Friday Thoughts:Those Who Fought Before Us

There are scores of protests across the country against the lack of safety for women, appropriate laws and punitive measures and effective judiciary to deal with sexual violence. A notable aspect of this protest is the presence of the youth in these rallies and campaigns.

While youthful energy, awareness and innovative thinking is a major boost-up for the anti-rape campaign and has inspired many older folks to take up cudgels, let us not, in the tempest of the moment, forget others who paved the path for us to protest. Let us take time to read, learn, and acknowledge history and those who made it.

 I spent the day today re-reading The History of Doing by Radha Kumar. I share some of my learnings with you. Please note the information below has been extracted from this book except for the suffragette movement.

Some folks have considered sexual violence as a resultant of import of Western values. Let us as women not forget what we have received from the West. Let us not forget the Suffragettes who walked out homes and relationships, who were beaten up and killed, who were force fed when they attempted to hunger-strike. It is thanks to their efforts that many of us women have the right to vote.

Let us not forget all those who campaigned for girl education—both English and Indians. Today I read about Ananta Shastri who fearlessly tried to educate his wife for which he was ostracised by his community. He lived in the forest with his wife and educated his daughter who later became famous as Pandita Ramabhai. Amongst many things, Ramabha fought for women’s rights to enter medical colleges and become a doctor. In 1890, Anandibai Joshi became the first woman doctor and wore shoes for which she was stoned in the streets.

Let us not forget Sarala Debi Ghoshal (later known as Debi Choudarani) who organized young men to protect themselves and the women around them from molestation by British soldiers in 1890s. She also set up a martial arts academy in Kolkata. She was also the woman who first tried to convert the slogan “Bande Mataram” as a national call.

And more recently, let us not forget the 1980 anti-rape movement that began as a response to the Mathura rape case and then spread to include and protest against many such incidents across India. In the Mathura Case, protests started when the Supreme Court judges allowed the argument that since Mathura had a boyfriend, she was a characterless woman, and hence could not be “raped.” On March 8, International Women’s Day, saw protests in at least 7 cities demanding retrial of the Mathura Case. Protests spread to Bihar, Bengal, Uttarakhand and other states. In Haryana, the painful Maya Tyagi case in June created furore.  At that time too, death penalty was sought, demands were made to change laws, and there was unprecedented press coverage. In Dahwali, 5000 people protested rape of a local woman.  Political parties tried to capitalize on the issue at that time too. Since, police had been involved in number of the rape incidents, the focus of the Bill at that time was “custodial rape” which was then deemed as more heinous than other rapes. Like today there is a talk going on about “rarest of rare rape” cases.

The 1980 campaign fought to include Rape Law Amendment for a mandatory 10 year sentence which could be reduced by the bench for adequate and special reasons. Radha Kumar analyzes how the “reduction” possibility was misused in the Suman Rani case. Since the victim had taken 5 days to file FIR, and that she had conducted herself badly, and hence the sentence on the accused could be reduced by half. Radha Kumar notes how this judgment overturned the very reason why the 1980 campaign started (the Mathura case which had been closed after accepting the defence argument that since Mathura had a boyfriend, she had no character and hence could not be raped).

Radha Kumar, herself a participant in the 1980 campaign, reflects on why the campaign failed: “The highly publicized nature of the campaign, the rapidity with which it became a mainstream political issue, even the fact that it began with joint action rather than growing into it—all contributed to the downfall of the feminists.” (p.135)

I strongly recommend to all those who are women’s rights activists or who support it from outside to own this book The History of Doing—not just for the lessons but also for the empowering photographs of women across centuries, of various age groups from Grannies to young girls, of various classes and caste and dress—walking or standing together, raising their hands, clamoring for their voice to be heard.

Bande Mataram!

[Please refer to Voices for Damini Initiative for more articles on sexual violence]