[sacw] Book review: Gender & Politics in India

[Harsh Kapoor]

FYI
Harsh Kapoor
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The Hindu
Saturday, January 15, 2000

Gender issues in this age

TO say that patriarchy has been the dominant force in society since
time immemorial is to state the obvious. Even so-called powerful
goodesses enjoyed their eminence due to their association with
powerful gods. There never was a golden period where women enjoyed a
status on par with men. Women historians have recently argued that such
a history depicting a golden age is the product of the interaction
between nationalism and colonialism in the 19th Century.

Even during the Vedic period women never owned any property. Rather,
they were considered to be property, hence the term kanyadan (the
gift of the virgin for marriage. Historians have painted a glorious
picture of women during the Vedic period on the basis of certain hymns
being attributed to women composers such as Gargi and Maitreyi.
However, recent scholarship on the subject suggests that less than one
per cent of the 1,000 hymns of the Rg Veda are attributed to women.
Further, the oft-repeated story about the debate between Gargi and
Yajnavalkya being celebrated as an example of the learning allowed to
women, is an episode in which Gargi is finally silenced and eliminated
from the contest by Yajnavalkya, not by the force of his argument but
because he threatens her - "Gargi, do not question too much lest your
head fall off".

Practices such as sati, female infanticide, the denial of
education to female, early marriage further pushed women to the
background. Even the nationalist movement and the consequent
reformist zeal evident in society at that time failed to address this
question, apart from a few gestures here and there. The constitution
of free India was a big leap forward, at least in theory. Article 15 of
the Constitution enjoins the State not to discriminate against any
citizen on the grounds of religion, caste, sex, place of birth or any
of them.

However, in reality the situation continues to look grim. The present
volume, edited by scholar activist Nivedita Menon, looks at the issue of
gender and politics in India. It covers such wide ranging issues as
the women's movement, the impact of liberalisation and
introduction of new technology on women, the ideology of sati, gender
and environment and violence against women. Each essay included in this
volume stands apart. A few, however, need eleboration here because of
their contemporary relevance.

It was widely believed that with the onset of liberalisation, there
will be more growth and hence more employment opportunities.
Furthermore, the process would lead to, what is called, "feminisation"
of jobs. However, the essay by Nandita Shah, Sujata Ghotoskar,
Nandita Gandhi and Amrita Chhachhi suggests that the argument does not
stand the scrutiny of facts. They argue that micro-level studies have
shown an overall decline in the employment of women, not just in their
conditions of work. Moreover, between 1974 and 1988, women's employment
rose more in the public than in the private sector and privatisation
usually means drastic cuts in the workforce, of which the main target is
women. Needless to add that privatisation is the order of the day under
the new policy regime and constant talks of disinvestment of government
shares in public sector units indicate that very process.

The authors further argue: "The issue of women's employment in the
context of the new economic policy has to be seen in the broader
context of the rise in the general unemployment. Projections on
the effects of the economic reforms on the employment situation by
economists state that even under the most favourable conditions of growth,
unemployment as a result of the present policies of the government will
rise from less than three per cent in 1990-91 to above five per cent
in 1993-94. This implies total open employment of about 18 million
persons in 1992-93 and 19 million the year after". Protagonists of
the second wave of reforms better watch out. We are sitting atop a
time bomb of unemployment and unless the issue is addressed right now it
may explode any time.

There is another very interesting essay written by Ruth Vanita titled
"Thinking beyond gender in India". As the title suggests, she argues that
one has to look beyond the traditional man-woman dichotomy to address the
gender issue. She says: "... any women's movement must take one of the two
directions ... or ... must work out a combination of both: (i) that the
repairing the structures of heterosexual marriage and family, making
them somewhat more equitable or (ii) that of rethinking gender and
sexuality to liberate both women and men into developing different
kinds of family or collective being". This is to suggest that there
are examples galore in Indian history of women defying male-female
dichotomy. The story of Mirabai immediately comes to mind. Even though
she was born in a royal family, she discarded marital bliss for a
life which does not fit into either of the two categories, man or
woman. Such paradigms need to be explored, argues Vanita, if one were to
look at the gender issue in India.

Amid a plethora of books on the subject, the present book stands out as
it provides the most comprehensive account of the issue till date. On
top of that, Menon's erudite introduction places the entire issue in
proper perspective. She has give a bird's eye view of various issues
facing the women's movement in contemporary India.

MAYANK MISHRA

Gender and Politics in India, Themes in Politics, Edited by
Nivedita Menon, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, Rs. 650.