committed to redressing perceived male bias in Indian culture and religion, not as an emancipatory agenda but taking women as subjects and their collectivities. It examines relation between theories of political questions in ethics such as justice, equality and rights. Feminism as method of questioning and critiquing questions the presuppositions and concepts that are based on either an overt or a covert male bias. Feminist emphasize on recognizing women’s lived experiences.

After going through the most of the articles one can notice that all the authors are struggling to look for some kind of mainstream feminism in India. In the process, the so called mainstream Feminism (if there is any) in last three decades have come a long way and the divisive/globalization factors within the feminist movements have added a new dimension. The “New Indian Women” is the result of the complexities we face today in India. But perhaps we need to ask some of the fundamental questions such as are there two distinct categories such as Western Feminism and Indian Feminism? No doubt the differences and complexities exist in both the traditions, still the question always remains how western is the western feminism? The category of Western Feminism itself is not a homogeneous category. Yet, the category of “Indian Feminism” has an inbuilt paradox so as to how much Indian Feminism be based on Indian values of self-sacrifice, surrender, cooperation and culture based and  how much it would be within the spirit of the Western concept of liberalism, democracy, rights, justice and equality?

Indian feminism, if at all it makes any sense, must have a balance of the two- a tight rope walk, balancing and facing often the danger of being stamped either of “Hindutva Feminism” or “Western Feminism”- to be rejected straight away by most of the Indian feminists.

The issues of oppression, gender bias, and discrimination are neither Indian nor western they are issues related to humanity based on morality. If women are recognized as human beings having equal opportunities and equal choices then one has to realize that the way the girl child is treated in a family in India has to be changed, she needs much more dignified treatment not only after birth but also before she is born. The dichotomy between Indian feminism and Western feminism is misleading and damaging to the cause of feminism.

But this does not mean that there are no differences, there are glaring differences and we can learn lessons from each other. One of the aims of this volume is to highlight these differences so that we can learn from each other’s experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

labrys, études féministes/ estudos feministas
julho/dezembro 2015 - juillet/décembre