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PEACE
DIALOGUE
( 30th July -- 5th August 2001 )
Till
yesterday we were enemies and today we are friends. We try to
relocate our long lost bonds and memories. We feel that the
politicians have been holding the truth back and been fooling the
people from either sides of the border. To be precise, the `border'
should be qualified as the `international border' or the `line of
actual control'. Enmity camouflaged in diplomacy has many more words
like that to tackle with and such words keep the diplomacy alive and
enmity hot. We, the people of India and Pakistan, a lot goaded by
untruth and diabolic words.
Today, as said before, we, the
people of India and Pakistan are friends. We are enamoured by the
gestures of the visiting head of our neighboring state. His clothes,
his salute, his wife, his convoy and his package deal etc seem so
alluring. We feel a sort of self-indignation for being blind towards
the feelings of our neighbors. Now the larger picture is complete.
There are a few smaller pictures, perhaps the ones that the eyes
blinded by the glare of diplomacy may fail to notice. Those are the
pictures of some women both in India and Pakistan.
During
the visit of the President of Pakistan, General Parvez Musharraf, we
have seen a lot of faces in the media. Interestingly, we have seen a
lot of faces of women also. The predominant female countenances that
we happened to see during these days are those of Sushma Swaraj,
Sonia Gandhi, Chokila Iyer, Usha Narayanan, Sehba Musharraf and so
on. Of course, throughout these ceremonial days we have seen too
many faces of the women press reporters also. Any way they cannot be
avoided during such occasions, as they have become the vivacious
face of Indian media.
However, one cannot avoid asking a
few questions. In a country like India, which has recently crossed
the one billion mark in terms of population, do we lack enough
number of presentable female faces? Or do we deliberately try to
avoid those females who might have thrown a few disturbing questions
at the faces of the state heads who have been reveling in a sort of
`diplomacy of tourism'? The truth is rather bitter without a coat of
sugar.
The war game between India and Pakistan has been on
since the time of independence. Whatever we call it, `terrorism' or
`war of independence' (depends on the side from which one looks at
the war game), it has consumed too many human lives at the disputed
fields and at the snow clad peaks along the borders between two
countries. In the graph of mutual offensive, Kargil could have been
a raised point. But, irrespective of the dimension (small scale, big
scale, high intensity, low intensity etc.) a war is a war and it
consumes human lives. Once the shroud of patriotism is removed from
a coffin, a dead body is a dead body.
Unlike in the
developed western countries, in India and Pakistan where the shadows
of feudal patriarchy still linger, death of a man directly affects
the women folk of the family of the deceased. Any imbalance in the
family set up would bring inexplicable woes to the women. (Let us
leave the exceptional egalitarian families, which treat widows and
women with dignity.) Against the this backdrop, we need to assess
the number and pain of the women who have been affected by the war
game between the two countries for the last fifty years. Can their
problems be solved through tokens of handshakes, salutes,
breakfasts, high teas and dinners?
Where are these women
now? During the days of diplomatic euphoria, have we turned blind
and deaf towards the worries of these mothers, daughters and widows
who are rendered destitute by the war games? It is high time to open
our eyes and ears. We have been listening to half-truths for long.
Thanks to this, Indian women think that the mothers of those
militants who infiltrate through the borders are also militants and
bloodthirsty. The mothers across border also think the same about
the Indian mothers. These warps and wefts of hatred weave red
carpets for false diplomatic feats. Do we need to perpetuate these
stories of falsehood? |
EDITORIAL (
23rd July -- 29th July 2001 ) Phoolan
Devi is no more. While walking down from the Indian Parliament
house, at the gateway of her official residence a self proclaimed
`Takur supporter' of the Samajwadi Party gunned her down. Phoolan
Devi, while she was alive, hated the word Takurs. It was the same
clan that had made her life miserable and had forced her to abandon
her village and go to the ravines of Chambal. And she became a
dacoit of legendary proportions. At the age of eleven she had been
married off and at the age of fifteen she had been raped by several
Takurs. She did not wait for the law of the land to take its own
sweet course. She took law in her hands and at the age of twenty and
she could wreck revenge upon those 22 Takurs who had raped her
brutally and made her and her communities life miserable.
No
parents in the country told their daughters to emulate Phoolan Devi
even at the worst turns of their lives. But somehow, they worshipped
and admired Phoolan, the Bandit Queen who set many revolutionary
hearts on fire. But she was a revolutionary of a different mould.
She did not belong to the creed of Che Gueras or Rosa Luxombergs.
She did not forfeit her political prospects to lead a life of social
catalyst to facilitate and necessitate changes. However she had
dreamt of a social revolution. Once she was out of the jail after
spending 11 long years of contemplation and soul searching what she
could opt for was to join a political party, which used to dream a
lot of dreams for those who had been deprived of dreams since ages.
Phoolan thought that she could see those dreams becoming a reality.
Phoolan Devi, as a scheming ex-bandit, however failed in
her decision. A woman who used to send shivers through the spines of
the moustached Takurs, after her marriages with an ambitious goon
and politics lost track. Since then she has been reduced to a puppet
in the hands of a few men whom she loathed more than the snakes that
she used to confront at the Chambal ravines. But there was no
deliverance. She was her own destiny and the choice made her to live
a life of a captive.
What was politics for Phoolan Devi?
Whatever it was for her at the time of joining politics, during her
last days it had become a pain. She could see how she and her
sisters all over the country were denied justice by the politicians
of her own party and those who belonged to the other parties. So she
floated her own outfit as there were no other outlets to give vent
to her passions. Spirituality could have been the last resort and of
late the reports say that she even thought of joining a sannyasin
sect. But politics is a monstrous castle and once you are in, it
would be very difficult to come out. All that one can do is to build
another castle within it and become a double captive. Phoolan's any
decision would have led to her such a captivity and she was really
seeking for deliverance.
But who could have given her the
moksha that she was aspiring for. It cannot be the political goons.
Had Phoolan be alive for a few more years she would have evolved as
an `educated' political being. That would have been the real
`moksha' for her. But she was nipped at the prime of her political
life. The patriarchal society in India knows it well that a
politically matured Phoolan Devi would be more dangerous than an
uncouth dacoit languishing at the ravines and jungles.
So
the issue is the maturity of the women. Does Indian patriarchy
expect perpetual immaturity from the Indian women? Phoolan Devi
wanted to become mature in her life. But she was denied a weapon.
The weapon is not just a gun, it has got several symbolic meanings.
Political maturity is the strongest weapon that one politician can
have. Phoolan Devi wanted it and it was snatched away by the
Patriarchy and she was rewarded with original bullets. Can we just
say that the divine retribution has happened and she got the reward
for whatever she had done in the first part of her life? Then let us
congratulate ourselves for becoming supremely insensitive. |
MILITANT
VIOLENCE
WOMEN THE SOFT TARGETS
( 16th July
-- 22nd July 2001 )
The
once famed happy valley of Kashmir, endowed with nature's bounty and
popularly termed paradise on earth is today bathed with the tears of
women because of the decade old turbulence engineered from across
the border. The engineered militancy that exists in the state has
had the worst effect on women and children- the soft targets. There
is an unending story of atrocities against women-rapes, forced
marriages, extortion and destitution due to death of the
bread-winner. The tales of women affected by this relentless and
organized violence are heartrending indeed.
The turbulent
conditions in Jammu & Kashmir have adversely affected the people
in general. Every family has faced social tension, death or
destruction. The economy has been shattered, the pace of
developmental work has received a severe setback, social life has
been destroyed and the fabric of society has been torn apart by the
incessant violence. The mainstay for Kashmir's economy-the tourism
industry has declined to extremely low levels. Families are severely
constrained to keep their budgets afloat. Education has become a
luxury for children and rights of women and children have been
trampled under the feet of foreign mercenaries.
A large
number of cases of violence is not reported by women for fear of
reprisals, and exposure to social censure. More than 150 female
victims have been rescued from the clutches of militants. A gruesome
case had come to light in a posh colony, of 22 year old Shakila, who
was found in the Raj Bagh area. In another incident, a nurse Sarla
Bhatt working at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences
was Kidnapped and repeatedly raped before she was killed by her
tormentors. Another example is of a woman teacher who was
mercilessly killed and her body cut into pieces because she was
suspected of being a police informer.
In their frenzy to
subdue the people, the militants have used gang rapes and 'forced
marriages' as a weapon of submission. A large number of young women
rescued by the security forces are those who were forced into so
called marriages with the militants mainly for the purpose of
satisfying their lust. These marriages are usually performed after
negotiations with the parents who are told to donate the girls to
the cause of 'Jehad'-holy war. Even some married women were forced
to divorce their husbands at gunpoint and were later compelled into
entering 'Mutta' marriages-a temporary arrangement. Reshma and
Hanifa, two such victims narrated that apart from satisfying the
lust of the new husbands, they had to suffer gang rapes. But foreign
mercenaries have no regrets whatsoever.
Young Shahzada
Zabeen's husband Akbar Rasheed was butchered by the militants
leaving her and her five children completely destitute. She had no
source of income and had to take her children out of school.
Mehbooba's entire family was murdered and now she lives with an aged
uncle in a border village under distressing circumstances. There are
numerous others who have lost parents, brothers or husbands leaving
them in penury. |
DISTURBING
TRENDS ( 9th July -- 15th July 2001 ) India's
just concluded census of population year 2001 highlights some
disturbing trends with serious implications. The census contains
indices on sex ratio in population, which depict a picture that
negates all educational and technological advancement.
Despite
the loud noise made on gender equality front, the statistics belie
the preference of people. The male/female ratio has drastically
fallen from 951 females per 1000 males in 1950 to 937 females per
1000 males in the year 2001. The fall is more pronounced in states
like Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
The fall indicates female
foeticide employing the technological tools for gender selection
despite a ban on its use for the purpose. It also highlights the
female infanticide and neglect of female infant health care.
The
male female literacy ratio is no less alarming. The national average
percentage literacy for males stands at 74.85% whereas the same is
only 54.16% for females according to the Indian census 2001. A
glaring gap of 20.16% bodes ill for the country. Women are supposed
to be the home makers and chief builders of society.
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DAMAN:
A BACKLASH TO FEMMENISM IN INDIA ( 2nd July --
8th July 2001 ) At a
time when Indian films dealing with lesbianism and other sensitive
issues of womanhood are being produced in India, Daman has come as a
backlash to the ongoing discussion on the plight of women. Although
this film is termed as a pro feminist film, the story is tailored,
characters are tailored, and still it does not cross the periphery
of patriarchal society.
The story of Daman is the story of
a young girl Durga ((Raveena Tandon), a young girl with stars in her
eyes getting ready for her wedding ceremony. She has no clueasd to
what awaits her in the form of her marriage. She is being married
off to the sadistic brute Sanjay Saikia (Sayaji Shinde). She's
trapped in the claws of a husband who takes pleasure in torturing
her, not to mention disappearing for nights on end to visit his
mistress.
The only silver lining in her somber existence
is her brother-in-law Sunil Saikia (Sanjay Suri), who is secretly in
love with her. She finds a soul mate in her brother-in-law but in
true Bharatiya nari spirit refrains from having a physical
relationship with him. The film gets stark when Durga is raped and
beaten up by her own husband. And the entire family turns a blind
eye to it except the brother-in-law.
Durga is scared to
walk out of the marriage because she's pregnant. Nothing changes
even after the birth of her daughter (Raima Sen). Her husband
becomes more vicious and even accuses her of having an illicit
affair with his brother, which in turn results in the sadistic
Sanjay killing his own brother. The turning point in Durga's life is
when she decides to run away and make a new life for her daughter's
sake. But the past rears its ugly head again and her husband manages
to trace her. He wants her back because the ancestral property is in
his daughter's name. That's when Durga (like the goddess herself),
kills him with a holy trident (Trishul).
In whole film
Durga never takes any decision of her own she only follows what her
destiny and the males of her family decide. She only takes two
decisions, one of living the home of her husband for the sake of her
daughter and second time of killing her husband again for the sake
of her daughter.
Story unfolds in flashbacks. The film
starts with a scene of Durga puja and ends with Durga puja. In the
beginning unlike goddess Durga the worldly and married Durga is
removing her ornaments one by one. Represented with juxtapositions
of the decoration of Goddess Durga and earthy Durga. In the end
Earthy Durga transcends into the holy Durga and kills the
contemporary Mahishasur.
Durga of Daman is only taking
decisions for the development of her daughter. She is Annapurna, a
mother goddess and when something wrong happens to her children that
she becomes destroyer. It sounds too familiar to the concept of
Indian womanhood by Sangh Parivar.
The spiritual aspect of
the motherhood is what the Sangh considers the most important factor
that gives respect to women in family and society. The Sangh talks
about a 'matrirupa samaj', that means a `motherly society', which is
in turn broadened to the concept of 'Motherland'. Interestingly the
ideologues of the Sangh have taken special care to avoid the term
`matrudaya samaj' (matriarchal society) in order to keep the might
of the patriarchy unchallenged. It talks about mother centered
family structure only on the spiritual level not on the pragmatic
level where the question of holding economical power pops up. That
is why they never mention of Matrilineal or Matriarchal Society.
As per the Sangh doctrines, mother should be the base of
all moralities meanwhile the `man' is free to do anything that his
whims and fancies dictate. This concept could be skillfully used at
a later stage by men to claim power over the country, other's
territories, the weaker sections and over the women themselves. So
Sanjay Saikia is killed but the boyfriend of Durga's daughter and
the Inspector in love with Durga are still alive. Who will hold the
power no one knows.
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